Anchor of Hope Reformed Church: Recent Episodes
Jacob Meadows
14) Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things?
The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15) I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him
and he will prosper in his way.
Isaiah 48:12-13
"Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first, and I am the last."
Isaiah 48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be
profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 48:1-11 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. (2) For they call themselves after the holy city & stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name. (3) “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth & I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. (4) Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass (5) I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ (6) “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. (7) They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ (8) You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel. (9) “For my name's sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. (10) Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. (11) For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
Isaiah 48:1-8 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. (2) For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name. (3) “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. (4) Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, (5) I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ (6) “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. (7) They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ (8) You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
Isaiah 47:1-15 Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. (2) Take the millstones and grind flour, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers. (3) Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your disgrace shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no one. (4) Our Redeemer—the LORD of hosts is his name— is the Holy One of Israel. (5) Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. (6) I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. (7) You said, “I shall be mistress forever,” so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end. (8) Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”: (9) These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. (10) You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” (11) But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. (12) Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror. (13) You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. (14) Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! (15) Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about, each in his own direction; there is no one to save you.
In such times as these when the things of this world are so unstable and uncertain it is of vital necessity to remember God is Sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, and working all things for the ultimate good for those who love Him. We see this again in Is. 45:8-10 (8) "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, (9) remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, (10) declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' God's has a perfect purpose and a plan to lift up His Son Jesus Christ, the only savior, and redeemer! Amen!
God gives a powerful invitation, declaration, and command in Isaiah 25:22-23- "Turn to me & be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God & there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.'" Jesus makes a similar declaration in John 14:6- "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Either a person bows before Jesus Christ in humble repentance and true faith, belief, and devotion to Him as Savior, Redeemer, King or a person remains in their prideful unbelief and is ultimately humbled and brought low by God's just and holy eternal Conscious torment. Worship Jesus and live, worship oneself and die!
Amen
A beautiful verse that speaks about God saving us by His grace alone is Isaiah 45:4 "For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me." This truth is at the center of the following verses: John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." John 10:16 "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd." 1 John 4:19 "We love because he first loved us." God saved us in His Son Jesus Christ when we did not know Him, did not desire Him, and only hated Him and our neighbor! Thank you, God, for your grace! Amen!
Only in the Lord is wisdom and understanding And truth and life and love... It is a fool who would look for these things in the fallen creation rather than in the Holy perfect Creator. As God promised that he would use Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all God's promises who saves God's people through his substitutionary atonement on the Cross so that we, who are in Christ, are the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit! Amen!
One of the most amazing and precious declarations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by God to His elect children is found in Isaiah 44:22 "I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." Salvation is only by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Jesus redeems us from the curse of the law by dying in our place and satisfying the wrath of God we deserve. The light of Jesus Christ burns away the cloud and mist of our sins when we are made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit! Amen!
Who or what you worship; desire; love with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; place your security in, and or derive your peace and joy and life from will decide what you become. Those who worship unseeing, unhearing, lifeless idols of any kind will be blind, deaf to the truth of Jesus Christ and remain dead unless God makes them and gives them the gracious gifts of belief in obedience to and love for Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If you worship an idol you become like that Idol; If by God's grace you worship Jesus Christ then through the power of the Holy Spirit you are able to become Like Christ in His righteousness and holiness! Amen! What a gift! What a Savior! What a God!
John 3:16 "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Due to the sin on Adam and Eve every human being is conceived in sin and under condemnation, wrath and judgement unless they are saved by God's grace the holy and righteous life, substitution death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ! God made a way when we could find no way! Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If you want to be saved then you need to come into the light of Jesus Christ so that it is made visible that He is your only hope, strength, holiness, and goodness. Only God is good! Amen!
Jesus makes clear in John 3:6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." If a person is to have eternal life and be in right relationship with God then they must be holy as God is holy, righteous as God is righteous, and perfect as God is perfect. Because we are conceived and born with a corrupt, fallen, unrighteous, sinful nature it is impossible for us to be in a right relationship with God unless we are born again by the Spirit of God and receive the gracious gifts of repentance and belief in the holiness, righteousness, and perfection that we can only find in Jesus Christ crucified and risen! Amen!
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Jesus prophesied that Herod's earthly temple was to be destroyed in the near future after His death. The church is to be the temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit because of Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus is alive! Eternal life is only found in Him! Amen!
Jesus is the Word, the light, the Son of God, God, the Beginning and the End, Life, the Lamb of God, the Son of man... Everything was made through and for Him, it makes sense that Jesus could turn water into wine. Jesus needs no seeds, soil, vines, grapes, or wine press. God made everything that has been made from nothing! As Rev. 19:9 says "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." The greatest miracle of all is that while we were still dead in our trespasses and sins, Jesus Made us alive in Himself! Amen!
Praise the Lord!
John Testifies About Jesus
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”[a]
John’s Disciples Follow Jesus
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
John 1:16-18
16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[a] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
O, how we need Jesus! The law speaks of our condemnation, the wrath of our holy God because of our unholiness, our disobedience, our rebellion, our curse, our unrighteousness, and God's just judgement! O how we need the Grace and truth of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ! Galatians 3:13-14 (13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"-- (14) so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Praise the Lord!
Jesus is life! Jesus is light! Without being made alive in Jesus Christ we are dead and lost in darkness. Everyone needs God's light to shine on him or her for them to be saved. Thank you, Jesus, that you died on the cross so that we could have light and go from darkness to light. Amen!
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
God pours out His Spirit on all who are His- all chosen, precious, loved, elected, foreknown by Him. This is our only hope! It is only through the substitutionary and sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we can be saved. Thank you Father for making us alive in your Son Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit! Amen!
We did not seek God; God sought us! We did not love God, God first loved us and enabled us to love Him! We were condemned because of the guilt of our sin and rebellion and Jesus took our sin on His perfect, holy self so that we could by faith receive His righteousness! In Christ God has removed our sins! This is what we give thanks for! Amen!
"Redeemed"— The Hebrew for this word means to ransom by a price paid to free captives. God the Creator, Former, Caller, Redeemer, Savior is making a new holy people through the ransom of His holy Son Jesus Christ. As God makes clear in Isaiah 43:11-12 "I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. (12) I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God." Jesus is the only Way, Truth, and Life!
Amen!
Isaiah 42 makes clear in verses 6-8 that the LORD alone is creator, savior, and the only source of righteousness and hope for sinners. (6) "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, (7) to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. (8) I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Praise the Lord that he has shone the light of Jesus Christ into our darkness and given us eyes to see, ears to hear and new heart to trust and believe in Jesus Christ as our righteousness!
Amen!
We are bombarded at times by the lies and deceptions of the World, the Devil, and our old fallen flesh. At the center of these lies and deceptions is that we can find strength, pleasure, joy, hope, security... outside of God and His will and His ways. We are constantly offered idols from within our fallen hearts and minds and form the fallen world outside. God makes clear that strength and salvation can only be found in His righteous right hand and in the Holy one of Israel, Jesus Christ. Jesus Crucified is our only hope of forgiveness rather then the condemnation we deserve. Jesus Christ risen is our only hope of eternal life in the blessings of God's good pleasure. Amen!
Who is so prideful that they think they know more or better than God? Everyone, unless God humbles them by making alive and giving them the gift of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. God is God and we are not! God is our strength, wisdom, hope, comfort and salvation! Praise the Lord! Amen.
The rebellious world, the father of all lies the Devil, and our old fallen flesh continue offer us false comforts in sin and disobedience to God. This is why we are so dependent on God's word and the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. The World is passing away along with its rebellion, The Devil and all the demonic will be thrown in to lake of fire along with all who remain in unbelief, and our old fallen flesh has been crucified, killed, and buried with Christ. God's word and promises, however, are eternal life and will last forever! Amen!
Jesus Christ has paid it all, all to Him we owe. He died on the cross in our place so that God's elect could have forgiveness, his righteousness, and eternal life. This truth is to lead us to lives of gratitude, thanksgiving and praise. This truth is not to lead to complacency, presumption, pride in ourselves or any forms of self-righteousness. Let us never forget that he have been saved ultimately for God's glory and His glory alone!
Isaiah 38 verse 17 gives us a powerful depiction of salvation "Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back." Though in our sins we were all children of disobedience, children of wrath, under condemnation and deserving eternal conscious torment in hell God has completely removed our sins from us and from His sight due to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Praise the Lord for His grace and love! Amen!
God is stronger than all our enemies! We can trust God at all times knowing His ways and will is perfect. We are weak yet He is strong! Thank you Lord that you have saved us by and for your son Jesus Christ and His saving work on the Cross!
Amen!
To know, believe in, trust, live according to, and proclaim the Salvation that we have in Jesus Christ is to leap for and sing with joy and shout with praise because we have went from death to life! The world, the devil, and our fallen flesh with its sinful desires can not offer us one note of true peace and joy and hope and love. Only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit satisfies with overflowing! Amen!
There will be a judgement! God will bring to an end all rebellion and disobedience. There will be punishment for sin; Eternal conscious torment in hell for all who die in unbelief and with out faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Believe in Jesus and you will no longer be under judgment, because of you believe in Jesus then He has already taken your judgment on Himself on the Cross! Repent and believe in Jesus and live for ever. Refuse to repent and believe in Jesus and you will experience the full wrath and anger and hatred of God for ever! To God be the glory!
As Isiah 33:22 makes clear, "For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us." It means eternal life to know, believe and live in accordance to these truths. It means eternal judgment and wrath to not know, believe, and live in accordance to these truths. The Lord is Righteous and we must be righteous. This is only possible by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and have His righteousness reckoned to us! What a good and loving King of kings and Lord of lords!
What a wonderful truth and promise given Christians in Isaiah 32:17 "And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever." The only source of righteousness, peace, and eternal life with God is in and from Jesus Christ. Let us rest and trust in the crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and return of Jesus Christ as our peace that passes understanding! Amen!
In whom or what do you put your ultimate trust, hope, security, peace, faith, belief, and joy? If you put them in anyone or anything of creation he or it will fail you for he or it is passing away. If you put them in God who is eternal, all powerful, all know, and perfectly holy and good then you will abide forever in love and peace. Jesus Christ crucified is our gospel and our only trust, hope, security, peace, faith, belief, and joy!
Amen!
It is sin, rebellion, deception, and deadly to put our hope, trust, and security in anything other than the Lord. Only the Lord is all knowing, all powerful, perfectly good, absolutely holy, always righteous and just. Let us cry out to and worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
The Lord desires your "heart" your all! We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We are to love, trust, worship, be devoted, fear God alone. Christ did not die on the cross to make people superficial hypocrites who speak words of faith yet live unrepentant lives of rebellion. Christ died so that by God's grace we can be made new in His righteousness and have new living hearts that beat with the love of God! Amen!
No one can escape God's holiness! No one can escape God's just judgement! Jesus Christ is the only Way, Truth, and Life; no one gets to the father [can have forgiveness, peace, love, life...] except through Jesus Christ. We must put no confidence, security, or hope in anything of creation, only in the Creator, redeemer, sustainer Lord of host! Amen!
In humility a person repents and believes and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit brings about this humility. If a person remains in unbelieving pride he thinks he can live however he wants and will not face judgement. The prideful live only for themselves and according to their flesh. Jesus sets us free from this deadly and destructive pride! Praise you Jesus!
As the Scriptures make clear, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places," [Ephesians 6:1] we have powerful enemy. The good news is that Jesus has defeated the devil on behalf of those who are saved by Jesus' work on the cross. Jesus has won the victory over sin, death and the devil! Let us live in this victory by God's grace in the power of the Spirit! Amen!
The salvation we have in Jesus Christ is greater than all the riches of this earth. It is stronger than any wind, wave or storm. It is more sure than any earthly guarantee. The salvation we have in Jesus Christ is truly our only hope, peace, strength and comfort because it is life, eternal life! Amen!
To have faith and trust and belief in God is to hunger and thirst for Him more than anything else. Jesus Christ alone saves! Jesus Christ alone gives hope, and peace, and love! Jesus Christ alone satisfies! He is our feast our joy our all! Amen!
This fallen world will be destroyed.
Actually, all of these heavens and earth will be done away with and replaced with a New Heaven and New Earth.
If you are placing you faith, hope, comfort, peace, security... in anything of creation then it will ultimately fail you as it passes away.
Let us put our faith, hope, comfort, peace, and security in the Creator, in Jesus Christ the Savior, in the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit.
Only in God is eternal life, let us live in Him!
O Lord, help my hunger for you always be greater than my hunger for food,
help my thirst for you always be greater than thirst for drink,
help me in weakness to remember that you are our strength,
help me to face plenty and hunger, abundance and need--
all with thanksgiving, gratitude and faith in you!
God is so good to His elect!
He strips away their idols, He humbles them to repentance, He gives them the gift of faith in His son Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit!
No matter how separated from God you are, if you have been chosen, atoned for, and loved, God will draw you near through the cross of Jesus Christ!
Thank you Lord!
You can gain all the things of the world, yet if you forget God then you have nothing eternal, nothing that will last.
If you remember God- trust, believe, and seek to give Him all the glory and obey Him then you have eternal life.
Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of Lords and He will be exalted over every nation, person, and part of creation.
Let us never forget who is God, who is King, who is savior, and who is the only way, truth, and life- Jesus Christ the Son of God.
God is so good!
He displays his justice, mercy, and love.
God brings about His vengeance, His glory, His love and truth.
The attributes of God are on display on the cross of Jesus Christ!
Let us praise God -- he so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.
Amen!
Everyone who exalts themselves above God will be humbled by God.
A person will either be humbled by being made alive by the Holy Spirit to repent and have faith in Jesus Christ as their true Lord and Savior
or
a person will be humbled by being cast down into eternal death and punishment.
Let us humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord that He may lift us up by His grace and mercy!
Amen!
God is holy!
God is just!
God is love!
God is angry!
God pours out his grace and mercy as refreshing rain on the elect!
God pours out His wrath and fury on the condemned!
The elect praise your name o Lord, for you have poured out the wrath and fury we deserved on your Son Jesus Christ so that we could receive your grace and mercy!
Praise the Lord!
Every person needs a savior!
Before we are saved we are under God's condemnation, wrath, anger, and punishment.
If you have faith in and are alive in Jesus Christ you are saved from God (from his just wrath), you are saved by God (by his sacrifice) and you are saved for God (for his delight and praise).
God is our Salvation in every way.
Let us boast in the Lord our strength and salvation!
There was no other way for us to have salvation --
- than for Jesus to die the cursed death we deserved,
- than for Jesus to have our sin imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us,
- than for Jesus to receive the full wrath of God against sin on Himself so that we could be reconciled with God,
- than for Jesus to be raised from the sin in victory over sin, death and the Devil.
There was no other way!
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
No one gets to he Father except through Him!
Believe in Jesus!
Trust in Jesus!
Have faith in Jesus!
Cry out to Jesus!
Repent to Jesus!
He went the way of the cross. He is life. Amen!
There was no other way for us to have salvation --
- than for Jesus to die the cursed death we deserved,
- than for Jesus to have our sin imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us,
- than for Jesus to receive the full wrath of God against sin on Himself so that we could be reconciled with God,
- than for Jesus to be raised from the sin in victory over sin, death and the Devil.
There was no other way!
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
No one gets to he Father except through Him!
Believe in Jesus!
Trust in Jesus!
Have faith in Jesus!
Cry out to Jesus!
Repent to Jesus!
He went the way of the cross. He is life. Amen!
We long for the day when there will be no more sin, no more pain, no more sadness, no more sickness, no more death, and no more disobedience to God for all of God's people.
We desire heaven and to be with all of God's people and God Himself face to face.
Our passion is for the New Heaven and New Earth when Christ returns to be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
This can happen because of the atoning death of Jesus on the Cross, and this is why, when we proclaim the good news of reconciliation with God, that we know nothing but Jesus and Him Crucified!
Jesus died so we could live! Amen!
In Isaiah, God is pronouncing His judgment and His grace for His people.
The tree that was Israel will be judged by being chopped down because of its prideful rebellion and self exaltation.
Yet, from that very stump is promised the True Israel, the always faithful Son of God who will live in complete union with His righteousness and the Holy Spirit.
We were all dead stumps in our sins and in need of a savior. Jesus is the savior, prophet, priest, king of kings and Lord of lords.
Our only hope is His righteousness! Amen!
God is Sovereign!
As Psalms 115:3 states "Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases."
There is only room in the created order for one Sovereign God.
We fall into the original deception when we think we can be like God or be God over our own lives and the lives of others.
God is God and we are not. It is a gracious work of God to be humbled by Him into belief and trust in Him and Him alone.
Let us humble ourselves before God and let Him exalt us in His time and ways in His Son Jesus Christ!
Four times in our passage it is stated "For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still."
God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
God is love. God is holy. God is just.
When God's just wrath and anger is kindled against those who are not in Jesus Christ through faith alone, by God's grace alone -- they will be destroyed.
This is why the cross of Jesus Christ is so important and our only hope.
People will either experience God's just wrath and punishment for eternity or escape this wrath by believing in, thrusting in, having faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and the one who took the wrath they deserved on Himself.
Thank you Jesus!
"Wonderful Counselor-" Jesus is the source of all wisdom, knowledge, truth, comfort and love.
"Mighty God"- Jesus is the eternal Begotten Son of God, God with us, fully human and fully God.
"Everlasting Father"- Jesus will reign over, intercede for and protect believers.
"Prince of Peace"- Jesus in His death on the cross and resurrection makes peace between God and God's Elect by paying the full penalty of their sins.
"Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end"- Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords and in Him and in Him only is eternal life!
Jesus is our everything!
For all of us who are saved in Jesus Christ, this is our reality:
We were dead in our sins, yet thought we were living.
We were in darkness, yet thought we could see clearly.
We were lost, yet thought we were on the right track.
Then Jesus Christ!
Jesus saves us from our sins and the darkness, death, and punishment they bring about.
Let us walk in the Light because Jesus Christ is the light, His word is the light and Jesus says to us who believe that we are the light of the world.
What grace! Amen!
Is Jesus Christ your only hope, savior, comfort, and life or is he of no concern or only a minor part of your life?
Jesus wants all of you.
He says pick up your cross, die to yourself and follow and trust Him completely.
If we are not willing or able to do this then we stumble over our own pride.
O Lord, humble us so that we might by your grace be lifted up by your grace!
Amen!
God is good.
God is perfect.
God is wise.
Believing in, living in, and following Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is life!
Living according to the Holy Spirit rather then according to our fallen flesh is freedom and life. If these things are true (they are true) then why would we ever want to disobey, turn-away from, or rebel against the Lord?
O Lord help us to live in the life, victory, love, and for the praise of your glory!
Amen!
We need to be made holy as God is holy.
We cannot do this in our power, strength, or ability.
We need a Savior -- Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. He is the Immanuel, God with us. Jesus makes holy all who the Father gives to Him, all who He dies for on the Cross, all who will believe and have faith in Him as Lord and Savior.
There is no greater sign of God's love for His people than Jesus Christ's penal substitiutionary atoning death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
Praise God for Jesus!
In Isaiah 7, God gives two powerful statements concerning placing all our hope, faith, security, peace... in Him and Him alone: "Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint" and "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all."
God is our only rock, fortress and strength!
All other ground to build our lives on is sinking sand.
Let us place all our faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ -- the way, truth, and the life!
Amen!
If it were not for God's will and purpose to save a people for His glory we would all be destroyed.
If Jesus did not obediently die on the cross for our sins we would be destroyed.
If the Holy Spirit did not make us spiritually alive and give us the gift of faith and new life in Jesus Christ we would be destroyed!
When the people of Judah were chopped down and reduced to a stump due to their disobedience toward God -- life only takes place in the only faithful offspring Jesus Christ.
Let us live in Jesus the source of life!
God is holy, holy, holy!
We are people of unclean lips!
How is it that we are not all instantly destroyed?
Because God is holy, only he can make us holy. God in His grace has sent his holy Son Jesus Christ who was conceived in holiness in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit.
Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are made holy in him.
Praise God that He has made a way for our guilt to be taken away and our sin atoned for on the cross of Jesus Christ.
Amen!
It is a gracious thing to be humbled by the Lord into repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!
A person will be brought low into faith and obedience in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit according to the elective will of God the Father.
OR
A person will be brought low and into eternal conscious torment by God's holy just wrath.
O Lord, humble us in your gracious love knowing that Jesus is our everything!
Amen.
We owe God everything!
He is to receive all praise, glory, honor, love, and worship!
We should seek to follow His word and serve Him out of gratitude and thanksgiving as the Creator, Redeemer, and Savior.
Jesus is the only way, truth, and life -- to live in Him is to have eternal life -- to live outside of Him is to be dead.
If we neglect such a great salvation then we will be destroyed.
Let us believe in, live in, live out, and proclaim Jesus Christ, the only way of life.
Jesus Reveals Every Heart!
Every thought, word, and action is peeled down to the deepest core and center -- exposing what is our greatest treasure, desire, passion, and love.
If our greatest love is Jesus, or some idol we have fashioned in our hearts.
Praise God that Jesus gives us a new heart so that we can worship Him and love Him more than any one and any thing else!
Amen!
Matthew 2:19-23 New International Version (NIV)
The Return to Nazareth
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
The darkness will never overcome the Light of the world!
No one and nothing will thwart God's plan to save His people through the perfect life, atoning death, victorious resurrection, ascension to His right hand and glorious return of His Son Jesus Christ!
God is sovereign over every moment and every detail of His plan of salvation.
We who are saved in Jesus Christ can boldly live out the gospel knowing that with God for us, nothing can be against us!
Amen!
Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.
He deserves all the praise, glory, honor, worship, love, and devotion from all people of every nation, tribe, language, and people.
The wise men rejoiced at the coming of Jesus Christ and fell down and worshiped Him. This is what Christmas celebrations are to be all about: joy-filled gratitude and thanksgiving for Jesus the King who came to serve not be served and gave His life as a ransom for many.
What a King! What a Savior!
Everyone needs a savior!
Only God can save. In the incarnation we see God the eternally begotten Son of God so humbling Himself that he takes on flesh and is born.
Our sinfulness brings about our death and we are under a curse.
Jesus is born under the law so that he and only he will keep the law perfectly so that he can take the curse for us.
The greatest gift we can receive is forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Trust Him! Believe in Him! Love him!
He is Immanuel, God with us.
In our unsaved sinful condition we are poor, helpless, hopeless, in shame, and in reproach, under condemnation, children of wrath, dead and heading for eternal punishment.
We needed a savior!
Jesus washed away the sin and filth of our rebellion against God in His atoning blood poured out for the elect on the cross.
For those so saved, our lives are then marked by gratitude, praise and honor for God as our only comfort, strength, protection, and hope.
Amen!
O Lord, please humble us so that we will look to you for our life, peace, hope and not in our self or in any other created thing.
Humble us so that we will trust in Your will, Your ways, Your timing.
Humble us so that we will seek you, believe in the the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, and live for your glory and not for our own.
Please humble us through the power of your Holy Spirit!
Amen.
There is only one God!
This one God -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is the source of all life, light, truth, peace, hope, love, goodness, holiness...
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, the life -- not a way, a truth, or a means of life.
Jesus -- his sacrificial life, death, and resurrection is the only way to eternal life with God. God is so gracious and merciful and loving that he will pierce the darkness of death for His elect of every nation, tribe and people so that they can walk in the light of life the light of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit!
God is God!
God is good!
Amen!
We must be refined!
We must have our sin burned away by the refining fire of God's holy love and justice. We need to be made righteous and we cannot do this ourselves.
This is why God made Jesus to be sin though he knew no sin so that we could be made righteous with His righteousness.
God is both just and justifier!
Praise God for the good news of Jesus Christ!
He is our only hope!
We need a savior!
We need to be delivered from our guilt. We need to be washed and cleansed from our sins.
There is one way for us to be made new, made clean; and for God to be pleased with and delight in us.
The Way, Truth and Life for us to be forgiven by God and to have our sins paid for is the life, death, resurrection, ascension and future return of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
God has made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.
Amen!
God commands obedience!
He is God; and His ways are true, just, perfect, life giving. To disobey God is to do what is false, unjust, imperfect, deadly and destructive.
It does not work to try to deceive God, others, or ourselves with a surface level religion, devotion, or lip service toward faith and belief in God.
God is always able to look under the surface and fully expose the heart with His all-penetrating light.
We must humble ourselves and be cleansed from the inside out and not "play" or "pretend" being a Christian while all along clinging to the idols of pride, immorality, disobedience...
Cleanse us o Lord!
It is an amazing truth that God is the absolute sovereign creator and redeemer.
God makes everything. He makes each and every one of us. God makes for Himself a people.
He starts them from an elderly couple and a barren womb. God then frees them from enslavement in Egypt and gives them a land, defeats their enemies, teaches them, guides them, yet most of them rebel and turn away from God living according to their sinful disobedient and prideful desires.
Where is the humble gratitude?
It is only through the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we who believe in Him can enter into the humble gratitude we were elected for. Save us Jesus!
I am excited and hopeful as we begin our sermon series in the book of Isaiah.
King Uzziah is a great example of the overall problems with much of Judah and Israel.
When Uzziah feared God and sought the Lord, God made him prosper. Yet, when Uzziah was strong, and rather than remembering it was God who made him strong, he grew prideful and forgot his need for God.
This brought about his destruction. It was the same for the people of Judah, the people of Israel, and for us.
Let us seek God and learn from the prophecies of Isaiah as a reminder of our need for a savior (Jesus Christ) and our powerlessness without him. Amen!
The Church is the Body of Christ with Christ as its head.
The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ and The Father work through the church to encourage the hearts of believers.
God fills us with His peace and our love is to be rooted and founded in faith in Jesus Christ.
It is the love God has for us in Jesus Christ and the love we grow into as children of God that is love incorruptible.
The love we have in Jesus Christ will never end, diminish, fade, or fail in any way. Praise God!
The best way to stay alert and persevere is to be in a constant communion and fellowship with God in prayer.
It is in times of forgetting about, ignoring, and not taking God into consideration that we most find ourselves wounded and stumbling in sin and fear.
The Spirit prays for us and groans on our behalf when we do not even know what to pray.
The Spirit also empowers us and our continual prayer is that God will enable us to proclaim the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ in boldness without fear no matter what our circumstances, even in chains!
Help us Lord!
God's Word makes us alive!
It is living and active and the Holy Spirit uses the word of God, the gospel, as it makes alive God's elect.
Faith comes through hearing, understanding, believing in, trusting, and living out the word of God.
God's word not only makes us alive to repent and believe in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, it also enable us to grow up into the likeness of Christ!
It is only with this sword that we can do battle against all the deceitful schemes, deceptions, and lies that continually come against us.
Praise God for His word!
Much of the battle we face in standing in the faith is waged within our thoughts.
We must have transformed minds through the power of the Holy Spirit that enable us to continue to have our hope fixed in Christ no matter how difficult the circumstances.
It is by holding fast to our hope in God's promises to us His children that we will have a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul enabling us stay fixed in Him no matter how strong the storms.
Amen!
Our three enemies: the devil, the fallen world systems, and our fallen flesh want us to doubt and call into question the goodness, holiness, justice, love, and truth of God.
This is why we must stand with the shield of faith always before us; for it is only with a sure hope and conviction that we will be able to continue to stand against such a continual attack.
In the midst of the fiery trials we continue to trust, believe and obey Jesus Christ knowing that He is our everything. Amen!
It is the knowing, believing, trusting, and having faith in the Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ by God's grace that enables us to stand and walk into and through any circumstance and situation.
It is knowing that God is for us and not against us because the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf on the Cross that enables us to understand Romans 8:31b-33 ...If God is for us, who can be against us? (32) He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (33) Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
This peace enables us to be ready for anything! Amen!
Within our constant battle against sin, the fallen world and the Devil we must protect our hearts and emotions.
This is only done through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is through walking in righteousness, by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, that our hearts and emotions are protected against the dagger thrust or arrows of temptations to immorality, pride, and disobedience to God.
We are called to be holy as He is holy. Help us and guard us O Lord!
Amen!
We are in constant battle against sin within, the fallen world around us, and the Devil.
We must have our tunics tucked firmly into our belts so we are not tripped up and fall.
The tunic is our minds, thoughts, desires, passions, who we are -- and the only way we will be able to stand firm and advance against our enemies is having all of who we are firmly held together by the truth of Jesus Christ and His Word.
Let us wrap every thought, word, and action in the Truth! Amen!
In every moment we are on the front lines, in the heat and intensity of battle.
The Devil, the demonically inspired and influenced fallen world systems, and our fallen flesh/old-dead-nature are our enemies.
We are to resist these enemies in the name of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit as we humble ourselves and draw near to God the Father our rock our fortress and our protection.
God's word, the Bible equips us for this battle. Let us put on the armor of God, stand firm in the faith and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ the author and protector of our faith!
Amen!
God shows no partiality.
No matter how low you are, God can lift you up in His son Jesus Christ.
No matter how high you are, God can bring you down and humble you in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is why every believer, regardless of background, brokenness, political power, wealth, education, or social standing is first and foremost brother and sister, members of the body of Jesus Christ.
We submit to one another as we all ultimately submit to Christ. Amen!
Every believer in Christ, at the core of their identity, is a slave of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is a wonderful master, infinitely better than our former masters of sin and the Devil!
A part of being a slave of Christ is picking up our cross, dying to our self and following Jesus. The more we become a slave to Christ the freer we become to everything and everyone else.
This is why we can render service to anyone and do good to anyone regardless of their attitudes and treatment toward us.
Vengeance belongs to God, we are called to display patience, love, and grace. Amen!
God disciplines and instructs those whom he loves.
Earthly fathers are to love their children enough to sacrifice themselves for the sake of not only their wives, but also their children so that their children will grow in the truth of God.
God's word is to so permeate the words, actions, conversations and instructions of the father so that the truth of the one true Heavenly Father is always front and center so that everything focuses on glory to God!
Their is no room for provoking to anger when God's glory is always to be of greatest significance. Amen!
Parents are to raise their children in the love, truth, word, and in obedience to God.
Children are to learn, honor, respect, and obey their parents in all good and right things.
Obeying parents is training for obeying God; disobedience and disrespect to parents is training in disobedience and disrespect for God.
Jesus shows all of us children what it means to live out obedience to our heavenly Father.
Even if our parents are godless and haters of God, we honor them in whatever ways we can knowing that ultimately we have the best and most wonderful Father in heaven who always loves, teaches, and disciplines us perfectly.
Amen!
A husband and wife are one flesh. This is a mystery and it is to help us better understand the mystery of how every believer, the church, is a part of the body, flesh, of Christ.
This is part of the reason that marriage is "until death do us part."
Just as the church can not be separated from Christ its head, a husband and wife are to be one flesh, the wife respecting her husband and the husband loving his wife.
Let us pray that our marriages display the unity, love, tenderness, self-sacrifice, and care that represents Christ and His body, the church, well.
Amen!
Jesus cares for the church more than we can hope, imagine, or fully comprehend.
Jesus gave His life for the Church!
Jesus frees the church from the bondage of sin, death, the devil, eternal judgment and wrath!
Jesus interceded to God on behalf of the church. Jesus is returning for His church when all will be made well in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Husbands, how much are you sacrificing for, serving, caring for, and loving your wives? Hopefully, as much as Jesus does for His church.
In Jesus Christ, wives are able to live out the most God glorifying and Christ exalting life of submission to Christ depicted in submission to their husband.
God has created an order of husband as head over their wife to model and display in beauty Christ's head of the church.
Christ is a perfect husband to the church, let husbands be like Christ!
Christ displayed perfect submission and obedience to His Father, let wives be like Christ!
Christ is the Head of the Church and each Christian is a member of His body.
The hand cannot say to the foot "I do not need you!"
We must care for one another as Christ cares for us.
This means sacrifice, suffering, service, and the willingness to die to our self, pick up our cross, and follow Christ.
To love Christ is to love our brothers and sisters as Christ loves them.
Be careful little eyes what you look at, be careful little ears what you listen to, be careful little mind what you think about and meditate on, be careful little mouth what you say, be careful little one how you live because your heavenly Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful.
Because of Jesus Christ's obedient life, sacrificial and atoning death on the cross, and victorious resurrection - those who believe in him can be set free from sin, death, and foolishness.
The wisdom God's children receive from God is how to live new lives of freedom, love, and gratitude for His amazing grace and mercy.
Let us sing this out whenever and wherever we can!
I love to sing the song I learned as a child in Sunday School "This Little Light of Mine." Hide it under a bush, o no! Wont let Satan blow it out! I'm gonna let it shine!
It turns out that the source of this light is not "little."
The Scriptures tell us that, "God is light and in Him is no darkness." Jesus is spoken of as the "light of the world." God's word is a "light unto our path."
For us to let the light of Christ shine in our words, thoughts and actions means imitation of God's holiness and turning away from the darkness of sin.
Jesus died on the cross for all those who would come into the light of faith and believe in Him so that they would no longer be in the darkness of sin, death and eternal judgment.
Praise God for the light of His love. I'm gonna let it shine!
We need Jesus! We need new hearts that will love God and desire what God desires. We need new minds, transformed by the Holy Spirit, to think of and meditate on God's word and truth and holiness. We need new mouths that will speak truth, love, and holiness to one another. We need salvation and to be made holy as God is holy by His grace. O Lord, help us to put to death what is of the disobedient flesh within us and live according to your Holy Spirit in all things! Amen!
If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior with all your heart and confess Him with your mouth through the power of the Holy Spirit then you are a loved child of God!
As God has loved us -- let us talk, walk, think, act, and display His perfect, holy, and just love.
Christ died on the cross so that we could live. He became sin so that we could be credited with His righteousness. He intercedes on our behalf and is returning to make all things right!
This is love unspeakable and full of glory! Amen!
What comes out of our mouths begins in the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds.
When we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are given new hearts and new minds and are to grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Let us pray and be disciplined through the power of the Holy Spirit to meditate on and speak out only love, truth, grace, peace, forgiveness, justice, and kindness.
Thank you Jesus, help us Jesus!
To believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and that he paid the full debt for your sins and has made you right with God is life-changing and life-saving!
Your life is changed in that you become free from lying, free from sinning in your anger, free from stealing, free from selfish pride and only thinking about yourself.
You become free from the devil and can now resist him firm in the faith and not give him an opportunity for division and conflict within the Body of Christ!
Only true freedom exists in Jesus Christ!
Let us be His slave! Amen!
If you have been taught the truth about Jesus Christ by faithful teachers, then you have learned that the good news of Jesus Christ is of life and death importance because it is about living and dying.
Jesus died on the cross so that the elect could could be forgiven and set free of sin and go from eternal death to eternal life.
Believers are then to die to their old lives of sinful rebellion and hatred of God and live out the new lives they have in Christ.
Let us live out the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ more and more by God's grace! Amen!
To become saved through faith alone in Christ alone by God's grace alone means we are given a new mind, a new heart, and a new life because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit enables us to become sensitive and be able to experience love for God, love for one another and the desire to be holy as God is holy.
Let us no longer live like the fallen rebellious God hating world, devil, and fallen flesh!
Let us live like Jesus Christ!
Amen, help us Jesus!
You can be the fastest, smartest, strongest, most creative, and considered the top of your profession or area of discipline, yet, if have not been born again by God's grace to faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then ultimately all you are is dead.
Dead in sin means no life and no hope.
Once you have been made alive in Jesus Christ then you are able to grow and flourish in His life, His truth, His grace and His love.
The people of God are to grow up into Jesus Christ!
Growing up means "attaining unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God."
Let us grow up in God's word, prayer, and service to one another! Amen!
Jesus has won the victory over sin, death, the devil, all rulers and authorities!
Jesus is King, and as a loving and gracious king he gives gifts to His servants so that they can do His work in the power of the Holy Spirit for God's glory!
What an honor and privilege it is to be equipped for the work of ministry and for the building up of the saints. Service to Christ should be first and foremost in everything we think, say and do!
Amen!
Praise the Lord with joy and thanksgiving!
Boast in the Lord and give Him all glory, praise and honor!
Jesus comes alongside God's elect, speaks His word into their lives and gives them eyes to see that He has saved them from sin, death, and the devil and freed them to sing God's praise!
I hope that through this time of Holy Week as we consider Good Friday and Easter Sunday the Holy Spirit will make the Scriptures and the gospel burn in your hearts as you consider more and more the love your Heavenly father has for you.
Amen!
We need a King who is righteous.
In a world so full of corruption and sin we rejoice in a King who is righteous and good.
We need a King who is a savior.
Before salvation, we were prisoners of sin, the world, the devil, and our fallen rebellious nature.
We need a King who is humble enough to die, spill His own blood and pay the penalty for our sins and bear the wrath of God we deserved so that we can be forgiven.
Praise God; Jesus is such a King! Amen!
How does knowing that our brothers and sisters in Christ are members of Jesus body affect our thoughts words and actions concerning them?
When we understand that there is only one Lord and God over all, whether they know and or believe it or not, how does this affect our evangelism?
How does “one Lord, one faith” support the Biblical truth that there is only one true Gospel and one way of salvation?
Paul wants us to ask these questions and find the answers in the person, work, words and life of Jesus Christ. Amen!
Is knowing, having, loving, and having life in Jesus worth more to us than our earthly comforts, fleshy pleasures, and personal "rights" and "freedoms?"
Is the work of Christ more important to us than our anger, frustrations, impatience, grievances, and hatred toward other people?
Do we want the gifts of salvation and suffering from Christ? These questions expose our hearts. Are we living in the flesh or in the Spirit?
O Lord, we are not worthy; help us by your grace to live worthy to our calling to pick up our cross and follow you in life and in death. Amen!
Paul is praying that we would begin to know, comprehend, and understand something that "surpasses knowledge:" the love of God fully displayed in Jesus Christ.
Such a love as this will drive out of our hearts, minds, mouths, and actions our sins, doubts, and fears.
To know the love of Christ means we are freed and enabled to love God and those around us. God can do this in your life if you have faith in Jesus Christ!
God can do more than what you can ask or imagine! God gets all the Glory!
Amen.
Do you ever feel physically, mentally, spirituality or emotionally weak?
Do you want to be strong? If you will believe, confess, and trust Jesus Christ as your savior, friend, and Lord then he will give you the strength of new life, freedom from sin, peace with God, love for God and love for others....
Jesus gives you this strength through the Holy Spirit to all the Father has given to Jesus. A person with such Jesus granted, Holy Spirit enabled, Father directed strength is able to declare, "I love you God!" no matter the emotional, physical or mental suffering, pain or weakness.
Let us learn from Job and live by faith with Jesus living in our hearts! Amen!
We can only boast in God!
The riches of Jesus Christ are unsearchable! Jesus is higher, greater, more wonderful, above all, with everything that was created, created by, for, and through Jesus Christ!
How can we come into the presence of a holy almighty God with boldness and confidence? Only by, in, and through Jesus Christ.
Let Jesus be your everything because He is you all in all! Amen!
To be a servant of Jesus Christ means a willingness to obey Jesus your Master, Savior, and Lord in all things and at all times.
Paul suffered much so that we who are gentiles could hear the Gospel and have the mystery explained of how we can be united to Jesus Christ through faith and by God's grace.
Christ is our everything! Let us also be willing to pick up our cross and follow our Master Jesus!
Amen!
We are one in the Spirit and one in the Lord!
Our salvation is a trinitarian salvation. God the Father has chosen from eternity past who will be made alive to trust and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God the Son, Jesus Christ, pays the full wages of our sin on the cross so that we can be saved and forgiven, and God the Holy Spirit makes and gives us the gift of faith so that we can believe and be saved!
God does this because He is gracious and loving. Just as there is one God, there is only one people of God. In Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, but one body, one family, one dwelling place for God- the church.
Praise the Lord!
Jesus Christ has made forgiveness, reconciliation, and an eternal life of peace with God possible for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.
God is calling people from every tribe, language, and people group from all over the world to be one family in Jesus Christ. This is why we can go to every person on the earth and tell them the gospel - that they need a savior; and Jesus Christ is the only savior.
If you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior and lord then you become God's child, made alive through the Holy Spirit. The hostility is removed! Amen!
If Jesus is not your God, your Lord and your Savior then you are hopeless and helpless, dead in sin and destined for eternal death and destruction.
To be separated from Jesus Christ is of more dire consequence than to be separated from food for more than one month, separated from water for more than five days, or separated from oxygen for more than six minutes.
Let us hunger, thirst, and gasp for Jesus Christ all the more knowing that He is our everything! Amen!
The workmanship talked about in Eph. 2:10 is that of the finest craft and exquisite detail. God’s plan and will is perfect and we must trust Him completely in all things.
We are saved by grace for good works that will give God all the praise, glory and honor.
Being saved, reconciled, justified with God means we have been made alive to live for Him and freed from living only in enslavement to the fallen world, the devil, and our own sinful desires.
Let us live to do good now that we have been made good in Jesus Christ! Amen!
Spiritually dead people can do nothing to bring about their salvation! This is a biblical fact.
An unsaved person is not spiritually sick, or spiritually lacking something, or in need of something more than what they have to make them whole.
A person who does not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is dead, completely empty, and must be made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit in the new life of Jesus Christ according to the will and ways of God.
This is why we boast in God and God alone. Amen!
Let us Praise God with honest lips and sincere hearts as we love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Though we have stumbled in sin God has made a way for our return to Him in His Son Jesus Christ!
We say of Jesus what John proclaimed "behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" As we enter into a new year let us be wise and discerning through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us know Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the only way to the Father. Let us stumble no more in darkness, but walk in the Light of Christ! Amen!
God is a loving father to Israel. God's just judgement against Israel's sin. A destroying lion tears. God's compassion grows warm and tender. A restoring lion roars.
I pray that you will hear the roar of the Lion of Judah this Christmas!
The roar of God brings terror to those on the way of destruction; yet to those being saved the roar of God brings comfort that in Jesus Christ there is safety, love, protection, and peace.
Jesus is torn so that we are healed.
Jesus is killed so that we can have life.
Jesus is condemned so that we can be forgiven.
This is what Christmas is all about. God sends his son to be the savior of the world.
Amen!
Our rebellion against God and hatred toward His commands brings about our condemnation, death, punishment and enslavement to sin.
We cannot and will not save ourselves!
For us to be saved, God must save us. He does this in His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus buys us out of our slavery to sin and death by taking God's just judgement that we deserve on His perfect self!
God is good! He is always faithful! Jesus is our king! Let us rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit!
Amen!
A key aspect of God's grace to us is when he wakes us up from the slumber and death of the desires of our sinful flesh and makes us aware that without Him we have nothing.
Though the world, the devil, and our sinful flesh makes endless promises of pleasure and fulfillment to us, they are nothing but empty and destructive lies.
Let us pray that God will graciously remove all obstacles and road blocks between us and Him through His son Jesus Christ and the sanctification process of the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray that God will build an impassable wall between our new self in Jesus Christ and the sinful desires of our old fallen and dead flesh.
We are always better off with God! Amen!
As we enter into Advent 2017, let us consider what it means that God so loved, had so much mercy and compassion, on His elect, His vessels of mercy, that he sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into human flesh.
Hosea teaches us that we are sinners, unfaithful, law breakers, idol worshipers... who deserve God's wrathful judgment.
Yet, God shows mercy on who He will show mercy and any of us who have received and believed in this mercy, grace and love of God can do nothing but give Him all the praise, glory, and honor.
As we approach again this celebration of the coming of "God with us" let us boast in a God who is always faithful, even when we are unfaithful!
Amen!
How gracious is God? How loving is God? How just is God? How holy is God? How merciful is God?
Answer- "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!"
This is the life changing, pride removing, new life giving, reconciling, joyful, peaceful, glorifying truth of the cross of Jesus Christ.
This is good news! Amen!
How great is the power of God for those who believe in Him?
Immeasurable!
How great is Jesus Christ?
Immeasurable!
If we repent and place all our hope and faith in Jesus Christ we die with Him and we will be raised with Him. We are absolutely secure in Jesus Christ!
He is above all and the church is His body. Let us trust our all powerful, loving, gracious, holy God who is our all and all.
We need new hearts!
The good news is that God gives new hearts to his children through Jesus Christ by the work for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes us alive to believe, gives us the gift of faith, and grows us in wisdom and understanding as we come to know God in all His glory, power, and love.
Let us pray for an ever-greater knowledge of who God is, who we are in Jesus Christ and a hope fixed on the glorious work of Jesus Christ on the cross!
Amen!
There are few things we can absolutely count on in this world. In Jesus Christ we can find everything that comes with an eternal guarantee.
Eternal life, peace with God, forgiveness, love, all of God's promised blessings are in Jesus Christ and we long for he day he returns and we can enter fully into all that is in Him.
Until then, the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers assures them of this guarantee. God is faithful, all the time and we can always count on Him!
How precious to me is the Blood of Christ? How much does "redemption through His blood" fill my thoughts, feelings, words, actions?
Everything is in, through, by, and for Jesus Christ and we are His if we have been bought out of our slavery to sin, death, the devil, and the world through the price of His life on the Cross.
Our salvation cost Jesus His life on the cross and He paid the price of being forsaken by His heavenly Father so that we could be forgiven and loved.
Thank you Jesus for willingly shedding your blood for me!
In Jesus Christ we become God's adopted children.
Our Father is the sovereign creator, sustainer, and redeemer who is all powerful, all knowing, holy. With such a Father who loves us so completely we need not fear any creature, circumstance, difficulty.
Our Father knows. Our Father Cares. Our Father is able! Amen!
Where your hope, desire, love, and thoughts are is where the true allegiance of your heart is.
God blesses us by giving us a new heart by making us alive to receive His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus is our greatest treasure, our greatest treasure is in heaven, and that is where we are to direct our thoughts, desires, hopes, life. God blesses us before the foundation of the world. Amen!
Paul was sent out by God to be a servant and witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
As we begin a new sermon series going verse by verse through the book of Ephesians, I hope that we will grow in the knowledge of the priceless riches of grace, salvation, hope, peace...found only in Jesus Christ.
I pray that we will be faithful and gain a better understanding, through the work of the Holy Spirit, of the peace we have with God through the gracious gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Lord, open our eyes to see your power and forgiveness! Amen!
(message file truncated this week sorry!) God is gracious to us saved sinners!
When we are naked and exposed in our rebellion and hatred of God He clothes us in the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ.
God makes it very clear that the only way of eternal life is in His son Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, putting on Jesus, dying and living in Jesus, eating Jesus is the only source of life.
Having faith that Jesus took our sin, paid the debt for our sin, satisfied God's wrath for our sin gives freedom and life.
Thank you Jesus! Amen.
The wages of sin is death. We need a savior!
Because of rebellion and disobedience there are curses, pain, suffering, sweat, and all of us will return to the dust in death.
In the midst of this God brings the gospel. Romans 5:8 - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Though we die in Adam we can be made alive in Christ through faith by God's grace. Amen!
Because of sin, so often rather than loving nurture and loving respect -- marriages become torn through the desires of subversion and oppression.
Marriage is to to be a living expression of Christ and His Church as Ephesians 5:22-33 makes clear. Jesus did not oppress, exploit or abuse the church, He gave His life so that it could have life, love, and forgiveness.
The church is not to try to make itself more powerful than Christ or manipulate the Scriptures for it's own earthly desires. O Lord, let our marriages lift up this truth through your grace! Amen!
Jesus, motivated by love, suffered.
Jesus, the Holy One, only begotten Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords suffered on behalf of God's elect. His heel was "bruised."
Yet, Jesus won the victory over sin, death, and the devil, and paid the full penalty of our sin by bearing the full just wrath of God for our sin!
The devil's head is "bruised." Believe in Jesus, receive His victory, be set free! This is the good news of grace God speaks of in Genesis 3. Amen!
Let us, through the grace of God, the new life we have in Jesus Christ, and the empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit stop hiding from God.
Let us stop hiding behind excuses and blaming. Let us stop hiding behind shame and anger. Let us stop hiding behind lie's and deceptions.
Let us live in the light of Christ in His truth, in obedience to Him with forgiven hearts. Amen!
Why do we not trust God? Every time we sin, we are putting our hope, trust, and desire in something other then the God who made us, saved us, and graciously give us us all things that are good and life giving.
Why do we continue to listen to the lies of the devil, the world and our own fallen flesh and continue to be deceived by these lie's? Help us Jesus!
The Holy Spirit enables believers in Jesus Christ to work out the process of saying no to the lie's and yes to God's truth. Thank you God for your grace! Amen!
The Scriptures teach us about one God in three persons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is eternally in perfect relationship within Himself.
Of all the other kinds of living creatures God brings to Adam, he cannot find a helper to fit him perfectly. God is making clear by making woman from man that true, fitting, and helpful marriage can only be between one man and one woman united until death would separate them.
Marriage points us to the ultimate and eternal union between Christ and His bride- the church. Amen!
When God makes Adam He places Him in a perfect garden with abundant food and work without toil or struggle. In the midst of all this perfect beauty and peace there is a test.
Genesis 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Will Adam be content with all God's goodness, or will he chose to abandon it for something he thinks is better than the best?
We all face these tests every day. Will we be thankful for God's best, or will we disobey God thinking we can do better? Help us Jesus!
The seventh day is a set apart day to remind us that God is the perfect creator who created everything that exists "very good" and begins a rest on the seventh day until sin enters the creation.
The only way we can enter into the "rest" that God provides is to trust and believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that provides the forgiveness we need.
Salvation is a gift, it can not be earned by us. To enter into God's rest is to acknowledge that there is not work that we can do to save us and that we must rest in our faith that we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the only source of life giving rest. Amen!
God created the first man and woman "very good."
Adam and Eve are given dominion over all the kinds of other living things in the universe. There is peace and life, no conflict or death.
We are all born into sin and death because of the fall, yet God has made a way of peace and eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ, the new perfect Adam who does everything very good.
All things that are "good" can only be found in Jesus. Amen!
What the Bible teaches as true concerning Genesis 1:1-25. The Eternal Sovereign Triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) created out of nothing (without preexisting material) the heavens and the earth (the universe- all existing matter and space considered as a whole).
God ordered the created matter and space to be conducive for inhabitation. All vegetation and living creatures were made according to their kind. God created the universe in a sequence of six solar days (morning and evening).
This creation occurred in a period of one week of normal solar days, about 6000 or so years ago, and the entire creation was mature and aged at the instant of its creation.
Death did not exist, nor any corrupting influence; and the creation was good.
Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (3) And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (4) And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Nehemiah 9:6 "You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. God is in control. God is in charge.
God is greater, bigger, more powerful than anything because he made everything. Not only can we trust God but we must trust God.
All of our life should be in submission to the Lord of Heaven and Earth.
Jesus is the light who gives His perfect life for our sinful one so that we can be re-created (born again) through faith and by God's grace.
Let the Light Shine! Amen!
To be a healthy church requires God's gracious gift of the "minds of Christ."
These are minds unified in God's love and truth. These are minds of complete sacrifice, forgiveness, and humble service. These are minds fixed on the cross of Christ and continual carrying of our own cross in following Jesus.
I pray that God will grant us such a mind as we continue to respond in lives of gratitude to God who is to receive all the glory, praise, and honor. Amen!
Love and forgiveness are of vital importance in the process of discipline.
Remember 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (4) Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (5) or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (8) Love never ends...
If someone we have disciplined comes to repentance, then we welcome him back to full fellowship within the Body of Christ. The limb is reattached with much rejoicing and tender care and healing.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Discipline is for the protection of other believers and the hoped for restoration of the one being disciplined.
Unrepentant sin that grows in prideful rebellion against God's laws, if unchecked, will spread like fire through the church and many will get burned.
Love is not ignoring or trying to cover up the sin and disobedience, love is shining God's perfect light into the darkness so that everyone will see clearly enough to get to safety. Only the truth will set you free.