MOVED TO NEW HOST

I have now moved my blog to a new host at www.andyrobinson.org.uk

Purpose, Power & Proclamation

This What is our MAIN THING?

God gave Pharaoh a simple summary of His purpose and his main objective in Exodus 9:16 “for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth“

I look at the purpose of the church and us as individuals in light of this verse. What is it ultimately that we have been called to? What is the thing above all else that we have to fix our eyes on. We should then be measuring all our individual and corporate activities, plans, hopes and dreams against that vision. Knowing our purpose and vision helps us determine where we should be putting out time and resources, how we should be redistributing resources in order that we might better serve the purpose of God.

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Radical Discipleship

What is RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP?

What is to be a RADICAL DISCIPLE OF JESUS?

In this sermon I look at, and compare, the life an experience of Jesus disciples whilst they were with Jesus to after he had ascended and the Holy Spirit had come. What a difference the Holy Spirit makes! An unfocused rabble become organized, purposeful miracle workers and world missionaries. I poses the question who are we? Are we like the pre-Pentecost disciples or Radical, empowered, Holy Spirit filled people demonstrating the kingdom or just “Normal” !

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And So It Begins … Incitement to Racial Hatred used to Prevent Preaching on the Street!

A street preacher is at the centre of a row over freedom of speech after police threatened to arrest him for reading the Bible in public.

And so it begins … on Saturday the Telegraph News Paper reported that whilst preaching and reading the bible on the streets of Manchester a man was told by plain clothes and uniformed police officers to stop or face arrest.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, a friend of mine and the the director of the Christian Legal Centre, has written to Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, over the incident …. Go Andrea!

The Telegrapth reported “The centre and Mr Diamond believe that the police abused their powers during the dispute on Saturday, July 25. It is against the law to use offensive, threatening or abusive words or behaviour. It is also an offence to incite hatred on grounds of race, religion or sexual orientation. However, in its letter to the police, the Christian Legal Centre said: ‘Freedom of religious and freedom of religious speech is specifically protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.’ The letter added: ‘This means that any restriction on the ‘right’ to evangelise will have to be justified by the Police by a ‘pressing social need’. ‘In a free society, this is very difficult to do; and a few complaints by irate individuals will not suffice.’

This is, I beleive, the begining of the systematic errosion of the christian foundation of this nation! I think we should take a long close look at what principles and political foundations have made this country great. I would suggest that it is the foundational chrsitian principles our laws are founded on. I am not saying that everyone should be a chrsitian, or anything like that. But lets not throw the baby out with the bath water!

What Does a Radical Disciple Look Like ?

This download looks at, and compares, the life an experience of Jesus disciples whilst with Jesus to after he had ascended and the Holy Spirit had come. What a difference the Holy Spirit makes! Unfocused observing rabble to organized, purposeful miracle workers and world missionaries. I poses the question who are we? Are we like the pre-Pentecost disciples who love Jesus, the follow Jesus, who love the Gospels, who have received forgiveness, salvation and everlasting life BUT are not operating like the disciples in the book of acts with boldness and with demonstrations of the kingdom!

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Moving from Holy Spirit Experience to Holy Spirit Power!

Unlocking the POWER of GOD

So what happened from Jesus receiving the Holy Spirit, from him having a visible manifestation if the Holy Spirit (For him it was a dove landing on him, could have been gold dust, feathers, shaking, falling over, but for Him is was a Dove) and moving on from that EXPERIANCE of the HOLY SPIRIT to moving and operating IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

What can we learn? What happened between the experience and the PURPOSE & POWER?

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Anointing for Purpose

First of all let me say that the Holy Spirit came on him for purpose.

Affirmation

It was for affirmation “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased[1]”, although this was not the primary reason because we know that Jesus already knew who he was at the tender age of 12 when he said to his parents when he went missing and was found in the temple “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house[2]”.

Guidance

The account says that Jesus was “Led by the Spirit[3]” suggesting that as the Holy Spirit came on him that God spoke to him, gave him council, moved him into something new, or into the next season of his life and ministry.

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Readiness for Temptation and Hardship

This I would suggest is the penultimate key here. As we pray for the presence of God to come, to presence himself with us by the Holy Spirit, as we ask him to come in power we better be ready for what comes next.

For Jesus it was 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil himself.

When the Manifest Presence of God comes by the Holy Spirit demons will flee just as they did after when Jesus pitched up. When we call for the power of God to come we need to be prepared for a testing to come, for temptation to come. When it does we need to be ready! We need to be as Jesus was well fed, not physically, but spiritually. We need to be immersed in the word of God so as temptation comes we can stand firm of the truth of Scripture as Jesus did as he stood firm against the Devil. We need to be continually repentant, quickly confessing sin and humbly receiving correction from those in authority over us.

Let us receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, not for experience in that moment sake, but in readiness for the times to come.

Anointed Me Too …..

Jesus himself explained why he received the baptism of the Spirit. He clearly explained that when the manifest presence of God came on him, when he visibly experienced the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is was for a clear reason.

Let us read the reason together from Scripture.

(Luke 4:18-19 ESV)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

The Spirit of the Lord is upon be because he has anointed me to …

There it is right here he is going to tell us why the was anointed, what what the purpose of experiencing the manifest presence of God.

It was to:

• Proclaim the Good News
• Set Captives Free
• Heal the Sick
• Cast out Demons
• Preach Gods Promises

That was the reason for the baptism of the spirit, that was the purpose of the manifestation of the Spirit upon him … and the same is true for us

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

(John 20:21 ESV)

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Moving from Experiences to Power

Folks we need to get hold of this. Sure there is an element of receiving the Holy Spirit manifestations for personal affirmation, but that is a by product of the Holy Spirit coming upon us. His purpose is to anoint us to fulfil Gods mission for his church. That through us his manifold wisdom may be made known[4]. That through us the sick will be healed, that people set free, demons cast out and declaring that now it the day of salvation!

Gold dust, feathers, gems, falling about and all this great stuff that happens when the Holy Spirit is present is an empowering for us to do the things that Jesus did, greater things, in the places he did them. Jesus was anointed to preach to the poor, not in churches, but on the streets[5]. Jesus was preaching the good news, not in synagogues but in the work place[6]. He was healing the sick not at meetings but in people homes[7] and places were the sick gathered[8].

Let us not fall into seeking these signs and wonders for simply self affirmation. I have heard conversations like “Have you had gold dust yet?” whilst I understand the excitement, especially when it happens to you, we must be very careful that we don’t end up seeking signs for the sake of the signs but for the empowerment.

Jesus asked “Why does this generation seek a sign?[9]” and warned us that “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given[10]” We must ensure that we are pursuing God and his glory not our own affirmation.

So for some of you/us there are not signs, no gold dust, no shaking, no obvious manifestations and that is just fine … it is Christ in you that is the hope of glory[11] … not manifestations of the Spirit! It is the fruit that is important, not how the tree is planted!

The Holy Spirit has anointed me to …    FOR PURPOSE !

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[1] Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22

[2] Luke 2 49

[3] Luke 4:1

[4] Eph 3:10

[5] Mat 22:9

[6] Mat 4:18-19

[7] Mat 9:23

[8] John 5:2-9

[9] Mark 8:12

[10] Mat 12:38-39, Mat 16:4

[11] Col 1:27

Lust, Sex, Pornography, Masturbation … What Did Jesus Have to Say?

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First of all let me tell you that Sex was God’s Idea. And Sex is Great! God designed it to be Great! To be pleasurable, fun, meaningful and fruitful. He designed it that it might produce oneness between a man and a woman. The bible tells us that “the two shall become one” and sex does that amazingly well. Sex is great! 

However, we have substituted the truth for a lie[1] and now in this day and age we worship sex. It has become the God of this age. Everywhere you look the god of sex, sexuality and sensuality is worshipped. We worship the beautiful people and desire what we should not have. We obsess over how we look in order that we will be more desirable to others and not our spouse. We promote sin in our schools thinly disguised as Sex Education where we teach our children how worship the god of this age.

Sex has been made a god. People worship it rather than the God who created it. We abuse it and use it for personal and selfish reasons rather than to create oneness as God intended. We have taken something amazing, something beautiful and exchanged it for a dry shrivelled up old rag!

Mat 5:27-30 ESV  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  ⁽²⁸⁾  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  ⁽²⁹⁾  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  ⁽³⁰⁾  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

The Pharisees and Scribes were constantly looking to reduce the commandments of the Law to a simply and single act. Do No Commit Adultery in this case. Limiting it to the physical act, but here again Jesus is emphasising the motive of the heart as being the issue. Later on in Matthew he speaks even more clearly and directly on it.

Mat 15:19-20 ESV For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  ⁽²⁰⁾  These are what defile a person. “

The Scribes & Pharisees show an amazing lack of understanding and learning in that the 10^th Commandment, Do not Covet – specifically addresses the issue of lusting after your neighbours wife. Clearly this needs to be taken in conjunction with Do Not Commit Adultery! This was either not understood by the Pharisees or conveniently overlooked for the sake of comfort!

Jesus is saying that for us to be RADICAL we are not looking to be those that simply CONFORM to a set of prescribed rules and regulations, but we are to be those who understand the motives that result in these prohibitions and that we radically deal with them. We seek the spirit of the law, not the letter!

This is an extract from my recent sermon on LUST where I tackle issues such as Pornography, Masturbation, Sexual Immorality, Fornication, Adultery from this passage in Matthew. You can LISTEN for FREE to this here, or DOWNLOAD for FREE here

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[1] 2 Peter 2:14

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Is Masturbation a Sin?

FREE MP3: To listen to a talk on this issue then press here, or download here.

Clearly masturbation is not directly referenced in the bible. There is no “Thou Shalt Not …” for this. Equally the scripture “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might[1]” is not a scripture to support it either.

When this action takes place it is rarely, and I would use the word never, that lustful thoughts and imagination (commonly porn too) are not present too. That being the case, Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount clearly and directly apply – If you look lustfully, either with you natural eyes or your minds eye, then you are committing adultery with her in your heart. If you tell me that you don’t have lustful thoughts etc and simply think about cars or something then one might argue that you have bigger problems.

Let us remember that sex was created by God and it was good. He created it for us to enjoy, to allow us to reproduce and to produce ONENESS. In Genesis it says .

Genesis 2:24 ESV  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Let me be clear ONENESS is not ONE (being on ones own), but TWO becoming ONE. All sexual experiences that produce ONENESS within the context of marriage between one man and one woman are legitimate. Thus any sexual experience outside that context is not legitimate because it is outside of the context within which God designed and planned it to occur.

So is masturbation a sin? It is if you consider sin to be doing things that God has said not to (LUST), or doing them outside the context or environment that God intended and communicated to us (Self Gratification, not producing oneness between a husband and a wife) then yes, it should be considered a sin.

FREE MP3: To listen to a talk on this issue then press here, or download here. 

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[1] Ecclesiastes 9:10

The Radical Life of the Normal Christian

 

 

The Radical Life of the Normal ChristianWe often use the word “radical” not to make Christianity or the Christian life something more than the bible says it is, but to raise it up over what it has become! Andy ponders the life the Bible calls us to, what the Bible considers the “Normal Christian Life” and concludes it is nothing like the inheritance previous generations have left us. The bible teaches of a normal Christian life that when compared to what we have allowed Christianity to become can only be described as RADICAL! Download for Free HERE Listen for Free HERE

Conflict Resolution

Confrontation, unity, conflict and resolution are ever present in any environment be it a marriage, a family, an office and even a church. The way we manage conflict, determine answers and how we implement resolutions can all have a massive impact on unity.

There is a great example of how a conflict and confrontation in the church at Antioch is resolved and implemented for both the good of the Gospel and the sake of unity within the churches. Acts 15 – the council of Jerusalem gives us great insight into reaching a Godly decision on something by looking at both an “Experiential Arguments” and a “Biblical/Doctrinal Arguments” as well as, for the sake of love not commanding but appealing to the churches to implement their findings in a way that maximised cross cultural and cross church unity.

I have just preached on this and you can listen for FREE online here, or download it as a free MP3 here.