Deep is God's love

Ephesians 3:17-19 New Living Translation (NLT)

17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

As we turn our life over to Christ to be Savior and Lord, the roots of faith will grow deep into God’s love and keep us sustained. We may never understand God’s full love for us, for it is wider, higher, and deeper than we have ever known. Let us use our faith to make our lives full of the power that comes from God that we may be made complete.

Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington is best known for his roles in Glory, The Preacher's Wife, Remember the Titans, and Training Day. But the Hollywood A-lister has sounded more like a pastor when has spoken at recent events. Washington has publicly stated that he reads his Bible every day and that he strives to consistently "get up and speak of what God has done for him."

At a November 2015 church banquet he urged his listeners to live in a constant attitude of gratitude for God's goodness:

Give thanks for blessings every day. Every day. Embrace gratitude. Encourage others. It is impossible to be grateful and hateful at the same time. I pray that you put your slippers way under your bed at night, so that when you wake in the morning you have to start on your knees to find them. And while you're down there, say "thank you." A bad attitude is like a flat tire. Until you change it, you're not going anywhere.

[Jeannie Law, "Denzel Washington: God Has 'Faith in Me,'" Christian Post (11-12-15)]

It is all God's

1 Chronicles 29:11 New Living Translation (NLT)

11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.

God is over all the things of the world he created. Everything is his. We own nothing, but instead we are entrusted with the things God has allowed us to have.

When we talk about personal finance, it’s easy to make plans about what we’re going to do with “our money.” But when we talk about “our money,” it’s important to understand what that really means. The money isn’t ours in the sense that we own it; it’s simply ours in the sense that we’re responsible for managing it.

Too often, though, we begin to believe that the things that we have are really ours. This attitude can get down into our hearts and cause us to become slaves to money. To break free, we’ve got to replace that erroneous idea with this true one: God owns it all.

When you think about it, the idea that God owns everything makes perfect sense. After all, God created us, and the earth that we inhabit. We had no inherent right to exist outside of His sovereignty; why would we think that we have an inherent right to own anything beyond what God’s sovereign will allows?

[God, Money & Me, Brian Jewel, https://godmoneyme.com/2012/03/27/god-owns-it-all/]

The one who helps us

Romans 12:10 New Living Translation (NLT)

10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

Love and affection are the answers to helping people. We should take delight in others as God has taken delight in us. In helping people we should let them know about the love of Jesus who works in our lives to help us overcome any problem. We may struggle with the problem for a while, but sometimes that is God’s way of letting us sink to our lowest point so we know the only one who can help us is Jesus Christ.

Can alcoholics overcome their addiction? Seattle's Downtown Emergency Services Center doesn't seem to think so. It's spending $11 million on permanent housing for homeless alcoholics.

Seattle taxpayers were fed up with spending $50,000 per alcoholic, every year, on recovery programs, prison, and emergency room visits. The solution is 1811 Eastlake, a housing complex that accommodates 75 alcoholics. The residents are allowed to drink all they want, and they don't have to be in a recovery program—as long as they're off the streets.

Bill Hobson, the program's executive director, believes most alcoholics can't change. "Once you're an alcoholic, you're always an alcoholic," he says, citing the example of an alcoholic who got drunk 10 minutes after leaving a detox facility he had been in for two months. Hobson and his group reject the transforming power of Jesus Christ and believe some people are beyond hope and help.

[Chuck Colson, "Bottoms Up: Is Change Possible?" Breakpoint newsletter (12-15-06); submitted by Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec, Canada]

Consequences of Freedom

Galatians 5:13 New Living Translation (NLT)

13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

In Christ we have been given the freedom to live life without the fear of the penalty of sin, which is the condemnation of hell. So we are free to sin if we choose, but choosing to sin does have earthly consequences. So we need to be careful in our choices. If we are to use our freedom, use it to serve one another out of love for our Lord and Savior.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is the youngest signal-caller ever to win a Super Bowl. He is a rising superstar in the NFL and has been the recipient of a number of endorsement opportunities. However, as of June 2006, he also has a new perspective on freedom.

In July of 2005, ESPN reporter Andrea Kremer asked Roethlisberger to explain his decision to ride his motorcycle without a helmet:

ESPN: It's not the law in Pennsylvania to wear a helmet. Why don't you wear a helmet?

Roethlisberger: Because you don't have to. It's not the law. If it was the law, I'd definitely have one on every time I rode. But it's not the law and I know I don't have to. You're just more free when you're out there with no helmet on.

Unfortunately, Roethlisberger was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in June of 2006, less than one year later. When a 62-year-old woman failed to yield at a Pittsburgh intersection, Roethlisberger was thrown into the windshield of her Chrysler Town and Country. His bike was totaled, and emergency surgeons spent over seven hours repairing a broken jaw, a fractured skull, missing teeth, and several other facial injuries.

After being released from the hospital, Roethlisberger apologized to the fans, his family, and his team for risking his health (and life) unnecessarily. In another interview, he was no longer focused on taking advantage of his individual freedom: "In the past few days, I've gained a new perspective on life. By the grace of God, I'm fortunate to be alive." He also added that, if he ever does ride a motorcycle again, "it will certainly be with a helmet."

[David Slagle, Atlanta, Georgia; source: ESPN.com]

Questioning God

Romans 11:33 New Living Translation (NLT)

33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

The Bible tells us it is impossible for us to understand the decisions, actions, and ways of God. Yet we challenge God and call into question the things that happen in this world even going as far to say, “This has to be God’s fault.” We forget about our own sins. We also forget there is Satan who is out to destroy what he can of this world.

It is not uncommon for people to shake their fists at God in the midst of tragedy and suffering. The Bible includes the stories of righteous men who questioned God for what they considered poor management of creation.

But Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has taken his complaints to court. In October 2007, Sen. Chambers sued God for "causing untold death and horror" in the form of "fearsome floods…horrendous hurricanes, [and] terrifying tornadoes." Furthermore, says the senator, God has wrought "widespread death [and] destruction" and terrorized "millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

Chambers filed the suit to make a statement about the American court system. Outraged by a recent lawsuit he considered frivolous, the senator intends to demonstrate that "anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody." His motion against God, then, is tongue in cheek; Chambers, who has a history of antagonism against Christians, has no vested interest in his suit against the Almighty.

Nevertheless, the case raises important questions about God's activity in this broken world. Is God to blame for poverty, warfare, and natural disaster? Chambers seems to think so. To him the facts are clear: there is suffering everywhere, and God is everywhere. Therefore, God must cause suffering. But God's not the only being who is everywhere. So are sinful human beings.

[Brandon O'Brien, assistant editor, PreachingToday.com; source: "Neb. state senator sues God in protest" (Associated Press) USA Today (10-08-07)]

Stepping close to God

Colossians 4:5-6 New Living Translation (NLT)

5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

Our lives are to be examples to others. We are to live in such a way people recognize there is a difference in us and that difference is Christ living through us.

David Brainerd, the great missionary to the American Indians, was on one occasion witnessing to a chief, who was very close to deciding for Christ. But he held back; there was some pause or hesitation. Brainerd got up, took a stick, drew a circle in the soft earth about the chief, and said, "Decide before you cross that line." Why this passion and urgency? Because Brainerd recognized that at that moment, that chief was close to God. If he missed that moment, he might never be so close again.

[Bruce Thielemann, "Tide Riding," Preaching Today, Tape No. 30.]

Hope in God

Romans 12:12 New Living Translation (NLT)

12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

In this world we can lose hope when we think about the troubles we face, because we are often placing hope in ourselves. What we are to do is pray and keep on praying that The Lord would provide His hope to us. For it is hope in God that allows us to rejoice and be patient even in times of trouble.

Richard Halverson, former pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland and also the former chaplain of the United States Senate used the following benediction at the end of each service/message for many years in his ministry. It reflects his deep conviction that his church was not only where the congregation met on Sundays, but at each place where they lived and worked through the week.

A Benediction

Wherever you go, God is sending you.

Wherever you are, God has put you there.

God has a purpose in your being right where you are.

Christ, who indwells you by the power of his Spirit,

wants to do something in and through you.

Believe this and go in his grace, his love, his power.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen