Hillside Foursquare Church

Tell Your Story #1 - Easter 2014

Today we're beginning our Easter 2014 series, "Tell Your Story" - Our texts for today are Acts 1 & Revelation 12.

Also, as a part of this series, several Hillside-ers will be telling their stories: these are accounts of where Christ met, saved, transformed, & healed them. Today, we'll hear Shawn & Marie Lear dedicate their son Max to the Lord... as well as the story of God's healing & redemption in their lives. The end of today's podcast has a live performance of Shawn's original song, "Giver of Dreams."

Letters From John #8 - Last Words

This is our last message in the "Letters From John" series, & covers the letters of 2nd & 3rd John.

Letters From John #7 - What's Your Motivation?

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Anointed One) has been born of God, & everyone who loves  the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God & obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.1John 5:1-4
 
Over the years, I have had many conversations with Christians who lamented just how difficult it is to live their lives for Christ. They’ll say things like, “I try my best, but it seems that no matter how hard I work at it, its too much for me.”
 
In 1John 5:2,3 John tells us that the actions that reveal we belong to God are a) we love the children of God (other Christ-followers) & b) we obey His commandments. But then John says something that flies in the face of the experience of many Christians: “And His commandments are not burdensome.”
 
So, we love God & yet find His commands hard to keep - & John says they’re not.  What gives?
 
I looked up some synonyms for the word “burdensome” in my online thesaurus (Thank you Roget,) & found some other words that help to paint a clearer picture of what John is saying. They are: Heavy. Difficult. Oppressive. Taxing. Tiring. Tedious. Get the picture?
 
It reminds me of when Jesus confirmed what John says when Jesus called out to the masses & said, “Come to Me, all who labor & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take My yoke (teachings) upon you & learn from me… & you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, & my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
 
If we’re finding it heavy, difficult, oppressive, taxing, tiring, tedious to keep God’s commands, what is it we’re missing?
 
I’m still working through this in my own head & heart, but I think what stands out to me is it is US that is making it difficult –  when asked what was most important for His followers to do, Jesus said simply, “Love the LORD God with all your heart, soul, mind, & strength. And love Your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39).
 
To me, the motivation Jesus calls us to (& John reminds us of) is love. And when love is the motivation, His commandments are light, His teachings are easy. And we find it an exercise of joy to follow Him.
 

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today -

Letters From John #6 - Love One Another...

What's on the ingredients label?

My daughter, theWeez, likes to eat healthy. Which means she reads the ingredients labels on everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. The other morning, I was making an egg burrito, & she declared, “Those tortillas are gross. Dad, do you know how many ingredients are in them?”

“Um. 3?”

“Nope. Like 20. You really have to be careful what you’re putting in your body.”

“Duly noted.”

Next day, we had the TortillaLand tortillas, which are made with a total of 4 ingredients. Better. And tastier.

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Reminds me of John’s great challenge to his readers in 1John 3 & 4. He tells them that  BELIEVING in the Name of Jesus Christ, & loving one another – are indicators that we are abiding (remaining, living in) God & His family. John also puts forward a couple of warnings – 1^st: don’t be like Cain, who hated (& eventually murdered) his brother, Abel. 2^nd, he challenges them to be very discerning about the spiritual input they accept from others. Specifically, he tells them to TEST every spirit (the motivating force/entity) behind any instruction or prophetic utterance given by a teacher, prophet, &/or spiritual leader.  So, since we can't "read the ingredients label," what does that mean, & how do we do that?

John reminds them that not everyone who claims to be speaking for God &/or on Christ’s behalf is actually doing so - & he gives a couple of TESTS for his readers to use in determining the source of the spiritual input:

1. Does the individual confirm that Jesus Christ came physically in the flesh, as a man? There were many teaching at the time that anything in the material world (including our bodies) was inherently evil; only things of the higher, spirit world were good. So, the conclusion reached was that Jesus Christ only seemed  to have a real body; He was in fact a spirit. John says that the denial of this core truth is a dead giveaway that the spirit motivating the teaching is off.
2. Does the individual/teaching confess Jesus Christ? This confession centers on embracing Christ fully as God, as revealed in the eyewitness accounts of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. Anytime Jesus is reimagined, reinvented, &/or redefined by a prophet/teacher/etc. in any manner different than God chose to reveal Him is an indication that the source of the input is the spirit of antichrist. Anytime Christ is diminished or reduced from being FULLY God & FULLY man – from being the sole source of our relationship with God the Father – the spirit of antichrist is exposed.

For us, 2000 years later, these TESTS are a great encouragement - & help remind us to be wary about what we’re ingesting, spiritually, & to regularly, with Holy Spirit insight, discernment, & wisdom, examine the spiritual input we are seeking out/getting from others. If it’s of God, it will stand up to the test.

Letters From John #5 - Crossing Over... Death To Life

Over the last few weeks in our “Letters from John” series, we’ve discovered that John is just a little redundant when it comes to a couple of the things he wants to make sure to communicate to his readers. The most significant, to me, is his repetition of Christ’s commandment: “Love one another.” Here in chapter 3, he gets into some detail about just what “loving one another” looks like, lived out.
 
In verse 12, he challenges us to not be like Cain, who murdered his brother. Ok, check. That sounds like an easy one, right? Don’t murder. However, I think it goes deeper than that, & touches on the motivation for Cain murdering Abel: jealousy. Genesis 4 tells how Cain was a farmer, while Abel was a shepherd. The time came for a sacrifice offering to be made to the LORD. Cain gave some of the leftovers of his harvest; Abel made a sacrifice of the best lamb in his flock. As a result, God rejected Cain’s offering, but accepted Abel’s. God’s favor made Cain so angry (& jealous) he schemed to get Abel alone in a field, & killed him.
 
Both Cain & Abel knew what God wanted in a sacrifice – their parents, Adam & Eve had firsthand experience with what God wanted: their very best. Abel chose to approach God & God’s terms, & Cain didn’t. Abel was received – Cain wasn’t. Cain’s jealous response, (birthed out of evil, John tells us) revealed the death & darkness that lived in him, while Abel’s showed the life & light dwelling in him.  Death. & life.
 
Loving our brothers demonstrates that we’ve crossed over from death to  life… that we’ve allowed God’s love, light, & life to be made manifest in us.
 
John continues in verse 16 – using Jesus’ example of love shown in how He laid down His own life for His followers… & John urges his readers to do the same. Since in Jesus’ case, this meant Christ’s death on the cross, does that mean that we are called to do the same? I say yes. Here’s how it can work on a daily basis.
 
Laying down our lives for others can be much more than dying in someone’s stead… it can also be love that is shown as we serve others & look to put their needs & interests before our own (ala Christ’s example from Philippians 2:1-10). This demonstrates that we have crossed over from death (the pattern of this world) to life (the pattern modeled by Christ.) Finally, this repeated command to love one another isn’t an abstract one – it is imminently practical, & demands that we look for ways to do what we believe Jesus would be doing if He were walking in our shoes. Because, when you think about it, He is.