RLCF Sermons

The two sides of the coin of the Christian life are... love, and... love (Matthew 22:39-40). Your life is tasteless if it lacks the "salt" of love (Mark 9:50, Matthew 5:13). And it is in the midst of conflict - persecution, insult, false accusation - that your "saltiness" as a bearer of God's peace is tested (Matthew 5:9-16). There are 3 responses to evil: do evil in return (bad); passively ignore it (neutral); actively return it with love (good) - Romans 12:21. True love overcomes evil. Everything else is just a feeling and will pass away. Will you be salt: 1. When Someone Else Harms You (Matthew 5:39-42); We're probably civilized enough to not hit back when someone hits us. But if we gossip about it or slander them to others, we have still returned evil for evil! 2. When You've Harmed Someone Else (Matthew 5:23-24); Often the way to get right with God is to first repair your relationship with your brother or sister. When you take the initiative toward peace, God looks down and says, "That's my boy!" or "That's my girl!" (Matthew 5:9). The amazing thing about salt is that when added, it disappears from sight, but adds flavor to the food. This is how we ought to love. Jesus didn't sit on a "pity pot" and pout over His rejection; He overcame it by rejoicing in it (Psalm 118:22-24). What will you do? Grace doesn't wish the thorn away. Rather, it boasts about the power of God manifest through it (II Corinthians 12:8-9). God brought restoration into the church at Corinth because one man, Paul, was willing to be poured out as a drink offering (II Corinthians 2:3-4, II Timothy 4:6). If the operating principle of your life is, "I don't do anything I shouldn't do" then you are a Pharisee. If the operating principle of your life is, "I leave nothing undone that I ought to do" then you are a follower of Jesus (II Timothy 4:5 TLB). If you feel like a failure, remember Paul, and how the man who killed other Christians, could say at the end of his life, "I have finished the course." (II Timothy 4:7) Keep the faith that God's perfect plan for your life will still be fulfilled. This is the gospel: the sinner who never did a single thing right gets to walk hand-in-hand into Paradise with the Savior who never did a single thing wrong. Heaven is made for honest people with faith. "It isn't the thing you do, it's the thing you leave undone, that gives you a bit of a heartache at setting of the sun." -Margaret E. Sangster

God said "I love you SO much" by giving His only (John 3:16)! What does God's love do in you? Does it constrain you (II Corinthians 5:14)? Most people are more worried about the evil said about them or their family, than they do about the evil said about God and His Name! "If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love. That which I know not, teach Thou me, O Lord, my God." -Amy Carmichael

The extent to which you pour out your love toward Christ’s Body is determined by your realization of how much you have been forgiven (Luke 7:44-47).

The 2 hours or the 10% you “offer” to God on Sunday morning are a waste, if the rest of your time or money does not belong to Him. If you came to Christ but didn’t get a completely new way of thinking, you got a counterfeit “Jesus”. The value you add to the Church is measured not by how gifted you are but by how much faith you have (Romans 12:3). Gift makes you look big; faith makes God look big!

Do you find yourself complaining to God about your circumstances in life? Do you compare yourself with and judge others that you are better than them? You’re probably suffering from “Wise-in-Your-Eyes” Disease! The temptation in the Garden of Eden was not to do something outwardly “evil”, but to be wise “like God” (Genesis 3:5) in being able to make judgment on your own. And that decision initiated all of the sin and pain and suffering in this world.

If your salvation is a result of your being “good enough”, what you got was not grace! And, while many Christians sing, "Jesus paid it all", they don't really live like He did! Instead of focusing on the sin in your life, focus on the unbelief (areas in which you don’t trust God) in your life. Then, instead of constantly struggling and failing, you'll experience God giving you the victory! Whoever has faith, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have faith, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Our faith determines whether the mysteries of heaven are revealed to us or not. (Matthew 13:11-12) With you all things are possible… if you believe! (Mark 9:23)

We are sent to the world in the same was as the Father sent Jesus from heaven to earth. To truly preach the gospel is to proclaim the cross of Christ while you're hanging on it! The only way you can do that is if you completely trust that your Father will not abandon you. What will your feet look like at the end of your life? Will it be a clean pair that was hidden under the ground, or a dusty pair that has traveled your "world" for the sake of the gospel?

The followers of Jesus were first disciples, and then Christians (Acts 11:26). Unfortunately, even the people who preach discipleship, preach it in the reverse order. Eventually discipleship gets eliminated from the message altogether.

If your life after being “saved”, is not discernibly different from that of the rest of the world, then you’re only fooling yourself. You’ve not really been saved! Instead, God ought to be able to say about you like He said about Job, "Have you seen my servant, ...?" I sin because I am a sinner; not the other way around. A righteousness that does not involve your having to give up your will is a deception. The righteousness of God requires submission to Him. If your submission is merely to someone or something other than God, your “righteousness” will end in disappointment. But, if your submission is truly to God, you will realize that ultimately there is only One person with whom we have to do - God Almighty - and say, "How can I do this evil and sin against God?!" That is a sure cure for all hypocrisy. There is no "wrong side of the bed" when it is Christ living in me! The true Christian should never be in a bad mood, because Christ was never in a bad mood. The secret to freedom from all legalism and spiritual pride is to realize that it's not me that God is pleased with, but His Son (Christ) living in me by faith (Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 11:6). "He removed my sin-ward proneness, stamped His image in its place." If you feel like you're barely hanging on, it's time to have faith and fall into the everlasting arms beneath (Deuteronomy 33:27).

When God raises up a “Pharaoh” in your life, it is to: demonstrate His power in that situation, and proclaim His Name through your life. The only righteousness that God recognizes is that which comes from depending on Him. A true father is one who patiently endures someone who is lost in sin, and is willing to even be accursed for their sake.