Life Lifters | Lakeshore Community Church

Dec 29 8:20 AM

Best of 2021: Pleasing God Over Others (Released 04-04-2021)

Dec 29 8:20 AM

Wednesday, January 29, 2021

There is sometimes a perceived tension that you sometimes have to choose between whether you love God or love people, even if really loving God means always loving people, because you're doing the right thing. It's not easy is it?

Wednesday, January 29, 2021

Originally Published April 14, 2021

1 Thessalonians 2:3-6

Through the end of the year, we’ll be rerunning some of the best Life Lifters from 2021. We hope you’ll join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning!

I want to talk to you today about our relationship to God and our relationship to people. Jesus said life is all about our relationship to God, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength," and it's all about our relationship to people, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30-31). There is sometimes a perceived tension that you sometimes have to choose between whether you love God or love people, even if really loving God means always loving people, because you're doing the right thing. It's not easy is it?

I've heard people say, "I don't care what people think about me, I don't care." Here's the truth, we all care about what people think. Some people care way too much. Others, I haven't met too many, but some people care way too little. The truth is, we all care about what people think. To deny it is to lie to yourself. But at some point, we have to decide who matters more, God or people. I've heard people say this, "Vince, I want to get baptized, but I don't think I'm going to do it because I'm worried about what my family would think." And I will tell them, "Okay, are you worried about what God thinks?" They say, "You know, I would do that, but I don't know what people would think. They'd think I'm a Christian freak." And I would say, "Well, what does God think?" And here's the thing, if you're living for God, no matter what happens they're going to think you're a freak. So you might as well confirm it.

I get that because it's 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6. Paul was explaining his ministry to the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians had been influenced by his ministry, and many of them became Christians. He wanted to come back, but he wasn't able to. He writes First Thessalonians because they were panicked, they thought the rapture had occurred and that the Lord had already taken the church out, and they were left behind because they weren't true believers. They were young, insecure, and unsure in their faith, and Paul explains why he couldn't be there. He then defended his ministry against others who said. People were saying, "Well, Paul's not a real apostle, he's fake. He's this and that." Paul was constantly attacked, and if you're in ministry long enough, there will always be people that will attack you. I'm not saying they're not sometimes right about me, or anybody else. I'm just saying that it's constant and sometimes very unfair. The apostle Paul used that opportunity to say look, I love you. But I love God even more. Look at what he says in 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6, "For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.We are not trying to please men, but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed - God is our witness. We are not looking for praise from men, not from you, or anyone else."

He's saying, look, we weren't trying to trick you when we presented the gospel at some pseudo religious magic show. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, which is what accompanies an apostle. And, at the end of the day, God's going to test our hearts. He says, you know, we never used flattery, which is people pleasing. Nor did we put on a mask to cover up. We know there wasn't the COVID virus back then. To put on a mask to cover up greed was just an expression that means, "we're just nice to you to get your money." He goes on to say, we are not looking for praise from men. Not from you, or anyone else. Now that's interesting. He loved them. He cared for them. He wanted what's best for them, but he wasn't looking for praise from them. Seems so contrary to life. All I want to tell you is this, we love people. We want to please people. But we don't want to be people-pleasers. We want to be God-pleasers. Here's what I know, if you please God, he'll take care of everything else. Proverbs 16:7 says, "When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." So please God, He will take care of your relationship with other people. Don't be a people-pleaser. Please people at the appropriate level, but only under the overarching principle of pleasing God first.

Father, help us to be God-pleasers first, and people-pleasers second. Let us never forget that order. Let us take our lumps when we have to, but also remember that we live for an audience of one. For whoever needs to hear this today, maybe something's going on in their life and they need this reminder, speak to them. Speak to all of us and help us live this way every day, in Jesus' name. Amen.

By Pastor Vince DiPaola

Dec 22 8:38 AM

Best of 2021: What We Need is Love (Released 02-12-2021)

Dec 22 8:38 AM

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Some people share their views peacefully and quietly. Some people share them violently in an anarchist way. Regardless, if we don't share our message with love we never can win anybody to our side.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Originally Published February 12, 2021

Romans 13:8, 10

Through the end of the year, we’ll be rerunning some of the best Life Lifters from 2021. We hope you’ll join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning!

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We're going to be celebrating Valentine's Day soon, it's the day of love. I thought about what I could say about love? I think about our world and I think about what the Bible has to say and what what the world needs now, what we need right now, is love. I think of that song, "what the world needs now is love, sweet love". Aren't you glad you're reading this and not listening to me sing that? Let's just say I will not quit my day job. I don't even know who sang that song, but I know that they had the right answer.

Our world has a lot of people that have a lot of views. That's to be expected when you have 7 billion people on the planet. The problem is how people share these views. Some people share them peacefully and quietly. Some people share them violently in an anarchist way. Regardless, if we don't share our message with love we never can win anybody to our side. And what the world needs is love, sweet love. And I get that from a passage in Romans chapter 13, where it talks about love as we get closer and closer to the very end of time as we know it and the Lord returns. Romans 13:8,10 says, "let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law". So the first thing it says is that the only thing we should ever owe people is love. You always owe people love. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you forfeit your right to hate anybody because God doesn't hate anybody. He hates sin, but he doesn't hate people. So that's the first thing, we need to be a source of love.

Then I think about verse 10, where it says, "love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore Love is the fulfillment of the law". We see a lot of people saying "you need to change," but they're saying it with a bat, or catching things on fire, or punching, stabbing, shooting, and killing people. There's a lot of violence in our world and there's a lack of love. In fact, Jesus said "the love of many will grow cold" in the end times, and I think we're getting very close to there, if we're not they're already.

But this is your chance to shine, to show love when there's so much hate. I know this --I'm responsible for my behavior. I'm not responsible for how people respond to my queries. So be a person who extends love. I know Valentine's Day is for your sweetie, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your husband or wife if you have one. But, let's extend love and show love to people. We owe that to them. And if we want to represent Jesus Christ well, if we want to be heard, if we want to make the world a better place, we have to communicate the message of love. And most importantly, perhaps, if we want to model Jesus Christ so that people will see Him in us, let's show love.

So when you see people remember you owe them love and if you really love you will show no harm. Love is the fulfillment of the law. So I hope this week that you'll be a loving person that you'll show love everywhere you possibly can. I think your life will be better for it and maybe the world's a little better for it.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for your love. Your love is what fuels our love. We live in a world of hatred, and enmity, and strife and bitterness, and cantankerous and fighting. I pray that we'll be people of love that we will love the people that we engage with even if we disagree. I pray that we'll be able to show your love through it and that people will see you in us. I thank you for this, in Jesus name. Amen.

By Pastor Vince DiPaola

Oct 29 8:13 AM

Try a Little Kindness

Oct 29 8:13 AM

Friday, October 29, 2021

It's so easy to not be kind. I always remember back in the VHS tape days, I don't know if you remember VHS tapes. I still have some of them...

Friday, October 29, 2021

Galatians 5:22e

We have been looking at how to live with an attitude, not a negative attitude, but a biblical attitude. We're saying that we have a choice. Life is a choice - we have a choice between living for the Holy Spirit or living for our old self. The more we live for the Holy Spirit, the more we're living with a biblical attitude. The proof so we know we're living in the Holy Spirit is when we live out the nine fruit of the Holy Spirit, the expressions of the Holy Spirit. The less we live out these nine traits, the more we're living for our old self, that's the way we used to live befor we became a Christian, if in fact we are.

So today I want to talk to you about another fruit of the Spirit. So far, we've talked about the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and patience. Today, I want to talk to you about the fifth fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness. Galatians 5:22e says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is... kindness." So, my title for this one is "Try a Little Kindness." It's so easy to not be kind. I always remember back in the VHS tape days, I don't know if you remember VHS tapes. I still have some of them, and those of you who know me really aren't surprised I still have some of them. But whenever you would go to Blockbuster (there's no such thing as Blockbuster anymore, but back when my kids were young you would rent videos from Blockbuster), the videos would always have a label on the outside that would say, "Please be kind and rewind." In other words, once you watch this movie, bring it back to the beginning so that when the next person gets it, they can have it rewound. I think sometimes that's the extent with which people will be kind, they just will rewind. I want to tell you that if you want to be kind, you have to put out effort to love people and to treat them charitably.

We need to be more kind. I forget who said it, but one of our presidents said, "I want us to be a kinder and gentler nation." I'm not sure our enemies would appreciate that, but if that met to each other, I would agree. If we can give kindness to people, I'll tell you what, people's spirits will be lifted up. A lot of people are unkind. If you drive down 390 around 7:45AM, you see that people can be unkind. If you go to the store for Black Friday sales and you want to buy something, people can be unkind. Sometimes in your neighborhood, everybody seems to have this one neighbor nobody likes, because he's so unkind. Here's the remedy. The remedy is not to say, "I will see your kindness and I'll raise it," like a little kind of parochial poker game. God wants us to show kindness. And the greatest proof of the Holy Spirit's presence in our life is when we show kindness in situations that might theoretically, in the world's eyes, justify unkindness. Your best opportunity to show the love of God is to be kind when someone is not kind to you.

"A gentle answer turns away wrath," Proverbs tells us. That is as opposed to an angry answer doesn't turn away wrath, but fuels it. That's what kindness is. Kindness is just saying, "no matter what, I'm going to treat you right." I was talking to somebody who was in the hospital, and they said the nurses treated them horribly. They had just got over covid and the nurse told her to flip over, and she says, "I can't flip." The nurse said, "I'm not coming back here again, etc." It was an unbelievable lack of kindness. One of our members (I'm so proud to call her one of our members), do you know what she did? She showed kindness to the nurse, and eventually the nurse was, I'd love to say perfectly nice, but the nurse was less mean. So here's what I want to say. Try a little kindness. All it costs you is a decision. Father, all of us could stand to be more kind, myself included. Help us to treat people with more kindness, so that we can show them your love and so that we can live in the fruit of the Spirit. We ask this In Jesus' name, amen.

By Pastor Vince DiPaola

Oct 18 8:04 AM

Living With An Attitude

Oct 18 8:04 AM

Monday, October 18, 2021

I want to talk to you about living with an attitude.... But I want to talk to you about living with a biblical attitude.

Monday, October 18, 2021

Galatians, 5:16-17, 22-23

I want to talk to you about living with an attitude. Whenever I say, "Boy, that person has an attitude," it almost always has a negative connotation. "Boy, he's got a bad attitude. He's got a down attitude. He's got a sour attitude. He's got an uncharitable, unloving attitude." But I want to talk to you about living with a biblical attitude. So, maybe we should call it living with a biblical attitude. I'm going to give you kind of an overview, and over the next nine Life Lifters, I'm doing my flavors, I'm going to talk about nine attitudes to live with.

I want to start by reading Galatians 5:16-17 to kind of paint the picture about the importance of living with an attitude, or a biblical attitude. Paul says, "What I say is this, let the Holy Spirit direct your lives and do not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants. And what the Spirit wants is opposed to what the human nature wants. The two are enemies." So see, Paul is setting up a contrast: live in the desires of the Holy Spirit, don't live in desires of your sinful nature. If you are a Christian, the sinful nature is the person you were before you came a Christian. Every day of life, your attitude is your choice. And every day of life, whether you're aware of it or not, whether you think of it in this context or not, here's the truth: You have a choice. You can live by the attitude of the Holy Spirit, or live by the attitude of your old nature. Some days we do a lot more of one than the other. Hopefully our goal is to live 100% with an attitude of the Spirit, and 0% with the attitude of our old nature. Attitude is important because attitude will help us choose - are we going to live for the Holy Spirit or for our old nature?

How do we live for the Holy Spirit? Watch this, you live for the Holy Spirit by living the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 talk about the fruit of the Spirit. It says, "When the Holy Spirit controls our lives," in other words, when we choose the Holy Spirit's attitude over our human nature attitude, "he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." Then, he later says, "against such there is no law." Let me just briefly help you understand how to live in the Spirit, how to live by the fruit of the Spirit, because the fruit of the Spirit are not the same as the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are the spiritual gifts we get when we believe. The fruit of the Spirit are not the gifts of the Spirit. Second, the fruit of the Spirit are not the gift of the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is that the moment you believe you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to help you choose the attitude to live for Him, not for our old self. These attitudes come from dependence on God. How do you live these nine fruit of the Spirit that we're going to be talking about? It's real simple. You have to depend on God, depend on the Holy Spirit. The secret to living the fruit of the Spirit, the secret to living the Christian life, the secret to living a life that chooses the Holy Spirit over your old nature and your old, pre-Christian, sinful lifestyle is this. Stop trying and start yielding. Stop trying to be better, and start yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the person of the Trinity who is most talked about in the New Testament as helping us change and live the Christian life.

Do you want to live with an attitude? You want to stop living for the old you and start living for the Holy Spirit, the new you? You want to live with an attitude that surrenders to God and lets him work through these nine fruit of the spirit? Let me just pray with you, Father, help all of us listening live by your spirit and not by our old ways. Let us embrace what you have to say to us in the fruit of the Spirit and embrace all nine fruit. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

By Pastor Vince DiPaola

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Best of 2021: Pleasing God Over Others (Released 04-04-2021)

Best of 2021: What We Need is Love (Released 02-12-2021)

Try a Little Kindness

Living With An Attitude

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