The bad bargain of Esau by Mark Copeland

Enjoy...Gary

http://executableoutlines.com/text/gen25_29.htm

POV

What categories apply to you?  Further, are you part of one and part of another?  Do things seem one way to you today and tomorrow, well, not so much!  Face it, its hard to put people into little boxes; we are COMPLICATED BEINGS!!!

To complicate things just a bit more, do you feel the same today as you did 20 or 30 or maybe even 40 years ago????  Probably not!!!  Consider for a moment, the Apostle Paul; now, there is one very complicated fellow.  He grew up in a multi-cultural environment of Rome, Greece and Judaism.  A Pharisee, he became the great proponent of the grace of God and yet at the same time he could write the following chapter...

World English Bible: I Corinthians Chapter 9
[1] Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? [2] If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. [3] My defense to those who examine me is this. [4] Have we no right to eat and to drink? [5] Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? [6] Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? [7] What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk? [8] Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares, [10] or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. [11] If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? [12] If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ. [13] Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? [14] Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News. [15] But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. [16] For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News. [17] For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. [18] What then is my reward? That, when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News. [19] For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. [20] To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; [21] to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. [22] To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. [23] Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it. [24] Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win. [25] Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. [26] I therefore run like that, as not uncertainly. I fight like that, as not beating the air, [27] but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.

Complicated? Without a doubt!  His motivation was heavenly inspired and I believe one of the major factors in his success was his flexibility.  He could empathize with all sorts of people, however complex they could be.  He reached out to bless them with his understanding of what God has done for all of man.  Whether brilliant or dull, rich or poor, wise or stupid and probably a thousand combinations of all the categories in the picture... he found a way to relate and communicate.  Now, I don't mean that Paul was split into multiple personalities, but rather that he tried to really understand where someone else was coming from.  And that is not an easy thing to do.  But, he did it and that's what counts and so should we.  End of lesson.  Or, is the beginning?  I better stop before I have to ask myself who is talking...

The Faith of Abraham by Mark Copeland

 Enjoy the link...Gary

http://executableoutlines.com/text/gen15_6.htm

Not MY COOKIES!!!!

When my kids were little, we all watched Sesame Street together.  Seasame Street taught a lot of useful things and as far as I know, they still must be on TV.  So, when I saw this picture, it brought back a lot of memories.  The phrase "Why not, Daddy...PPPLLLEEEEESSSEEE? keeps coming to my mind, although I am not exactly sure why.  The picture puts the Cookie Monster in an awful situation, because how can he EVER DELETE COOKIES?????? Cookies are the most important thing in "His" life (he was a male, right??).  And I bet he had one huge stash of cookies..... Why?  Because he loved them.  Question: What kind of stash do you have??? Before you answer too quickly, read these few verses from the book of Matthew...

WEB: Matthew Chapter 6
[19] “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; [20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; [21] for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What really matters to you?  What do you think about every day?  Is something specific on your mind at least fifteen times a day, every day?  Guess what... that is what you really love.  That is what you can't get enough of.  That is your treasure!!!  Jesus says not to lay up treasures on Earth, which by implication means to lay them up in HEAVEN.  If your heart yearns to be in heaven and you do everything you can to get there, then your reward will be there too.  I wonder... will there be cookies there?  I guess the next time I do my regular computer maintenance, I will have to be extra careful not to delete my COOKIES!!!!

The choice of lot by Mark Copeland

Enjoy the lesson... Gary

http://executableoutlines.com/text/gen13_10.htm

Truth in simplicity

A long time ago, someone asked one of my professors how to preach a sermon.  The instruction lasted only a few seconds.  It was simple; Stand up, Speak up and Shut up.  Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?  Yet its simplicity is its elegance.  But what do I preach came the reply?  Preach what is necessary, was the response.  What is necessary...

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 (WEB)
1) Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
2) by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5) and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6) Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.

Romans 6:1-11 (WEB)
1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2) May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3) Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4) We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5) For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
7) For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8) But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
9) knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
10) For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11) Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Acts 2:29-40 (WEB)
29) “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30) Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
31) he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was his soul left in Hades, nor did his flesh see decay.
32) This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
33) Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.
34) For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand,
35) until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
36) “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37) Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39) For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
40) With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

What does this mean?  Simple; we all have a sin problem and Jesus is the answer to it.  What do I do about it (read Acts 2:37 and 38)? Wash it away.  Now, you have a choice; believe this is right or ask yourself.... "What chair"???

Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord by Mark Copeland

Another sermon by Mark Copeland... enjoy... Gary

http://executableoutlines.com/text/gen6_8.htm