December 27, 2020
Morning Service

In choosing which direction to go in our study of the Bible, I trust the Spirit to guide me to choose what it is that we need for the moment. It has been a few years since we have been through one of the four gospels, and I believe the Lord is leading us to begin the Gospel According to Matthew.  We have said over and over again that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship.  A relationship grows as we spend time with and get to know the other person.  That is really what led me to decide to begin this study on Matthew.  I want us to walk with Jesus and listen to His teachings, watch the love He displays, and witness the many miracles He performs; but mostly to see Him for who He is.  Who is He really?  He is fully man being born of a woman, but also fully God being conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He truly is the Son of God who came as the Savior of the world that He created.  He came to earth to defeat the final enemy that separated man from God and that was sin and death.  He not only wrote the “greatest love story ever told” but played the starring role.  But who is He to you?  My hope is that we can help you to define that over the course of this study.  As we read these first-hand accounts of Jesus’ life, I want us to experience not just the events, but I want us to form a bond with Jesus through them.  As we walk with Him, talk with Him, and watch Him I pray we get to know Him.  I pray we know Him as not only as our Savior, but as our Mentor, Teacher, and as our loving and caring Friend.  My goal is that each of us can proclaim as Thomas did; “My Lord and my God!”  

 As we read, we will ask questions into what we have seen like:  What does this reveal to me about Jesus?  What does this reveal to me about me?  In so doing I pray we can build our relationship with Him from both sides.  I hope as we study we grow in faith but also in love and admiration for Him going deeper than ever before.  It is like when you are newlyweds, you really don’t know someone until you have to live with them every day.  I want us to invite Jesus into our homes to live.  I hope we also see ourselves in a new light as well.  I hope we see ourselves as Jesus sees us; as a beloved friend and brother whom He loves enough to give His life for us.  We have value and we have purpose realizing that we have been invited to be part of something bigger than ourselves and greater than what we can imagine.  Knowing Jesus in this way is the reward of Christianity; making it relational more than religious.  The Apostle Paul came to this same realization.  He had reached the pinnacle of the “religious” world being the “Pharisee’s Pharisee.”  He devoted his entire life to arrive at the point that he was, only to find it was not what he was seeking; there was something missing from his religious journey.  In the Philippian letter, he lists all of his “religious” accomplishments then wrote this:

Php 3:7-10 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  (8)  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  (9)  and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;  (10)  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

            All the goals he had attained in his life he now considers nothing compared to acquiring the “excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”  All his religious training and accomplishments were trumped by a new found personal relationship with “Christ Jesus, my Lord;” a very personal statement of faith. Notice that there is a cost for knowing Jesus in this close and personal way.  Paul states this relationship cost him “the loss of all things;” he had surrendered everything without regret “that I may gain Christ.”  His focus was changed from working to attain his own righteousness through following the law, to simply by faith being “found in Him.”  Trusting and knowing Jesus and abiding in His righteousness through faith. “to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”  Surrendering all that you are able to know Him and follow Him faithfully.  That is the level of relationship we are being called to; not just on the surface but deep into your heart, mind and soul.  He becomes your identity; dying to self to live for Christ.  Paul said it so well in the Galatian letter:

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

            To win and truly be victorious, we must surrender our whole being to our Lord and Savior.  We must spiritually offer ourselves upon the cross to arise and walk in the newness of life; following Jesus our Lord.  To know Him is to love Him.  To love Him is to serve Him.  He completes us.

Does your life seem empty this morning?  Does it seem all that you are working for in this life is not what you had hoped it would be?  Take your eyes off of yourself and put them upon Jesus.  Paul explains it like this:

Col. 2:9-10 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; (10) and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

            Complete means being full, lacking nothing.  Do you feel complete this morning or do you know that there is something missing, an empty part of your life that you struggle to fill?  If you are complete with Him then the opposite is true as well, you are incomplete without Him.  Though you like Paul may seek to find your own happiness through your own actions and achievements, I pray that it is revealed to you as it was Paul that you need Jesus.  He completes you. He designed you that way and longs for the day you accept that and like Paul surrender it all to Him.  We must surrender to gain victory.  Deep inside yourself this morning you know if you are complete or lack something.  I pray today you follow the call from the Roman letter:      

Rom 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  (2)  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

            Present yourself to Christ as a “living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God.”  Don’t allow the world to “conform” you to their standards, but be “transformed by the renewing of you mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God.”  Does that stir your heart this morning?  Does that sound like what you have been searching for all your life?  We will find it together as we follow Jesus through this study of Matthew.  I invite you to go with me on a journey to renew your faith, chase away your fears, and to know Jesus so you can proclaim unashamedly “My Lord and my God!”  We just finished a season in which we celebrate the “greatest love story ever told;” God coming to us.  The story only ends happily if you choose to enter into a love affair with Jesus.  Is there a better New Year’s Resolution?  No way!  Our goal in 2021 is this: to know Jesus at a deeper level than ever before and allow the Spirit to “transform” our lives into proving “what is that good an acceptable, perfect will of God.”

            In the series “The Chosen” Mary Magdalene is asked about her delivery from being possessed by a legion of demons and she says; “I was one way and then I was not.  In between there it was Him.”  She met Jesus and everything changed; He completed her.  I pray the same for us; that we meet Him for the first time or that we become reacquainted as we would with an old friend.  Either way, I pray we find ourselves complete in Him and renew our desire to follow Him faithfully until the end.  There it is an invitation to a New Year’s resolution; to know Jesus.