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Learning To Share Life

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / May 30, 2006

This week we’re back to our message series “Become Part of the Family.” In this message series we’re talking about God’s family right here at Life Church. When God created you, He didn’t create you to live life by yourself. He created you to live as part of a family, part of God’s family in a local church. Only as you and I learn to live in God’s family will our lives be successful, only as we find our part in the church will our lives fulfill God’s purpose. So today I’m going to talk about “Learning to Share Life.”

Sharing life with someone else does not come naturally, that’s why we need to learn to share life. Sharing does not come naturally, if you have children you’ve figured that out. Sharing life does not come naturally, if you’re married you’ve figured that out. But sharing life is the way that God designed you to live, you can’t make it on your own, you need other people. NIV Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

Why do you need to learn to share life? Because two are better than one, they can accomplish more than each one working individually. If you have a problem and have no friends to help, you are in trouble. However, if you have learned to share life, you will have friends to help you when you can’t help yourself. A lot of people think that all they need is their own physical families. Well, you are better being in a loving physical family than living alone. However, if you’re in a family without God involved or you’re in a family that is not part of God’s family in the church,something is missing. Each person needs to become part of God’s family in the church.

Coming to church on Sunday morning is a great way to get introduced to God’s family, it’s a great way to begin the process of sharing life. However, there’s more because you really can’t share life with 100 people all at once. The process of sharing life or fellowship is best lived out in small groups like our Life Groups. Our Life Groups consist of 6-12 adults plus children and meet together regularly for fellowship, Bible study and prayer.

Some people think that the presence of God is only in large crowds, but that’s not the case. Jesus said in NIV Matthew 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. So today I want to look at how you can learn to share life in God’s family in a small group.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my May 28, 2006 message entitled Learning To Share Life

Laughing At The Da Vinci Code

Message, World / By Pastor Dan Walker / May 22, 2006

This weekend the Da Vinci Code movie was released. It is based on the best-selling book by author Dan Brown which was first published in 2003. The book has sold over 40 million copies and will probably end up as the best-selling novel of all time.

So why is the book so popular? Why am I talking about it in a Sunday morning message? What’s it all about? The novel is so popular because it is not just a spell-binding novel, it presents itself as much more than fiction. The first word that one encounters in the book is the word “FACT”. Later on author Brown writes, “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” The reason I’m talking about it on Sunday morning is that the theories spoken by the most educated characters in the novel call into question the basic elements of the Christian faith and a lot of people are taking these theories seriously.

NIV Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. I don’t want you taken captive or your faith shaken by the philosophy behind the Da Vinci Code. I also want each of us to be able to discuss these issues intelligently with others who may find the arguments compelling.

What is the book all about? Sorry if you haven’t read it yet or seen the film but here it is in a nutshell, blockbuster secret included. The story begins with the murder of the curator of the French Louvre Art Museum. The curator was also the head of a secret Catholic society called the Priory of Sion. The Priory of Sion guards a secret that if made public would destroy Christianity. Before he died, the curator tries to leave clues to pass on this secret to his granddaughter Sophie and Harvard professor Robert Langdon.

The novel is about Langdon’s search to discover the secret, which is the location and identity of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is not the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper but, and here is the blockbuster secret, The Holy Grail is Mary Magadalene. She supposedly was the wife of Jesus and bore him a child. The Priory of Sion is still guarding this secret and Jesus’ bloodline continues to this day.

How should we as believers respond to such a tale? A lot of Christians are getting all bent out of shape over it, but I just laughed. What a bizarre story. God laughs too. He laughs at every attempt of someone to cast aside His truth. NIV Psalm 2:1-4 Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.” The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Dan Brown takes his “novel” very seriously and wants to influence the world to his way of thinking. Don’t think just because a movie or book is fiction that the author doesn’t have an agenda. There is a diabolical agenda behind The Da Vinci Code. However, first of all today we just need to laugh at the big secret and at all the strange fictions that the book portrays as fact.

Now let’s go into a little more detail about some of the fictions presented in the book and movie that challenge our Christian beliefs. We’ll look at the facts from the Bible and church history so that you can be informed and help others find the truth.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my May 21, 2006 message entitled Laughing At The Da Vinci Code

The Power Of A Mother’s Faith

Family, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / May 15, 2006

Today is Mother’s Day, a day when we honor our mothers. Although Mother’s Day was not officially recognized in the United States until 1914, God told us thousands of years ago that we ought to honor our mothers and fathers. NIV Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. So today is a special day to honor mothers, but each of us should honor our mothers throughout the year as well.

Mothers have a great influence on their children. A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day she gave them a written test which included the question: My full name has six letters, the first letter is M, I pick up things, What am I? When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50% of the students answered the question with the word Mother. Moms do a lot of picking up around the house for little ones, but they also do a lot more.

Today, I want to focus my thoughts on what you as a mother can impart to your children. Being a mother in the 21st century is not an easy task. Life is hectic, life is complex, many mothers work outside the home. How can you keep up with all the demands on your life? Children, job, husband, house, friends, church and the list goes on and on. What is the most important thing that you can impart to your children?

Today I’m going to talk about “The Power Of A Mother’s Faith.” I believe that the most important thing that a mother can impart to her children is her faith in Jesus Christ. In order to impart faith to your children, you must be a believer, you must have faith in Jesus and your faith must be strong. When your faith is strong, you can impart that faith to each of your children.

Listen to what Paul writes to the pastor of a New Testament church called Timothy in NIV 2 Timothy 1:5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. Paul is saying that Timothy’s sincere faith had been passed down through three generations. The first believer in Timothy’s family was his grandmother Lois. Lois passed her faith down to her daughter Eunice, who in turn passed it on to her son Timothy.

Now just because a mother has faith and is a believer does not mean that her children are automatically believers. Each person must make a decision to believe in and commit their lives to Jesus. However, as a mother prays for her children, her faith can influence them to become believers as well. A mother with a strong faith will raise children with strong faith. A mother with weak or no faith will raise children with weak or no faith.

God wants every mother here to impact the lives of their children and future generations with their faith. The impact of your faith can affect your children’s lives long after they have left your home. It is never too late for a mother’s prayers and faith to influence her children’s and grandchildren’s lives.

Today I’m going to look at the story of the mother of the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, Moses. Moses’ mother was named Jochebed. She had three children: Moses, Aaron and Miriam, all of whom were used mightily by God. Life was not easy when Jochebed was pregnant with Moses. She lived in Egypt and the Pharaoh had just given an edict NIV Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Of course when Jochebed was pregnant, she didn’t know if she was going to have a boy or girl. When the birth came, the announcement “It’s a boy” had a different impact. However, Jochebed was a mother of faith and so today I’m going to draw three principles from her life that every mother (or father for that matter) can apply to their children.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my May 14, 2006 message entitled The Power Of A Mother’s Faith
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lifechurchstlouis/mp3s/2006_Messages/2006_05_Become_Part_Of_The_Family/051406_The Power_Of_A_Mothers_Faith.mp3

Finding A Place To Belong

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / May 9, 2006

Today I’m going to talk about “Finding A Place To Belong.” God created you and I to be part of a community, to be part of a family. Much of the behavior we see around us, some good some bad, is people searching to find a place to belong. It starts in school, beginning in middle school, peaking in high school and extending into college.

Youth want to have a group they feel they belong to, they sense what is termed “peer pressure.” Peer pressure is the pressure of others, real or perceived, to make you conform to the group. Most of the time peer pressure is perceived. A student wants to fit into a certain group and so they change their behavior to be accepted in the group. There’s nothing wrong with the desire to find a place or group to belong to. However, there are two ways that you can go wrong. The first way is trying to fit in with the wrong group, a group that encourages wrong behavior and beliefs. There are lots of those. The second way you can go wrong is to give up on relating to others altogether, becoming a loner, an outsider.

God has created you to be part of His family, the church. God has created your children, whether teens or younger, to be part of His family in the church. NIV Romans 12:5 So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. The Bible speaks of God’s family as the body of Christ. Each believer is to be a member of that family, a member of Christ’s body in the church. You as a believer are not your own, you belong to Jesus Christ and you belong to all the other believers in the church.

My hand is a member of my body. Now suppose my hand decided that it no longer wanted to be attached to me. My hand decided that it wanted some space, it didn’t need the rest of my body and so it detached itself and wandered off into a corner. What would happen to my hand? It would shrivel up and die. It couldn’t live apart from the body. The same is true of believers, a believer cannot live apart from the rest of God’s family without beginning to die. In fact, a true believer would never want to live apart from God’s family, the church. Yet today, sadly, many people who call themselves believers are dropping out of the church. Each one has their complaints and reasons, yet they are cutting themselves off from the very life of God in His body.

We see it happen at Life Church. Oh, there are always excuses, often it’s a job or children’s activities or sickness or busyness, but the end result is that the person who leaves the community of God’s family begins to die, their families disintegrate and their faith in God burns lower and lower. Don’t let that happen to you. This morning I am going to talk about how God created you to be part of a church family.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my May 7, 2006 message entitled Finding A Place To Belong

The Importance Of Love

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / May 2, 2006

Somebody once sang the phrase “Love makes the world go round.” Although it’s not a verse in the Bible, it’s true. Now the love that really makes the world go round, the love that created the earth and put the stars in space, is God’s love. The Bible says that God is love. Since God is love and He created people in His own image, then love is at the heart of every human being. Without love, our world won’t go round, it will come to a screeching halt. Everybody instinctually knows that inside themselves. That’s why most of the songs on the radio are about relationships and love of one kind or another.

There is an empty space in every person that is looking for love, an empty space that is looking to be filled with a relationship, a relationship that won’t end, a relationship that will last forever. Last Sunday, we talked about how you can fill that empty space in your heart. You can only find true love, eternal love, by becoming part of God’s family, by becoming a child of God. But you know what, even when you become God’s child, even when you begin to experience God’s love in your own heart and life, there’s more that God has for you. You were not created to live life just “me and Jesus.” God said in NIV Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” So God has a family for you to be part of, a family of other children of God, a spiritual family of brothers and sisters, the family of God in the church. NLT 1 Peter 2:17 Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. God wants you to both experience love in God’s family and He wants you to learn to give love to others as well.

Your Christian brothers and sisters are part of the body of Christ, just as you are. As we learn to love one another with God’s love, we are actually giving and receiving Jesus’ love in our relationships within God’s family. That’s the way God designed a church to function, as a spiritual family. As you learn to love, you’ll be loved, you’ll sense the empty places in your life being filled up, you’ll be fulfilling God’s second purpose for your life, the purpose of fellowship. Jesus also said in NLT John 13:35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Love in a church, love in God’s family, will show people that what is going on here is really of God, that we are really followers of Jesus Christ. Would you want to be part of a family or group that was always fighting and didn’t show love? I wouldn’t want to. So God has put us in a family to learn to love others. So today I’m going to focus on how you and I can learn to love others in God’s family.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my April 30, 2006 message entitled The Importance Of Love

What God’s Family Is About

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / April 24, 2006

Pollster George Barna reports that the top priority of adults in America is their families. God put that desire, the desire to be part of a healthy family, in the hearts of every person. Regardless of whether the family you grew up in was healthy or not, God created you first and foremost to be part of His family. NIV 1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! Being part of God’s family and relating the rest of God’s family is one of the five purposes that God has for your life, the purpose of community or fellowship.

Today, we begin a new message series entitled “Become Part of the Family.” In this series, I’ll be talking about two aspects of God’s family. This is confusing to a lot of people, so I’m going to address it right from the start to help you understand. The first aspect of God’s family is the universal family of God. The universal family of God is made up of every believer in the world, those who have lived before, those who are alive now and the ones who will become believers in the future. One day the we’ll all be together with God in eternity forever. When I attended college, I led a small group Bible study. The name we chose for ourselves was the “Forever Family Fellowship.” Someday in heaven, I will meet some of the people from that Forever Family fellowship of many years ago. The universal family of God is forever.

The second aspect of God’s family is the local family of God. The local family of God is believers who are united together in a local church. They are united both by their commitment to Jesus Christ and by their commitment to one another in the church. Some local churches are small, less than thirty people, and you can get to know everybody pretty well. That’s what Life Church was like when we started out. Others are average size like Life Church right now, around 100 people. It’s actually hard to get to know 100 people well, but you can get to know a dozen people in a Life Group well. Other churches are very large. The largest church in the world is Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul Korea with a current membership of over 800,000. The people build relationships in that church in the largest system of small groups in the world.

Every person needs to be a part of both the universal and local families of God. It’s God’s plan for you and your family. It’s the only way you’ll be successful in life. Today, I am going to talk about the universal family of God. My message is entitled “What God’s family Is About” If you’re not a believer, you’ll learn how to become part of God’s family. If you’re a believer, you’ll learn how to see yourself and live as a member of God’s family. The more you do, the more successful you’ll be in life fulfilling God’s purpose.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my April 23, 2006 message entitled What God’s Family Is About