Thank you, Al.
And thank you all.
And on behalf of all of us as
staff, we would just say we love you,
appreciate you so much, and we're grateful to
God for each and every one of you.
It's a powerful thing to be part of
the family of God and to be able
to walk together.
And, well, with this much white hair, I've
done that for a while, but I can
honestly say we feel the sense of your
love and your grace and your care.
And I think that's true for Judy and
Brad and myself and our families, and we're
so grateful, so very grateful for you.
Well, figured it would be hard to preach
with a lump in my throat, but we're
going to spend a few moments in the
Word of God.
And if you have a Bible, you'll want
to go to Luke chapter 8, the Gospel
of Luke chapter 8.
And my opening text this morning, although we'll
move around a little bit in the Book
of Luke primarily, will be Luke 8, 22
through 25.
And I'm excited about a new year.
How about you?
Hey, all right.
Luke 8, 22 to 25 says, One day
he got into a boat with his disciples,
and he said to them, Let us go
across to the other side of the lake.
So they set out.
And as they sailed, he fell asleep.
And a windstorm came down on the lake,
and they were filling with water and were
in danger.
And they went and woke him, saying, Master,
Master, we are perishing.
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and
the raging waves, and they ceased, and there
was a calm.
And he said to them, Where is your
faith?
And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying
to one another, Who then is this that
he commands even winds and water?
And they obeyed him.
Father, thank you for your Word.
Thank you that we can worship you this
first Sunday of a new year.
And, oh, our Father, we pray that you
would speak to our hearts and strengthen us
in these moments, that your Word would be
precious, and your Spirit just touching and speaking
to our hearts.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
I was thinking about tradition.
You know, every family has their own traditions
for Christmas, for New Years, and so on.
And there are some church traditions that go
along as well.
The mainline churches have sort of a church
calendar that follows a traditional pattern.
There's the weeks of Advent, and then after
the season of Advent there comes 12 days
from the 25th of December through to the
6th of January.
And January 6th starts a season called Epiphany.
And some of you are shaking your head
and saying, Yeah, I understand that, Pastor.
And it traditionally deals with the Magi coming
to see the Lord Jesus and to adore
Him and expresses and teaches to us that
He is a Savior not just for the
Jews but for the Gentiles also as those
kings come from the East and so on.
But there is another meaning to the word
Epiphany which I also love.
It can be defined this way.
A sudden realization or comprehension of something.
And isn't that a good prayer request for
a new year?
That throughout the days of this year Lord,
would You show us more of Yourself.
Would You give to us encounters with You
things that we have not seen and known
for there's more of You and there is
so much more for each of us no
matter where we're at in our walk with
the Lord.
And so I wanted just in the few
moments this morning to cause us to think
about these kind of situations as you see
them.
And there are many of them in the
life of the disciples of the Lord Jesus.
And that's what we are called to be.
To be disciples and to make disciples, right?
And as you think about some of the
instances I mean if I go through them
all we could just stay till next Sunday
morning.
But we'll just touch on a few of
them this morning and think about times when
the disciples saw something in Jesus that they
had not seen before.
And oh how I pray for my own
life and for yours and for our families
that through the days of 2011 we will
see the Lord in different ways and in
wonderful ways as He works within us and
within us as a family of God too.
So here in this section Jesus has said
we want to go to the other side
of the lake.
Good.
Let's get in the boat and go.
Put it in B for boogie and get
on out there.
We had the privilege in 1999 of being
in Israel and seeing a Jesus boat.
A boat that they had brought out of
the sand that was buried around the time
that He would have walked in the land.
The size of it is bigger than I
would have thought and the strength of it
is weaker than I would have thought.
So when I think about the boat I
go back to think about that Jesus boat
and the disciples in there with the Lord
journeying across the waterways.
Now how would you feel?
You've done what the Lord said.
Right, Nicole?
Take me to the other side.
You're in there.
You're just pulling hard.
I didn't hear that.
And there comes a storm and in the
storm the boat starts to fill up.
Isn't it great to have faith when you're
on dry land?
But oh, as you watch the water level
rising that could be a challenge, couldn't it?
That could really be a challenge.
Now the disciples knew Jesus.
They had watched Jesus work.
They were aware that this was not an
ordinary man.
They knew the things that He had been
doing and how He had been preaching and
the miracles and so on that He has
been performing.
But Jesus is asleep in the boat.
You ever feel that way?
Lord, where are you?
He's asleep in the boat.
And one of the things that I love
about it as you look at the life
of Jesus you see entirely His humanity.
He's been busy serving the Father and He's
exhausted and He's asleep in the boat.
Anybody ever slept on a waterbed?
You know that can happen.
And so they wake Him up.
We are perishing.
And I think they're waking Him up to
say, hey, the boat's filling up.
It's called an awakening, brother.
And I think they were saying, listen, can
you take the pail and help us bail
this thing out?
But isn't it wonderfully interesting as you look
here, not only is their expectancy wrong, but
He does the complete unexpected.
I love the Lord Jesus because walking with
Him there need not be a boring day.
He can certainly do the unexpected.
It just sort of pops right up there
at you, doesn't it?
I wonder what they must have thought when
Jesus stood up and just said, shh, well,
I don't know if that's what He said,
but I know He calmed the storm.
What are they seeing?
Not just the miracle worker, not just the
teacher that they have watched.
What kind of man is this that even
the wind and the waves obey Him?
They're seeing the Creator.
He who created it in the midst of
it just saying, you know, God, they're seeing
a Savior.
And I wonder in the storms of 2011,
is that not the desire of our heart
as well, that the great Creator would be
manifest day by day in your life and
in mine and in all the storms that
may come The Creator is still there in
charge.
I didn't ask the team this morning to
sing He Reigns, but it's pretty fitting because
He does.
Listen to the words of Isaiah 43, 1
through 7.
But now thus says the Lord, He who
created you, O Jacob, He who formed you,
O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed
you.
I have called you by name.
You are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will
be with you.
And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm
you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall
not be burned, and the flame shall not
consume you.
For I am the Lord your God, the
Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and
Sheba in exchange for you, because you are
precious in my eyes and honored.
I love you.
I give men in return for you, peoples
in exchange for your life.
Fear not, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east
and from the west.
I will gather you.
I'll say to the north, Give up, and
to the south, Do not withhold.
Bring my sons from afar and my daughters
from the ends of the earth.
Everyone who is called by my name, whom
I created for my glory, whom I formed
and made.
Did you hear that last verse?
Everyone I created and formed for my glory.
There's the purpose for your life and mine
for 2011.
We were not created just to willy-nilly
sort of dangle along and beat our way
through some problems and so on, but created
to glorify him.
And oh, you know, as a little boy,
I learned that in church, had to repeat
it, the shorter Westminster Catechism.
What is the chief end of man?
The chief end of man is to glorify
God and enjoy him forever.
Didn't mean a thing until the night that
I met Jesus Christ and he saved me.
And then it all fit together.
Oh, our purpose is to glorify him, to
worship him and to praise him.
But you see what's happening here to the
disciples.
They're seeing something of Jesus that is new.
And in this new year, what a blessing
to set our hearts and say, Lord, let
me see you this year.
Let me see you, Jesus.
One of the things that I often will
pray just in my own walk with the
Lord, simple as it is, is just to
say this.
Lord, I don't want to just know about
you.
Please, God, let me see you at work.
Let me know your touch and your presence.
Let's go over a couple of chapters to
Luke chapter 10 and just the first four
verses.
After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and
sent them ahead of him two by two
into every town and place where he himself
was about to go.
And he said to them, The harvest is
plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Go your way.
Behold, I'm sending you out as lambs in
the midst of wolves.
Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals,
and greet no one on the road.
Here he's sending them out.
In verse 17 of the same chapter, they
come back.
The 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even
the demons are subject to us in your
name.
Now, these 72 knew about Jesus, and they're
given a commission to go out and to
speak and to teach and to preach and
to heal and so on.
And as they obey the command, don't you
love the report that comes back?
Lord, even the demons are subject to us
in your name.
You see, when we walk in obedience to
what the Lord has asked of us, we
begin to see some things again, don't we?
In a different way.
Here they are going out.
I can picture it in my Irish imagination.
Brad, you want to go with me?
You got anybody else to go with?
He said two by two.
Let's go, buddy.
What do you think they're going to say
in this time?
I got to quit picking on him.
I mean, in humanity, there must have been,
will this work?
But in obedience, there is the blessing of
God.
And there is that sense where they come
back, you catch the spark of excitement.
They have seen what God can do.
His power was more than they anticipated.
That's a whoo-hoo kind of moment.
Sorry, I'm just as excited in 2011 as
I was in 2010.
And should the Lord tarry and I linger
to 2012, it'll still be there, I think.
When they come back, there is that sense
of, Lord, we've seen something more of you.
We've encountered the power of your name.
You weren't even walking there physically with us,
Lord, but just in the power of your
name, those forces of evil dissipate.
Oh, dear church, think about it.
Think about it in these days when there
is so much out there that can frighten
us and that can scare us and that
can tell us, be quiet.
It's not politically correct and so on.
Even the demons were subject to us.
In your name.
No wonder scripture says every knee will bow
and every tongue confess to Him.
Now I wonder, wouldn't it be wonderful this
year to encounter the power of His name?
I love what Jim Cimbala said one time
in a seminar that I was in.
He was talking to worship leaders and he
said, I want to encourage you to sing
songs with the name of Jesus in them
because it's at the name of Jesus that
the demons flee.
It's at the name of Jesus that lives
are touched and changed.
Wow, at His name.
What about the dark things that we experience
as people press upon us and things oppressive
come against us?
Lord, at Your name, even the demons flee.
I better go quickly or we will be
here till next Sunday morning.
Let's go to a third scripture here in
the Gospel of Luke.
Chapter 18.
And just the first few verses.
And he told them a parable to the
effect that they always ought to pray and
not to lose heart.
And he said in a certain city there
was a judge who neither feared God nor
respected man.
There was a widow in that city who
kept coming to him and saying, give me
justice against my adversary.
For a while he refused, but afterward he
said to himself, though I neither fear God
nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps
bothering me, I will give her justice so
that she will not bear down on me,
beat me down by her continual coming.
I'll stop right there.
Here's another instance where they see Jesus in
a different way.
And what is it that they are seeing?
They are seeing a persistent intercessor.
And oh, how we need that, don't we?
The persistence to keep on keeping on.
They see Him teaching principles of prayer.
Not only persistence, but determination.
And oftentimes as we pray, we pray for
a while and say, it's not going to
happen, so I'm just going to quit.
But the Lord would have us pray it
through and pray it all the way there.
We see coming in a righteous cause.
Give me justice, says this lady.
There's only one source of supply.
You see, all the way through the Gospels,
the disciples get a different picture of Jesus
time after time after time.
And oh, how our lives need to be
just like that.
Pressing on in to the Lord.
In Luke 19, 45 and 46.
Again, let me just take a moment to
read those two verses.
And He entered the temple and began to
drive out those who sold, saying to them,
It is written, My house shall be a
house of prayer.
But you've made it a den of robbers.
What are they seeing here?
They've known this man.
They've walked with him.
He's never responded with violence.
And yet, as he goes into the temple,
he just cleans house.
This is one of the Irish moments.
They're seeing the Holy One consumed with raw
passion for the temple.
No room for that which is impure.
It's not that those things were wrong.
They all needed to be there.
It's just how they were positioned and how
they were worked.
He is here, the sanctifier.
Will 2011 be a year when I can
meet Him and go deeper with Him?
And as the Christian and Missionary Alliance, we
believe in that, do we not?
The deeper life.
And it is a progressive walk where He
gets more of us day by day and
week by week.
I'm so glad it's progressive and how I
thank God for His work and His Spirit.
And if you are a believer, you are
the temple of the Holy Spirit.
What is it that He wants to do
in you?
Sometimes, you know, as believers, we know and
understand what the Word of God says.
But we want to do something different.
And there are times when we need to
see the Lord Jesus just say, cleanse it.
Clean it out.
Start again.
Come again to the cross.
Are you seeing?
Oh, listen, I must rock and roll right
along here.
Let's go to Luke 23 and verse 34.
And I promise we'll just look at a
couple more scriptures and then I will quit.
And children, you're absolutely amazing.
You're so good.
And I'm so glad that you're here with
us this morning.
Luke 23 and verse 34.
And Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do.
And they cast lots to divide His garments.
They were looking for Jesus to be that
king to put away the Roman Empire and
establish the kingdom of God.
But here they're seeing the sacrificed one.
The one who's establishing a kingdom that's far
above any earthly kingdom.
And he's establishing it in this, could we
say, weak way?
Not the spears and the swords and the
bombs and the bullets, but the nails and
the truth.
The sacrificed one.
Forgiveness.
He's extending it.
Did they deserve it?
What do you think?
Not a chance.
Do we?
No.
I've been thinking in these days about the
person of Jesus.
Just as you begin to see him as
the savior, the sacrificed one.
Something changes in our hearts, doesn't it?
It melts away all those hard things.
And it brings us softly again to the
place of an undeserving one.
It was completely unexpected.
The soldiers who pounded in the nails didn't
expect it.
The disciples didn't expect it.
But there it is.
Father, forgive them.
There's no bitterness.
There's no resentment in this statement as Jesus
is making it.
He's free from all unjust or unfair thoughts.
He's not there taking the nails saying this
just isn't fair.
When you see him here, does it not
make us ask the question, why do I
carry and harbor these kind of thoughts?
These are the things that enslave us.
The bitterness.
The hard-heartedness.
The fact that I cannot give up all
of my rights because somebody would walk over
the top of me.
So what?
It won't matter in eternity.
There the sacrificed one becomes the King of
Kings.
And there's real freedom in Christ.
Listen, there is nothing, nothing in human relationships
that the Lord cannot fix, that he cannot
cleanse, that he cannot clear.
The issue is the human heart.
And am I willing to set my heart
and my life and my rights down and
say, God, I can't fix it, but I'm
yours.
I used to love the preaching of Paris
Reedhead.
He's an old Alliance Divine missionary from some
time back.
You can catch one of his sermons on
the revival hymn if you download it off
of the web.
One of the things he's talking about is
how a young preacher came to him one
day and said, listen, I have a pretty
good program.
Church is going pretty good.
I just need more power.
Can you tell me how to get more
power?
And Paris says to him, well, not really.
He said, listen, you know, I got a
radio show.
I got it all together.
Things are going good.
I just need more power.
How can I get more of the Holy
Spirit?
And so Paris said when he looked at
him, he reminded him of somebody himself when
he was younger.
And so he said to him, you know
what?
Have you got a car?
Yeah, he said, I got a car.
He said, well, you got to let the
Lord drive the car and sit in the
passenger seat.
No, he said, that won't do because you'll
reach over and take the wheel from time
to time.
That's not going to work.
Listen, maybe you should sit in the backseat,
put your hands over your eyes and let
the Lord drive the car.
And he said, no, you know what?
That's not going to work because you'll be
tempted and you'll open your eyes and then
you'll reach for the wheel.
No, that's not going to work.
He said, listen, I tell you what you
got to do.
You got to get out of the car
altogether.
Go around to the trunk, open it up,
get yourself in, throw the keys out to
the Lord, close the lid and say, Lord
Jesus, you drive.
You see, isn't that just what we need
for the sacrificed one?
Last verse, Luke 24, 27.
You see how they see him in all
of these different ways as we look through
Scripture.
Different than expected, different than anticipated.
Luke 24 and verse 27.
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself.
These two men are walking along sad and
lonely and defeated and Jesus draws near and
look at what he does.
He's the one who is the living, risen
Lord and he speaks Scripture into their hearts
and into their lives.
Scripture.
Beginning at Moses and the prophets, he goes
through and teaches them all about him.
And my friends, he still wants to speak
into your life and mine today.
And that's where I want to close this
message with a simple challenge.
Would you this morning be willing to say
not to John but to Jesus, Lord, I
want to meet you in your word every
day of this year.
I want you to change my life, Lord.
I want you to change my heart, Lord.
I want you to change my home, Lord.
I want to see you and I want
to know you.
You see, that's really the work of the
Spirit of God in discipleship, isn't it?
So let's just bow our heads for a
moment and close our eyes.
And as we go to prayer, he is
the awesome God.
But oh, how desperately we need to ask
him just to draw near to us as
individuals and to say to him, Lord, I
want to see you in your word day
by day this year.
Because, Lord, I can't change my weight.
I can't change my relationships.
I can't change myself.
But, Lord, you can change all of that
and more.
So instead of relying at the beginning of
this year on the things that I can
resolve to do, Lord, I just give myself
to you.
And this morning, just as we're at prayer,
or as we're going to prayer, if you
would say to Jesus, I want to see
you in your word.
Open it up for me, Lord, every day.
Why don't you just take a moment right
where you are, acknowledge that need to the
Savior and just stand in a short moment
of commitment to him just right where you
are.
The disciples of old saw him in different
roles and ways.
And is not that still the need of
our heart this very day?
Dear Heavenly Father, as we stand in your
presence, we acknowledge our need to be changed
into the likeness of Jesus.
And we acknowledge that we have no power
to do it.
And so we come to you and surrender
this morning and ask you, Spirit of the
living God, fill us afresh and anew.
Open our eyes that we might see him,
the one who loves us, day by day
in Scripture and grow strong in the love
of God.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
As we remain standing, let me just mention
the ushers will hand you a little handout
this morning as you leave.
And that's designed to help in quiet time
and staying in victory with the Lord Jesus
through the days of the year.
Worship team, would you come back and just
do He reigns.
And I'm sorry, I actually preached 35 minutes.
Filled with God's holy fire Every tribe, every
tongue, every nation A love song born of
grateful choir Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns
Hallelujah, He reigns Let
it rise above the four winds Caught up
in the heavenly sound Let praises echo from
the tower of cathedrals To the faithful gathered
underground Of all the songs sung from the
dawn of creation Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand
steeples None rang truer than this Cause
all the powers of darkness Can't drown out
a single word And all the powers of
darkness Stand on up, they just heard Cause
all the powers of darkness Can't drown out
a single word He
reigns It's all God's
children singing, glory, glory, hallelujah, he reigns, he
reigns.
It's all God's children singing, glory, glory, hallelujah,
he reigns.
God you do reign.
Lord you reign on this earth and some
days we, you know, whether we like it
or not, Lord, you reign.
And God, as we go into our lives,
as we leave this place, Lord, there is
nothing that can remain on our minds greater
than that.
That is the perspective of the kingdom, that
you reign supreme.
And nothing can mess with you.
Nothing can hurt you.
Nothing can thwart you.
Nothing can stop you.
That is good news.
We like it.
Jesus, we love you.
Protect us as we go.
Remind us of your kingdom and how you
reign in our lives.
Help us to be transparent and humble, to
come with you, to let you reign in
certain parts of our life where we haven't
maybe let you reign ever before.
Because it is about the heart, as John
so eloquently spoke this morning.
Change our hearts, Lord.
Change my heart.
You're not done with me.
You're not done with us.
Reign in this place.
Reign in this heart.
Reign in our hearts.
Reign in our lives.
Reign in our relationships.
Reign in how we love one another.
Reign in this city.
Reign in this country.
Reign in this world.
Thank you, Jesus.
In your mighty name.
Amen.
As you prepare to go, just know that
he reigns.
If you need prayer for anything, come up
here.
There's elder staff will be available, pastors.
Maybe there's something in your life where you've
never let him reign before.
Maybe now's the time to come forward and
give that to him and let him sit
on that throne and see what he can
do with it.
Have a great week.