A desire to influence

I once read a quote by John Maxwell that went something like this: "With only one exception every person in the world is made up of others."

Well, most of us are not content to live our lives for ourselves. We believe in our ideas. We are also motivated by a desire to live a life that counts ... that leaves a positive imprint on as many others as possible. So, we look at the "others" around us and desire to influence them, to leave them better off for their encounter with us.

Well, if we look at Jesus' Great Commission and also look at that desire within most of us, we realize that our desire to influence others goes beautifully with Jesus' command to make disciples (followers of Jesus). God's Son calls us to play a part in influencing others to follow Him and grow in their conformity to His teachings.

One of the many ways we can do this is to blog. I love those times when it is just me and my computer. I have a thought that I would love to share with others regarding a Christian's perspective of a current event or a devotional thought on some passage of Scripture. So, I sit down and punch out my thoughts on the keyboard.

The potential influence we can have when we upload our thoughts to the web is mind-blowing. As a pastor, I've had the chance to regularly influence hundreds in my ministry. Yet as a blogger, I have had the opportunity to influence tens of thousands of others around the world. You can see from the inset how many times my blog has had a hit from the top ten countries that visit my site.

With the inset to the left, you see that you can blog about just about anything. My top post, "Symptoms of a Guilty Conscience" was written a couple of years ago as I reflected on the words of a lawyer in a murder trial and also upon some relevant stories in God's Word. The next most popular post, "Selling Our Florida House" simply reflected on the struggle my wife and I had with how God would resolve our nightmare-scenario situation of trying to get rid of a house that was VERY upside down. On and on, you see that I simply write about a lot of things and folks just like reading.


So, if I can do it, so can you. Why not consider starting a blog and putting your thoughts to print. People will read and you will influence. If you want to get into blogging, I'd love to help you get started. Just contact me at: mattellis1997@gmail.com.

See yourself as God sees you

Too many of us (I'm certainly included) base our self-worth on props that often cannot handle the weight. We base our value on what we've accomplished, where we've gone, what educational achievement(s) or degree(s) we've attained, how many heads turn when we walk into the room, how many "likes" our social media posts get, the size of our house or vehicles (compared to others, of course), how many people call to check on us when we miss a meeting or church, and so forth.

When we think about this token list, we come to at least two realizations:

1) most of us find our value in these sorts of superficial things and

2) all of them can be stripped away (or considered meaningless by those we desire to impress) almost immediately.

Is it wrong to crave to be valued? Of course not. God made us this way. All of us want to think that our one life matters and that it matters to more than just us.

So, is there a way that you and I can get a sense of value that cannot be taken away? ... that sufficiently satisfies that deep-down longing that every one of us has?

Absolutely! Just come to see yourself as God sees you! Read, study and, by faith, internalize the very words that God has said are true of you!

Just one such word from God to you is found in 1Peter 1:18-19. It tells you what price God paid so that you could be saved and brought into fellowship with Him. Talk about value!

1 Peter 1:18-19 (NLT)

"For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God."

This is just one of the hundreds and hundreds of things that God has said are true of you if you have been saved. Do yourself a huge favor and look for and internalize God's truth.

One more thing: When we see ourselves as God sees us rather than coming up with our own set of "self-esteem props", we'll be filled with humility and gratitude to God rather than sinful pride. That's a good thing.

Sermon (video): "How Holy Must I Be?" (Matthew 7:24-27)

So, what does it mean to be saved? Can I trust in Jesus to save me and then just try to be as good as my Christian friends and peers? Or, can I get "saved" and then just live like I want?

In the Bible, we are told that someone who is truly saved will pursue holiness. While everyone will progress toward Christlikeness at a different pace and all are on varied points on the journey, each of those folks who are headed to Heaven will progressively become more like Jesus.

So, this sermon is a serious call to pursue holiness. It was preached at the Westside Baptist Church of Murray, Kentucky on Sunday morning, March 1, 2015.

To view this sermon click here.

My response to a defense of the bdsm lifestyle

__________, your apparent defense of bdsm (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) relationships is unconscionable. The verse that immediately comes to mind is Isaiah 5:20 where is says, "What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter."

Since you said that you are "glad that people are talking about it more now," let me talk about it for a few moments.

First, the one who receives the punishment is really showing much about themselves. It is a fact of life that folks act out (and allow others to act toward them) based upon how they see themselves. A simple moment's reflection validates my point.

So, that being said, when someone feels like a person of value, they expect that others will treat them that way. When someone feels worthless, they allow (and expect) others to treat them that way.

For a Christ-follower, we realize that if we are mistreated we are to pray for our abuser because they are not behaving in a way that is right and appropriate (Matthew 5:44). We recognize the wrong that is happening because they are mistreating a person of value (created in God's image and also a child of God) so we pray for them.

Yet, when someone accepts (even craves) abuse from others, it reveals something very dark about that person's thinking. It shows how they view themselves. It reveals that they feel deserving of such treatment ... that they feel unloved, or uncared for, or unvalued.

That's the power of the mind God has given us. We may not be able to explain what's going on in our thinking but all we have to do is observe how we act and how we expect others to act around us to see the health (or lack thereof) of our thinking.

Second and finally, the one who dishes out the punishment shows much about themselves, too. Someone who finds sexual gratification in abusing someone else is desperately wicked.

The Bible commands a husband to love his wife just like the love that Jesus has for us (Ephesians 5:25). That kind of love is described further in Ephesians 5:29 where is says, "For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church." (No abuse language found there!) Further, 1 Peter 3:7 commands husbands to "live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel." In other words, treat her respectfully and carefully. Guys who abuse their wives (or any other woman in their lives) are in no way demonstrating Christ's love.

The kind of "love" that would abuse the object of one's affection is perversion. It reveals a domineering, totalitarian, self-love rather than the submissive, self-sacrificing love that husbands and wives are commanded to have for each other.

For the world system that is in a moral free-fall, I am not surprised that such behavior is becoming accepted and even applauded. In fact, we read in Romans 1:18-32 that when a society progresses in that free-fall, sexual deviancy is a major part.

But, for the follower of Jesus, there is no room for such behavior or the approval thereof. While we reguarly fall short of God's standard and must daily receive God's grace and forgiveness, we also realize that there are certain things that God commands and certain things He prohibits ... for our good. The bdsm lifestyle is clearly where we part ways.

The Joy of Fearing God

"But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." (Isaiah 8:13).

There are many verses like this in the Bible ... verses that say we should fear God ... that our natural response would be to fall down in His presence and tremble.

Some folks are more than a little uncomfortable with this. They say things like, "What kind of God is that?! He wants us to FEAR Him?! I don't want to believe in a God like THAT!"

Yet, they fail to realize the beauty of it. They fail to see that this is what the human heart longs to experience.

Imagine that you were in a high political office and were invited by a high ranking general to view a top-secret military location. You followed him through a multitude of metal doors as you also made your way down various flights of stairs.

When you came to a final door, the general halted, looked you in the eye and said, "Hear that hum?" Yes, you hear it. It was almost deafening. He said, "Behind this door is a new type of weapon. It's been recently developed. It is so powerful that it would make the atom bomb look like a Fourth of July firecracker that failed. This weapon could easily blow up an entire continent."

Your jaw dropped. Your eyes widened. Your mouth begin to feel very dry and your knees were shaking. As he punched the code into the door lock, you almost found yourself saying, “No! Hold on a second. We don’t need to go in that room. I’m good.” But, he opens the door and invites you in.

There it is! This massive weapon that was putting off that loud humming noise. And as you viewed it, you were filled with a multitude of emotions, just a few of which were awe, fear, elation and humility. And while you would find yourself ready to call the visit to a close and get out of there, you would notice at a later time that you wanted to go back for a visit. Such power that evoked such fear was almost intoxicating. You would also find that everything inside you would want to tell others of your experience.

Simply put, if we don't fear God, then it's not the God of the Bible. If we properly understand the God of the Bible in His holiness and power, He will often cause us to have the same sort of emotions described in the story above. If He never does, then the "god" we have in our minds and hearts is a "god" of our own imaginations.

There are more than a few Bible teachers and preachers who think it is not to their benefit to speak of a God that needs to be feared. But, in so doing, they rob their listeners of the joy of knowing such a holy and powerful God that SHOULD strike fear in the hearts of all who know Him … and they LOVE it!

"But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." (Isaiah 8:13).

Sermon (video): "The Insanity of Pride" (Psalm 8)

This sermon seeks to define pride, show that each of us struggles with it, and show that while it is natural it also is bizarre that we would tolerate such a thing in our life.

It was preached at the Westside Baptist Church of Murray, Kentucky on Sunday morning, January 25, 2015.

Some reflections on the categories of temptation

As I reflected upon my Bible reading this morning, I came across something that was fascinating. I've noticed it before but it never gets old.

As I read through Matthew 4 where Jesus was tempted by Satan, I couldn't help but realize that He experienced the three primary temptation categories that are listed in 1 John 2:16. Every single time we are tempted to sin, it is in one of three ways - our body craves something it is not supposed to have, our mind craves something it is not supposed to have or our ego craves something it's not supposed to have.

In the following chart, I list the sin category on the far left.

Second, I give a very basic clarification of that temptation.

Third, I show how Eve, along with Adam, fell into sin by way of each of the three temptations.

Finally, I show how Jesus demonstrated that He was sinlessly perfect as He overcame each of those three categories of temptation to sin that Satan lobbed at Him. (And notice that Satan knew God's Word but didn't get the temptations in the order they are listed in Genesis 3 and 1 John 2. He knows God's Words but handles it carelessly.)

List of primary temptation categories in 1 John 2:16	Clarification of the temptation	Mankind’s yielding to the temptation	Jesus’ victory over the temptation
“Lust of the flesh”	My body wants something that it’s not supposed to have.	“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…” (Genesis 3:6)	Jesus didn’t turn stones to bread so He could eat even though He was starving (Matthew 4:3-4)
“Lust of the eyes”	My mind wants something that it’s not supposed to have.	“So when the woman saw that the tree … was a delight to the eyes,” (Genesis 3:6)	Jesus didn’t take the shortcut to His future reign over the world after viewing the impressive kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:8-10)
“Pride of life”	My ego wants something that it’s not supposed to have.	“So when the woman saw … that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,” (Genesis 3:6)	Jesus didn’t think too much of Himself by presuming upon God’s watchful care (Matthew 4:5-8)
The result…		“… she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6). The further result was God’s disapproval and separation from mankind.	“Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” (Matthew 4:11). This was a demonstration of Jesus’ sinless perfection as He would go to the cross and take our place bearing God’s punishment on our behalf.