'I AM WHO GOD SAYS I AM'

Rev. Brent Russett

By Rev. Brent Russett

Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:

http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/   

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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, February 19^th, 2017:
http://accm.ncf.ca/images/17.02.19.mp3

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Broadcast Notes: ******************************

I am who God says I am

Good morning and Welcome to good news in the morning.  My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church here in Ottawa. I have been pastoring there for 26 years. One of the things I love to do is show how God’s word that was written a long time ago, connects with our world right now

            I am glad you have turned your radio on this morning. Starting your day with God’s word, is a really good place to start. Of course if you are not a morning person, and you want to re-listen, or get the manuscript for this program, you can find us on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca . There you can keep up to date with what is happening around Good News Christian Ministries.

            I want to say a special welcome to our international listeners, who listen via the internet. We are glad that you have found us, and that you are finding this ministry an encouragement.

            This morning I want to talk about a foundational truth. The truth is this, “I am who God says I am.”

            I spend a lot of time mentoring people. Mentoring is a process. When you are mentoring people, you have to help them get free from the things that are holding them back. You have to help them work through a vision for their life. You have to help them see ways to implement the vision that vision for their life. Then you have to help them sustain that vision. But before you can really do any of that, you have to help them with the identity question – who am I?

            If you are in your late teens to mid to late twenties this is the primary question in you life that has to be answered. If you get the question settled it takes less prominence in your 30’s-40’s and you establish yourself in a career and in life. Now if you find yourself in a dead end career or a difficult marriage, the question resurges with a vengeance. That is what is mid-life crisis is all about.  When you get to your 50’s and 60’s it re-emerges again, when you ask what kind of legacy do you want to leave? When you retire it emerges in a different way. I have freedom, but who is it I want to be and what do I want to give my time to.  

            Periodically through life, you are going to ask the question of identity. Who am I? And if you don’t develop a good base from which to answer that question, it can really play havoc with your life.

            Now if you were to listen to our culture, the only thing that matters about you is your sexual identity. Are you gay or straight, are you male or female or something not quite so binary. While our sexuality goes deep with in us, it is not the most important thing about us.

            The deepest and most important question about your identity is, what kind of human are you? And you know, that is a really hard question to answer.

It is hard question to answer because we don’t know what is true. When your mom tells you that you are the greatest thing since sliced bread – you think, that’s nice but she is bias. If you dad tells you that you are worthless and will never amount to anything – you think that is coming out of his own junk – but secretly you wonder if he is right. When your friends tell you about yourself- you know that they are great people but they are not always right.

            Then there is how you feel about you. Your feelings are always valid because they are your feelings, but they are not always truthful. ---So what kind of human are you.

            Generally speaking, this is how we figure out who we are.  I am not who I think I am. I am not who you think I am. I am who I think you think I am. In other words, what I think, you are thinking about me is how I tend to think about myself. The more important you are to me, the louder your voice will speak into my identity. I use you as a mirror to look at myself. By the way people, that is why words matter.

            The problems is that while humans were made in the image of God, that image was shattered when sin came into the world. So we are all warped mirrors. I am going to reflect you back to you through my own brokenness. You are going to reflect me back to me through your own brokenness. This means that we are going have reflected back incorrect images of ourselves. But that is how we are going to think about ourselves.

            So where are you going to get the truth to answer the question, what kind of human am I?

            The question gets even more complicated when you realize that most of us pretend to be something that we are not. We think, if people really knew who we were, they wouldn’t like us, so we pretend to be something other than we are. We tend to wear masks.

            And I guess there is something to be said for civility in a fallen world. I am thankful that every time I am boring, or uninspired, or the sermon completely sucks, that my congregation doesn’t feel the need to tell me that, every time.

            But the problem comes when we start to believe our own press. When we start to believe something about ourselves that is not authentically us, it really screws up our identity.

            The other complication is that Jesus said, our enemy comes to steal kill and destroy. There are a lot of ways that he does that, but he works overtime in the area of identity. With his combination of lies, if we buy into them, he can make us proud and self loathing all at the same time.

            So the question is, what kind of human are you? It is a hard question to answers because we don’t know where to get true data to answer that question.

            So what we often do is go to where we can get some objective data from. We go to the area of performance. Some of us are good at art or music or academics, or science, or math or sports. Some of us are good with people or computers, or being the craziest, or being the most spiritual, or the most attractive or being the most knowledgeable about Japanese Anime. We all have our thing –

            That is not bad in the sense that the bible says that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Before we were born, God knew us. He has wired you to be creative, or mathematical, or to be able brew the best coffee ever – Part of the adventure in life is discovering who God made you to be, and unearthing the talents he buried in you.

            But what we do wrong is, this tends to be the place where we look to collect data on what kind of human being we are. This tends to be the place where we look for significance and security. That was never what God intended. If you look for significance and security in your performance, you will always know that something could go sideways and what your are good at, won’t be there. And that feels really insecure.

            God intended that we discover who we are and how we are wired from a solid platform. A platform security and significance. He comes along and says to each one of you, I know it is hard to find good data on who you are, but I am a true mirror. Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life.  I will give you true data, on who you are.

            I am not who I say I am. I am not who you say I am. I am not even who I think you think I am. I am who God says I am. God will tell you the truth about who you are.

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            We are going to listen to some Music and then investigate what God has to say about us.

MUSIC-  Casting Crowns – Who I am. 4:10

            I am who God says I am. The first thing that God would say to you is, I love you. The bible say

John 3:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

           

            Some people have trouble taking God’s word for this. But he says to you. You are loved. God will always tell you truth about you. The first thing he says is that you are loved.

            The second thing that he would say to you, and we don’t want to hear this – but he always tells us the truth about us is that you are a sinner. The Bible says that All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  And There is none righteous, no not one.

            I know that sin is not a popular word in our culture. But God will always tell you the truth about yourself. I am who God says I am. He says, I am loved and I am sinner.

            The problem with being a sinner is that unless the sin is dealt with, we cannot have a relationship with God. We are spiritually separated from God. The chasm is wide. God wants a relationship with us, but he cannot or will not enter into a relationship with us unless we have our sin dealt with.

            If you let Him, God will deal with your sin. God’s promise to you is this Come let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  God’s promise to you is -  If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

            If you come to the Lord and pray, Lord I know that you love me, but I know that I am separated from you by sin. I need you to deal with my sin, cleanse me from my sin and come into my life. I want to follow you. – God will do what he says he will do. God will forgive you and cleanse you.

            So when you start to ask the question, “What kind of human am I? And you believe what God has to say about you. Then you are a human who is loved by God, and you are a sinner. But if you have asked God to forgive you of your sins, then this is who God says you are. You are forgiven. Completely forgiven. You are a person who is saved by grace.

            Listen to what

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 (NLT)  - has to say about you.

¹⁶ So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! ¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them

2 Corinthians 5: 17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

            You are saved by grace. God no longer counts your sins against you. Your are reconciled to God. You have been brought into a relationship with God. You are a new creation.

            With this new creation, you are given a new identity. You are in Christ, and you have an identity in Christ.

            Let me list just some of the things that the Bible has to say to you who have come to Christ and had your sins forgiven. Here is your identity in Christ

You are:

·         Beloved

·         A child of God

·         Delighted in

·         Forgiven

·         Washed Clean

·         Free

·         A temple of the Holy spirit

·         Adopted into the family of God

·         Co-Heir with Christ

·         Righteous

·         Made new

·         A Saint

·         Set apart

·         Christ’s Ambassador

·         A sweet aroma

·         Never Alone

·         God’s Masterpiece

·         Wonderfully Made

·         Whole in Christ

·         Raised with Christ

·         Blessed.

This is just a partial list of who God says you are. And you are who God says you are.

2 Corinthians 5: 17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

            You have been made new.

I am who God says I am.

            And God says all those things about you. Those are the kind of things that are to act as a bedrock, as a base on which you build your life. You are building your life on Christ and on what he has done for you. Your identity is in Christ.

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            Now here is the thing. While all those things are true about me and about each one of you who have received Jesus into your life. I hate to break it to you, but you are not perfect.

            In fact very few have any idea how much sin as distorted us. So while I have been forgiven, and I have been reconciled to God, and my spirit has be made alive and made new, my life still doesn’t reflect God the way it was made to.

            The process of God restoring his image in us, so that we love like he does, and his goodness and kindness and grace is seen in us, is just that – a process. We are urged not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing or our minds, and that transformation is a process.

            So when you ask the question, what kind of human are you. You can say, I am a new creation, I am in Christ. I am forgiven. I God’s child. I am walking in relationship to God. That is my is who I am.

            But you also have to say. I am in process. God is restoring his image in me. I am not anywhere close to perfect, but I am being made new.

            But for that process to happen, you need to trust what God says about you. For if you trust in what he has said about you, then you will grow. But until you learn to trust your identity in Christ, Satan will have a field day with you.

            What God has said about you has to be place where you hear the loudest message about who you are.

            For many of you, you will need to start by consciously talking note of the messages that you tell yourself, about yourself in your mind. It is like you have an MP3 on a loop, that says I worthless, I am stupid, I am dirt – You know the messages that you give yourself. You need to take what God has said about you, and each time you find yourself telling yourself some than what Christ has said about you, you need to stop the through, and replace it with what God has said.

            I would recommend that you memorize a verse or two that speak in direct opposition to what you are telling yourself.

            Now as you grow a little more in your faith, you are going to encounter spiritual warfare. The place where Satan will attack is your identity. Who do you think you are to ask God for anything. Who do you think you are to try to get rid of me. But if you know who you are in Christ, spiritual warfare becomes possible. It is not about who Satan is, it is about what Jesus has done for you, and your connection with him that allows you the authority to command Satan to leave.

            You see, you don’t have any authority over the demonic in an of yourself. But if you know that you are a child of God. If you know that you have been raised and seated with Christ in heavenly places, then you know that you have authority in Christ. That makes all the difference in a spiritual battle. It makes all the difference in prayer.

            When you pray, you walk boldly into the throne room of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

            You are not there with your own righteousness, but God says that you are righteous, because of what Jesus has done. You come to the throne room of God as a child of God. Knowing who you are, makes all the difference in prayer.

            As you grow a little further in your faith, you are going to have a deeper revelation of God’s love for you. When we sin, and when we yield to temptation, we don’t like ourselves, and we wonder how God can like us. But you will find that God’s love for you, is not dependent on how close you feel to God. You will find that he loves you. That love will draw you deeper into a relationship with him. You will want to spend time with him.

            Now when you understand who you are in Christ, you are still going to have to figure out your calling. Is God calling you to be Plummer or a politician, an journalist or a janitor, a writer or a waiter.

            But determining who you are going to be is not done from a place of trying to find significance in what you do, but comes out of a place of being truly loved and truly wanted. It comes from a place where God calls you his very own.

            Figuring out what your talents and skills are, what your likes and dislikes are, what your personality is,  then becomes this grand adventure. You see you can try something and fail, because failure does not define who you are, God defines who you are. You can try something and succeed. But your success does not define who you are. God defines who you are.

            While you are on the adventure of discovering who you are at each stage of life, God with your cooperation is restoring his image in you.

            At each stage in your life you are going to have to deal with the things that are holding you back. You need to develop a vision for moving you ahead. You need to implement that vision, so that you are doing what God is calling you to do. And you need to sustain living out your calling.

            But the only way to do that well is to know who you are. What kind of human are you. And if you are in Christ then hear this message clearly

I am who God says I am.

Let’s Pray

Lord, Jesus, Thank you for your word that tells us who we are:

That we’re deeply loved by you;

That we’re sinners;

That you’ve made a way for us to walk into your plans and have our sins forgiven.

Lord, I want to thank you for who you have said that we are; that we are loved and, Lord, I pray that each person who knows you, would claim their identity in you.

In Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN.

“ If Good News in the Morning has been a factor in your journey of faith, we would love to hear your story. Nothing could encourage us more in this work.  Contact us by e-mail or Twitter via the web site –goodnewsinthemorning.ca

            And Thank you for listening this morning.

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As you pray, may you encounter God for who he is. Loving and gracious. May you encounter the God who is calling you to be all that you were created to be through His son Jesus Christ.

MUSIC- For the beauty of the earth Eclipse 6 – Album Grateful Praise 3:31

By Rev. Brent Russett

Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:

http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/   

_______________________________________________________ 

PODCAST LINK to the CFRA broadcast:
http://accm.ncf.ca/images/17.02.19.mp3

'A RECOVER PHARISEE'

Rev. Brent Russett

By Rev. Brent Russett

Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:

http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/   

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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, October 4^th, 2015:

http://cdn2-proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/35917/good_news_177_oct04.mp3

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‘A Recover Pharisee’

          

Good morning. And welcome to good news in the morning.  My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church. It is my pleasure to look at some of life’s challenges, and then bring you some good news in the morning.

            I am glad that you tuned your dial to CFRA. I want you to know that you can also find Good News in the morning on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca . There you keep up to date with what is happening around Good News Christian Ministries.

            This morning’s program is sponsored by Rev. Dr. Allan Churchill, the founder of Good News Christian Ministries. Thanks so much for your service to the kingdom, and for your generosity to see this ministry continue.

            I want to say a special welcome to our international listeners, who listen via the internet. We are glad that you have found us, and are finding this ministry an encouragement.

            Over the summer I took some significant time off to restore my soul. It was good to read, and think and pray – and ride my motorcycle.

            I thought today that I would pick one observation that has struck me over the past little while. I am also going to draw from a writer I have come to appreciate in the last little while named John Burke. What I have to say probably applies more to church people, but I think many of you who have never been to church, will appreciate what I have to say.

            I have had more time to read the news lately. Christians, and especially evangelical Christians are not very well liked. That is one of the “Captain Obvious” statements. If you travel in the U.S. or Canada, or Europe or New Zealand and you ask non-religious people to describe Christians, then you know what they will say. They are “judgemental,” and “narrow-minded,” and “arrogant,”  and hypocritical”, and “bigoted.”

            I take some consolation in the fact that the 2nd and 3rd century Christians were misunderstood as well. They were accused of being cannibals, because they got together and partook in the body and blood of Christ. They were accused of incest, because they called fellow Christians brother and sister. So Christ followers have a long history of being misunderstood.

            Even Jesus was misunderstood. But if you were to ask non-religious people in Jesus’ day to describe Jesus, there one word answers would be “loving,” “kind,” “compassionate,” “wise,” merciful,” ‘truthful,” “hopeful,” “helping,” “caring,” “life-giving.”

            I have been asking myself, why are the one word descriptions of who we are, not more like the one we claim to follow.

            Over the last number of years I have probably spent more time personally in the gospels, (the first four books of the New Testament)  than any other place in scripture.

            I am struck with this…..--- that Jesus’ descriptions of the Pharisees were very similar to average person’s descriptions of Christian today.

            In fact the way Pharisees talked about people (air quotes) “outside their church circles” matches the way Christian groups I have been a part of talk about people.----- Sometimes, I realize, I have been less like Jesus and more like a Pharisee.

            Here is the thing. No one ever intentionally sets out to fall into the trap of the Pharisees. It happens slowly, - gradually, little by little, year by year, in ways that can rob us of becoming the kind of people Jesus intended us to be. People who actually follow Jesus in action and attitude. I am convinced that we all must fight pharisaical creep.

            Now for those of you who are still getting to know the New Testament, and for those of you who have always had a tainted view of the Pharisees, let me tell you a little about them.

            The Pharisees were not all bad. If you see them through polarizing glasses,- all good, all bad---- you set yourself up to be blind to the same tendencies that they had.

            The Pharisees were a Jewish religious sect that were the spiritual reformers of their day. They were concerned about the moral decay that they saw around them. They saw the influence of the Roman culture eating away at their countries moral fiber and knew that they had to do something about it.

            Matthew 9:11 says that they were concerned about God’s laws, just as many Christians have similar concerns over moral reform.

            John 5:39 says that the Pharisees diligently studied the scriptures. They loved the scriptures. They prided themselves in being true to Moses and the prophets. They ascertained and that there were 613 laws, and they followed them all.

            The problem was, as Matthew 23 points out, they studied the bible diligently but they missed the heart of it all. It is possible to study the Bible intently and miss Jesus’ mission entirely.

            The Pharisees were evangelistic. They valued making converts.

Matthew 23:15 (NRSV)

15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

            The Pharisees were missional, they were just on the wrong mission.

            Is it possible for Christians to love the word of God, be passionate about moral reform, pride themselves in teaching the truth, to be on the wrong mission. – Absolutely.

            As John Burke put it,

            “Hey, if Jesus called Peter “the rock” and yet Peter was deceived at least twice, if James and John missed Jesus’ heart several times, if Paul was zealous for God yet persecuted the church… who do I think I am if I proudly say, “Not me!” Phariseeism can sneak up on all of us!”

            I am struck by Jesus words in John 9. Jesus had just healed a blind man, and this man was called up before the ruling counsel and was reprimanded. Afterwards Jesus found the healed man and verse 35 records their conversation.

John 9:35–41 (NLT)

35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?*”

36 The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”

37 “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”

38 “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.

39 Then Jesus told him,* “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see* that they are blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”

41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.

            The Pharisees asked Jesus “Are you saying we are blind?” I wonder what Jesus would say to the church if we asked him the same question.

            Jesus says to the Pharisees, “You remain guilty because you claim you see.”

            It seems to me that humility is the only cure for spiritual blindness.

            But humility is really hard when you believe, when you know you are right. We have the revelation of God. We know the scripture. More than that we have tried to put the scripture into practice.

            Because we have tried to put the scripture into practice, we know we give more money to charity than the average Canadian, we know we volunteer more than the average Canadian. In general Christians tend to be happier than the average Canadian.

             Not only that but we have stayed away from the things that tend to destroy people.. Our lives are not controlled by alcohol or drugs.

            Most of the vices we do have - are socially acceptable.

Luke 18:9–14 (NLT)

9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer*: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God.

            The lack of humility is very unattractive to God.  --- It is really unattractive to people outside the church as well. Yet there is a tendency in all of us towards Pharisaical creep.

Music: The Pharisee and the Sinner ---Sam Waddell 5:43

            One of my favourite paintings is Rembrandt`s masterpiece The Return of the Prodigal Son. It is housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg Russia and depicts the moving scene in Jesus` parable when, filled with compassion` the father ran towards his wayward son. The son had squandered his inheritance with loose living, but came begging for mercy. The father embraced him saying, `My son was dead but now is alive, was lost but now he`s found` Jesus paints this beautiful, priceless picture in answer to the religious people`s complaint that he “welcomes sinners.” The (Rembrandt)  painting is worth a fortune.

            Now, just imagine if one day you visit St. Petersburg, and there in a back-alley dumpster you discover Rembrandt’s masterpiece, but it’s hardly recognizable. It’s covered in mud and dirt, it’s stained and the canvas has been torn. You wouldn’t recognize it at all, except you notice the famous hand of the father on the ragged son’s back.

            How would you treat the painting? Like trash? It’s covered in mud, stained and torn – is it worthless? Do you treat it like it’s worthless? Or would you treat it like a million dollar masterpiece that needs to be handled with care and restored? I’m guessing that all of us could see past the mud and even the damage to recognize the immense value inherent in this one-of-a-kind work of art – simply because it was created by Rembrandt’s own hand.

            We wouldn’t try to clean it up ourselves; we would bring it to a master art restorer, who could delicately restore it to its original condition.

            So why do we struggle to treat people like the immensely valuable, one-of-a-kind Masterpiece God created with his own hand? John Burke, in his book Unshockable Love” said, “As I study the life and interactions of Jesus with very sin-stained, muddied people, it becomes evident that Jesus could see something worth dying for in all the people he encountered. Jesus could see past the mud to the Masterpiece God wanted to restore. (Unshockable Love, John Burke Kindle 211-212)

            One of the things God reminded me of this summer is that what you focus on matters. That is true in your spiritual life, that is true in people. The Pharisees had a tendency to focus on the mud. Jesus focused on the masterpiece.

            I am convinced that most people can sense your attitude towards them. They can sense if you value them or if you focus on the mud.

            Jesus demonstrated a spiritual vision that he wants to impart to us- to see the Masterpiece he sees in us, and to renovate us to become people whose hearts reflect what God sees, under even the most sin stained life.

            God is all about grace. Undeserved favour. He cleanses and restores will people.  Hear the word of the Lord,

Ephesians 2:8–10 (NLT)

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

            The word translated masterpiece or workmanship could be translated a work of art. Do you realize that you are God’s work of art? Next time someone says you’re a piece of work, just say “That’s right, I am! – Artwork buddy!”

            But not only are you a work of art – but so is the homeless person, who is there because of circumstances or bad choices or mental illness, and so is the porn addict, and so is the serial womanizer, and so is the manipulating corporate ladder climber, and so is religious hypocrite. It is possible to Pharisaical about Pharisees The question is, do you stare at the mud, or do you stare at the masterpiece. 

            When you look at yourself, do you stare at the mud, or do you focus on the masterpiece. Eph. 2:8 says God saved you by his grace. When a person in the first century heard the word saved, they would think of being carried to safety, made whole, or restored to its original condition.

            Too often we are like the Pharisees who focus on the mud. When we do that we have a tendency to get into mud management. But we don’t have the capability to clean the mud off a masterpiece. That is the masters job. He saved you, by his grace. You don’t save yourself. The  church doesn’t  save anyone.

            You see if you get this then church becomes a place for muddy people. Churches should have signs are their front doors, “no perfect people allowed.”  I have known some people who think with the life they lived that if they walked into church they would be struck by lightning. If that is you, I want you to know that God doesn’t explodes his masterpieces, he is in the business of restoring them.

            It is not the church’s job to save people. The gospel isn’t about mud management, it is about turning our lives over to the one who really gives life. The only people Jesus had words of condemnation for were those who pretended that they were perfect. No perfect people allowed.

            The gospel is about life. It is about God’s view of us. It is about God’s gift to us.

John 3:16 (NLT)

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave* his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

            I had a friend say to me, “We are all recovering Pharisees.” If there is one affliction I want to be healed of it is of being a Pharisee.

            There are some of you who can identify with the Rembrandt painting I described. You feel pretty stained, and torn, and covered in mud. I want you to know that when Jesus sees you, he sees a masterpiece, a work of art, and that he is in the restoration business. If you are willing to let him restore you, he is more than willing to begin the process with you.

            Some of you may even have been kept away from Jesus by the Christian Pharisees you have encountered. Let me apologize to you. I am sorry if the church has hurt you. Please don’t let the Pharisees you have known, keep you from Jesus. Jesus loves you. He wants what is best for you.

             In a few moments I am going to lead in a prayer, that will introduce you to Jesus   will start the restoration process. If that is something that you would like to do, I would invite you to pray that prayer with me.       

            For those of you who can see, as I have been talking that you have experienced Pharisaical creep, - you focus on the mud rather than the art work – in your own life, and in others' lives – then I would like to invite you to take this time to repent, and allow God to give you a humble heart – a heart that is not about rules, but is about life.

LET’S PRAY TOGETHER,

Lord Jesus, Thank you so much for valuing us. Your Word says that we are your masterpiece; we’re your workmanship. And, Lord, we find that hard to believe, sometimes. But, Lord, for those who are struggling, I pray that you would give them the ability to see their value; the value that you have placed upon them.

And, Lord, there are some people you are talking to, right now, who you would like to transform their lives. Lord, I ask that they would simply talk to you and invite You into their lives. And, Lord, I ask that you would just do some amazing things in their lives.

Lord, I pray that you would come and work with them, so that they would know you well.

I ask this in Jesus’ name, AMEN.

“ If Good News in the Morning has been a factor in your journey of faith, we would love to hear your story. Nothing could encourage us more in this work.  Contact us by e-mail or Twitter via the web site –goodnewsinthemorning.ca

            If you are from the Ottawa area, I want to encourage you Save the date of Saturday November 14^th. Good news in the morning will be hosting luncheon and fundraising event, with the Keynote speaker being CFRA’s own John Council. . It will be held at St. Timothy’s Presbyterian Church on Alta Vista. This event will start at noon. So mark that date on your calendar’s. November 14.

            And Thank you for listening this morning. I want to especially thank Rev. Dr. Allan Churchill for sponsoring this program today. You have really blessed us. This program is on the air by the grace of God and donations of many faithful people. If you can help financially we would really appreciate it. You can make a cheque payable to Good News Christian Ministries,  and send it to Box 184 , Rideau Ferry , On. K0G  1W0.

            I want to put a challenge out to those of you are live listening outside of Canada. Would you consider logging on to our webpage, and give 1 dollar or euro by PayPal. The website is: goodnewsinthemorning.ca 

May you know   Jesus Christ personally and profoundly.  May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart .  And may the heavenly Father surround you with His constant and abiding and accompanying love

MUSIC- Amazing Grace – Selah 3:27

By Rev. Brent Russett

Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:

http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/   

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PODCAST LINK to the CFRA broadcast:

http://cdn2-proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/35917/good_news_177_oct04.mp3