2014 Gems

The following are key points I have extracted from my sermon notes of speakers at Common Ground Church Durbanville during the year 2014.

- We are not fully capable of being alive unless we worship the creator.

· Physical acts often hide our true feelings, and as such they are not always genuine worship.

· Christ's grace and mercy through his sacrifice on the cross are like a filter against our feelings of unworthiness to approach God.

· If we engage God in the right way, things change, typically in a good way.

· Matthew 4: we serve what we worship, whatever it is; if you worship the wrong thing, you will end up serving the wrong thing. In worshipping God, we realize what God desires, and we find it much easier to serve.

· This is the DNA of living in Christ’s kingdom: as servants, not as lords and masters.

· Service motivated by altruism, or the need to do good things to basically feel better about ourselves, is often called ‘adreno-service’, which is essentially motivated by adrenaline, and is not sustainable. They often become chores, and guilt-appeasement methods in our lives. Jesus is after coronary- driven response, i.e. driven by the heart, not by adrenaline.

· Serving has a powerful way of waking people up to Christ. We become aware of Christ’s empowering presence when we realize we are ill-equipped to do certain things alone and we ask for his help.

· All work is an opportunity to serve. Embrace the motto ‘Work is love made visible’.

· Building your life on Christ’s values is about not needing the validation or approval of others in what you do because you do them for God, and not being anxious, because God will provide.

Put Christ's values into practice in your everyday life. It is not enough to feel moved; you need to set change in motion within. Step into the possibilities Christ opens up for you. Don't let your spiritual education exceed your practical obedience. Don't drift aimlessly - put God's advice into practice. Have a heart transformed by God's love. Nobody sees reality clearer than Jesus, so put your faith in Him and you will find peace.When we come to salvation we change because we see something so beautiful and amazing that our heart automatically makes us follow it. The only way to break an addiction is finding something else that stirs your heart and therein creates a desire for that. Find the desire for Christ. It is not how we live that determines who we are. It is knowing who we are that determines how we live. When we stop thinking about our identity, we behave unlike ourselves.

· Set your heart and mind on things above. As you set your mind, so your heart follows. Things will not defeat you if you focus on Christ, as those things are not that important or controlling in your life.

· Whoever you give the power to legitimize your life, they also have the power to illegitimize your life, e.g. sportscasters opinions of who is good can change from week to week, and can control your success. Don't be focused on appearance, as this fades (your chest drops into your drawers). Focusing on achievement leaves you empty when success leaves you.

· God gives you your identity and there is nothing in you that can disqualify you from your identity in Christ.

· When we look vertically, we don't experience anxiety or despair, because that's not part of God's character.

· Spiritual immaturity is when you confuse your circumstances with God's love, e.g. if you don't get what you want, you blame God.

· Culture says: What I do determines who I am. Christ (as He comes into our lives) causes us to realize that who I am determines what I do. In Christ, we first discover our identity – who we are in Christ, which is something we don’t achieve, but something that God gives us as Christ-followers, by grace. When we are able to discover our identity, in light of that, we are able to choose a behavior and a lifestyle, a way of living in response.

· We as humans have a tendency to make good things ultimate things above God. Being lost leaves us empty and enslaved. It leads to us doing damage to others, including wounding and insulting our maker. It also leads to self-deception i.e. I am fine, but actually not really, if I dig below the surface.

· If you prioritize any of your spouse, children, career, money, or success over God, they will all cause sacrifices and ultimately leave you with nothing. These things all become like an addiction that ultimately stands over you, judges you, and leaves you empty and unfulfilled.

· God wants to develop and fill you to find that sweet spot of feeling the reality of God working through you to touch lives.

· Behind every gift is a giver and behind these gifts is the grace of God.

· We all have talents, but when we are operating with God within, they are gifts. It is about feeling the connection with God in what you are doing. As you spend time employing your gift, you feel how God is working in you. If you don't feel it, that is most likely not your gift/calling/sweet spot.

· Spiritual gifts are not there to primarily make your life work. They are that empowering of the Holy Spirit to help mission to move along.

· Don't be surprised when God speaks through some of the realities of your life.

· Don’t assume that because God has given you a revelation that you have ‘figured it out’.

· What does it mean to be born again/anew? God’s life is implanted into us. Scripture talks about ‘imperishable seed’ being placed in us. This is metaphorical for God’s life-blood, his nature getting inside us. It means to be fundamentally changed at the root and the core of who we are. This is not medically/physically possible. It is not just turning over a new leaf or trying to be a bit more moral; or just receiving principles for a better life. When you become a Christ-follower, there is an imperishable seed that is put in you that changes you fundamentally.

· The Gospel starts to grow in you like a new baby. Nobody is born mature, with everything sorted out. You need a father to guide and teach you. Don’t expect it all to come together immediately. Allow this birth to do its work. Allow God’s fathering, God’s parenting, God’s habits to work in your life over many years. Allow yourself to become more and more spiritually mature as you grow. ‘You need to grow up in your salvation”. You need patience. Continue to cultivate the life of God in you.

· When you become a Christ-follower, you don’t just belong to God, you actually belong to each other as well. It is intertwining our relationship with God with our relationship with other Christ-followers, in community.

· There is something within human beings that, no matter how good it gets, or no matter how senior or well-off or connected I am, there is another level I need to attain. The Bible tells us that it is because, as human beings, since Adam and Eve’s sin, since we were until then in blissful union with God, we are seeking to no longer be excluded from the Garden of Eden, to be in the favor of God again, to be back in the presence of God. Most people feel that this is unattainable, so we pursue the ability to be ‘in’ on an earthly basis (the desire to get into the inner ring of the earthly sphere) instead of on a heavenly basis. You are trying to peel an onion. When you succeed, there will be nothing left. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain.

· There is no one scale of Christ-follower or one level of holiness that gets into the presence of God. There is no minority who gets in or majority who does not. All of us who share in Christ share in access to God.

· One of the most debilitating things to believers is thinking that you are not that important to God, that he barely likes you and does not really love you. Christ-followers should live with the knowledge that no matter how much they have messed up or other people have de-affirmed them, they should live in the reality of God’s affection and affirmation, knowing that they are treasured, and not just tolerated.

· Your role is not to go and make people aware of how great you are, but it is to use whatever God has put into your hands to serve and to give and to love.

· Your salvation has nothing to do with any subjective feeling you might have.

· What does justification mean? Just As If I ……never sinned.

· There is no sin, pain or anger that can keep us from God’s unconditional love, and hence we need not feel despair or anguish.

· Jesus’ resurrection drives out despair and converts it into hope because this confirms that there is no ultimate evil that plagues your life that can’t be changed, that can’t be surrendered, that can’t be transformed; there is no situation that is ultimate, too dark, that can keep you captive in despair.

· The Gospel says that there is no guilt or sin or darkness too great for God’s grace to reach you.

· The grounds for a right relationship at peace with God have been laid through what Jesus did on the cross, and if you have peace with God, you can have the peace of God.

· Being exalted is God seeing you not wanting to take charge of promoting yourself, but trusting him to do so, and he will exalt you at the right time. It is about living in God’s favor, sleeping well, being content. It will lead to a life of full satisfaction over time/over the duration of your life. God wants to help us to see that we need his acceptance, delight, praise and favor, and not that of other humans. Stop being insecure and wanting to keep your life in your hands, as that is no match for your life in God’s redemptive hands.

· Generosity that obligates people to you is not generosity; it is a trap. Jesus says that you should practice a kind of generosity where you only get something back upon resurrection – rewards that are ‘out of this world’.

· If you follow Jesus with your life intentionally, you will end up being generous accidentally.

· Stop making excuses as to why you cannot attend Jesus’ banquet, why you cannot accept Jesus into your life. Stop thinking that you have a better plan for your life than God has. Stop the rampant self-autonomy. Learn to live your life in agreement with God. Recognize God’s greatness and stop ignoring his invitations. You would not ignore your CEO’s invitation, due to his authority, so you should not do so with God, who is the most important person in the universe wanting to give you access to the greatest party available in the universe. Accept the invitation from the Lord of the banquet and taste of his lavish grace.

· Climbing steps leads to exhaustion and frustration as you seem to get nowhere. 'One step forward, two steps back’. Trying to ‘balance the scales’ or ‘life by religious laws’ is unfulfilling and virtually impossible. Salvation is found by getting off the ladder and realizing that you will never please God fully. Approach God spiritually bankrupt and receive salvation and fulfillment. This is the essence of grace: God making a way outside of our failed attempts to receive salvation.

· Avoid swinging between Self Righteousness and Self Condemnation, as well as Consciousness without Humility, and Humility without Confidence. Also avoid Superiority and Hypocrisy. True Christians learn to live humble and confident lives, avoiding feeling superiority or hypocrisy. Also, in place of exhaustion, we get joy - joy due to knowing that I am forgiven by God.

· Climbing off the ladder and coming to the foot of the cross empowers us to lead better lives, blossoming under the sunshine of grace. Strive to live to please the Father instead of how to do the right thing according to society.

· When you live on the ladder everybody becomes a competitor to you, as you compete to get ahead and higher up on the ladder. When we know we are already on the top step of the ladder through Jesus, it frees us up to enjoy everyone around us fully for exactly who they are.

· We need to listen to God's guidance, especially when leading others spiritually, so as to avoid our own interpretation of things and our own bias.

· If you fail to fulfill your life's fruitfulness, you miss your life's purpose.

· We are built for friendship horizontally with others and vertically with Jesus.

· Every person at some point will let you down; Jesus will never do so; he will even treat you better than what you deserve.

· Listening to the gospel pushes the reset button on our hearts, reminding us of what is most important. Your heart gets ignited again and again with passion for Jesus.

· God says to be liberal with your money and tight with your body, but society swings this around (tight with your money and liberal with your body). God teaches us to use power humbly to serve others and help them get ahead, but society makes it about us getting ahead at all costs.

· We are made for community because we are made in God's image. When we step out of community, our hearts slowly grow colder and we become distant from God and doubt his love.

· We never have to be afraid of other people's rejection because we have the greatest acceptance we could ever have in Christ.

· Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. Jesus did not come to ruin your life, but to make and save it. Seek the empowering reality of the Spirit's presence in your life.

· The answer to anger is to see how the wrath of God has been taken away from you through Jesus.

· Acknowledging our role and responsibility in what gave rise to the anger is key to controlling anger.

· Do not play in Satan’s back yard by giving in to temptations, however small, because he will lead you to destruction. Don't taunt your enemy, Satan.

· Rationalizing sin makes us weak.

· Don't be like Samson who assumed God's strength would remain in him no matter what, and he didn't notice God's strength leaving him.

· Satan loves to humiliate us when things go wrong in our lives, such that we struggle to see a way out of the situation or our despair.

· Failure is what you did, not who you are, nor who you are becoming as a person.

· It is not how you start that counts, but how you end.

· Because the wall between us and God has been removed, the walls between ourselves should come down.

· Although God welcomes us as we are, warts and all, He does not leave us there. He works to improve us and our relationships. God created relationships for thriving.

· Our lives are supposed to be made up of loving people and using things, not the other way around.

· Before marriage, parents give advice to their children freely whenever deemed necessary. After marriage, a parent's advice to the child is only welcome when it is invited.

· The core/root of sin is discontentment. Don't look to or lean on any other human for your contentment or fulfillment. Lift your eyes higher.

· We are exploring only the cover of the book that is our life now; one day the book will be opened and ultimate satisfaction will be exposed.

· Be Spirit-led and Word-fed.

· If you think Christianity is not joyous but hard work, you are not getting it.

· We don't have a conscience just to make us feel guilty, but to allow us to have a relationship with Jesus.

· Be rooted into the soil of where he places you, so your life starts to have increasing stability.

· Be built up in him, building on the right foundation, with Christ at the center of your life.

· He is the pathway; walk along it day by day for your lifetime.

· Be in for a long and steady marathon of pleasing the Father. Getting onto the RUG. Receiving, Understanding, Growing in Jesus.

· It is not about how well I have done spiritually, but how my life and behavior helps others find Christ.

· Avoid the ‘consumption assumption’, which says that we are entitled to consume all we receive.

· Give generously and God will work through us accordingly, and enrich our lives in numerous ways, not necessarily financially (relationships, family, emotions, peace, contentment). It is not a transaction that says, ‘I have given this, now God owes me that.’

· We give because we get to give, not because we have got to give. I want to give to God because He has given me something, e.g. the ability to earn an income. Give it back in response to God as worship. He is after our lives and attitudes, not our money.

· We make the mistake of comparing the 90% of our ordinary life to the 10% that contains all the fun bits of other people's lives, and we then feel boring and inadequate.

· God shows us how to marry the incredibly sacred with the ordinary, and that it is a great mistake to divide our life into the spiritual and the ordinary.

· Every moment is important, as is what you do with it. Don't live your life denying the gift of today, only looking to the past or the future. Enjoy the pleasure of the present moment. God wants us to be fully present in and enjoy each moment, year, and season of our life.

· Everyday life is generally pretty ordinary and uneventful to us, but we need to realize that each day has significance to God - keep asking God to show that to us.

· We sometimes wonder why God does not 'sort out' the evil. We should see the suspense of God's judgment as His mercy. It is only a temporary delay. Satan's schemes are plural, subtle and diverse. Be on guard. Sin comes to you like Judas; it comes with a kiss, not a threat or warning.