I’m not perfect, but God is - Part One

Hebrews 2:1-5 “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. 

I’ve heard that the “only” thing on earth that never changes is the fact that “everything” changes. Last Sunday, our Pastor JJ announced that he has officially resigned to take a new pastoral call up in the California high desert town of Hesperia and will be departing at the end of the month. I hope that you will miss the enjoyable plethora of great Sunday Worship sermons weekly on biblical topics that touch our daily thoughts and lives as much as I did, listening to and writing about them. Best wishes and Godspeed (a phrase meaning " God spede you" or " God prosper you,") in the next chapter of your family’s life and your shepherding of God’s flock in this new futile pasture.

Pastor JJ starts a new Sunday Sermon series titled “God of the Underdogs, based upon a book of the same title. We are the “underdogs” that God uses to change this world. An “Underdog”, meaning a person or group that is perceivably disadvantaged that is expected to lose a contest or struggle. Here are my notes and thoughts from the first sermon message in this series. Nobody’s perfect; we all know that. Perfection is God’s standard, but the Bible is realistic and truly doesn’t expect fallen humanity to be perfect; and doesn’t suggest that it is even possible, because it is not. Romans 3:23 states clearly: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I read a great explanation on the reason that fallen humanity chooses to sin against their just and holy Creator God. Mankind was created with the natural ability to be morally perfect inasmuch as we have the natural equipment to perform moral acts of obedience to God. Man has a mind and a will; but in order to exercise that mind and will to obedience, we have to have some kind of proper inner disposition or desire to please god. We always make our choices according to the strongest inclination we have at the moment of decision. For example, if we desire to obey God were always greater than my desire to sin, we would never sin. When we sin, on the other hand, it is because we want to sin more than we want to obey God. Nobody forces us, thought many may entice and encourage us to sin. It is precisely because we sin according to my desires that God holds us responsible for our actions. The determining factor in moral decisions is the self. Mankind has a free will, but in our falleness that will is under the power of and in the bondage of sin.

Then what is the purpose of God’s “perfect” law as our standard if we cannot obey it perfectly in our sin nature? Galatians 3:22-24 explains, “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Forgiveness and Salvation by faith, consecrated and sanctified, holy and blameless, to become “all that we can be”, through Jesus Christ, as perfect Almighty God designed us. We must know in our heart that “I am not perfect, but God is” and He has a loving purpose for His children as we, underdogs, look at and mature into the likeness of Jesus. We’ll look at: “Not perfect (and neither is anyone else), but working on it by God’s calling” looks like, next post.

In Christ, Brian