Exultation

Over the last couple months I have had the awesome opportunity to preach God's word at First Baptist Church, Ozark on three separate occasions. Growing up in FBCO, and being poured into spiritually by so many people over the years, this was a fantastic experience for me to learn under Pastor Phillip as well as the other staff members at our church in order to fulfill some requirements for a class at SBU. I have received so many words of encouragement from church family and that has really helped to affirm my call to preach. I have had a couple people mention to me that they missed one of these worship services, so I have included the links to my sermons at the bottom of this post.

Words cannot do justice to the impact that FBCO has had on my spiritual journey and I am so grateful to Pastor Phillip for helping mentor me during this process. I have learned so much over the last few months and I pray that these messages have been edifying to the church body. I also pray that the Holy Spirit uses these messages to impart the truth of the gospel to a world that desperately needs it.

Sermon 1: Hebrews 10:1-18 "Christ's Sacrifice Once for All"
https://soundcloud.com/1400fbco/08262018-evening-sermon-joe-hayworth-christs-sacrifice-once-for-all-hebrews-101

Sermon 2: Psalm 46 "Is God your Refuge?"
(Link to come)

Sermon 3: James 2:14-26 "Does Faith Require Works?"
https://soundcloud.com/1400fbco/11252018-evening-joel-hayworth-faith-without-works-is-dead-james-214-26

My aim in preaching these sermons in this order was to first illustrate how we can have faith in Christ (His sacrifice is final and perfect, unlike previous sacrifices) followed by the power of our God and the importance of trusting in Him during the storms of our lives and finally how our faith in a Holy God should lead us towards righteous action, not to attain salvation but because we are called to do so in order to demonstrate "saving faith" rather than "dead faith".


God Bless

He > I

The last 4 days have presented a bevy of obstacles to both me on a personal level and my family on a physical level. You never exactly know when your life can be flipped upside down on you and all too often we take our comfort all too for granted, especially our health. Seeing my mom (one of the people I believe to be intellectually similar to me) be unable to articulate her last name to the EMT's, not know my own name and have no idea what her own birthday is was something that I would wish on nobody. The whirlwind of emotions that go through your mind in such a circumstance are everything from shock to sadness to confusion and back to shock. After the EMT's took her to the Emergency Room, I had a brief moment to reflect on what had just transpired by myself. Many questions arose in my mind during this time, such as: What on earth just happened? God, are you going to do something? What is wrong with her? In addition to many more. While I was quick to realize the uncertainty in regard to what my mom was facing, I failed to remind myself of the God we serve. On the drive to Springfield I had Spotify (similar to iTunes) on shuffle mode and was challenged by song after song talking about the faithfulness of God. The sweet truths of "Grace Wins", "Just Be Held", "Hope in Front of Me" and "Forever" echoed an ever present theme of how in spite of how bad this scenario, I serve a God who is greater than any struggle or circumstance I find myself in. This seemingly insignificant 20 minute car ride turned into a spiritual awakening in which I was able to regain some semblance of composure about seeing my own mother unable to A) walk out of her own room and B) show any signs of normal cognitive function.
The initial prognoses' varied from blood poisoning to some sort Labyrinthitis, however due to a fever of 103+ and an infection that was clearly altering her memory in addition to producing severe pain in her knee, these results were lacking the answers that I was expecting. This uneasiness and confusion only increased whenever they took her into surgery for her knee (the infection had gathered in her knee due to it being a Sepsis infection) whenever she was in such a weak state of being. Helplessness was the overlying feeling that consumed me during this time. I myself have been the subject of many surgeries and procedures over the years and have had the luxury of having my mom by my side through my worst moments, however there was a moment (whilebeit brief) that I felt as though I was going to lose the person who had always been there for me. During this (brief) time of uncertainty, a wave of peace overcame this developing gap in my heart, seemingly God's answer to my questions from mere hours before. I kept on looking at the size of the giant in front of my family while failing to remind myself of the all encompassing power of my God.
Following the surgery and a couple of hours in the post op room, we were finally able to see her. During this brief time, there was a moment in which my mom (still experiencing severe cognitive lapses) reached her hand out and held mine. This seemingly insignificant moment crushed any lingering doubts in my mind of her not making it through this, in addition to God once again providing an answer to my completely unnecessary questions from before.
My mom's not back to 100% yet, she still is having some issues with her memory and is still recovering from the knee surgery, however as God has demonstrated throughout these last 72 hours, HE is in control of this situation and HE has a plan that is bigger, better and impossible for me to understand or see.
Just as this situation saw a significant upswing in positivity, the revelation of yet more negative news came in from another side of the family. My Grandfather (dad's side) had been battling an infection that had been spreading rampant throughout his body over the last 3 months and we got word that the infection finally spread into his brain earlier today. After I finally had the assurance that my mom would make it through this struggle fine, yet another massive dose of bad news surfaced. While I'm obviously not certain of how my grandpa will be, or even if he will still be with us in the coming days, I am certain of the following truths. 1: My Grandfather is an example of God's redemptive power. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior a mere 4 years ago however in this short timeframe there has been an extraordinary change in his lifestyle and attitude on life. 2. My Grandfather will be in Heaven if this is in fact his time to leave this planet. I cannot imagine the stress and pain going through the mind of my Grandmother in Oklahoma City (who is a recent cancer survivor) in addition to the pain of emotion being experienced by my father who is having to go through this without his best friend who also happens to be in the hospital.
While I can't begin to comprehend why all of these things are transpiring in both my life and the life of my family, I can tell you that I serve a faithful God who promises to not give anyone anything that they can't get through. I also trust that God has a plan in all of this, even if I can't understand it on this side of Heaven. Finally, I trust that even if I lose my Grandfather, and even if I would have lost my mother, I would/will see them again one day. I can't begin to know what will happen, however God is in control and He is faithful in spite of our doubts and questioning spirit.

Thank all of you for your continuing prayers and support that you have showered upon my family in this time of chaos! We appreciate each and every one of you more than you know.
God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

Background

Culture tells you to do what is best for yourself, this is survival of the fittest as coined by a brilliant scientist hundreds of years ago (no this blog is not going to dive into the theories of Evolution, thank goodness), your conscience tells you to do what is right or wrong in the eyes of the world and the Holy Spirit tells you if what you're doing is right or wrong in the eyes of God in addition to helping keep you on the right path. If you find yourself in a situation in which your next action is a big one, looking at these 3 guidelines can often be a good basis to make your decision. However at the end of the day, the choice ultimately is made with the intention of doing what is best for you (assuming it is within both what God says is ok and a morally right choice). What these 3 categories do not allow for is the ability to deflect the decision onto someone else. Rather, the option to make your choice in order to let the action not be about yourself or for your gain, but to the gain of someone else. 

Often times Christians can get the label of passive in the sense that we (I emphasize we) are not quick to make decisions of large importance because we have to rationalize the outcome not only through our conscience but also that of the Holy Spirit. What happens more times than not is that we, once again, emphasizing we, make decisions in a similar fashion to society rather than first consulting with our Father who knows best. This is a cycle that can be easy to fall into, especially as a young Christian who is still trying to find their identity both in the world and their identity in Christ. 

Ultimately you have two options in regard to how you live your life if you boil it down to its most simple form. You either, A) life for what suits your best interest and take whatever credit/blame comes your way, or B) take an adamant stand and let your actions reflect Christ, first and foremost. Now you can most definitely use both of these options throughout your life as different situations and obstacles present themselves to you! That being said, most humans have a desire inside that their way is the right way and fail to grasp the concept that God might have a better plan that they can't see at their current moment in time.

The Bible states on numerous occasions that time from our standpoints is not on the same level as that of God. A day to a human is a minute to God and a day to God can be a blink of an eye to a human. That being said, we are but a blip in the grand scheme of things. Our role in the realm of eternity is so minute that it appears as a mere heartbeat followed by infinite silence which represents our eternal resting place. Ultimately the choices, actions and decisions we make in that small blip wind up dictating the remainder of our existence, which on one hand is a frightening proposition, yet on another it is so refreshing when thought of in this context: Our lives are meant to play the background for Christ. 

Usually at a Christian concert, or a secular concert (no judgment intended if you haven't witnessed a Newsboys concert...... Ok, maybe a slight amount) the organizers put some lesser known bands at the beginning of the schedule to "warm up" the audience for the headline act. This makes sense, just as in books or movies, we expect the climax to occur sometime towards the end, the same situation occurs in our lives. Our lives on Earth are meant for the purpose of telling other people about the headline act, about Jesus and everything that He has done in our lives and what He has done for each and everyone on the planet whether they believe or not. If we live our short lives on Earth to merely better our social standing, then all we ultimately accomplish is meaningless in the grand scheme of eternity. Just as the smaller bands play the role of being the "warm-up" for the main event, they do serve a purpose! Their songs are sung to the same thousands of people that the main bands are, they are even given the opportunity to travel across the country and share their story to thousands of people from all walks of life. In the same respect, our Christian walk is no different! We are given the opportunity to share our story with the people we come into contact with and prepare them for the main event, Jesus, who (as the Bible states) melts the heart of stone. God gives us a golden opportunity in this lifetime to share this saving news with everyone we come into contact with, all we are required to do is agree to serve our role. To play the Background to Jesus, to which there is no greater job.

Unleashed

We live in a society of self gratification, however we, as Christians, try to live for a savior who taught service and sacrifice. You cannot be a servant of both of these categories, at the end of the day, you have to either make a stand for Christ or live for yourself.  The commonly echoed theme of, "Be in the world but not of it" holds true, however all too often in modern times we gloss over the teachings of Christ and rather replace His words with our worldly interpretation of them. What we preach is a watered down gospel in which we share our faith no different than the manner in which we discuss our assignments with classmates from school. Whenever Jesus said, "I have come to give you life, and life to the fullest" he wasn't desiring for Christians to merely survive, but rather to live and experience things that non-Christians will never have the opportunity to. This brings me to the main question for this blog, what does it mean for a Christian to be Unleashed?

Unleashed means to be set free, to literally have ones chains broken. Is there a more adept word to describe a Christian who's sins have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ? All too often sin is able to constrict our witness because whenever non-Christians view Christians, they see the sin in their lives rather than the transcendent presence of Christ living inside of us. Seeing as we live in a dominion of darkness and are constantly under the attack of Satan, it can be easy to stop striving for the lifestyle Christ meant for us because it requires sacrifice and discomfort. Many Christians in today's society cower in the heat of opposition because they are not willing to face persecution and judgment from their peers. Time after time Christians fail to share their faith not because of a lack of opportunity, but a lack of willingness. Our minds are clouded by an overbearing weight of sin that can clout our judgment and make us useless for the Kingdom of God unless we fix our eyes on the Creator rather than the sin in our lives.

So how do you become Unleashed? Jesus' death on the cross frees us from the weight of sin and the ups and downs of this temporary world. The Cross has made each and everyone of us a new creation, it is only a matter of accepting what Jesus did for us and allowing Jesus to be the transcendent figure in our lives rather than us living our own lives. See, every action we, as Christians, make should point other people towards Christ as they are able to see Jesus in the things we say and the actions we do. To truly be Unleashed means to allow Christ to free you of this earthly pain and instead have your focus solely be on Kingdom advancement. To allow Christ to come in and transcend your life to the point that whenever people see you, they are in awe of a difference in your life so much so that they see Christ in your actions rather than you.

Living for Christ isn't easy, Christ never said it would be though. What he promised is that there would be challenges, however whenever a challenge or trial arose He promised that there would be nothing we couldn't overcome. Although we live in a society that is falling from the Word of God, Christians have all the more opportunity to stand out and be a light in a growing darkness. Being Unleashed isn't about bringing the attention to you, but rather bringing the attention to your God. It's not about talking the talk, but rather walking the walk. It's not about being in the world, but rather being of the Kingdom of God. It's not about being a distraction to fellow believers, but rather about rallying around the Word of God and making your faith something that is outspoken in your life rather than a secret that you keep locked inside your deepest vault in your heart.

Pray always. Be Unleashed. Be Bold. Let Christ transcend your life. Live your life in a manner in which you don't have regret for not sharing your faith. Share Christ.