Pastor Aaron Cordeiro
May 22, 2016 - W1621

Today, we are jumping into a brand new series called Hot Topics.

All of us are going to encounter hot topics in our lives, whether it be terrorism, abortion, sex, money, marriage, or other sorts of things, we need to understand how to navigate the questions and topics in life through the truth and Word of God. We need to know how to detect, or dodge and dismantle these types of things, and have a refuge or sanctuary to do so.

If I am walking through a field, filled with tons of land mines, I am going to go to God and say, “God I need your help to navigate these things.”   The only way that we can truly get through life is by saying to God, “You are truly greater than I.”

There is often a root cause for every problem that we face in society. This is because we fail to keep the holy things holy, and the sacred things sacred. Certain things in life are sacred to God. Often, we can drift from these things, and err in keeping them sacred. So today, we want to talk about the subject of purity and how important it is to stay pure before God.

Finances is a hot topic in my house. My wife will check our accounts, and say to me, “Honey, we are a running little lean this week, and need to make a budget.” Another hot topic is deciding how to divide the chores between my wife and me. Well, somehow I got stuck with brushing my kids’ teeth. Recently, we took our kids to the dentist and found multiple cavities from skipping on brushing their teeth.   My biggest surprise happened when I received the dentist bill. My goodness! It was in the thousands of dollars. Before I got the dentist bill my kids would ask me if we should brush teeth, and I would responded, “No need, no biggy!” Well, after the dentist bill I said, “You will brush your teeth every stinking minute of your life! What was once not sacred, became very, very sacred!

Today we are going to look at things in life that the Lord says are precious and sacred. The Bible calls these things holy, and says to never treat or “esteem them lightly, because it is very dangerous to do so. The Bible says, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge…” Ps. 73:28

The word refuge is another word for sanctuary, shelter or field. Life is full of landmines; therefore, if we do not pull away into the sanctuary, refuge, or presence of God, we will not know which way to step or go, and life will be one big chaotic and confusing situation. The Psalmist is saying that it is good for us to be near to the Holy Spirit, because if we stick close to the one who knows the way, then we can get through anything. Coming into the presence of God is the best, healthiest and safest place to process the things that we face. Then when we get out into the world, we know how to navigate in it, how to detect what is happening, and how to dismantle a time bomb that is going off in our marriage, at school, at work, or in our lives.

The Bible says. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Ps 11:3

There are foundational principals to navigating hot topics. If you want to know what is happening in our homes, in our society, and in our government, watch what is happening in the church. That’s why I get excited about things that happened at last week’s service, where we saw the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

Some years ago, when one of the pastors at our church had a moral failure, my Dad asked me to meet him at Starbucks to pick up his keys, credit card and staff pass that he was turning in. When I got to Starbucks, I gave him a big hug, and towards the end of our conversation I asked him, “How in the heck could you allow something like this to happen? Can you teach me, please?”

He replied that from a young age he turned to pornography whenever he got stressed. He said that he would come to church, and say and do all the church things, but it would not affect his heart and soul, because there was no accountability, so slowly he started to drift. Four years after working on healing his life, he is now a pastor again at one of our four square churches where he and his wife speak at churches and at marriage conferences, sharing their faith and experience.

Are we going to live 10%, 50% or 70% for God, or will we be a people that say, “God, You deserve it all,”? Every one of us have been given sacred things to steward.   My prayer, and my plea today is for us to steward the sacred things of God, because He has a bright future and hope for every one of us – Amen?

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.

• PROTECT YOUR FUTURE.

We all know the story of Esau, a hardworking, guy who maybe worked to the point where he never got any rest. Maybe he worked 6 days, and did not rest, repeating this pattern of work week after week.   His brother Jacob tended the flocks and was a very good cook. Well one day Esau became so famished that he traded his birth right that was so sacred and precious to God for a mere pot of stew. “Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” Gen 25:31-32 Have you ever come to a place where you feel that you are going to die if you don’t get something like money, sex, exercise, an outlet, a wife or a husband?

For the first time I got the privilege of doing a singes break out while in Japan. At the end there was a question and answer session. One woman came up to me and said, most churches are predominantly women and it is hard to find a husband because there are no Godly men in Japan. So I replied, “First of all, you have to change your thinking, and become the right one, then the right one will appear.”

The Psalmist says to protect your future by understanding what is foundational. Esau traded something so sacred; his birthright for something valued much less. The Bible says, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance.” Romans 2:4 Repentance means to change your mind. We have to change our minds regarding the things we face and allow God to navigate us through them. Let me give you three foundations that must never, ever move.

SACRED FOUNDATIONS

1. KEEP THE SABBATH, MAKING IT A HABIT.

The Old Testament speaks of the Sabbath as a day unto the Lord. It is a day where you do everything with God. This trains our behavior, our minds, and our thinking to give our lives to God. We don’t forget that we are Christians, but we may forget that we are human beings. That is why God says to KEEP THE SABBATH AND MAKE IT A HABIT. Monday is our pastors day off, so I got into the habit of playing Kirk Franklin’s song called “I smile”, to remind me to spend time with God instead of being distracted by my “to do” list . The Bible says, “For in the six days the Lord made the Heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:11 Whatever we set as holy are going to be the sacred things in life.

2. REINSTATE THE POWER OF PRAYER.

Prayer is simply thinking deeply about our lives in the presence of God, and making our requests known to Him.

A couple of years ago, I violated the Sabbath by working and working, and I needed to take a break because I was practically burned out. So I took some time off to work on my car at a friend’s shop; however; when I tried to start my car, it wouldn’t, so I decided to charge my car using the “supercharge” setting on an industrial charger. After an hour of charging, I attempted to start my car again, and it was still dead. So Pat, this old Portagaee mechanic came over and checked on the problem and told me I had to “trickle” charge my battery slowly, so the car would keep the charge, especially when the battery drains all the way down. Just then God spoke to me and said that I had been spiritually rapid charging all of my life, like filling up with $5.00 of gas and spinning out, then filling up another $5.00 of gas and spinning out until empty. This will fry your soul. I had to learn that this meant not violating the Sabbath day unto the Lord.

The Bible says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Phil. 4:6

I love hanging around Pastor Justin Smith, our Evangelism Director. Before staff meetings, he will start praying for the first five minutes, and he will thank God for everything, no matter what is going on in life. God knows that when we face problems, the first thing we do is become anxious and worry; therefore, He tells us to reinstate the power of prayer by taking our requests to Him and by thanking Him for all that He has done.

I understood the power of prayer more than ever one day. In the quiet of my office, I was studying for this sermon. My daughter, Eliana, knocked on my door, and said, “Daddy, let’s hang out and play.” In response, I told her that I couldn’t, because I was studying, and because this was really important. Three minutes later she barged in and said, “Daddy, let’s play!” Again, I turned her down. Twenty minutes passed, she came back, looked up at me and said “Daddy, I just want to give you this.” She handed me a letter filled with her drawings of flowers and rainbows, and she wrote, “Thank you for being the best Dad ever.” “I just wanted to say that I love you so much. Love Eliana.” This broke my heart, because she just wanted to be with me. A few months later, I came across this scripture. “In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” Ps 5:3  The King James version says, “I lay my requests before you, and I look up.” At that moment I was reminded of my little girl and the power I felt at that moment – of wanting to scoop her up and do anything for her.

Being close to God is good – it’s foundational. There is power in prayer. Prayer is supposed to be used not for what we can get from God, but it is really about being with God throughout the journey. It is that closeness that is important.

3. REDUCE TOLERANCE FOR SIN IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE.

Sin means a separation from being close to God.   My prayer is that whenever there is a drift in our life, the Holy Spirit warning system will sound and say to get back to God. Will we make it a habit to be close to Him, and thank and talk to Him about our lives in His presence?   The Bible says, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:19-21

The word evident, means obvious. All of these things are major land mines.

Recently, my daughter was watching the cartoon titled Sophia the First where some yucky things were being said. I inquired about this cartoon, and she responded, “Dad, it’s just a cartoon, it’s Sophia.” I’m wondering how much of this attitude do we have in life towards things that are sinful. It’s just this or that, then a tolerance starts to build. Then slowly but surely a drift starts to happen. The pastor that I talked to had a moral failure that he explained this way. When he was in Hawaii, he went to Sandy Beach to play in the surf. He reminisced that while having fun with friends he turned his back to the ocean, and before he knew it, a massive rogue wave took him out and he lost everything.

My Mom told me, “Aaron, check yourself, before you check others.” My Mom told me one day that when she was first married to my Dad, he was a little bit grumpy and he said some things that hurt her feelings. So she went up to her room to pray, and while praying, God said to her to apologize and ask for forgiveness, because she was holding that offense over him. Well, she apologized and my Dad said, “Oh honey, I didn’t mean it.” Therefore, there was reconciliation.   So check yourselves before you check others.

The Bible says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” Ps. 139:23-25

My prayer here today is that every one of us will have these thoughts. There is a lot of stuff out there, and we need to take the time to remember that there is only one navigator who knows the way. So let’s draw close to Him.

Study Suggestions

1. What does this sermon say we should protect? Why?

2. What should we keep and why?

3. What should we reinstate and why?

4. What should we reduce and why?