People Who Missed Christmas

Recent message at Grand Haven Retirement Center

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BE GOOD

Luke18:9-14
So much there. Starts with those who trusted in their righteousness and looked down on others.
Guy had a lot going for him.. Very religious. Did good things.... At least he was not like that hated tax collector....
So what do you think it takes to be right with GOD? BE GOOD...
Those that say all roads lead to heaven say that.
But all the religions are different.
Muslims say Jesus was a good guy but did not raise from dead
Mormons say Jesus was Satans brother
Jehovah Witness say Jesus was just a good guy
Buddhists do not believe in any God
Professing atheists say that Jesus maybe existed but was not God and certainly did not raise from the dead.
All of these beliefs make it about ourselves to be made right with God. But can we do it? Must be a death penalty for even one sin. Time does not erase it. Even if we keep the whole law and stumble at one point, we are guilty of all. Jesus said no one is good other than God. NO

God describes Himself as this.. The Lord the Lord a God who is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Maintaining His love for thousand and forgiving wickedness rebellion and sin. Yet He will not let the guilty go unpunished.

What I am saying..God is loving but JUST. The bible says no sin will ever enter heaven. You can be religious or try to be good, but it won’t be enough. Comparing yourself to others will not get you anywhere. We need to compare ourselves to God. He gives us His standards in the law that we even have written on our hearts, our conscience bears witness to it. We are guilty and deserve eternal punishment, and we know it.

You can pretend God does not exist or pray to Mecca or be a really good person, but God’s standard to be right with Him is to. BE PERFECT. Jesus said we must be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. He said no one is good other than God Himself.

All our “righteous acts” are like dirty rags. Our religious duties..good works to be seen as righteous will never work.. All liars will have their part in the lake of fire.

You see the one person who was “justified”. The hated tax collector! SO HOW? Only one way. Jesus lived the life we should have lived without sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might have the righteousness of God in Him. CROSS....

So how did this sinful person be made right? He humbled himself and TURNED to God and Trusted in Christ.

GOSPEL GOSPEL GOSPEL. Justified is to be counted righteous. No one can earn a way to heaven by good works. Only by receiving the perfect life of Christ by faith can we be saved.
All other religions and beliefs will never make you right with God. Jesus is the only way the only truth and the only life...no one gets to the Father but by Him. You must be born again in Christ to be saved. Do it today. Someday every knew will bow in heaven and hearth and every tongue confess Jesus is Lord..............You may not have another day. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Life Is A Puzzle

Who likes puzzles? What is the hardest puzzle you can do? The New York Times puzzle? Or is it how to not have too much month left at the end of your money? A wise man a long time ago named Socrates said that a life not examined is a life not living. Are you just living life but not examining it?

What is the hardest puzzle? It is this LIFE

I have discovered for myself and talking to other people that LIFE IS A PUZZLE

People approach this puzzle in different ways.

1. First group of people try to solve this problem this way lIfe

This group does all they can to please themselves. The number one thing is their own happiness. This ultimately does not work, however. A very wise man named Solomon about 3000 years ago did an experiment and game himself everything he wanted and refused himself no pleasure. The Bible said “his heart was delighted by all he did”. But when this man considered his life, it was meaningless and living like that was trying to catch the wind. Although he was satisfied for a while, he was left empty.

2. Another group solves this problem this way… lIFe

If I were someone else

I had more money

I had a better job

I had a better spouse

I had a degree

I won the lotto

But would we really be any different inside if outside circumstances changed?

If you are putting all your happiness on your spouses shoulders, you will be disappointed, and rightly so.

Lotto winners are legendary in initial happiness, but eventual lives of misery and many lose everything.

A wise person named Paul wrote in the Bible years ago that

“I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in”

3. Another group does this… LIfE

Many look at celebrities and think they have a perfect life. You may be even living a lie in trying to be someone you are not. You may pretend even that life is great when it really is not. We have failed to take into account the real problem.

4. Death… surprising?

Life stinks, then you die? Is that really what it is all about? Trying to be happy and then you die and it is all over? Isn’t there more meaning to life than that? Isn’t that shallow and hopeless?

Let me give you another way to solve this puzzle…..

Another wise man named Augustine, a long time ago said…. "we were made for God, and our hearts will be restless until they find rest in Him".

1. The I is about us. We are really made in God’s image. We have worth and purpose because of this. We are supposed to have joy, hope, and purpose…but instead we have all turned away. But we have lost contact with the One who gave us life, the author of life itself.

We have allowed selfishness rebellion and what is wrong in our lives to make a barrier between us and God.

2. IF If we are made in God’s image, we are here to show the world what God is like. If we are made in God’s image, we know Him and His character. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:1 that we are to be imitators of God, and Jesus said to be perfect as My Father in heaven is perfect.

3. LIE. One of His characteristics is that He is not a liar. But if we tell a lie or steal something we tell the world that God is a liar and thief and is not faithful. God hates that, and must punish those who do that. He is love and He is just.

Even though most people say they are good, God’s standard is perfection(righteousness), and no one is perfect. Jesus said that no one is good but God Himself. We lie to ourselves if we think we are good as a standard of righteousness in God’s eyes.

4. Death…the soul that sins will die. 10 out of 10 dies. No one gets out of this alive. God judges sin and the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. Then what? We die once, then the judgment.

Jesus said that He came so that we can have life, and have it to the full. Jesus did live a perfect life, so he did not have to die, but volunteered His life to pay the penalty we all deserve…

Our lives are really just a vapor that appears for a little while, and disappears. Life is over in a flash. Where will you spend eternity? Turn back to God in repentance and trust in Jesus to be saved. God commands everyone to repent because He has set a day He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed, and give assurance of this by raising Him from the dead.

Many of you are puzzled because you have tried to be good but not sure if this really matters.. Give up on your self righteousness and sin. Trust in Christ to be saved. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.

What is the solution to life’s greatest puzzle? Be reconciled to your creator and become a born again new creation that has joy and purpose because of being reunited with your maker God, and will be with Him forever in heaven.

Lord Save Me

PICTURE #1--TOP LEFT --The story today is about Jesus boys and girls… 1. Paint in black with ladder lettering "Jesus" and paint in Jesus' head healing the sick, making blind people to be able to see again, making crippled people walk again and even bringing people back from the dead. Ask the kids, "Does anyone know what you call it when Jesus was doing these supernatural acts? You are looking for "Miracle" 2. Complete partial lettering paint in black, "MIRACLES." Only God can do miracles so Jesus was proving He is the LORD GOD… ||lord|save|me|| 3. Paint in "LORD" in the title God the Son. And because Jesus was doing all these many miracles large crowds would follow Him everywhere He went. One day Jesus was teaching at the Sea of Galilee and the people who were listening to Him had been there all day long. 4. As you are talking paint on the heads of the crowd. They missed their breakfast and lunch and now it is around supper time. Have any of you ever gone without breakfast and lunch in the same day? How hungry would you be? The Bible tells us there were 5,000… 5. Paint in black "5,000” men there and that is not including all the women and children, so there could have been 10,000 people or more who are very hungry. Jesus asked Philip, His disciple, (tell the children now that Jesus had 12 disciples and the word "disciple" means "student") how are we going to feed all these people? Jesus knew what He was going to do but He wanted to test Philip. There in the crowd was a lad or a little boy who had brought for dinner two fish and five loaves of bread. (You can ask the boys is there anyone here around 10 years old? If some boy raises his hand say to him, the boy was just around your age.) Jesus asked His disciples to sit the crowd down on the grassy hillside. Jesus took the two fish and five loaves and lifting them up towards Heaven blessed the food. Jesus then broke up the loaves of bread and had His disciples pass it out to the huge crowd. When Jesus gave the food to His disciples to pass out to the crowd, they never ran out of fish or bread. The food just kept increasing more and more. The more they gave out the more the fish and bread multiplied. At the end Jesus told His disciples to gather up all the leftovers. There were 12 baskets leftover full of food. Ask the kids what did Jesus just do? Something only God can do. (You are looking for the word "miracle). So Jesus is proving once again that He is the LORD GOD. After dinner Jesus told His disciples (paint on heads of the three disciples in the boat) to go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus went up into the mountains to pray to God the Father. Jesus' disciples being obedient to Him, got in their boat and started to row across the Sea of Galilee. PICTURE #2--TOP RIGHT --It is late now and probably very dark out. After the disciples… 6. Paint in black their heads were rowing for a few hours, they were about three or four miles out on the sea. The winds started to get stronger and stronger, faster and faster. 7. Now paint in blue the waves crashing over the boat. What happens to the sea when the winds blow faster and faster? It causes huge waves. They were in the middle of a fierce storm. Their boat must have been rocking and rolling around in the waves being tossed to and fro but they kept rowing. Maybe even some of the water got into the boat and they had to bail water out of the boat in fear of them all drowning. PICTURE #3--BOTTOM LEFT --Here are all of Jesus' disciples in the middle of a ferocious storm… 8. Paint in 12 black heads while teaching in the middle of the sea at 4:00 o'clock in the morning. Can you imagine how dark it was out? Would you have been scared? All of a sudden someone screams, (I do mean to scream this out-the kids love it) "It's a ghost, it's a ghost!!" 9. Take black paint and paint over the waxed figure of Jesus to appear But it was no ghost, Jesus said to His disciples, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to You on the water." Jesus said to Peter, 10. Finish now painting in black the partial lettering that says "COME" Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus. But when Peter took his eyes off Jesus… 11. Paint in blue, water coming up to Peter's chest as he is sinking he looked at the huge waves. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus he started to sink in the waves… 12. Complete ladder lettering and finish painting in the title "LORD SAVE ME" and screamed out, "LORD SAVE ME". Immediately Jesus grabbed Peter by the hand and got into the boat. When they got into the boat the wind stopped. Jesus stopped the storm. What do we call it when Jesus does a supernatural act like walking on water and stopping the storm? Wait to see if kids say, "Miracle", if they don't, tell them Miracle. The disciples in the boat witnessing these miracles said to Jesus, "You are certainly God's son!" PICTURE #4--BOTTOM RIGHT— Transition statement from the story to the gospel: Just as Peter yelled out, LORD SAVE ME, we too need to say, LORD SAVE ME. Save you from what? We need to be saved from our sins because they will keep us out of Heaven. Tell the kids to raise their hand if they have ever lied before? Wait for the kids to raise their hands. What do you call someone who lies? A liar! God says lying is a sin. Tell the kids to raise their hands if they have ever stolen before? Even if it was just a penny or a candy bar? What do you call someone who has stolen something? A thief! God calls stealing a sin. So because we are all lying thieves no one deserves to go to Heaven. So how are we going to get to Heaven? Jesus, God's son, loves us so much, this same Jesus that did all these miracles in the story today, came to earth and lived a perfect life. Jesus never once told a lie. Jesus never once stole something. Jesus never once disobeyed or disrespected His earthly mother. Jesus is holy and perfect because He is God in the flesh. John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will not die but will have everlasting life." 13. Draw in the cross God also tells us "For the wages of sin is death (Hell and separated from God forever) but the free gift of God is eternal life." God is telling us here that because we sin we earn death and separation from Him forever in Hell. The good news is that this same Jesus in the story today, is really God in the flesh. Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect life. Jesus never lied or stole anything! Because Jesus was PERFECT AND HOLY He could take what we deserve for our sin--DEATH--Jesus died in our place on the cross 2,000 years ago. Jesus allowed Roman soldiers to nail spikes through His hands and feet to nail Him to the cross. God tells us… 14. Now take your red paint and press firmly on the cross where Jesus' hands and feet would be so that red blood pours down the page that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22) God loves us so much that He tells us if we will "TURN" … 15. Paint in red the word TURN or repent of our sins...repent or turn means to realize our sins are bad, and God doesn’t like it. Most people think sin is okay. But we need to realize how bad our sin is. God also tells us if we will TRUST… 16. Paint in red TRUST in Jesus to save us from our sins, we will be forgiven. Other words for TRUST are: BELIEVE or FAITH. Jesus died for our sins and was buried for three days. But Jesus did not stay dead! 17. Now take the yellow paint and paint yellow glory coming from the tomb Jesus rose from the dead, He conquered death, and is alive today. We trust a living Savior. ONLY JESUS CAN SAVE YOU FROM YOUR SINS.

Sketchboard Gospel Messages Explained