Briarwood Church

One of my favorite Hymns is: “I Will Sing Of My Redeemer”. Its melody and harmony is so musically attractive. It changes time signature from the verse to the chorus. It goes from 9/8 to 12/8, which makes the change in rhythm and tempo very unique and appealing. But what I love the most about this great hymn is the lyrics. They are so Biblical sound and personally inspiring. I want to share them with you.

Verse 1. I will sing of my Redeemer, And His wondrous love to me; On the cruel cross He suffered, From the curse to set me free.                                    Verse 2. I will tell the wondrous story, How my lost estate to save, In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave.                                    Verse 3. I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumphant pow’r I’ll tell, How the victory He giveth Over sin and death and hell.                                              Verse 4. I will sing of my Redeemer And His heav’nly love to me; He from death to life hath bro’t me, Son of God with Him to be.                                      Chorus:  Sing  o sing of my Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me; On the cross He sealed my pardon, Paid the debt and made me free.

Wow! Wow! Wow! When I think about all that Jesus has done for me, it makes me want to sing. We have something to sing about. Actually we have someone to sing about. Jesus, He is our Redeemer. I don’t know about you, but “I Will Sing Of My Redeemer”.

When Janet and I first got married, I did not have a clue what “quality time” meant. After being married for about 6 months, she came to me and said, “Lynn, we never spend time together”. I was baffled by this statement. In fact, I was somewhat angered. So I said, “what do you mean? We go to church together. We go to youth meetings together. We go to all kinds of church activities together. What do you mean, we never spend time together?” We what I soon discovered was, she meant we never spend quality time together. “Quality time” is when the other person has you full attention. It is when that other person is the center of your focus. I wonder how much “quality time” we actually spend with Jesus. Well that’s what I challenge you to do. Spend “quality time” with Him every day. Take at least 15 minutes of your day and give Jesus your full attention. Make Him the center of your focus. Praise Him. (Give Him honor and adoration.) Pray to Him (Make your request known to Him.) Proclaimation. (Let Him proclaim His Word to you. Read the Bible.) Let this week begin a higher level in your Christian walk. Spend Quality Time With God.

I love what II Corinthians 3:5 says: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” This great verse brings such balance to our walk with God. It expresses both humility and yet confidence. Paul says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves”. In other words, “we are not sufficient in ourselves. We are inadequate.” That’s what Paul is saying. It is a statement of humility. But then he says, “our sufficiency is from God”. The word “sufficiency” means “ability to meet ones needs”. So in essence what Paul is saying is “we are inadequate to meet our own needs, but God is able.” So we should approach our walk with God in humility and yet confidence. We’re inadequate. But God is more than adequate. In fact on of the Hebrew names for God is: El Shaddai. It means: “more than enough; the God of all sufficiency”. Whenever we face situations that are bigger than us, it is never bigger than God. He is El Shaddai.

In Isaiah 41:10, God says, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  This is one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. It is a tremendous promise to us from God. If we really believed what it says, our lives would be filled with joy, peace and contentment. I want to outline this verse.

“Fear not, for I am with you;” We do not ever have to be consumed with fear, because we never face anything by ourselves. God is always with us. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

“Be not dismayed, for I am your God.” “Dismayed” means “anxious or worry”. We never have to worry or be anxious, because God is our God. In other words, He is not just the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is not just the God of our parents or grandparents. He is our God. He is a personal God, who sees every detail of our lives. And He is Emmanuel, “God with us”.

“I will strengthen you,” We need to realize that life is too big for us. Our strength is not enough. We are not smart enough. We are not talented enough. We are not strong enough. But God is. And He has promised us His Strength.

“Yes, I will help you,” This part of His promise speaks of partnership. We do our part and He does His part. We do the possible and He does the impossible. We do the natural and He does the supernatural. Our part is always obedience. And when we live in obedience, He will always help us.

“I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” There are times we need God to not only hold us, but to uphold us. We need Him to lift us up above the shadows and plant our feet on higher ground. And we have His promise that He will do just that.

God’s word is true. What He has said, He will do. So live today in the confidence of His Word.

In Matthew 20 verses 26 and 27, Jesus says, “And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave–just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The word “ransom” is the greek word, “lutron”. Strongs Concordance says, ”the word signifies a release from slavery or captivity brought about by the payment of a price. What this all means is, we were all held in captivity by sin. We were slaves to sin. And the price for sin is death. However, Jesus paid that price. He died in our place. He paid the ransom. We are set free and are members of His family because He Ransomed us. I’m reminded of the great words of an old hymn:

“There’s a sweet and blessed story of the christ who came from glory, Just to rescue me from sin and misery; He in lovingkindness sought me, and from sin and shame hath bro’t me, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour! Who can take a poor lost sinner, Lift him from the miry clay and set him free; (Hallelujah!) I will ever tell the story, Shouting glory, glory, glory, Hallelujah! Jesus ransomed me.

Yesterday was an awesome day at Briarwood. God’s presence was with us in such a special, unique way. Together we began the process of learning to “delight in God’s word”. His word is like bread, that nourishes us and strengthens us. Isaiah 55:2 says, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” In other words, why do you chase after all these other things that want nourish you spiritually? I want to encourage you once again to read the Bible. It is more than just a book. It is the Word of God. Go from “desire, to discipline, to delight” in God’s word. Job 23:12 says, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food”. In other words, “I had rather read the Bible than eat”. That’s “delighting in God’s word”. The Bible is God’s word. But also, Jesus is God’s word. The Bible is “bread”. But also Jesus is “bread”. Just as we need physical bread (food) to be strong physically, we need spiritual bread (food) to be strong spiritually. GOD’S WORD IS THE BREAD THAT WE NEED!

Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, (the phrase “law of the Lord”  could be translated “word of God” so let’s insert it for “law of the Lord”.) 2. But his delight is in the “word of God”, and in “the word of God” he meditates day and night. 3. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

Wonder what would happen in our lives if we really believed this. It should motivate us to read, study, live by and meditate on God’s Word. That’s what I encourage you to do. Don’t just read His Word, but also MEDITATE ON GOD’S WORD.

It has been very inspiring to read people’s new year’s resolutions. I’ve read quite a few from emails or on facebook. They go something like this: “I want 2011 to be a year where I’m more committed and surrendered to God.” I want 2011 to be a year that I spend more time in prayer and Bible study.” “In 2011, I want to be Radical for Jesus”. I was so inspired and thrilled to read these. A running theme in all of them is a desire to have Jesus as our highest priority. This is what Jesus was really talking about in Matthew 6:33 when He told His disciples this: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you”. From the greek the word “seek” mean: “to run after with diligence”. The word “first” means: “the superlative in the comparative degree” (In other words, at the top of your priority list). The word “kingdom” means: “our personal relationship with God”. In fact Jesus told the disciples, “the kingdom of God is within you”. So what Jesus is saying in Matt. 6:33 is this: “Run after with diligence first and foremost you own personal relationship with God. Make your relationship with Jesus your highest priority”. That should be our greatest goal for 2011.

Some years ago I heard a facinating story that was written about in newspapers and talked about on television. It was a story about a man that worked in a garbage dump. He had found a diamond ring, worth nearly 1/4 of a million dollars. As the man was being interviewed, he was, or course very excited. He had spent years and years working at this garbage dump making very low wages. But now suddenly he had more disposable income than he’d ever imagined. When interviewed they asked this question: “how did you miraculously manage to pick this ring out of all these mountains and mountains of junk?” And the man said, “thru the years I began to realize that my life was so surrounded by junk and if I only saw the junk, I would be depressed. So I trained my eyes not to focus on the junk, but to see the things in the junk that were valuable. It wasn’t a miracle that I saw the diamond, because I had trained my eyes to focus on the right things.”

This is a great message for us this time of year. There is a lot of junk that goes along with Christmas. We need to train our eyes to see the diamond. Jesus is not only the reason for this season. Jesus is the Diamond in the junk.

We are rapidly approaching the day that we celebrate the birth of our Lord. There is so much in the Bible that talks about His birth. The Old Testament is full of prophesies predicting His birth. Each of the Gospels have their own versions of His birth. I really like the theological wording that John gives: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. I read that and it makes me want to say, “WOW”. That Jesus would be born of a woman, is an absolute miracle. We call it “incarnation”– “God in flesh appearing”. His birth, appoximately 2000 years ago, is a historical fact. But what makes it a personal reality is that He came that He might be birthed in you and me. This birth is also an absolute miracle. In fact it is still “God in flesh appearing”. This past Sunday we had six people who received Christ. The miracle of Christmas occurred. They experienced the birth of Jesus, not in Bethlehem but in their hearts. For them it was not past tense, “Jesus was born”. It was present tense, “Jesus Is Born”. Christmas is not just something that occurred long ago. It is a present day reality. JESUS IS BORN!