Sunday, August 29, 2010 Calvary Church concludes a 5-week teaching series entitled HOSTAGE! Over the past 4 weeks we’ve broken free from a number of captors - bitterness, fear, jealousy and inferiority.  It’s time to break free from out of control anger!  Here are a few thoughts on anger…

“Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry … but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.” Ephesians 4:26-27 (MSG)

Anger: right or wrong? The answer is that anger is right … but it can be wrong.  Anger is God-given emotional energy designed for good.  The expression of this anger-produced energy can lead to sin … but it doesn’t have to.  With God’s help, we can control our thoughts and actions.

The Bible tells of many times when anger was a positive force for good. Moses’ anger when the Israelites worshipped idols resulted in their repentance (Exodus 32:19-35).  Jesus’ anger motivated him to clear abusers from his Father’s temple (Luke 19:45-48).

Consider this…

Our anger can be a positive force as well.  Appropriate anger at our children’s wrong behaviors can motivate us as parents to exert firm but loving discipline.  Anger against injustices and wrongdoing in our communities can motivate us to do something positive about the situation.

Our anger can also lead to sinful acts of selfishness, unkindness or even aggression.  It is our responsibility to use our anger-induced energy in positive ways, even if it’s just walking around the block to cool off.

The next time you feel angry, remember that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s your choice.

These thoughts were drawn from…

Anger: Our Master or Our Servant by Larry Heath

Fear enslaves us. Anxiety can color our entire perspective until we live with a constant sense of unease. But fear does not fit who we are as Christians. We are children of the living God, who has promised to care for us and work all things for our good. If we choose to live in anxiety, then at the end of our lives, we will look back and wish we had trusted God more. But instead of waiting for regret, we can be freed from our fear now.

• Identify specific worries and be willing to deal with them. We cannot begin to understand our anxieties until we recognize the basic root of all fear. Of course, there are many causes of anxious concern - ignorance, overactive imagination, inherited mindset - but ultimately the root is our doubt of God’s sovereignty. He is in control of all things. We are under His power, provision, and protection every single moment of our life. Fear is shattered on the foundational truth of God’s omnipotent control.
• Focus on God instead of on fear. When we understand that we are in the hand of our almighty, all-knowing, all-loving Father, the choice to refocus on Him becomes easier. But we must make this courageous decision every time we face the object of our anxiety.
• Meditate on the Word of God. This is the most powerful step we can take to overcome fear. In times of trouble, we must hold fast to the truths of Scripture. Use the Bible as God intended - as an immovable anchor for your life.

Blog by Dr. Charles Stanley

Bitterness blows out the candle of joy and leaves the soul in darkness. Here’s what God’s Word has to say about bitterness:

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:14-15).

The seed of bitterness is a hurt that is planted in someone. It may be intentional or unintentional. Someone does not mean to hurt you, but you were hurt. Sometimes the hurt is only imagined. No one has hurt you, but somehow you feel that someone has done something wrong to you. There are also times when the hurt may be the very chastisement of God upon your life. That is the context of Hebrews 12:14-15.

The soil of bitterness is a heart that harbors hostility and does not deal with hurt by the grace of God. When someone becomes bitter, the bitterness takes root in the heart and grows deeper. The world is full of people who have not dealt with an old hurt. They look for things to criticize, people to find fault with, and ways to justify the way they feel. Have you ever seen people who are hypercritical? Generally, they are bitter people. They know how to push your hot buttons until you react in a way to further justify their bitterness. Then, they can say, “Aha! I was right. I have a right to be bitter.”

We have learned about the seed and the soil of bitterness, now let’s look at the root and the fruit of bitterness, which is found in our text from Hebrews 12:14-15.

The root of bitterness is underground; it is easy to hide and camouflage. Seldom do you find anyone who will admit that they are a bitter person. They will either deny it or disguise it. A bitter person is hypersensitive, ungrateful, insincere, holds grudges, and has mood swings.

Bitterness will affect you physically, emotionally, and spiritually because the fruit of bitterness is an acid that destroys its container. When your heart is bitter, God will not be real to you be. Why? Because hatefulness and holiness do not dwell in the same heart. And without holiness you will not see the Lord (see Hebrews 12:14).

There are three steps to eradicating bitterness:

1.        Let God Reveal It. Sometimes people say, “I know my heart, there’s no bitterness in me.” Truth of the matter is you don’t know your heart. God’s Word tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). A deceitful heart cannot diagnose a deceitful heart. You need to let God the Holy Spirit do radical surgery.

2.        Let Grace Reveal It. A response of bitterness is never right when someone has done something wrong to you. You need to ask God to forgive you, and He will by His grace. If someone has wronged you, cut it down and forget it. By the grace of God, bury that hurt in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. Justice is God giving us what we deserve, mercy is God not giving us what we deserve, grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve.

3.        Let Good Replace It. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” You cannot be holy unless you follow peace with men. It is so worth it when you forgive. But, you say, “Look what they’ve done! I am not going to let them off the hook.” Well, they are not on the hook - you are! When you forgive, you set two people free and one of them is yourself.

You will discover that your life is more joyful when you uproot your bitterness. If God gave us justice, every person reading this would die and go to hell. Thank God for His mercy that removes His hand of punishment from us. Praise God for His grace that gives us a brand new life!

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Timing is critical in business, science, and sports. But, most importantly, it’s essential in the believer’s life. To keep in step with the Lord, we need to carry out His instructions in His timeframe.

Waiting on God means seeking further direction from Him while we remain in our present circumstances. It encompasses an attitude of expectancy and readiness. There are several reasons why patience is our wisest course of action.

1. Waiting on God allows us to receive direction. Too often, we make decisions based on the influence of our friends or culture. But God is the only source of true wisdom. He knows all things and answers us on the basis of His complete understanding. He is willing to give us clear direction for any large or small decisions we are trying to make. He wants the very best for us in our personal lives, whether the issue is marriage, schooling, business, or relationships (Psalm 32:8).

2. Waiting on God allows us to realize His timetable. To others, it may appear as if we are delaying unnecessarily. But knowing we are walking in concert with God will bring His divine peace to our hearts.

3. Waiting on God allows us to prepare for His answer and course of action. God may use a season of waiting to strengthen our faith while helping us recognize ungodly motives and areas of sin.

Living godly begins with hearing from God. Have you waited to receive direction from Him?

Blog by Dr. Charles Stanley

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works . . .”  —Revelation 2:5

Before we can ever talk about revival in the church, every Christ-follower must ask themselves, Am I personally revived? Am I living as a committed, on-fire follower of Jesus Christ? Ask yourself that question right now.

If your answer is that you are not a committed, on-fire follower of Jesus Christ, you exist as part of the problem, not part of the solution. Listen to what Jesus said to the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation.  He says, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.  And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.  Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:2–5)

Jesus gave the church of Ephesus the three R’s of revival:  remember, repent, and repeat. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen,” and then He says.  “Repent.”  In other words, turn away from your sins.  And finally repeat, “Do the first works.”  Get back and serve God like you once did. Remember, repent, and repeat.  Put the three R’s of revival into practice, because we need to be revived before God.

Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.

Here are six steps that’ll put you on the path to a clear conscious – and a life that God will bless.

1. Review every area of your life. Get away with a Bible, a piece of paper, and a pen, and ask God to let you know what’s coming between you and him. Don’t rush it. Take your time and write it all down. Nobody will see this. It’s between you and God.

2. Repent of every sin. Take responsibility for every sin you’ve written down. Don’t rationalize them. Don’t minimize them. Tell God what you did was a sin and you’ll not do it anymore. Real repentance isn’t apologizing for your sin. It’s admitting it, turning away from it, and accepting God’s grace for it.

3. Make restitution. As you make your list, notice the sins that have impacted other people. Maybe you’ve hurt someone or mistreated him. If the person is still alive, make it right – as soon as possible. Don’t just apologize either. If you’ve stolen from the person, give back what you’ve taken. If you’ve cheated somebody, repay him.

4. Receive God’s forgiveness. Now you’re ready to receive God’s forgiveness. Hebrews 4:16 says you can go boldly to the throne of God and receive grace and mercy. God won’t reject you or scold you. He’ll give you his grace. That’s a promise from his Word.

5. Reveal your faults to a friend. You need to come clean with someone. If you don’t come clean with another person, you’ll still be forgiven. But coming clean to another person is part of the process God uses to heal us emotionally. Find another person that you trust and let him know what you’ve done. I highly recommend that you get connected with Calvary’s Celebrate Recovery Ministry on Friday nights.  For more info check out http://calvarychurch.cc/cr-detail.php

6. Repeat these steps regularly. Confession is like a bath. If you don’t take one regularly, you’ll start to stink. Make confession a regular habit in your life.

God wants to bless your life! Will you get right with him – today?

God does not want you to waste your experiences - good or bad. He wants to use them to make you a more effective Christ-follower.

There are three ways that God wants to use your experiences:

1. Use them to minister to others. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:6-7 (LB): “We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us – and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.” God comforts us, helps us, and strengthens us when we’re experiencing problems, so then we can comfort, help, and strengthen others when they go through the same things. God helps us, so we can help others. God wants to use every experience that you’ve gone through to help somebody else. Who can better help somebody going through cancer than somebody who’s been through cancer? Who can help somebody dealing with an addiction than somebody who’s been through the addiction before? Who can better help parents who had a kid who went off the deep end, than somebody whose son or daughter went off the deep end? God never wastes a hurt.

2. Use them to motivate others. Your experiences can be inspirational to people because you have been through things and been places that they have not. And you can motivate them. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (TEV): “Encourage one another.”A big part of our job as Christ-followers is to help, encourage, and build up others. Your experiences can help do this. Your experiences give people hope. You show them they can get through their problems.

3. You use them to model for others. Paul says in Philippians 3:17 (NLT): “Dear brothers, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example.” Paul tells the church of Philippi to follow his example; he’s going to be the model. Paul knew that we all need models. It is human nature to imitate. Just about everything you learn in the first five years of life you learn by imitation. There’s nothing wrong with people imitating you. You’re not perfect, and I’m not perfect; only Jesus is perfect. But it’s better to have people following you as a model than some Hollywood celebrity who is obsessed with himself or herself. You’re trying to follow Jesus. If you’re trying to follow Jesus, then it’s a good thing if others are following you. You need to have models in your own life, and you need to be a model. If you’re not being a model, you’re wasting your experiences.

God never wastes experiences – good or bad. He wants to use your experiences to make you a more effective Christ-follower. Will you let him?

Blog by Rick Warren

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:15, NLT).

How can you begin to forgive?

1. Take an inventory of those who have hurt you. Who are the people you don’t think you can forgive? Write their names down. It might be a family member, a friend, a deceased parent, a boss. Write it down. Seeing it on paper helps you identify the people who are keeping you from living your life to the fullest.

2. Determine what the owe you. Just imagine if you could arrange a meeting between you and the person you think you can’t forgive. What does he owe you? What do you want from her? Be very specific. He owes me an apology. She owes me an explanation. He owes me respect. She owes me a marriage. He owes me a childhood. She worked too much. He was never there. She never said “I love you.” He owes me my innocence. She owes me money. Write it down. Don’t pretend it’s not real. Deal with it head on. If you hide a hurt, you’ll deny a healing.

3. Cancel their debt. Forgiveness begins when you give up your quest to get even. When you choose to forgive, you choose to cancel a debt. You choose to leave ultimate justice and vengeance up to God. Even though you may be hurting right now, you must suspend the law of vengeance. You must refrain from the instinctive response of retaliation. Don’t indulge your desire to see the person who’s hurt you squirm. Set that person free. You’re only keeping him or her in bondage in your mind. In Psalm 94:1 God is called the God of vengeance. “Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. I’ll do the judging, says God. I’ll take care of it.” (Romans 12:17-19, NLT).

Forgiveness changes your status from victim to victor. When you’ve been hurt it’s easy to believe that there’s nothing you can do about your victim status, but that’s not true. The truth is, when you forgive, you’re no longer powerless. When you forgive, you boldly stand and say, “You won’t dictate the way I respond. You won’t dictate who I am.” Jesus said, “Here’s what I propose: Don’t hit back at all. If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, gift-wrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff.” (Matthew 5:39-41, MSG). Believe it or not, the forgiving nature of these actions actually takes power away from the person who has hurt you. When you forgive, you’re the winner!

Our mission statement at Calvary Church is simple. It can be summed up in one word: REACH.

At Calvary Church we: Reach UP, Reach IN and Reach OUT.

> REACH UP | LOVING GOD

Reaching UP is a vertical reach to touch God. We reach up through worship.

> REACH IN | SERVING EACH OTHER

Reaching IN is a horizontal reach to bless others. We reach in through serving and giving within the community of Calvary Church. We serve God by serving each other.

REACH OUT | CHANGING THE WORLD

Reaching OUT is the outward reach. Reaching out is the only way that we can change the world. We have to be bold and courageous. Jesus commanded us to go into the entire world and present the good news of Jesus.

Seven characteristics of Christ-followers who REACH OUT:

1. They are people of prayer. They realize that only God can convict and convert, and they are totally dependent upon Him in prayer. Most Christ-followers who REACH spend time in prayer each day.

2. They have a theology that compels them to REACH. They believe in the urgency of the gospel message. They believe that Christ is the only way of salvation.

3. They are people who spend time in the Word. The more time they spend in the Bible, the more likely they are to see the lostness of humanity and the love of God in Christ to save those who are lost.

4. They are compassionate people. Their hearts break for those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They have learned to love the world by becoming more like Christ who has the greatest love for the world.

5. They love the communities where God has placed them. They are immersed in the culture because they desire for the light of Christ to shine through them in their communities.

6. They are intentional about REACHING. They pray for opportunities to share the gospel. They look for those opportunities. And they see many so-called casual encounters as appointments set by God.

7. They are accountable to someone for their REACHING activities. They know that many good activities can replace Great Commission activities if they are not careful. Good can replace the best. So they make certain that someone holds them accountable each week, either formally or informally, for their REACHING efforts.

Let’s keep REACHING!

Worry is emotional garbage that hinders our progress toward spiritual maturity. The more we worry, the more it weighs us down. (Proverbs 12:25) Jesus commands us not to worry and so, when we worry, we are disobeying Jesus and that is sin. (Matthew 6:25)

Think of what you could do if you weren’t being dragged down by worry. Think of the people you’d be able to reach for Jesus and the ministry you could offer in your community if you were not distracted by worry.

Worry exhausts your energy and it exaggerates your problems. And it wastes your time. How do you stop worrying? How do you set aside this sin that so easily entangles?

· Start by identifying your worries. You can’t release your worries until you know what they are. One of the reasons we’re often stressed out is we have a vague feeling that something is wrong, but we don’t know what it is. If you carry this vague sense of anxiety, it will drain your energy.

· Take your worries to God. Psalm 55:22 says, “Give your worries to the Lord and He will take care of you.” In other words, he’s saying, “Let it go. Give it to me. I’ll take care of it.”

· Pray about your worries. You don’t get rid of worry through therapy, fads, diets, pills, seminars, or conferences. You get rid of worry by prayer. If we prayed more, we’d worry less. Philippians 4:6-7 in the Message paraphrase says, “Instead of worrying, pray. Let your petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. … It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Jesus commands us not to worry because he knows God’s promises are absolutely rock solid: “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.” (Matthew 6:30-32 MSG)

God is for you, not against you. And he wants to see you succeed in life and grow into full spiritual maturity.

Blog by Rick Warren