Hey guys! Just to give you a heads-up, the audio from the past few weeks of teaching have now been added to this site! Just simply go to the audio page, and click on whichever sermon you need to re-listen to. However, from what I’m seeing as a glitch on the site, you can’t go back past the 10^th sermon, or to the next page without being put back onto the same page again. Just in case that or other problems might surface, I decided to not only put the audio on that page, but on another site called imeem. Below are the sermons from last year (June-December) as well as everything in this year. If you don’t have an imeem account, you will not be able to listen to any of the sermons. This would be if you’d like to listen to any of last years’ sermons. Also, if you’d like to have your own copy of the audio yourself, leave a comment, or come talk to me and I will be happy to bring you an mp3 CD that will have most, if not all the audio.Thanks guys for being understanding!

2008 LBC Lumos

2009 LBC Lumos

Posted by Cesar

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” -Jesus (Luke 6:32-36)

Pastor JR gave a very important message about one of the hardest things to do: loving your enemies.

In the beginning of JR’s message, Luke 6:32-34 says that if you do good to people who do good to you, what benefit would you get from it. There is no benefit of doing good to someone who does good to you, because sinners do the same thing. Or lending to each other and expecting something or the full amount. Sinners do the same thing. If they don’t get anything, they’ll turn mad and keep bugging the person.

JR also said that Jesus said to lend to people and enemies, and loving them and to expect absolutely nothing in return.  Why? Because if you do this, you will be “sons of the Most High.”

The Jews at that time were under oppression from the Romans. And Zealots were usually harassing them. Thats why at the that time (and this time), that what Jesus said shocked the Jews. Because they couldn’t stand the Romans. They thought very low of them. They downright HATED them. They stole from them, abused them and did other aggressive and brutal deeds to them. But Jesus will reward you if you love people and your enemies.

JR had also told us the differences between desiring and expecting. Desiring is wanting something. It isn’t bad. We all do it every day. But expecting something is bad, because if you lent money to someone, and you are waiting to have them giving something to you. You turn mad when they haven’t given it to you because you end up bugging the person every day or you’re just mad at the person, because your expecting it. JR mentioned about a famous tennis player who was expecting to break the record for grand slams. The only way he could do that is to win the next match to tie it and to win the next match. But he lost. And when he went up on the podium to give his 2nd pace speech, he cried. That man was expecting to win, but he lost and got mad. JR also mentioned that the Bronze medal winners have a better attitude than the silver medal winners, because the Bronze medal winners just wanted a bronze medal. The Silver medal winners were expecting to win, but they didn’t.

Desiring isn’t bad, because you desire all the time. You desire God, desire this, desire that. Expecting is like “Where is it?! Where’s my toy? Where’s my car? Where’s my money?” But you should still watch for your desires.

Pastor JR got deeper into expecting. Jesus said don’t expect, and your reward will be great. What He is saying is that you lend and do good to people and you expect nothing, but expect everything. Because if you love and do good to people, and don’t expect, you expect everything from Christ.

We got deeper into loving and doing good to people, especially to your enemies. JR said to outdo the person in loving and giving so they won’t outdo you. He said to keep on giving and giving so much, and not even expecting a thing from them. Because you will be rewarded. And if you do this to your enemies, they will be shocked at your love to them! If you do this, you will be rewarded. If you be merciful to those unmerciful to you, you will be rewarded.

Pastor JR’s message this morning in second hour youth group covered an extremely important topic, and that is of the communicable attribute of the mercy of God.

The first image given to set the tone for what this mercy entails came from the word’s very etymology. The Hebrew word “racham” and the Greek word “oiktirmos” both refer to the emotion of pity and compassion that is so strong, it is felt in the bowels, or intestines. (More graphic parallels were made to illustrate the idea of intestinal feeling, most of which shall remain unspoken of on this post for now hehe)

            Back to the point though, both of these words derive the word we now know as mercy, which is most often biblically manifested in the theme of not delivering the punishment that one deserves. This is complemented by grace, which is the generous giving of that which one does not deserve.

            The first question Pastor JR asked us is this, does God have emotion? After a grueling moment of nervousness as analysis paralysis froze most of us youth, he referred us to 2 Samuel 24:14, which affirms mercy as an attribute of God, and worth staking all our hope and trust in, as David does in the passage, even amidst a time of divine judgment for some specific prideful sins committed.

            This was an eye-opener. There tends to be this misconstrued image of Christ that many of us hold, and that is of a sort of Stoic, emotionless man who wandered about and spoke great profound truths in a monotone voice, never cracking any sort of expression that would denote any inward emotion. In reality, while we still hold a reverent view of our Savior, Scripture reveals that God is not a stiff-necked dictator, but rather, it is in His nature to feel a tender compassion towards us.

            This in itself is an astounding mystery. How could the holy, sovereign God of the universe ever bring Himself to choose to have such emotion for such undeserving sinners like you and I? It seems ludicrous, from a human standpoint. But this only further magnifies the incredible grace and love displayed in His mercy.

            His mercies are displayed in countless ways. The most notable of which being the gift of salvation as displayed in the work and person of Christ, who didn’t do the bare minimum, but humbled Himself to the utmost bottom, and became flesh. The God of the Universe subjected Himself to being a helpless infant, having to grow up like every child, having to experience the horrors of puberty, all in dwelling among us, facing every temptation Satan through in His path, and through it all, He did not sin. And despite all this, being the only human ever to walk the face of the earth to not deserve the wrath of the Father, He took upon our sins, that we might be saved. What an astounding display of love. He took the full blast of the just wrath of God against our sins, because He loves us. Such mercy should bring all of us to our knees and invoke a desire to live in joy and humility.

            His mercies are further displayed in the daily provisions we are yet undeserving of. While God could justly strike us down where we stand at any instant, He mercifully bestows the breath of life on a continual basis, giving us the pleasures of His creation (food anyone?). It truly is amazing that He allows us to even take our next breath.

            All have received the latter mercies, and some have received the former. For those who have received the glorious gift of salvation, the question we then need to ask ourselves is this, why are we not passing it on? If the God of the Universe could condescend to my filthy level and save someone as undeserving as me, why do I still claim all these liberties in not showing such love and mercy to those around me? So what if personalities don’t click, social cliques differ, or even if there is enmity. We who were enemies of God were yet recipients of this sovereignly bestowed mercy. It’s not only a question of are we thankful for this, though we should be constantly, but if we truly are, we do we not reflect it in our day to day lives?

Do we choose to feel a deep sense of compassion for even those in our same household? I could ask a thousand questions like these, and the only thing I could really accomplish is pointing out how even in myself, I fall short so many times and by so far. Though saved from the bondage and eternal consequence of sin, I still can do nothing apart from the grace of God and the sovereign work of sanctification. I am yet a work in progress, not yet perfect until the day I enter His heavenly courts. This should cause me to live prayerfully and faithfully in biblical devotion (yes, this means I need to work the QT’s). It’s so easy to walk about in a mindless daze, but that is so dangerous. The vital thing and the only thing that will cause change is the effect of the love of Christ. Being our church theme of the year, I think it’s an incredibly appropriate and important thing to consider, on a constant basis. The love of Christ must dwell in us for change to take place. Therefore, let us dwell in Him, praying without ceasing, and hiding His Word in our hearts, that we may bring glory to His name, enjoy Him fully, and display this love for the world to see, not that they may look to us, but to the light we seek to reflect.