Dave Trenholm - From the Ground Up

Published September 18, 2012

What Do I Still Lack?

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14

Twice in this passage, Paul tells us that he is pressing on. He has not yet reached the end of his spiritual journey – He is not yet perfect. So if Paul, the guy who started multiple churches, the guy who wrote over half of the books of the New Testament, the guy who was thrown in prison on many occasions for preaching the Gospel – If he still had to press on in his spiritual journey – don’t you think, that perhaps you and I have further to go as well?

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been talking about this spiritual journey that each of us is one. All of us are on a journey. All of us are either moving closer to God or away from Him. There’s no standing still.

So today I want to encourage you to press on. To take the next step forward in your spiritual journey. We’ve been using this booklet as a bit of a road map help us along. And I trust that over these pass few weeks, you’ve been able to get a good sense of where you are in your spiritual journey. Are you not interested in a relationship with God? Are you curiously seeking? Are you “searching assertively, making a faith commitment, experiencing new life, growing in community, or making disciples.” And where ever you are, the more important question is: “Are you taking steps to move forward? Are you pressing on?”

Today I want to look at the story of the rich young man as found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, to see an important crossroads in his spiritual journey.

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What if the Bible is True?

What if the Bible is true? That might seem like an odd sort of question to ask a room full of people sitting in church on a Sunday morning, but that’s exactly the question that I want to ask today. What if the Bible is true?

Last Sunday we began a new fall focus entitled “Your Spiritual Journey.” And as we’ve noted in your bulletin, if you missed last Sunday, please go online to davetrenholm.com and you can either read the message from last week or download it and listen to it as an mp3.

But just to refresh your memory – we talked about how everyone of us is on a spiritual journey, no matter what our beliefs. We’re always headed in some direction – either towards God or away from Him. There is no standing still. We’re always moving in some direction. We’re on a spiritual journey.

And of course, as in any journey – it’s important to know where you, where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there.

So one of the first things we did last week, was to spend some time trying to figure out where each of us are in our own, personal spiritual journey. We used this little handout to help us. Your Spiritual Journey Handout Inside it has seven different phases of a typical spiritual journey. Of course, everyone’s journey is unique, but this booklet gives us some good general guidelines. And if you happened to have missed last week, I’d encourage you to grab one of these booklets from the back before you leave today.

But using this book, last Sunday everyone here tried to figure out where they were in their spiritual journey. Were they “not interested” in a relationship with God? Were they “curiously seeking? Were they “searching assertively, making a faith commitment, experiencing new life, growing in community, or making disciples.”

Well, we all tried our best to figure out were we fit in our own personal journey. Then I collected up everyone’s answers anonymously, and on Tuesday I read through them all, and do you know what I found? I found this a little surprising.

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Your Spiritual Journey – Introduction

To start us off this morning, I need everyone to stand up. I need everyone to stop moving for ten seconds… Become completely motionless when I say go. Ready…. Go.

Ok thank you, you can all sit down. That was a good effort, but you all did terrible. Not one of you came anywhere close to being completely motionless. For example, almost everyone of you continued breathing. Your lungs expanded and contracted with air several times. I saw you. So you were not motionless.

Now some of you went the extra mile and you held your breath. Very good – but still, you were a far cry from being motionless. While you were standing there, your blood was flowing through your veins and arteries at a speed of about 1 foot every second. That’s a lot of motion!

Also, if you had breakfast this morning, you had food moving through your digestive track at about 2 miles per hour. So while you thought you were standing still, the breakfast within you was on the move.

But that’s not all. Every atom and every molecule of your body is in constant motion. The nature of atoms is that they are always moving, vibrating, colliding with each other. In fact, its the movement of atoms that cause us to feel heat. When something gets hotter, it means that it’s atoms are moving faster. When something get colder, it means that it’s atoms are moving slower. So as long as there is some heat, there is some movement. That means, that unless your body temperature has dropped to -459º Fahrenheit, (which is what they call absolute zero), if you are not that cold, then the atoms in your body are still moving.

The fact is, we simply cannot remain motionless. It’s physically impossible. We are always moving. Even if we discount all those tiny motions that happen within our body that we just talked about, we are still in motion.

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King Amaziah vs King David – A Matter of Heart

This morning we are going to conclude our series – Lessons from the Kings. Over the past couple of months we’ve looked at several different kings of Isreal. Some were very good – some were very bad. Some were famous – some were pretty obscure. But all of them had an important lesson to teach us. And I believe that’s going to be true for our last kings today.

Today we are going to look at two kings. King David & King Amaziah. Now I know you’ve heard of King David, but King Amaziah might be a little more obscure to you. Now he certainly isn’t one of the most famous kings. He’s not known for his goodness or for his badness or for his badness for that matter. But he is a noteable character. And I’ve chosen him today because I want to contrast his life with King David’s.

Let’s start today by looking at King David.

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Published August 12, 2012

King Ahab – A Lesson in Grace

This morning we’re going to take a look at one of Israel’s most notorious kings. Just like King David was known for his goodness – King Ahab was known for his badness. In fact, let me just read for you how the Bible introduces him. This is 1 Kings 16:29-33.

“Ahab son of Omri began to rule over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him. 31 And as though it were not enough to follow the example of Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and he began to bow down in worship of Baal. 32 First Ahab built a temple and an altar for Baal in Samaria. 33 Then he set up an Asherah pole. He did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the other kings of Israel before him.” 1 Kings 16:29-33

So basically, what the Bible is telling us, is that Ahab was the most evil king Israel had ever seen. He was the Adolf Hitler, the Joseph Stalin, the Osama Bin Laden of his time.

So what lessons could we possible learn from this guy? Well, I think the answer might surprise you.

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Published July 27, 2012

King Asa – No Longer Fully Committed

Two weeks ago we began looking at the life of King Asa. As most of you know, we’ve been going through our series – Lessons from the Kings – over the summer months and so far we’ve looked at King Saul, King Hezekiah, and now King Asa.

Asa isn’t one of the most famous kings. In fact, if you missed the message two weeks ago, it’s possible that you may not have even heard of him before. So let me give you a quick recap of what we’ve been talking about.

King Asa was the great grandson of King Solomon. And the Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 15 that “Asa did what was pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord his God.”

In the early years of his reign as king, his country was invade by the Ethiopians – and they had an army of one million men – plus chariots and charioteers. Well, long story/short – Asa called out to God and God gave Asa the victory. After this battle, God sent him a message through the prophet Azariah that said basically, as long as you stick with God, God will stick with you.

And so to keep up his end of the deal, King Asa and all the people of Judah entered into a covenant with each other – agreeing to seek the Lord their God with all their heart and soul. Anyone who didn’t, would be put to death.

And actually, following their example, we did the very same thing. (Minus, of course, the penalty of death.) I have a document in my office now that has 14 signatures on it – all of us agreeing to seek God with all our hearts – and agreeing to keep each other accountable in that endeavor.

So that was all last week. This week, we’re going to look at part 2 of Asa’s story. There are still some lessons that we can learn from this king.

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DaveTrenholm.com Posts

What Do I Still Lack?

What if the Bible is True?

Your Spiritual Journey – Introduction

King Amaziah vs King David – A Matter of Heart

King Ahab – A Lesson in Grace

King Asa – No Longer Fully Committed