Gospel Life Church - Cape Girardeau

By what will your life be shaped?  The situations and circumstances in which we find ourselves (wether they be thrusted upon us or by our own making) can carry the most weight in our life.  Especially when these circumstances and situations are difficult.  This was certainly the case for the Israelites in Egypt,“Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.” (Exodus 5:9 ).  However, the story of Exodus culminates in the climax of “the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.”  Over everything else, the Lord and His presence with His People was to carry the most weight in their lives.  In other words, the Lord being with His people was to shape their lives.  As the story of the Bible unfolds, we see Jesus show up as the Same God of Exodus, working the same plan of redemption for His people, but in Christ this plan is fully accomplished.  The veil was torn and removed so that God's people can see the glory of the Lord embodied in Jesus.  Jesus also prepared the way for the Holy Spirit to indwell, not the Tabernacle, but the people of God as living stones.  We now, with unveiled faces to God's glory and the presence of God in us, are empowered to be shaped into God's people.  We finished looking at the parable Jesus told to the Chief Priests and Elders in Matthew 21.  Two sons were told to go work in their father's vineyard.  One said, “yes,” but didn't go.  The other said, “no,” but changed his mind and went.  This parable forces us to ask, “Which son am I?”  Am I giving lip service to God, but reflecting different loyalties in the way I live my life?  Or, has Jesus moved the glory and presence of God into my life?  If we claim the latter, then we must be willing to confess and repent from those wayward loyalties. The Israelites carried the story of Exodus with them.  It is the story that defined them.  The story of Exodus shaped the way they lived.  We have been ingrafted into Israel.  The Church is the fulfillment of Israel.  Exodus is our story, too.  However, our story is greater, because we have the greater mediator, Jesus the Christ.  Jesus saved us and He continues to shape us by moving the glory of the Lord into our lives through His finished work and the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, by whom we are empowered to live like God's People—Because that is exactly who we are.  By what will your life be shaped?  

We are a shepherding church because we are under the reign of our Good Shepherding King Jesus.  

Jesus stirs our hearts to be generous, giving of our possessions, time, and skill.

Ascension.

We must carefully guard against twisting Scripture to fit our historical and political agendas.  Psalm 118 is a song for the Covenant People of God to praise and give thanks to God in a way that galvanizes them for perseverance.  It was not a victory song for nationalism.  

The beauty of God's Character made away for Redemption.

We rebel against God when we worship the creation over the Creator.  This means we need intercession.  We have the perfect intercessor in Jesus Christ, who also calls us to intercede for others who are lost in their pursuit of creation instead of the Creator.  

The Spirit sanctifies our ordinary gifts for extraordinary purposes.

We are not just saved from our sin, but to our priestly service.

LIFE with God (His Presence) is dependent on the establishment of a special (covenantal) relationship with Him.

Chosen as God's People, God's ongoing protection and provision come through obedience, bringing blessings not just to you but to the nations; but cultural compromise undermines our relationship with God and leads to exile.

When we see ourselves in the Heart of God, we'll be drawn to the beauty, awe, and wonder of God's heart.  Only by being drawn to God's Heart will we begin have a heart like His and live in the way we were meant to live.  It is of the upmost importance that we order our lives to be with Jesus; take the time for our eyes to be drawn upward to the Heart of God.  The Lord gave instructions for the ordering of Work and Worship.

When we are wronged, we have the opportunity to either pursue justice toward retribution or justice toward reconciliation.  This is what Paul, carried along by the Holy Spirit, was writing about in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.  The Finished Work of Jesus has reconciled us to the Lord and empowered us to pursue reconciliation with others--in doing do, we live our lives according the Jesus' prayer, "Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."  

Don't follow your heart, follow God's heart.

The presence of the Lord mediated to God's people causes internal change that produces external change and proper worship.

Only One Man has perfectly lived according to the Principles of the Decalogue.  Jesus Christ the Messiah is the Only One and He is the Only One Who saves.  Obedience grows out of a heart that has been captured by His Love, Mercy, and Grace.

The first part of the Decalogue, the first four words are principles for believers to adopt and shape their lives around.  The first four words can be summed up by this, "God is to have first place in our hearts."  There are many implications that flow from these principles.

The Lord graciously initiates salvation by establishing and fulfilling His Covenant to make sinners holy and empower them with His presence to perfect His plan for creation.

This chapter has two parts.  The first part remembers God's Saving Grace.  Then, the hinge pivots to prefigure God's Shaping Law.  Understanding the relationship between God's Grace and God's Law is crucial for the culture and leadership of God's People.

God's testing exposes us.  Do not harden your hearts when exposed, but trust in the Lord to deliver you from your sin and provide all that we need for a life with God.  

Everything east of Eden is a Wilderness that the Lord uses for testing.  Testing reveals what is underneath the surface, what we as created worshipers are believing and in which we put our trust.  It is under the surface that repentance happens.  God's testing is gracious and enables repentance.

We give glory to the Lord by living from and toward Christ!

In Romans 1:16, Paul (carried along by the Holy Spirit) called the Gospel "the power of God for salvation."  In Exodus 14 we experienced a powerful story of how God accomplished salvation for His People even though at one point their hand was high in pride, and at another point low in despair.  It is the Lord that saved His People for His Glory, which is always good for us.  We tend to live our Christian lives oscillating between High Handed Christianity and Drop Hand Christianity.  The Solution for both is the same:  Look at the Salvation of the Lord--Literally, "Look at Jesus."  When we consider the exodus of Jesus on the Cross, with his hands outstretched for the defeat of our sin and death.  Our only response is to lift our hands in worship of the One True Lord and Savior--restoring us to a right relationship with our Creator.  Glory be to God!   Amen and Amen!  

Constantly and consistently recalling how the LORD has saved us is vital to nurturing our relationship with Him.  The Lord gave the Israelites 3 ways to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt that are helpful for us to consider today, as well.  

God provides a sign of his mercy for His just judgement to passover His people who participate (by faith) in the distinction He has made.

God reveals Himself through Signs some receive for salvation, but others receive for condemnation.

Noah Coates preaches on the genealogy interruption and the beginning of the signs of judgment on Egypt calling us to repent from trusting in counterfeits in the world, because we have a God who saves and fulfills all our desires.

Are you discouraged from the hardships produced by those who are opposed to God?  We are called to resist the opposition by listening to the Word of God.  Your spirit may feel broken, but you have been given the Holy Spirit who is not discouraged or broken.  The Holy Spirit reminds us of what God has done (saved us) and what God will do (return in glory).  As we wait through the hard, we are sustained and changed to be more like Jesus.  In this same way, we are empowered to be witnesses.  Therefore, as we resist the opposition, proclaiming Jesus as Lord, we also proclaim Jesus as Savior.  

God graciously addresses our skepticism and moves us to listen, believe, and obey him.

Over and over again in Exodus 3 the Lord presents Himself and His call with High Invitation and High Challenge.  It is important for Moses in the text, it is important for the Israelites reading this in the ancient world, and it is important for us to hold these truths in tension.  If we neglect the challenge and make the invitation about us, we stay put in a comfort.  If we neglect the invitation and make the challenge about us, we'll try to accomplish God's Plan without his Power or Presence and we will be crushed by it.  Neglecting both lands is in apathy--completely disengaged.  However, if we lean into the invitation, "I will be with you" and the challenge, "Go and tell pharaoh..." we'll experience the Person of God; his power and presence.  This requires faith enough to take the first step toward Egypt.  Through this, we'll be transformed, or better yet, conformed to be more like Jesus.  

We see that in all things—even when it appears that evil is winning—God is working, sometimes through the most unlikely people.  All people made in the image of God have the capacity to image God in their actions.  We see that people fail and things don't go the way we think they should.  However, God never fails and He is working all things together for His purpose, which is way better for us and others than we could have ever hoped.  We see Jesus prefigured in Moses' Exodus out of Egypt, only to go back and make a way for his people to be rescued.  On this side of the Bigger and Better Exodus of Christ, we have been delivered from the oppression and slavery of sin.  We have been given a new identity and are free to identify with others who suffer under oppression and injustice, but we know that we are not the savior.  Jesus is the only Savior.  We can image God by trusting Him and following Him in order to stand up for others without becoming an oppressor ourselves.  

One of the things we see in this text is the contrast between Pharaoh who feared a people group and the Hebrew Midwives who feared the Lord.  Pharaoh's actions were evil, oppressive, and murderous.  The Midwives' actions were good, and promoted both flourishing and life.  There are many issues today where the principles communicated in Exodus 1 can apply, but  applicable must first begin in our own hearts.  So let's ask the Spirit to reveal if there are any people groups for which we have dread in our hearts.  If we dread a people group, we are not far from our actions leaning into evil toward them, oppression on them, and in the extreme case, murder against them.  But God brought the climactic resolution of The Whole Story by causing human evil to be the very means of its own destruction.  At the Cross, God Himself tabernacled in humanity & willingly subjected Himself to Human evil, oppression, and murder, so that those who confess Jesus as LORD with their mouths and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead would be Redeemed from their sin.  Set Free!  No More are we subjected to the Historical Humans Pattern, but are empowered to stand up for the Heart of God.

The Movie Trailer to Exodus and a reminder of God's Blessings through common times where God might feel distant.

One of the most prevalent identities of the Church in the Scriptures is that of a Family.  From the Case Law given in Leviticus 20: 4-5, we learn that we are our brothers keeper.  We also see through Redemptive History that health families multiply.  

Jesus Himself is our Peace and has unified His Church in all our differences.  

As steward's of God's Stuff, we are exhorted to faithful through out God's Word.  However, Greed both blinds us and gives us false promises that will disrupt our faithfulness.  Jesus came as the righteous steward for the unrighteous stewards.  Jesus is faithful and there are some hard and vulnerable disciplines to which we can commit in order to participate in His faithfulness.  

If we look at the thread of "Temple" through Redemptive History, we will see that God is still building His Temple one living stone by one living stone.  The Church Temple is a Mission to participate with God to expand His Glory.

We are strangers, exiles, foreigners, and aliens in this land because our origins and allegiances are from another world.  "We don't belong here, but All Belong With Us."  We must remember both of these statements for our conduct and language to be different and honoring to our King.

Priesthood was the identity of mankind from the very beginning, but we failed in our priestly responsibility.  Over and over God was faithful to His People and finally sent Jesus to be the High Priest who restored us to and resourced us for our priestly responsibilities.  

Paul's final words and instructions to the church in Colossae.

What do Christians do with emotions.  This sermon looks to Psalm 27 as David admits his fear, accepts his need for safety, attunes his heart to God, attaches himself to God's faithful love, and aligns with God's mission.  

What does partnering in the Gospel mean?  Zack Amis unpacks some of Paul's final words in Colossians that give some insight from the Apostle to the Gentiles.  

Paul, carried along by the Holy Spirit, gives the church in Colossae and us instructions on how to pray, conduct ourselves, and enter into conversations with non-believers.

Being in Christ reorders all of our lives, including and perhaps most importantly, the household. 

Being in Christ will lead us to reflect the Character of God.

We are to believe the Gospel, appropriate our new identity through our behavior, and become a new humanity.  This is described as a wardrobe change by Paul, who was carried along by the Holy Spirit.  How would our lives be different if we put on Christ every morning when we were getting dressed for the day?  

All of you know that the wrath of God is coming against idolatry like sexual immorality, impurity, disordered desires, evil cravings, and covetousness.  Once, you were lived this way and were under God's wrath, but not anymore.  However, now you have different indicators of idolatry; anger, rage, ill-will, slander, and shameful speech.  You must consider the parts of yourself that are aimed at earthly purposes—your idolatry—dead and rid yourselves of this divisive conduct.If we are truly in Christ, we all have stories about how the Holy Spirit has delivered us from sinful conduct and we know consider those disordered motivations dead.  I once was living in (VICE), but now I consider (MOTIVATION) dead.However, Sanctification (the process of being delivered from the power of sin in our lives) is a life long process.  We must humbly be ready to take the next step to rid ourselves from sinful conduct the Spirit reveals to us and consider the motivations for that conduct to be dead.

The Apostle Paul, carried along by the Holy Spirit, consistently writes to the churches to accurately position the believers in the correct position—between “being raised spiritually with Christ” and “will be raised physically with Christ in Glory.”  In Colossians Chapter 3, Paul begins to give the application from living in this in-between.  You Live from Christ and toward Christ—Christ is Your Life. So seek the Kingdom He is administering at the Right Hand of God the Father by setting your mind (or keep thinking about) Christ and the Kingdom He is administering.  “What are you thinking about?”  Or perhaps the better question, “What dominates your thought life?”  What we think about is what we seek and what sets the trajectory of our lives.  In Christ, we are headed for another resurrection, a more full and complete resurrection and the glory of Christ shared with us.  Let's live like it now. 

Religiosity can foster the growth of our sin nature and produce division among the Church.  We are to be killing our sin nature or it will be killing US.  We do this by remembering that we are to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus, in whom we have unity.  This is a simple concept, but becomes very difficult to live out in the day to day.  In this sermon, we address how to live this out through Revelries, Regulations, and Revelations.

Paul addresses the yoke of circumcision, a sign of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenant, that was being put on the Disciples in Colossae, a yoke that the patriarchs all of Israel hasn't been able to bear.  Only by participating in the death and resurrection of Christ can believers receive the circumcision, sign of the covenant, of Christ.  In Christ believers are made to be alive and forgiven of all our sins.  However, this also comes with coming under the ultimate authority of Christ.

There are two categories of wisdom; wisdom revealed in Christ and wisdom according to the traditions of man and built upon the fundamentals of the world.  Wisdom that is not according to Christ is connected to empty deceit.  Christians must carefully watch out and guard from being overcome and becoming a slave to the empty deceitful wisdom.  Paul encourages the church in Colossae to be careful by continuing just as they had received Christ--don't add anything to Jesus, but put faith in The Word of God.  This will lead to a dependent relationship with Christ, like a tree rooted next to a stream or a house built on a strong foundation.