Magnify the solution

Galatians 3:23-26 (NLT)

"Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. [24] Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. [25] And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. [26] For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus."

1.Magnify the problem.

•      The testimony, the proof of changed lives, is in your own words.

•      Through belief in Jesus Christ.

Illustrate here: magnifying glass to show how we magnify EVERYTHING but God.

•      Our God came to us.

•                  Didn't have to.

•                  Wasn't paid to.

•                  Gave no thought for His own life, gave no demands.

•                  Gave no ultimatums, produced no stereotypes, just laid down His life to rescue mankind.

•      Hatred has many faces.

•                  It wears anger and intolerance, pride and impatience, insults and gossiping.

•                  The same seed that blossoms into murder begins with small bits of jealousy, rudeness, and neglect.

•                  The same root that makes us argue with our neighbors is what matures into war and genocide.

•                  The same lack of love that causes abuse and slavery comes from those simple, quiet, but hateful thoughts in our heads.

•                  While few of us will ever commit murder, all of us carry the seed from which it springs.

•      Peace will only rule our lives when the love of God finds a place in our hearts, our homes, and our relationships.

•                  So let us begin the process of changing hate to love.

•      We can start with a kind word or an honest apology.

•      We can start with humbleness or respect.

•                  But wherever we start, love is the medicine for our lives and the prescription for our predicaments.

•                  Talk with God.

•      Forgive my lack of love, God.

•      Help me to love others as you have loved me.

•      God remind me that love is an action, a verb, a lifestyle.

•                  Magnified problems.

•                  God my past is too bad.

•                  God my situation is too hard.

•                  My parents didn't love me enough.

•                  My parents love me too much.

•                  My situation is too different.

•                  My circumstances are just too difficult.

•                  God I prayed a prayer and it wasn't answered the way I wanted it, or thought it should be so now I'm mad at the world.

•                  I'm not talented enough.

•                  I'm too talented.

•                  He broke up with me for another girl.

•                  I'm not that smart, rich, or gifted.

•                  But my parents deserted me, but my friends forgot about me, but, but, but.

•                  When we magnify the problem, essentially we're saying with our mouth, our life, and our faith, and belief, God you're not strong enough, God you're not wise enough, you're not big enough, to handle my problem.

•      I can't trust You.

•      I refuse to trust you.

•                  I would rather handle it on my own, carry it by myself, and concoct a solution of my liking because you are incapable.

2. Magnify the solution.

Psalm 34:1-4 (NLT)

"I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak His praises. [2] I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. [3] Come, let us magnify the Lord's greatness; let us exalt His name together. [4] I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears. [5] Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces."

•                  Jesus Christ is the solution, magnify Him!

•      He is our reason, magnify Him.

•      He is the creator, magnify Him.

•      He is the forgiver, the fire baptizer, the rescuer, magnify Him.

•                  Magnify His soon return and encourage each other with these words.

•      Magnify His greatness, magnify His power over death, hell, and the grave.

•      Magnify His blessings over your life, and His mercy over your soul.

•      Magnify His forgiving, rescuing work in mankind.

•      Magnify His life, His miracles, His love.

•                  Magnify Him instead of your problems, your lack, your situation and circumstances.

Illustrate here: Cardboard testimonies begin. (Live music with Alec, Marissa)

Stacy to finalize the cardboard testimonies with reading hers.

Altar: Pastor Mike

•      God let us magnify You above all things, magnify You above all problems, above all sickness, above all lack, above all inabilities, above all powers, above all authority, above all talents, above all sin, above all death, above all enemies, God we magnify you, we focus on You.

•                  God You are greater.

•                  God You are wiser.

•                  God nothing is too big for you, nothing is too hard for You.

•                  God You gave Your life in exchange for mine.

•                  God You offer eternal life to mankind.

•                  God You heal sickness.

•                  You restore.

•                  You redeem.

•                  You rescue.

•                  You give, you fill, you overflow.

•                  Resources are nothing to You.

•                  Problems are solved by You.

•      I magnify You.

Joshua 3:5,7 (NLT)

"Then Joshua told the people, "Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you." [7] The Lord told Joshua, "Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses."

5 ways others can tell if your a Christian

  

1.  2 Corinthians 6:14-18—”… come out from them and be separate.”

·       Being separate means that your life style is different than that of culture and society.

                                                             i.      We do not, can not, will not, choose to live exactly the way everyone else does.

                                                          ii.      I choose to be different, make fun all you want, I choose to live for God!

                                                        iii.      I choose to make right decisions that won’t destroy my marriage, my family, my destiny and the ministry God has given to me. 

2.  Romans 1:16—”I am not ashamed of the gospel…”

·       Being separate means--Not being ashamed of the Gospel.

                                                             i.      I am not embarrassed to know Jesus Christ.

                                                          ii.      I don’t feel guilty that I have a relationship with him and I don’t care if the whole world knows about it.

                                                        iii.      He saved me. In my worst condition, when the rest of the world turned their backs on me Jesus picked me up, stood up for me, and died in my place.

Evangelism- the winning or renewal of personal commitments to Christ.

·       There are no synonyms to this word, evangelize.

·       You are to personally have life altering effect on the lives and souls of others. (repeat)

3.  I Peter 2:11—”...abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.”

·       Being separate means--Being an example

                                                            i.      Sinful desires war against my soul.

                                                          ii.      The devil wants control of me and he is willing to pay any price to gain my allegiance to him.

                                                       iii.      He used to run me but I realized that all he wanted was to steal from me, tell lies about me, destroy my friends, my future, and he was trying to kill me.

                                                       iv.      So I dropped him.

                                                         v.      So now he’s mad!

4.  John 13:35—”By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

·       Being separate means—having a genuine, indisputable, Love for others.

                                                             i.      Have you ever tried to love someone that hated your guts? I don’t mean put up with them, I mean loved them.

                                                          ii.      Not just people, who love us, not just people who give us nice things or do nice things for us but all people.

                                                        iii.      How many people? All PEOPLE!

                                                       iv.      The good, the bad, and the ugly!

                                                          v.      Red, yellow, black, white, big, little, mean or nice we are to love all of God’s children!

5.  I Peter 3:15—”Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have…”

·       Being separate means-- Not Denying Christ

                                                             i.      Not denying His life changing, life altering power in your life.

                                                          ii.      Not denying Him in front of others.

1.   He is my hope.

2.   He is my best friend.

3.   He is my shield and my strength.

4.   He is my deliverer and my guide.

5.   He is my rock, my fortress, and my refuge.

6.   He is my hiding place, my savior, and my peace.

7.   He is the way the truth and the life.

8.   He is my Jesus.

Live Second through serving (guest blog post by Kassie Milner)

Kassie Milner

1-17-13

-         Passion: serve/ worship (one of the seven P’s)

-         Live second through serving 

My Testimony:

-         Parents divorced at a very young age
-         Biological father never cared, never wanted me
-         Three older brothers one younger sister
-         God has blessed me with an amazing step dad that has been there for me ever since I was 2, he’s my dad
-         Raised in a Christian home
-         Accepted Jesus into my heart at a very young age, but growing up I still struggled with some things and when I got in to HS I started to backslide and live my life the way I wanted to live it
-         Never got into drugs and alcohol or anything, just wasn’t living for the Lord
-         I was one of those people who acted like a Christian on Sundays and did whatever I wanted outside of church
-         Summer between my Junior and Senior year at church camp got a hold of my life and radically changed me
-         I had the fire and passion to serve God and to do whatever He wanted me to do with my life…I was sold and I told God that I would do whatever He wanted me to do and go wherever He wanted me to go
-         Senior year I was looking into colleges, I wanted to move away from home when I signed my life away…..to a 3 month missions trip called Mission One Elven based off the scripture Joshua 1:11, 6 weeks in Cali for training and 6 weeks in Ethiopia where we spent our time sharing the gospel with tribes who have never heard before
-         When we were in Ethiopia we drove as far as we could South until there was no more road and we couldn’t drive anymore and from there we were helicoptered out into the Borana tribe
-         We lived with them, slept in tents that we brought like we were camping and we only got to shower if it rained, and every day we would walk to surrounding villages and share the gospel with them, telling them bible stories from the creation to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
-         Who has heard the gospel before? EVERYONE right? Can you imagine, living life without knowing what Jesus did for us on the cross?
-         When me and my team went to the Borana tribe that was the first time they had EVER heard the gospel, EVER!!
-         After we told the resurrection story and old man in the tribe asked us, “If you guys have known about these stories for so long, how come this is the first time anyone has ever come to tell us?”
-         Think about it: we come to youth Wednesday nights, church on Sundays and other events that the church puts on and we are comfortable just coming to church, that’s all we do…when there are people out there who have never had the chance to hear the Gospel before because people who have heard, people like us don’t go and share with others the good news of Jesus Christ
**- while I was in Ethiopia I felt a call to student ministry
-         I live in a very small town 3,000, high school 220, graduating class 57, my dad pastors a church of about 75
-         Our student ministry has always struggled, on average there were about 5 kids who would come to youth on a regular basis, me, my brother and sister and our worship leaders sons, every now and then we would bring our friends
-         When I left for my trip 5-8 youth when I got back from my trip 5-8 youth…sad right?
-         I talked to my youth pastor about serving under her and helping her, gave her some ideas that I had, she was so excited she put me in charge of making it all happen and I was preaching every other week
-         Within 3 to 4 weeks our youth group exploded, 5 to 30
-         I don’t take credit for that, it was definitely all God but I had to have that passion to serve and live second for God to use me like that
** a year later our youth group was still growing and going strong when I got call from the director of mission one eleven to come back and be a leader for the next trip and take them into Ethiopia…this time I took one of the young ladies in my youth group that just graduated and my mom…we just got back in December
-         This last trip we went to the Karo tribe and they live along the Omo river so we were able to take showers everyday… with crocodiles and I almost got eaten by one but I’d rather not share that story because I might have nightmares tonight
-         Ya’ll are probably like, “Eww, who does this white girl think she is, coming up in here telling us that she’s been there and done that AND she doesn’t shower for 6 weeks at a time!!”
-         Really, camping and not showering for 6 weeks is the least of my favorite things to do but Jesus was beaten, bruised, spit on, walked through town half naked and died on the cross for me, the least I could do is take time out of my life and go share His love with some people who have never had the chance to hear
-         I’m nothing special, just a normal 19 year old girl, who still goes through life struggling with stuff but I LIVE SECOND because God forgave me when  I was doing my own thing and gave me the chance to live for Him

Matthew 28 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,* baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

• If you put yourself aside, live second with a passion to serve God, you can’t even begin to image the ways that God can use you
• Don’t think that your too young or the things you’ve done in the past are two bad…the bible says that your never to young, God will forgive you and He’ll take you just as you are
• But you have to want it, you have to want to live second…in the end living second is way better than living first