"All the Law and the Prophets" By Chris Ulrich April 19th,
2015
Bob
Heirtzler, I’d like to ask you
to come and lead us in prayer for the message. Bob:
God, I want to thank You for the blessings that
You’ve poured
out upon us, today, so far, Lord God.
God, I pray that You continue to pour out Your
blessings as we receive
Your Word from Your servant, today, preaching Your message, Lord God. Anoint him, God; bless
him, God. Help him
to stay out of the way and let Your
Spirit flow through him, Lord God.
And,
God, the congregation, let us receive the message that You have for us,
today,
whether rebuking, or correction, or encouragement, God.
Whether a big building or a little one,
whatever You have for us, today, God, let us keep what we learn today,
and take
it out of this building, today, and share with others, God. Once again, bless my
brother, move upon him,
God, in Thy name, in Jesus’ name, I pray.
God bless you.
Amen. Thank
you. You may be
seated. It’s good
to see everybody this morning, here
on this spring morning. I
know that we’ve probably all
heard the saying, “Expressions of love” at some point or another. It could be a ticket to a
great event, it
could be a banquet dinner, it could be a new car.
It could be a wedding gift, it could be a
birthday gift, or a trip to some far-off location.
And those gifts can have immense value. But there are other
expressions of love that
we all recognize just the same. It
could
be a smile, it could be a hug, it could be anything.
It could be just a kind word.
These all also have value.
I’m not trying to esteem one above another, or
say, “Oh, this one’s free, this one’s not,” it has nothing to do with
that. It has to do
with, these are
expressions of love. People
understand
that; people know the difference.
Our
theme for the month is, “Love
is the greatest gift of all.” Our
theme verse for the month is: 1 John 4:8
He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God
is love. Very
simple verse; pretty easy to
remember. I know
that, personally, one
of my favorite manifestations of God’s love is just God’s creation. If we look around, and we
see these four
walls, and it’s kind of a utility thing—I know this is a rented
building, and
we know where we’re at. I
appreciate
whoever brings these flowers up; I think it’s Kathy B. that brings
these each
week, and it’s something that kind of brightens up the place a little
bit. If you think
outside these four walls, if you
think—personally, I like a good road trip.
Last week, Bob Heirtzler and I took a trip down to
Starved Rock State
Park, in Oglesby, Illinois. Kirk,
Nubia,
Jennifer, and myself were down there a few years back; it’s just an
enjoyable
place to go. Just
kind of get away, kind
of get your thoughts together. We
were
at the coffee shop, the Bible study that we have on Wednesday night at
the It’s
All Good coffee shop in Zion, and Aaron J. and I got to talking a
little bit,
and I hadn’t known this, but they had taken quite the excursion out
west about
a month ago. Aaron,
I’ve got to ask you
to come up; I know you talked real briefly, but, the funny thing was,
they all
went and Aaron said, “Yeah, I did all the driving.
All the way there and all the way back.” I’m sure that helped Arman
and Virgie quite a
bit, too! He shared
a couple of things,
and we talked about seeing God’s creation, and seeing that
manifestation of the
beauty of God’s creation. Aaron:
We went to Las Vegas,
and Colorado Springs—it was a nice view there.
There was a park there called the Garden of the
Gods, right there in
Colorado Springs. The
view there was
like—I took pictures there of the mountains, of the snow that’s on top
of the
mountains. The
pictures show how
beautiful it is, the view is there.
We
spent four days there; from there we went to Las Vegas.
We spent three days there, and then we left
Vegas and we drove down to the Grand Canyon.
The view there was amazing.
The
pictures that we got from there… Me
and
my dad actually went down to the cliff, trying to go all the way out
the edge
without trying to fall off. We
could
have fallen off, but we didn’t; we’re here.
It was a beautiful view from there.
From there we went to South Dakota to see Mount
Rushmore. That was
also beautiful, seeing the
presidents up there. All
this is based
on how beautiful God’s creation is; people take it for granted. People go out and see what
man has done; you
can’t do that. All
you see is God. If
you can, take a road trip, and you’ll be
amazed at God’s creation. Thanks,
Aaron; that was great to
hear, great to talk about. I
know, my
brother and I, we took a trip out there a few years back, and it is an
awesome
creation. We give
credit to God in all
things. It is God’s
creation, and it’s
for our enjoyment. It’s
not something
where, “Oh, it was some other way it got here,” it was God! Jesus Christ; that is our
Creator; that is
how we got here. I
know, about six
months ago, actually—and I’m going to segue into my next section—I took
a trip
out to New York City, we had a job for Grainger.
New York City Department of Sanitation. Very glamorous, beautiful
place. Actually, it
was just at the facility; it
wasn’t like I was at the garbage site or any of that stuff. Anyway, I grew up in
Western Mass. and we
have family in Long Island. I
remember,
after one of the work days, getting on the Long Island expressway and
heading a
little bit East just looking for a place to eat.
I remember looking back, just briefly, and
you could see how small New York City is, but, what was interesting is
that
there was actually this humongous cemetery that, it kind of looked like
a
panoramic view, and it just struck me.
It’s like, “I’ve seen this before!”
It brought back, when I was young, when we were
kids, we used to come
and visit that family, and I’m talking probably thirty-five or forty
years ago,
and it was the first time that I’ve seen that sight in that long. I guess what really struck
me about God’s
creation is that you have the life, and all the buildings, and the
people, and
you have the death. You
have the
representation of the timeliness of something that we have to know,
“Okay, God’s
given us this time, He’s given us the opportunity, He’s given us a
chance.” The Bible
talks about the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
He doesn’t make mistakes. One
of Jesse’s sidebar points last
week was about how you can see the love of God in the way that animals
take
care of their offspring. That
wasn’t one
of the main points, but it was something that really caught my
attention. Now I
know that there are all sorts of
animals in the wild and most aren’t for pets, just, I’m sure that we
know that. How many
here have ever heard of therapy
dogs? A number of
people. They’re
usually used for specific purposes: returning
veterans, nursing homes, and even
hospitals. I
personally am a dog lover,
and I know not everybody is. I
don’t own
a dog right now. We
always had dogs
growing up, but I suppose that even if you’re not much of a dog lover,
this is
an example of God’s love. I
know that
I’ve been over to some of your houses, and some people have dogs. The Gieblers, a few years
back, no they’ve
always had dogs. Igor
is his name? What
kind of dog is he? Siberian
Huskie. So, I was
over at their house, and this dog
would come up and it’s kind of like, “Hey!
What’s this one’s name?”
And
Sonia would say, “Sebastian.” I
thought,
“That’s a great name for a dog!” I
mean,
I’ve never heard that in my life.
I like
that, and I appreciate that, but, again, this is a representation of
God’s
love. You see those
dogs that are used,
again, back to the therapy dogs, they’re used to help people. They’re used to show God’s
love. Again, that’s
through God’s creation. I’m
actually going to present my
first point today in the form of a question and I’m actually going to
give all
my points today in like manner. Do
we
believe that God loves us? Or
to make it
a little more personal, do I believe that God loves me?
I know that we’ve all probably heard this
question before at some point in our lives, but I don’t want to
diminish its
relevance to our lives, though. I
know
who I’m speaking to, and I know that we are Christians, and we know
that God
loves us, but, you know what? when things don’t go the way we’d like or
the way
we think they should, or we have sicknesses, or we have tragedies, when
we lose
our job, or we have a falling out with somebody, then it’s not so easy. Does God love me then? The
truth is,
sometimes it feels like He doesn’t, at that point.
What do we do then?
I
don’t think there’s any formula,
or one size fits all answer remedy when we get to that place. A lot of what helps keep
us going living this
Christian life is knowing that, when we have these problems and hurt,
that it
is eventually going to pass. And
we should
have something to look forward to, but the truth is, maybe the
circumstances surrounding
you are not what you’d hoped they’d be, or maybe they’ve gotten worse. I mean, we’re currently in
what I would call
a troubled economy; we look at the circumstances of the world around us
and I’m
not going to gloss over that or give you the old prosperity gospel
speech. But I am
going to share a promise of God that
He does love us. Revelation 21:1-7
And I
saw
a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
were
passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell
with them,
and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and
be their
God. And God shall
wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away. And He that
sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for
these
words are true and faithful. And
He said
unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I
will
give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life
freely. He that
overcometh shall inherit all things;
and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. We’re
not the judge, but Christ
talked about judging righteous judgment.
We’re not here to condemn anybody, but we’re not
here to give you a
false sense of security. We
have to live
our lives individually, and the hope is that everybody would make it. I’m going to say that
there is reconciliation
for us. I know, Al,
I’m going to share
this: I’m going to
be going out his week
to visit Tony Mattia’s family, and many of you knew Tony—he passed away
about a
year ago; a very good friend that we knew for a long time. We talk about
reconciliation. It’s
something that, it just always stood
out, because it was something that we all needed.
Parrish, you mentioned something a few months
ago, maybe a few weeks ago, I don’t know, but you said, “How many
people
believe God gives us a second chance?
And a third chance? And a fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh, eighth?” I
appreciate that, because, you know what?
it’s the kind of thing where it’s like, the Bible says we’ve all sinned
and
come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), but we have forgiveness. If we confess our sins, He
is faithful and
just to forgive us of our sins (1 John 1:9).
There’s no time prolog—“I’ve gone five years,” “I’ve
gone nineteen
months,” “I’ve gone six days,” “My mind was gone five…”
I don’t know, I mean, I don’t know
everybody’s situation. I
know that the
Bible said, “Save yourself from this untoward generation,” (Acts 2:40). It’s a matter of looking
at it like, “You
know what? I’ve got
to save myself from
this untoward generation.” I
look at it
like, I can’t force anybody to live this life; I have to force myself
to live
this life. But I do
look at it like,
there’s enough signs out there that it’s proven, absolutely, without a
shadow
of a doubt that God is real, and God is love.
You might be hearing this passage from Revelation
for the first time, or
you might be hearing it for the ten-thousandth time.
I mean, it’s not, well, you know, after a
while, it might be easy to say, “I’ve read that; I’ve read that; I’ve
read it,”
and you sort of feel like, “I’m sick of reading it.”
That seems to be the case, but, the truth is,
we’re still in flesh, and we still are going to feel that way at times,
we have
to be aware that we’re going to feel that way at times; we have to
fight
through that. We
have to—the Bible talks
about, if you walk in the Spirit, then we’re going to do the things of
the
Spirit (Galatians 5:16-25). If
we walk
in the flesh, we’re going to fulfil the lusts of the flesh. It’s a matter of passing
down those things,
and deciding in your mind; deciding in your heart, soul, mind, and
strength
that we’re going to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength. But
along the lines of believing
that God loves us is us returning that love.
It’s not just a one-way street.
Jesus
said if we love Him to keep His commandments, and He talked about
loving Him
with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). We also have to look at it
like—I know this
might be a crude way of putting it—but we also have to uphold our end
of the
bargain. He also
said that we need to
love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We also have to look at it
like—I know this
might be a little bit of a crude way of putting it but we have to
uphold our
part of the bargain. It’s
not just
something where it’s like, “I’ll just receive God’s love, and I’ll just
do
whatever I want!” I’m
going to get into
that in a little bit. My
second point today is another
question: Does my
life reflect God’s
love? Are we
expressing the love that
God wants us to in the way we interact with other people? I’m not saying we have to
sound the trumpet
and announce our show of hospitality, or that it has to be some
all-time great
display of charity. I’m
going to ask
something—and I’m going to prime the well a little bit. I’m going to
ask a
question, and I’m going to ask for participation a little later on. I’m going to ask it this
way, it’s about what
have you experienced in your life where you received something from
someone
else, an act of charity or hospitality.
I’m just going to leave it there, and I’m going
to—but we’re going to
revisit that. Some
of these expressions,
again, it might just be holding the door for someone, or paying a
compliment. I also
like what you shared
last week, Jesse, that we can’t ever forget that the source of all love
is God. James 1:17
tells us that every good and
perfect gift is from above from the Father of lights.
It’s a matter of looking at it like, every
breath that everybody has every taken, every snowflake that has ever
fallen,
everything that’s ever happened, it’s all from Jesus Christ, our
Creator; that
is it. Luke 10:25-37 And, behold, a
certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I
do to
inherit eternal life? He
said unto him,
What is written in the law? how readest thou?
And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all
thy mind;
and thy neighbour as thyself. And
He
said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify
himself, said unto
Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And
Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to
Jericho, and
fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him,
and
departed, leaving him half dead. And
by
chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him,
he
passed by on the other side. And
likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him,
and passed
by on the other side. But
a certain
Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he
had
compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in
oil and
wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took
care of
him. And on the
morrow when he departed,
he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him,
Take care
of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will
repay
thee. Which now of
these three, thinkest
thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that
shewed mercy on him.
Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do likewise. It
feels good to treat people well,
and I believe that is God blessing us for reflecting His love. God gives us the ability
and power to
love. It also gives
us a clear
conscience and helps makes our journey here that much more enjoyable. When we examine this
passage and know the
history of the Samaritans and how they were basically outcasts from
Israel it
makes it that much more poignant to think that, you know, that
expectation wasn’t
there for him, but he was the one that outdid them.
Let’s just say it plain, he exceeded the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and the Bible talks about
that. Christ said
Himself, “Except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you’re not
going to enter in,” (Matthew 5:20).
What
does that mean in this day and age? you can’t just be religious; you
can’t just
put on a good show. You
can’t be like, “I
hate him,” and then, “Oh, hey, how’s it going?”
Two-faced, they call it.
That’s
the thing; you have to care for people.
I mean, you really have to root for people. There’s no doubt about it. What’s that mean? wanting
to see people do
right in God’s will. Wanting
to see
myself do right, obviously. We
have to
save ourselves; again, back to that verse.
Our lives reflecting God’s love is a big deal. It’s
not just, “Oh, I’ll
muddle through, and I’ll act however I want to act; who cares? I’ll respond when
someone’s nice to me, but…” That
can’t be the way that we have it.
God’s given us that power to be able to show
that emotion, to be able to show that love, to be able to show that
power. But what
about when that love isn’t
received? What
about when they don’t
return the smile, they don’t return the handshake, they don’t respond
at all? Or we’re
taken advantage of, or we have to
endure persecution? Or
they might just
downright despise us? The
Bible says, “Marvel
not, My brethren, if the world hate you,” John 15:18-19). I don’t like the sound of
that; I don’t think
anybody here likes the sound of that, but it’s a fact.
Or, let me put it like this:
If there’s all this love from God flying
around, how did the world end up like this?
Well, not everybody’s reflecting God’s love, by a
long shot. I mean,
let’s be clear: By
even a long shot. The
third point today is posed as
another question: Is
God’s love in my
life stronger that the worst hate?
That’s
not a pretty picture and it’s not a pleasant thought.
It’s a fact, though.
We live in a world that seems to be getting
worse; the Bible says that iniquity shall abound, and the love of many
shall wax
cold (Matthew 24:12). Or,
we get beaten
down by society and the ways of this world, we start to lose track of
what is
good and pleasant. We
start to forget
what smiles and expressions of kindness and love, and start to build up
shields
around us, like, “I don’t care what they say.
I don’t care what they think.
It
doesn’t matter.” Just
kind of fence
yourself off, and it’s like… I’ve
been
there. That’s not
something that I’m
happy to admit, but God has to break through and say, “Don’t be like
that.” I’m not
talking about being a pushover, or
being somebody’s doormat. That
has
nothing to do with it. How
are we
dealing with it? Do
we avoid them, do we
hit back, do we try to get even? Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil
with good. Matthew 22:34-40
But
when the
Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were
gathered together. Then
one of them,
which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying,
Master,
which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. On
these
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. As
I mentioned before, I’d like to
add that God’s love doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want or
live
however we want, do whatever we please, think that God’s okay with it. The Bible talks about,
“What shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid,” (Romans 6:1-2).
And, it might not be one of the big wrongs,
murder, adultery, you know, armed robbery, anything that’s like, “Oh,
that’s
going to make the news!” That
has
nothing to do with it. And
I’m not going
to start naming them all off, and then say, “Oh, well, I’m only going
to name
off the ones that I didn’t do.” That’s
not, I mean, we’ve got to come clean before God! That’s
what this is all about. The
Bible talks, in the Old Testament, “Surely
your sin will find you out,” (Numbers 32:23).
So, it’s a matter of looking at it like, “I’ve got
to come clean, and I’ve
got to make sure I stay clean, and when I sin and fall short, get back
up. A righteous man
falls seven times and rises
again,” (Proverbs 24:16). But
Christ
said, “If ye love me, keep My commandments,” (John 14:15). It also talks about, in 1
John 5:3, “For this
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments
are not
grievous.” And I
honestly believe, and
this is just a little opinion on the side, and, you know, don’t think
this is
Gospel truth; I’m just telling this to share something:
I think in a lot of ways the world views
Christianity, is to make it appear harder than it really is, to be less
enjoyable, and more restricting than it really is.
I appreciate the Jorges’ trip.
I like to travel, and I like to do things
like that. I mean,
it’s not like—these things
are done in balance, it’s not like we’re just focused on just the “fun”
of
life. There’s
discipline, there’s things
that we have to get done, we have to get down to business—we’ve all
heard that
expression, “Get down to business with God.” That doesn’t mean there
isn’t
sadness at times, and that doesn’t mean we don’t have rules. But the rewards of having
being blessed by
God are just infinite. Like
you
mentioned, Parrish, “How many think that God’s done one good thing?” Two? Three? A hundred? A hundred-thousand? You know.
Five-hundred million?
A
gazillion? That’s
thirty zeroes. If
anybody know any higher number than that,
you can get with me afterwards. The
title of the message today is,
“All the Law and the Prophets.” One
thing I really like about what Jesus taught was just that simplicity. All the Law and the
Prophets. All the
commandments of God, all the Law, everything
in the Old Testament, and I think somebody had done a study, and they
said there
were six-hundred and eleven or approximately…
If you read through the Old Testament, in some
parts, Leviticus
especially, where it explains a lot of the duties of the priests. I mean, it’s got like, “If
you come into this
house and it’s got ringstrakes, and you’ve got to put this on it here…” I mean, it’s on and on and
on. How could you
possible remember that, unless
you inundate your life into that, which is what they did, which just
speaks
that much more to the anointing that God had on them, but also on us. But, if we look at it like,
okay, love God
with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love my neighbor as
myself. On these
two hang all the Law and the Prophets. I’m
going to ask, again, like I
was asking for earlier: I
thought about it
this way, what’s something nice you’ve done for somebody else, and
that’s, you
know, obviously, there has to be, what they call, “Paying it forward,”
here has
to be a starting point for that, but what I want to ask—and give it
some thought;
I’d like to ask for some responses—what has somebody done for you in
your
lifetime as an act of kindness. Maybe
it
wasn’t a knock-it-out-of-the-park kind of thing; I’m not looking for
the
all-time greatest act of kindness.
Maybe
it was just something, you know what? Is
Ed Kretzer here? No? Well, I’ll talk about him,
since he’s not
here. Let me share
something real quick,
just to kind of get it going here a little bit.
I had left the company that I currently work for
about eight years ago,
took another job up in Milwaukee, and was let go a short time later; it
was
very unexpected. I
remember, you know,
it really kind of caught me off guard, but I remember talking to
different
people, and just telling them what happened.
I remember the expression on Ed’s face when I told
him about it was just
real concern. You
know, really, sympathy,
and friendship, and concern; and I appreciate that a lot because it was
just—it
didn’t cost him anything—but it showed, you know what? he genuinely
cared about
that, and I appreciate that. So,
I’m
going to ask, what is something that somebody has done, and I’m going
to ask
you to raise your hand, and then stand and just share something that
somebody’s
done for you, and it doesn’t have to be something—it doesn’t have to be
somebody that’s in this room. It
could
be a parent that’s not here, it could be a sibling that’s not here, or
a friend
from back home; but if it from somebody that’s in here, that’s fine,
too. Rebecca:
I just
want to share my husband, he’s patient.
I’m stubborn, but, whenever I’m upset about
something, whatever it is, he’ll
have me sit down, and he’ll listen, and have me go on and on, and, when
I’m
done, he’ll just say, “I’m sorry.”
He
don’t ask any questions. Over
the years,
he has proven that the actual role model of what a good husband should
be. Every day, I
thank God that I have him in my
life. Donna: I have to say probably everyone in
this room has had an act of
kindness to me; the one specific person that stands out, very much, in
my life,
and has made many, many sacrifices, and I mean the kind of sacrifices
where, when
I’m going through something in my life, a lot of times, and I don’t
know if
anybody else has experienced this, I want to do it privately. I don’t want to do it,
necessarily, with a
lot of people knowing what’s going on; I want to handle my business on
my own,
take care of it, work it out with God…
But there’s a specific sister that, no matter how
much I try to do
things on my own, every single day, texted me, and her name is Sonia,
Sonia Giebler
texted me to say, “How are you?” “How is your step-mom?” “How is
everything?” “Is
there anything that we can do?” and, no matter how small the text was,
it meant
a lot. Ashley: I
would say the last
couple of months have been a little difficult, having my son and
everything. Just
the support from the women in this
ministry, from cooking meals, to sending cards, to just being there to
listen
to, you know, everything. It
means a
lot. The
friendships that you receive
here are genuine. They
really do care
about you. I’m like
Donna, just shut the
world down, I’ve got to go through this myself.
They’re always there.
When you
need someone to talk to, or… Like
Abby: She always
sends a card when you
least expect it, and you’re like, “Oh, wow!
Somebody was thinking about me.”
Even
if I’m not present in church, I’m still present in the hearts, and
their minds,
and their prayers. I
really appreciate
that. We
could never underestimate the God’s
love for us. I want
to reiterate something
Parrish shared on Easter, about why would Jesus allow Himself to
suffer, and be
beaten the way He was, and the answer is because of He loves us. Let that sink in for a
minute, or two, or for
a lifetime, so when Satan comes along and tries to accuse you of
something you’ve
done, or something you felt something else, or whatever the case might
be, then
you know that God’s love is greater than you could ever possibly
imagine. Yeah, I
believe that. I
want to thank you all for your
time. God bless.
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