Give Till it Hurts

Some people probably hurt this morning after their efforts in walking for Sports Relief. I find it interesting that so much more money has been donated this year than the last Sports Relief two years ago. What has changed? - Peoples experience - more of us have had to tighten our financial belts and can appreciate better the difficulty of others.
Some people shout and blame God for all sorts of things in life saying that its not fair God doesn't understand what I'm going through. But God sent his son to earth

The High Priest Who Cried Out in Pain

^14-16Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. (Hebrews 4:15)

The people Sports Relief will help are desperately in need of financial aid. If we don't have God in our life we are desperately in need of his mercy - Jesus was tried in every way but did not sin, if we ask for help he will give us a strength that we can rely on.

I Don't Like Mondays

The older ones among us remember the Boomtown Rats song written about a schoolyard shooting on January 29, 1979. Brenda Ann Spencer killed two adults and injured eight children and one police officer. Her explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays; this livens up the day."

We are heading full throttle into another week, for the most of us we don't like Mondays... In the Genesis account the only day God did not say something was good was Monday! God understands that some days feel different to others. Think of God watching his son on Good Friday which we celebrate shortly. We can live our lives in very different ways - We can live so that our lives have positive outcomes for other people or that impact negatively on others.

Whether we like Mondays or not it doesn't matter we can not just live as we please, I don't think for a minute that most of us are going to Shoot the whole day down. Geldof wrote the song as he saw the Telex printer churn out the news story... One of the lyrics is

The telex machine is kept so clean
As it types to a waiting world...

What is your telex machine going to type to the waiting world this Monday?

Do I have to believe in Jesus?

Do I have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven?

John 14:6

- How could the meaning of this verse be changed if Jesus had said…

• I am a way…

There are other ways to God than trusting Jesus.

• I am a truth…

There are other options about God that are also true; we don’t have to believe in Jesus.

• I am a life…

There are other ways to get a new life.

Pic‘n’mix

Have you ever been to the pic’n’mix sweets section in a shop?

Many people today look at life in this way. Just as there are many different kinds of sweets there are many different religions and a lot of people take bits from each. Can you do that? No you can’t because they believe different things.

God doesn’t want us to pic’n’mix. He wants us to follow Him alone and not others.

One thing that set Jesus apart from other religious leaders: he died and rose again. No one but God has the power over life and death-he is the only one true God.

That means that the claims that Jesus made about himself being the Son of God are true.

Because he conquered death and rose to life again:

· He can bring us back to God-he is the way

· He is telling the full truth about himself-he is the truth

· He is able to give us life-he is the life.

Yes I do have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven.

What Jesus said is very Good News, but there are a lot of people who haven’t heard or understood about Jesus.

· How can we let people know about Jesus at school, near our home, or anywhere else? - We can do it!

What about people in other countries?

· Who can let them know? - Missionaries in other countries tell people about Jesus too

· How can we help? - Praying for them, sending money, telling others about them, going ourselves!

Prayer: Thank you for making yourself known to me. Thank you for dying for me to give me new life. Help me to tell others about this new life.

Memory verse: Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given by men by which we must be saved.

Hindus believe there is a God but we can’t know him.

Buddhists believe there is no God.

Muslims believe Allah is God but he is not interested in us personally.

Some believe God is a force: partly good, partly evil.

Christians believe God is completely good and that we can know Him.

King of Kings

This is a painting called King of Kings - it was destroyed during a bombing raid in world war 2. It shows Kings and rulers of countries and empires across time worshipping Jesus.

He alone is the focus of their attention while the devil cringes behind Christ. Is Jesus the focus of your attention this morning. It doesn't matter how important we think we may be if we don't realise how important Jesus is.

The devil's sin was pride, let us beware lest we become proud and place Jesus at the centre of our picture this morning.

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!

His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Vision

A couple of Fisherman hired a Sea Plane to drop them by a remote lake, then return in seven days to pick them up. On the sixth day the fisherman caught a monster fish. At the appointed time, the pilot arrived and loaded the Fishers and their gear in the plane. "Wait a minute," said the first fisherman. "What about our fish?" "Sorry," said the pilot. "We're at maximum weight already."

"But our pilot last year loaded our fish, and he had the same size plane as this one."

"Really?" asked the pilot, not wanting to be outdone. "Well, I guess we could give it a try."

With that he strapped a giant fish across the wings. They sputtered to the end of the lake to get the longest possible takeoff. He shoved the throttle forward; they began to move, and finally, they lifted off the lake, just skimming the trees. But the pilot was right. They were seriously overloaded, and crashed just minutes into the flight.

Both fishermen were knocked unconscious, but came to at about the same time. The first fisherman looked around at the mess, fish and plane parts everywhere.

"Where are we?" he asked his partner.

"About 50 yards from where we crashed last year."

Doing things the way we've always done them insures that we'll continue to get the results we've always gotten. Successful people are willing to change with the times. People who cannot or will not change, run the risk of extinction.

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible"

Jonathan Swift

•The enemy will try to bring complacency

• The enemy will try to bring calamity

• The enemy will try to bring criticism

• The enemy will try to bring confusion

• The enemy will try to bring cockiness

2 Corinthians 10

3-6The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

The men of Issachar were an important component of David's team. They possessed three exceptional and essential qualities. They "understood the times" - they were men of accurate perception and penetrating analysis.

They "knew what Israel should do" - they were gifted with vision, and shaped their vision into a coherent strategy.

If you have to describe the mission of Jesus in one word what would you say?

A wealthy philanthropist once offered to telegraph one of the founder of the Salvation Army William Booth’s sermon worldwide. Booth excitedly accepted the offer. There’s one stipulation. The philanthropist cautioned “Your sermon can only be one word long” General booth was quick to comply. Here is the master piece one word sermon of Booth “Others” What a fantastic message. William Booth took Paul’s words to Philippians seriously.

Philippians 2:4-11

“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”