Tag Archives: Holiness

Sunday – July 20, 2014 1st John 2:1-2 “The Key to Holiness”

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Sunday – July 20, 2014 – Read the Word on Worship

1 John 2 verses 1 and 2 from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Word On Worship – Sunday – July 20, 2014 Download / Print

1 John 2:1-2
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

The Apostle John has spent the first chapter of his letter exhorting us to live in the light as God is in the light. As a person who wants to please God, I find these to be some of the hardest words in Scripture. I want to please Him and yet I know how far short of this simple command I live every day of my life. Then John graciously adds, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” In other words, don’t despair when you sin; there is hope in Jesus Christ.

You may ask why John would say this if his aim was that we not sin. It’s as if he has just succeeded in creating such an impression of the seriousness of sin that we begin to flee from it the way we should, and then he blows it, by giving us an out when we do sin. Instead of calling his wisdom into question, we should humble ourselves and learn from him. The strugglers among us might wish that John had never said in 1:7, “If we walk in the light . . . the blood of Jesus cleanses from sin.” And the strong among us might wish that John had never said in 2:1, “But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father.” The struggler may feel John makes the ongoing experience of forgiveness dependent on walking in the light, so the gospel is conditional and leaves them in despair. The strong person may feel that when he stresses the advocacy of Christ to Christians who sin, he cheapens the gospel and turns it into license to sin.

So let the struggler and the strong learn from John. For the way of God is not either-or. It is both-and. We must walk in the light if we are to go on experiencing the cleansing of Jesus. And if we sin, we do indeed have an advocate with the Father. There is sin that is unto death and there is sin that is not unto death. And the reason there can be sin that is not unto death is because we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. But not only that, we need to include the first half of Verse 2 in order to understand why we should not despair. “He is the propitiation for our sins.” More literally: He is the payment for our sins.

John’s message to us today is clearly, don’t sin! It is tremendously and terribly serious, causing great pain and hurt in your life and the life of the Church. But if you do sin, don’t despair because your attorney is the Son of the Judge. He is righteous and he makes his case for you not on the basis of your perfection but on his propitiation. Be of good courage, don’t hog Jesus for yourself alone, go and make disciples and tell them the good news – Jesus Christ lives!

Sunday – July 13, 2014 1st John 1:5-10 “Fellowship with God”

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Sunday – July 13, 2014 – Read the Word on Worship

1 John verses 5 to 10 from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Word On Worship – Sunday – July 13, 2014 Download / Print

1 John 1:5-7
“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

These are extraordinarily strong words. Sadly, our culture has become so emotionally fragile; everybody is sensitive to having their feelings hurt. If this were not an apostle talking, I can imagine someone today saying, “Do you have to use such harsh words when you warn people about their lifestyle?” If someone said your conduct made God out to be a liar, how would you respond? John evidently felt that so much was at stake the language, “You make God a liar,” should not be softened into something like, “You disappoint your heavenly Father.” I’m not sure the Scriptures should be adjusted to our emotionally fragile age. I think we need to get toughened up a bit.

Walking in the light is the opposite of walking in darkness. It means seeing reality for what it is and being controlled by desires that are aligned with God’s light. If God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, then he is the bright pathway to the fulfillment of all our deepest longings and desires. He is the deliverer from all dark dangers and obstacles to joy. He is the infinitely desirable One. If in His own light He shines forth as a Being of infinite worth, then He is the star of glory that we were made to admire and cherish. If God opens the eyes of our hearts to see all that, then our desires are captured by the surpassing glory of God over everything that the world has to offer, and we walk in the light as He is in the light.

There is a walk, there is a lifestyle, that necessarily results from the miracle of new birth when we are given eyes to see the surpassing worth of the light of God. 1 John is written to describe what that lifestyle looks like and how it results from the God’s light and our new birth. Walking in the light means seeing things the way God sees them and responding the way He does. We walk in the light when we hate the sin we fall into and name it for the ugly thing it is and agree with God about it and turn from it. So confessing sin is a crucial part of walking in the light. And verse 9 makes forgiveness of sin dependent on walking in the light. Therefore we are warranted in taking the cleansing of verse 7 to refer to forgiveness and not just to sanctification.

Sunday – January 13, 2013

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January 13, 2013 – Read the Word on Worship

The Triumphal Entry from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

But have we gathered to welcome Jesus on our terms, in order to bow to a king who will give us what we want? Many in churches this day welcome a Jesus who will bring them wealth, health, success and the tokens of pleasure recognized by the world. Like the crowds at gates of Jerusalem, they will loudly acclaim Jesus as King as long as they believe He will satisfy their desires. Is that why you are here this morning? Is it to prepare for the return of the King, or just a hollow and empty pretense? The words of the multitude were right as Jesus entered Jerusalem, but their hearts were not. How does your worship this morning differ from the worship of the crowds at the triumphal entry?
Join us this Sunday as we look at Jesus entry into the city of Jerusalem before Passover from Mark 11 verses 1 to 11 and look at “The Triumphal Entry”

Word On Worship – January 13, 2013 Download / Print

Mark 11:9-10
“Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!”

As Jesus is entering Jerusalem, He is completely surrounded by a throng of humanity cheering His arrival. Some in the multitude spread their garments in the roadway as Jesus approached. Others were cutting palm branches, the symbolic picture of joy and salvation, and spreading them in the road before the Lord. There was such great excitement and ecstasy as this multitude gave praise to the Rabbi from Galilee who taught with such authority and healed the people from every illness and even raised the dead. Their expectation that the Messiah would bring deliverance was so great, even strangers were caught up in the euphoria.

The praise that comes from their mouths is the fulfillment of prophecy. The Hebrew word HOSANNA means “save now.” They acknowledge Jesus as the Son of David. They were crying out for the Messiah’s deliverance today, to save them now. They were celebrating that their King, the Son of David, had arrived to remove the Roman oppressors and establish His Kingdom. Now at last, they thought, Jesus will manifest Himself as Conqueror on the very week of Passover where Israel commemorated the Lord’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. What better occasion could there be for the Lord’s anointed to deliver His people from Roman tyranny.

Now fast forward almost 2,000 years. Is what is taking place in this building on this Sunday morning any different from the throngs did as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem? The words of our songs are entirely appropriate for the occasion. We lovingly speak about the reigning Messiah to come; who will lift the yoke of injustice and usher in the rule of the Son of David today. And we acknowledge His authority as a teacher, a great healer and one who casts out demons. Listen to the words that are spoken calling Jesus Lord and Savior and feel the enthusiasm that comes when people with a common desire feed each other’s passion for the coming of a new heaven and a new earth.

But have we gathered to welcome Jesus on our terms, to bow to a king who will give us what we want? Many in churches this day welcome a Jesus who will bring them wealth, health, success and the tokens of pleasure recognized by the world. Like the crowds at gates of Jerusalem, they will loudly acclaim Jesus as King as long as they believe He will satisfy their desires. Is that why you are here this morning? Is it to prepare for the return of the King, or just a hollow and empty pretense? The words of the multitude were right as Jesus entered Jerusalem, but their hearts were not. How does your worship this morning differ from the worship of the crowds at the triumphal entry?

Sunday – June 3, 2012

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June 3, 2012 – Read the Word on Worship

The Refiner’s Fire from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Have you ever looked around the church and thought to yourself, “How in the world could God allow such a group of misfit, stumbling, bumbling people into His kingdom? The Bible says heaven will be with out sin, and yet when we look in the mirror we have to honestly say I am certainly not qualified to enter into eternity with God. Take heart, for heaven will be full of people who are neither qualified nor pure enough to enter heaven as we currently are. God is a refiner’s fire, which through the work of His Holy Spirit will prepare and mold and refine the sin which so easily entangles us and will not allow the fire to consume those who are in Jesus Christ entirely. Join us Sunday June 3rd to see “The Refiner’s Fire” from Malachi 2:17 to 3:6 and prepare yourself to say Hallelujah! “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”- Malachi 3:6

Word On Worship – June 3, 2012 Download / Print

Malachi 2:17
“You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

In Malachi’s day Israel has already returned to the land, rebuilt the city walls and restored the Temple in Jerusalem. But Israel, as many would say of our nation, had fallen into complacency. As the people pursued their own agendas and satisfactions, they drifted further and further from God and from the mandates of the Law. The results of such a lifestyle were predictable: religion was at low ebb while wickedness prospered. It is only natural for us to wonder where the righteous justice of God is when the wicked seem to prosper and the people of God are in need?

If we are honest with ourselves, we can fall into the same pit as the Israelites did. When we look around our own personal lives we feel that God doesn’t seem to be answering our prayers, or at least doing it in the way that we would like Him to. We’re not seeing God save our loved ones the way we long to see it happen, maybe we haven’t seen God heal us or another in the way that we feel is our right. We feel that we’ve been in the hour of need, and God has said: ‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will answer you‘ – but He hasn’t. For so long we have heard so many people, like the Psalmist, saying to us: “Where is your God?” We’re perhaps beginning to say to ourselves as Gideon did, “Where is our God that our fathers told us of? Where are the miracles that they spoke to us of?”

Jesus spoke of the same condition in the Sermon on the Mount, the hearts of people who have become far-sighted. We see the splinter in our brother’s eye but fail to see the plank in our own eye. We are swift to see sin in another and not in ourselves, but the awful terrible truth of this whole book is they are swift to accuse God of apparent injustice without seeing their own sin! They accused God of a lack of holiness, a lack of justice, and can’t see their own sin was the very cause of their lack of blessing. They were ignorant of God’s charge against them, and even question God, not themselves. They question God’s holiness, they question God’s righteousness, and they actually ask the question back to God: “In what way have we wearied You?”

Could it be possible that sometimes our words weary the Lord? Is it a possibility in the church era our songs and even our prayers weary the Lord? I have seen the picture of the church sign which reads, “If you could only hear your prayers, you would sympathize with God.” You might say, “What could weary God in my prayer or worship?” It is simply this: the people were drawing near to God with their mouths, and honoring Him with their lips, but their heart was far from Him! Consider these things in your lives this morning as you prepare for worship, receiving the teaching of the Word and the celebration of the Lord’s Table as see where your heart is this morning.