The Former Alcoholic Comment

Intro

I love when people at trekking with my sermons... when they're thinking and engaging and wrestling with the text and feasting on the Word. This past Sunday (12/16/07) we were thinking about Haggai and the promise of God's presence with His people. I relayed a story of one of my old friends who was rescued out of a life of drunkenness and carousing. The point of my story was to illustrate God's eternal presence with us... when we are obeying and when we are sinning. I think the main point was evident.

One of my guys came up afterwards and asked why I wouldn't just say that going into a bar was a sin. I had said in the message that I wasn't going to get into that question. Again, my point was to highlight God's omnipresence. Well, I thought about it a little and replied to my friend "The Bible never says going into a bar is a sin." We went back and forth for a bit and I said I'd have to pull the tape to find out exactly what I said. Below is what I said in it's entirety. You can listen to the sermon in its entirety here.


Pulling the Tape

So here is what I said on Sunday about having the sealing and indwelling of the Spirit this past Sunday (December 16, 2007).

I remember a friend who used to be an alcoholic and when he got saved he changed his life and he said "you know I'm not going to go to bars anymore." I'm not going to make any comments on going to bars but what I'm simply saying is here's a guy who was an alcoholic, he got saved, and now God's Spirit dwells in him. And he said "I'm not going to go to bars anymore." He wasn't saying bars are wrong but what he was saying is "I just can't take Jesus into a bar. I remember what going to bars was when I was a young, unsaved guy. I just don't want to take Jesus there." Do you believe you take Jesus with you where ever you go?

So let me know what you all think about God's omnipresence, going to bars, and/or the indwelling Spirit.

What Restoration Looks Like

Intro

This is the place to comment on Zephaniah the Prophet, my sermon from Sunday, December 2, 2007.

Listen to The Sermon
Read Notes on the Sermon
Read the Text (NASB)


So what are your thoughts and impressions of Zephaniah?



Let's face it, we all sin. Even having plead for the mercy of God to rescue us, even after our salvation, even after growing to love Jesus, even after growing to serve Him more and more faithfully, even still we sin. Let us not excuse ourselves... but let us confess the reality. When we do sin, we often feel the result of that sin, the consequences of them. He feel banished, chastised, unworthy, ashamed.

What do we do in this state? Bunyan would have called it the Castle Despair. Having fallen asleep, Hopeful and Christian were captured by a giant who continually tormented them for their sin. We, like Christian in that tale, can enter into periods of torment whether by God or by self or by the evil one. When we come to our senses, confess our sins, and wait on the LORD, He will restore us.


What a joy that "His anger is for a moment, but His love is for a lifetime" (Psalm 30:5, Isaiah 54:8).


So let me know what you thought...