Pastor Tony Ashmore begins the series "Storm Chasers" in this Sunday morning celebration.Storm Chasers Part 1
Pastor Tony Ashmore
Sunday, September 02, 2012
www.mylifegatechurch.com
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Sermon Notes:
Deuteronomy 28:2 (HCSB) “All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
1. Agendas (motives), Attitudes, Actions and Words: Which Storm Are You Chasing?
In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus gives four blessings that are similar to the beatitudes in Matthew. Luke 6:20-22 says you a blessed if you are poor, are hungry, weep or are hated by men for Jesus' sake. Here in Luke 6:24-26, however, Jesus goes on to offer four corresponding woes. Woe to you if you are rich, full, laughing and people speak well of you.
Think about the four things Jesus mentions: wealth, satisfaction, happiness/pleasure and popularity/fame. What do we spend most of our time seeking after? Wealth. Satisfaction. Happiness. Popularity.
We would like more money to be able to do more things. We want to be satisfied and not have to think about any of the material troubles in life. We look to avoid all the things that may bring sadness. We desperately seek the approval and applause of others.
More than likely, one of these things that Jesus said would be a curse in your life is the very thing that so often fights for supremacy within us. Most of our idols are going to fall in one of these four areas.
You probably recognize the area where you are tempted the most.
Again, there is nothing necessarily wrong with any of those things in and of themselves. They become areas of sin when we spend our life chasing after one or more of them.
The sad reality is that when you chase those things you find them to be sand. You can never hold on to it as long as you want. There's always more lying around you that can never be grabbed. When you seek after those things, you never have enough and you never have it for long enough.
Our life ends up in a self-induced curse because our chase is a perpetual one, running around the hamster wheel, never able to reach what we are running after. There is no need to see this as the result of superstition when we inflict the woes on ourselves with our insatiable desire for temporal things that can never truly satisfy.
We can have blessings within an abundant life characterized by following our Savior or we can have curses within a never satisfied life characterized by bitterness and discontent.
What curse are you chasing when you should be seeking the Kingdom and righteousness of Christ? What pile of shifting sand are you making into an idol instead of building your life on a solid foundation?
2. Storms cannot be avoided. How wet you get is often up to you.
Jesus gives the anti-dote in the same teaching (Luke 6:43-49):
The Tree and Its Fruit
43 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 44 A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. 45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. (Don’t focus on the fruit—trying to change the fruit is ‘fruitless’—figs don’t grow on thornbushes or grapes on bramble.
Building on a Solid Foundation
46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? The “Lord”-ship power is in what He says. He is everyone’s savior, but just like Heaven—it is not the Savior part that gets you there, it is the Lord-ship. He saved everyone but that salvation is only ‘effective’ for the ones who accept it. His Lord-ship is available to everyone but it is only effective to those who accept it. Jesus as Savior means He took my ‘place’. Jesus as Lord means I take ‘His place’. 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. 48 It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. 49 But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”
There is a difference in a life with trouble and a troubled life. We all have trouble, but some have trouble-filled lives. Sometimes those trouble-filled lives started out as a pursuit of wealth, happiness/pleasure, fame/popularity, or satisfaction. They don't remember that, or admit it, because the start of the chase is a distant memory. All they remember now is trouble, not the initiation of a chase that Jesus said would bring woe.
3. The Umbrella Principle
Using a large and small umbrella to illustrate the protection of God during the 'storm' and how our words, actions and willing obedience can either widen or shrink that protected area. When we choose to chase the curse instead of being chased down by the blessing because of our lifestyle choices we will have a smaller 'tolerance zone' for 'getting wet'.
Luke 10:18-20 (Message) Jesus said, "I know. I saw Satan fall, a bolt of lightning out of the sky. See what I've given you? Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the Enemy. No one can put a hand on you. All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God's authority over you and presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you—that's the agenda for rejoicing."
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