Living Water Church

“If the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us…they would have swallowed us alive.”  Psalm 124:2-3 NIV

I still find myself reeling from the school attack this week in Littleton.  Perhaps this was such a hit to me because my niece is a survivor of the attack on Columbine High School.  I will never forget that day.  After I got the phone call that she was in the school, and had not been heard from, I frantically drove across town to her family’s home.  I will never forget slowing down, over and over again, as ambulance after ambulance passed me by.  Helicopters were hovering everywhere.  It all felt so ominous.  I cried out to God the whole way there, asking Him to spare her life.  And He did.

As I heard the news of another attack this week in our city, I couldn’t help thinking, what is this world coming to?  But then I realized the amazing truth—a man gained access to Deer Creek Middle School, walked around the school, even got a visitor’s pass.  At some point, he got his gun and began to shoot—and no one was killed.  Only two students were physically injured.  They are both doing well.  This is nothing short of a miracle!  And rather than shaking my head in disgust at our society, instead I got on my knees before God and gave thanks.  Thank you Father for Your protection, for Your mercy.

Will you take a few moments today and just thank God for intervening in this violent act?  And will you pray?  Pray for our schools and for our children.  Pray for the 2 injured students and their families, for emotional, physical, and spiritual healing.  Pray for Deer Creek Middle School, the students, the staff, the parents.  Pray for Divine protection.  The Psalmist wrote, “God is our very present help in times of trouble.”

“I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”  Psalm 121:1-2.

I have talked with numerous people in the last few weeks who are struggling with various life issues.  Sadly, God never promised that life would be easy, but He did promise to walk through the hard times with us.

I find Psalm 121 very comforting when I am walking through valley-experiences.  The Psalmist wrote that he lifted his eyes to the hills.  This refers to the mountains of Jerusalem, the OT symbol for the dwelling place of the Lord.  In essence, the psalmist is looking toward where the Lord dwells.  He declares that his help comes from God.  Then, in the next six verses, the writer acknowledges that the Lord is his Guardian and Caretaker.  “He who keeps you will not slumber.”  v. 3. The Hebrew word for keeps (preserves) is used six times in this psalm, dramatically emphasizing the care of God.  “The Lord is your keeper…The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”  v. 5-6. God offers 24 hour protection.

Yes, hard times come.  But there is something so very comforting about the fact that God is our keeper.  He is our very present help in times of trouble.  Wrap your thoughts around the promises of God.  He is our helper and comforter, our source of strength and our hope.

“Now these three remain:  faith, hope, and love.  And the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13:13

Ken and I participate in LWC’s Open Door Outreach.  Once a month, a team from LWC goes to Aurora City Park and we hand out food and clothing to the homeless people gathered there.  At the last outreach in January, we fed about 80 people!  Hats, gloves, coats, and shoes were taken the very moment we put them out for distribution.  Most of the people in the park do not speak English, so it’s very hard for me to communicate with them, in that my Spanish is very limited.  But I’ve noticed something, even if we don’t speak the same language, everyone, everywhere understands the language of love.  I can say hello, smile, shake hands and show kindness.  Though few words are said, love is spoken.

Col. 3:12-14 tells us to “put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other…  above all these things put on love.”  Love is the greatest of all human qualities because it is the expression of the very essence of God.  God is love.  Today is Valentine’s Day.  It’s the day of love.  Choose to love someone today.  Show someone you care.  Be considerate of others.  Ask someone questions and really listen to their answers.  Show love.  Love is the language everyone understands.

Last Sunday’s sermon began with an alter call.  (Isn’t church fun?  You never know what you’re going to get.)  The message of the altar call was from Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Are you like me and you experience times of weariness and drought?  As Ken and I have taken over the responsibilities of being senior pastors, we have noticed an enormous increase in the barrage of enemy assaults.  Since we are more on the “front lines” of ministry, we feel the hits more directly and more intensely. It’s easy for us to get overwhelmed.

But I am discovering that in times of stress, I can do one of three things.  I can do nothing but worry.  Or, I can take action (hoping that God agrees with my plan).  Or, I can trust God and pray.  I am finding (sometimes the hard way) that worrying doesn’t help me or solve any problems.  When I take off and try to solve the problem on my own, I usually create more problems, not less.  And so, by the grace of God, I am learning to trust and pray.  Jesus said, “Come to Me…”

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to come to Jesus.  All you really need to be is like a child.  That pretty much makes everyone qualified, doesn’t it?  Come to Jesus.  He is teaching me to learn to trust, obey, and pray.  God is completely aware of my troubles.  He knows the problem and thankfully He knows the solution.   I can find rest and help as I trust in Him.  Come to Jesus.

Did you enjoy last week’s service.  I did.  And you know what, I think God enjoyed it too.  There is something about walking in the light, being transparent, and admitting our need for God’s help and grace that is so pleasing to the Father.

Thankfully, God is not looking for perfect people to serve Him.  Rather, He exalts the humble.  He is near to the brokenhearted.  Jesus Himself said that it was the sick who needed the Physician.  Yet, God doesn’t want to leave us sick and broken.  But often to heal us, the first thing He must do is humble us.

In our culture, we are ingrained with the “I did it my way” or the “I can do it myself” mentality.  My 5 year old son wants to do everything for himself.  So I spend a lot of time waiting on him.  (It’s amazing how our children teach us patience.)  But that aside, there is something ingrained in us, whether by culture or original sin, that demands it’s own way.  There is an independence and self-sufficiency in us that God must break to bring true healing to our lives.  As God prunes us and breaks this independent spirit, it hurts because it’s humbling.

It’s humbling to publicly admit that we need God.  It’s humbling to be transparent about our struggles and our issues.   Can’t everyone agree that it’s easier to be plastic and fake?   But if we want God’s blessing, if we want the favor of God, we must walk in the light and acknowledge our need of Him.  This was modeled for us last week and I believe God was honored by it.

The catastrophe in Haiti is staggering.  Though I see pictures on the TV and read news articles from reporters who tell of the disaster, it’s hard for me to imagine the amount of devastation that has occurred.

I read this week that 90% of the non-government sponsored financial aid given to Haiti has been given by faith-based organizations.  90%!  We as Christians have stepped up to the plate to help others in a time of need.  Many Christians in the USA have felt the economic crunch of this decade in our own checkbooks, nevertheless we gave generously.  I think God is pleased.

As I pondered the crisis in Haiti this last week, it occurred to me that if such an earthquake happened in the USA, though the damage would be great, the amount of devastation would not nearly be as catastrophic.  Why?  Because our country has done a good job building structures that are better able to withstand  earthquakes.  As in the natural, so in the spiritual… most of us, if not all of us, will go through ‘earthquake experiences’ in our lives.  Crisis will strike, hard times will come.  My prayer is that we will build our lives such that we are able to stand during hard times.  Let the disaster in Haiti remind us to work on building a strong foundation in the Lord, so that when times of shaking come, we will find help and comfort in our Lord.  Spend time with God, develop a sure foundation.

• Everyone’s greatest need is to be loved.  Everyone’s greatest fear is to be rejected.  Religion without love is the meanest thing in the world.
• There are two enemies of the church:  self satisfaction and distractions.
• Beware of expecting God to do something He is expecting you to do. 
• It doesn’t take a lot of faith to respond to sensation.  It does take a lot of faith to respond to the still, small voice.
• The enemy wants to steal our identity and stop our influence. 
• What do you have that you’re not using?  Look for places to pour out your life.  Pour your life into the kingdom of God.  Pray for influence.
• The loaves and fishes did not multiply in the hands of  Jesus but in the hands of the disciples.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18 KJ.  “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” The Message.

I don’t pretend to see all that God is doing, but I do want to hear His voice with regards to what He is doing in our midst, in our lives, in our church.  So to that end, we have asked God to give us His direction for 2010.  The following bullets are a brief review of Ken’s message last Sunday.  Will you pray over these with us?  We want to go where God is going; do what God is doing.

LWC VISION 2010

• Outreach.  We desire to promote an outreach mentality, reaching outside the walls of our church.   As such we want to encourage and help support the Mall Outreach, the Open Door Outreach, the Spring Fling, Home Groups and any other function related to reaching out beyond ourselves.
• Family Cohesiveness.  With going to 2 services, we see this value challenged.  We want LWC to continue to be a place of belonging not just a place to attend.
• God’s Word.  We intend to continue to teach the Word of God.  We need encouragement and instruction in being grounded in the Word.
• Hearing God’s Voice.  We want to encourage people to develop spiritual ears, to recognize God’s voice.  As such, believers would begin to have words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and prophecy operating in their lives, to be blessing to themselves but ultimately a blessing to others.

“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14.

Christmas is the one time of year that our culture acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  In the mall the other day, I heard the song, “Joy to the World the Lord is come…” blaring through the mall’s sound system.  The entire mall, through song, was proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Lord God.  However, notice that the season glorifies the infancy of Jesus and not His Deity.  Jesus came to the earth two thousand years ago as a humble baby. He will return to the earth a second time as the reigning, ruling King.  He will come with the sound of the trumpet and every knee will bow, not to a crying baby but to the Lion of Judah on the throne.

This same God, the Lion of Judah, the King of all kings, to whom every knee will bow, now resides with us.  When I consider the Christmas season, the one word that seems to sum it all up for me is, “Immanuel.”  God promises to be with us. He goes with us everywhere we go, helps us, comforts us, convicts us, and ultimately loves us.  It’s not the baby in a manger that is with us, it is the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.  He is all-powerful, all-knowing, good and kind. And He is with us.

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.  He never held an office.  He never had a family or owned a house.  He didn’t go to college.  He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born.  He did none of these things one usually associates with greatness.  He had no credentials but himself.

He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

When he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind’s progress.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

adapted from a 1926 sermon by Dr James Allan Francis