Power and Wisdom

So a guy goes camping for the first time in his life. He leaves his box of food open and at night a bear comes into camp and eats his food. Now what does this camper need? Well first of all, he needs the wisdom to know that he must seal up his food so bears don't come in looking. But when the bear gets there, well, bears are pretty big, so he might need something powerful to defeat the bear, or fast running shoes. I Corinthians 1:24 says "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." You see, God thinks of everything. Sometimes in this life we need power, sometimes we need wisdom. Most times we need both. And when you received Jesus, He became both of these to you. Jesus is your power, and Jesus is your wisdom. If you have wisdom you make better decisions and then you won't need a miracle in life to save you. But sometimes you need a miracle, and Jesus is that miracle for you. Now some people just go for the miracle, and ignore the wisdom, others go for the wisdom, but never believe for the miracle. But Jesus showed us as He walked the earth a tremendous amount of both power and wisdom. So don't let the bears eat your food. Be strong and smart in the Lord.
Pastor Jason Anderson - The Living Word Bible Church

Peace of Jesus

John 16:33 (NIV): "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world." Now Jesus is going to be crucified shortly after saying this, so these are kind of like His parting words to His disciples. Of all the things He wanted them to hear, it was peace. It’s like Jesus was saying, “Alright, sometimes things get crazy in this world, but you can have My peace.” He didn't just give us some peace, but His peace. Jesus is your peace. When life gets crazy it usually means we need more of something. We run out of money, we need more money, or less bills. Someone is sick, we need more health. So Jesus might say, “When the trouble comes, what you really need is more Me. I'll be your peace.” It doesn't mean the storm magically disappears, it means you aren't stressed out about the storm. You have peace. You are trusting that Jesus has overcome the world back at the cross. And He has. Are you nervous, anxious, scared or worried? Forget about it. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, you just need more Jesus.
Pastor Jason Anderson - The Living Word Bible Church

Jesus My Advocate

1 John 2:1 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Ok, so the goal here is to not sin, but hey, sometimes you might sin. And it doesn't say "But if anyone does sin, well you're gonna burrrrn." Instead it says, hey, I'm hoping you don't sin, but if you do, you have an advocate. An advocate is someone who comes to your aid, helps you, and pleads your case before a judge. Now Jesus is your advocate, and one thing you may notice about Jesus, He's really good at everything. So you have the best advocate ever, and He'll never send you a bill. He's absolutely free. Sometimes we get the idea that Christianity is about don't sin or you're gonna burn. But really Christ was about forgiveness. He says, well, you might sin, but I won't and then I'll take your sin, even the ones you haven't committed yet, and I'll nail them to the cross with Me. I'll even take them to the grave. And then He stands before the Lord, and when you sin, He's your advocate, and He says, I already paid the price for this sin. I died for it. Yeah, Jesus is your advocate. Like that.
Pastor Jason Anderson - The Living Word Bible Church

Pastor Jason Anderson - Temptation.. Run Away

In Matthew 5 Jesus is teaching his disciples about prayer (yes, it’s a running theme with me this last month) and he points out different things we should be bringing to God.  In one case he says that we should ask God to "Lead us not into temptation."  Now the early church started teaching that God sometimes tempts us, and maybe they got the idea from this, but James 1:13 clears it all up by saying God does not tempt anyone.  In the Greek language they mix up the words different for reasons like emphasis, but another way of saying this would be to say “LEAD US away from temptation.”  So really what I'm praying is "God, lead me away from temptation."  You see, it's me that goes to temptation.  Or sometimes temptation is stalking me.  (I’m using the word stalking, because temptation is a tricky little guy.  It’s lurking in the strangest of places.)  So the real trick to overcoming temptation is to stay away from it.  Like with Joseph.  When Potiphar’s wife started hitting on him, Joseph took off running.  See Joseph recognized that his human side might do something stupid if he stuck around.  He was being led away from temptation.  Jesus had to be tempted on our behalf; he took temptation for us and beat it.  Now when He had been tempted three times he sent Satan away from him.  “Away from me.”

When it comes to temptation, well, usually we don't include God at all when we are being tempted.  Like Eve, she could've called on God when Satan was tempting her, but she didn't.  How would things have been different if she would have included God?  So in this prayer, we are including God, were asking him to help.  Hey, I see some temptation, Father God, steer me out of here.  You see God's strength is made perfect in your weakness, but you should ask Him for that help.  James said, "we have not because we ask not."  Want to overcome temptation, well pray about it, ask God to get you away from it.  Now that sounds like something He would definitely help with.

The Living Word Bible Church - Jason Anderson