Tabernacle Baptist Church: Recent Episodes
Tabernacle Baptist Church
We are a biblically rooted church, that wants to help you overcome life's emptiness through a deeper relationship with Christ and a connection to a family that care. Experience Family with us in Ennis, TX.
Psalm 103: 1-22
1. We Bless the Lord because He is a God of Countless Benefits
A. Look at all the action verbs in the first seven verses:
-
Forgives and heals
-
Redeems and crowns
-
Satisfies and renews
-
Works and reveals
B. Above all else, our God is knowable
- He desires a relationship with us
2. He is a God of Grace
A.In verse 8, David quotes directly from Exodus 34
- God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love
B.That grace is personified in Jesus
- Through the cross, our sin has been removed as far as the East is from the West
3. He is a God who is the Complete Opposite of Us
A. We are dust, grass, a flower that quickly fades
B. He is eternal and enthroned in Heaven forever
C. He is meant to be worshipped, and we were made to worship Him
Psalm 127:1-5
1. Who is Building your House?
A) The conditional clauses we see in verse 1 emphasize the futility of human effort without God
B) Whether we are building a house, or protecting a city, we must be following God’s will in every effort
C) If Jesus is not our foundation, we will have a life of anxiety instead of joy and rest
2. Are Our Children Arrows or Jewelry?
A) The next generation is a blessing to us, but also our responsibility
B) Do we want to protect our kids at all costs, or are we training them to be sent out by God?
C) It isn’t our job to make the next generation look like us, it’s our job to equip them to be like Christ
3. Will our Homes Age well?
A) The latter half of verse five contains legal language
- The city gate is where court was held and children could speak on behalf of their parents
B) If we train the next generation to understand and live out the gospel, we will not be put to shame
Psalm 84:1-12
1. We Worship God because He is our Sanctuary
A) We should yearn for God in a way that can only be satisfied by communion with Him
B) Just as the psalmist is drawn to the temple, so we are called to worship God collectively
B1) There is strength in unity, when a church gathers together as one
- We Worship God because He is our Strength
A) Even when we walk through the valley of tears, our hearts are on the highway to Zion
B) We aren’t alone
B1) God is with us
B2) When we journey with other believers, we are stronger together
3. We Worship God because He is our Provider
A) Would you rather be a servant to God or ruler of your own life?
A1) There are no little people in the Kingdom of God, and no small things in His plan
B) He doesn’t withhold any good thing from us!
C) We want to grow each day in the gospel so we will be in awe of God each time we think of Him
Equipping and Empowering | Dr. Zach Crook
Psalm 78:1-8
- We Can’t Hide the Truth
A) We can’t lose sight of the main thing – the gospel!
B) Asaph shares the history of Israel and tells us about some great mysteries
B1) The first mystery is why did Israel not trust and obey God?
B2) The second is how can God be so gracious?!
- God Has Given Us a Testimony and a Law
A) If God hadn’t spoken, we would be lost without any hope
A1) God has a given us a compass to navigate through the craziness of the twenty-first century
B) It’s important to note that God’s testimony comes before God’s demands in the law
B1) He saved Israel from bondage! Therefore, we respond in light of God’s salvation
C) We obey out of love for the mighty rescue that God has given us
- We Must Equip and Empower the Next Generation
A) We teach our children, the next generation, to know the truth
A1) This isn’t head knowledge. It’s intimate knowledge. It’s hiding God’s Word in your heart!
B) We are one generation away from losing all influence in our culture, but we are also one generation away from revival!
B1) We are starting our ministry residency program to equip and empower the next generation of leaders in the church.
Psalm 73:1-17; 24-26
Truth #1: Our envy leads us away from God (v.3-14)
Truth #2: Our hope comes from God (v.15-20)
"If you are a believer, no matter how bad this world gets, it's as close to hell as you'll ever be because heaven is your home.
The reality is that if you do not know Jesus, if you have not accepted Him as Lord of your life, no matter how this world gets, if you do not know Jesus, it is as close to heaven as you'll be because hell is your home." - Shane Pruitt, NAMB Next Generation Director
Truth #3: Our desire & strength is God (v.21-26)
Truth #4: Our Refuge is God (v.27-28)
"Those far from you will certainly perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, God’s presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all you do." - Psalms 73:27-28
Application:
How we can prevent "slipping"
1. We pursue accountability
2. We pursue community
3. We pursue the LORD
4. We pursue the lost to tell them about the LORD
Psalm 71:1-24
- We have Confidence because of God’s Faithfulness
A) While David is approaching the end of his life, he is able to recount how faithful God has been for his entire life!
B) There is so much we can learn from our senior saints who have been faithful to God for decades!
B1) We need wisdom from our older generations and we should value them
- A Hopeful Prayer
A) David knows what others are saying about him, but he is leaning into God and his prayer is full of hope!
B) If you still have breath in your lungs, God isn’t done with you!
C) We need to seek God’s strength to finish strong
- We Will Proclaim God’s Goodness Until the End
A) God, don’t abandon me until I…
A1) Share the gospel with all of my neighbors
A2) See revival in our nation
A3) See our church plant another church
A4) Help our church send out missionaries to every continent
A5) See the debt paid off
B) Let’s proclaim God’s goodness to the next generation and to the world!
Our Fortress | Dr. Zach Crook
Psalm 46:1-11
- God is our Refuge in Natural Troubles
A) Because we live in a broken world, creation is groaning and there will be issues
B) It’s more than that, Psalm 46 is eschatological in nature and is talking about the natural disasters that come before Christ returns to judge the world
C) Though there may be temporary issues, God has us eternally secured
- God is our Refuge in Societal Troubles
A) The tremors don’t just affect the natural world, but all the nations of this world
B) Surrounded by chaos, the city of God will not fall
C) The help of God at “break of day” shows that He will not let his people suffer in the darkness of distress for too long
- God will be Exalted no Matter What
A) We need to cease striving, and trust in God!
A1) Judgment is coming, but God is our fortress
B) Every struggle in this life is temporary, but God will be our eternal refuge, if we trust in Him
1. We Show God’s Heart for the Nations through Song
A) We are called three times to sing to God
A1) Singing has been a way to worship God since the beginning of creation and will be something we do through all eternity
B) Singing a new song is more than just being creative. It’s sharing about fresh experiences with God!
C) Singing is a great way to point others to God
- We Show God’s Heart for the Nations through Missions
A) We have a message, a method, and a mandate
A1) The message is the gospel
A2) The method is to share the good news daily
A3) The mandate is to take it to all peoples
B) Missions and evangelism aren’t optional, they are the expectation for all believers!
3. We Show God’s Heart for the Nations through Sacrifice
A) We can offer a sacrifice of praise – Hebrews 13:15
B) We can also sacrifice through our giving
C) Jesus is worthy of worship and we must sacrifice to take his message to the world!
- Invest in Your Walk with the Lord
A) There is no substitute for spending time with God
B) We need to cling to Him and allow Him to guide us
- Invest in Your Work and Community
A) In godly living, the judgment of God on humankind’s work (Genesis 3:17-19) is alleviated in that labor is truly blessed by God.
A1) Work will be hard, but it can be a blessing
B) We are blessed by God to impact our Jerusalem
B1) We should seek to improve of our city
- Invest in Your Family
A) This is a long-term investment
A1) Olive trees may not produce for 40 years!
(But they can last for hundreds of years after being properly taken care of)
B) Through the power of the gospel, the blessedness of a godly man can extend to multiple generations
Psalm 42:1-11
- We are Thirsty
- We all long for something because we were made to crave
- When is the last time you have desperately sought God with all that you are?
- Without true sustenance, we realize how weak we really are
- It’s Ok to Lament
- In the midst of despair, pour out your heart to God
- Be honest with your feelings!
- Have your tears ever been your food? - v. 3
- Have you ever felt forgotten? – v. 9
- Have you ever been taunted? – v. 10
- Simply put, you aren’t alone in those experiences
- Hope will See Us Through
- Remember times you have experience God
- Adverse conditions create an optimum context for reflection
- In times of self-doubt, focus on God’s covenantal love
- Jesus is our great reminder of God’s unfailing love
- He’s never failed, and he won’t start now!
- Jesus is our great reminder of God’s unfailing love
- Remember times you have experience God
1. A Heart Revealed
-
There is something fundamentally wrong if we don’t celebrate God giving grace to others
-
Jonah wants to remake God in his own image
-
God is asking Jonah two questions:
-
Why are you doing this to yourself?
-
Are you sure you’ve gauged this situation properly?
-
Jonah was saved from the belly of a fish, but he needed to be saved from the power of sin in his life
-
God’s response to Jonah’s tantrum is to comfort him
2. Jonah has Misplaced Love
-
The same God who sent the plant also sent the worm and the wind
-
God is basically questioning Jonah: how can he love plants more than people?
-
In God’s city, the inhabitants love people and walk on gold. In man’s city, the inhabitants love gold and walk on people
3. We Must be Missional, Not Tribal
-
Jonah values self-preservation; God values self-sacrifice
-
Does God want us to run away or towards our perceived enemies?
-
God’s capacity to forgive is greater than our capacity to sin
-
If we understand the size of our sin and the size of God’s grace, it should lead us to see the size of God’s mission
-
The Church Needs to Redefine Success
-
Intimidating odds should not make us cower
-
Hold fast to our supernatural God
-
Success is obedience
2. Throw the Pass Anyway
-
If we proclaim it, God’s Word can change hearts
-
God humbled Jonah, and then used him to humble the Assyrians
-
Your lost cause could be God’s tool for greatness
3. God is Unbelievably Gracious
-
God has made a way
-
God’s wrath has been poured out – 2 Cor. 5:21
-
Let’s celebrate and share Christ’s sacrifice
God is still in the business of restoring people’s lives. We can see Him bringing restoration throughout the Bible, and He’s still bringing restoration today.
God restores our identity as sons and daughters of the King. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
God restores our calling. Identity should naturally lead to activity because we are God’s ambassadors on earth.
When your “brushwork” is analyzed, do people see the marks of Jesus in you?
What is it going to take for us to cry out to God? We need to realize that even in the depths, God is still in control! When we encounter ourselves in the depths, this can be the result of two things: the reality of living in a broken world or a consequence of our sin.
In the depths, we realize we are helpless and hopeless without God. Just like Jonah realized that in the past and cried out to God, the same truth is for us today. Without the Lord we are nothing. Sometimes, God allows us to get into hopeless situations so we will realize how much we need Him, and so He will get the credit if we are delivered.
Finally, in the depths, we should realize that salvation belongs to the Lord. Like Jonah, we need to be desperate for God. We need Ebenezers in our lives to remind us of what God has done!
Are you a blessing or a barrier to the people around you?
Jonah was a barrier to the people on the ship. He almost killed them all, however, God is sovereign. Like the sailors paddling for shore, any effort to save others apart from God falls short. In his providence, God used Jonah’s warped witness to lead these pagan sailors to worship Him.
We must understand that our most important citizenship is not of this world and that there is always going to be collateral damage when we disobey God, so if you want to be a blessing instead of a barrier, accept responsibility for your actions.
When is the last time you meditated on the fact that the Creator of the universe speaks to us? If our Creator speaks, we should listen to Him.
There are only two responses when God speaks: obedience or rebellion. Jonah rebelled. He was fearful of his enemies and had a difficult time understanding why God cared for the Ninevites.
Just like God has spoken to Jonah, he has spoken to us. Are you going to obey or rebel when He speaks?
It is our job to obey, even when we do not understand all the reasons why God is doing what He is doing. Jonah had a difficult time with the Ninevites, however, the question is: who are your Ninevites? Maybe that person or group of people that you don’t understand the way they live.
Pray that God will soften your heart towards our perceived enemies, remembering always that the enemy of our souls is not them, but Satan.
In Dr. Zach Crook’s first sermon as Tabernacle Lead Pastor, he talked about Esther’s story in Est 4:11-16.
-
God knows what He’s doing. God is sovereign and doesn’t make mistakes. So, whatever you are walking through, you have to trust that God is allowing it to happen
-
We need to get ready. If you just come to church once a week, you won’t be ready! It’s daily getting in his Word and praying!
-
Trust God with the results. Esther was saying that being obedient to God, even if it leads to an earthly demise is better than being alive. Do you believe that following Jesus is better than comfort and safety?
Who are you ultimately trying to please? Don’t you long for the Master to say upon His return, “Well done, good and faithful servant? But you might say, “It’s too late.” No, it is not.
You can decide that you are going to accept what you’ve been given and quit griping about what you don’t have. You can decide that you are going to invest what you’ve been entrusted, as you discover what God has placed in your hand.
Understand that one day the Master is coming back, and you will give an account for the life that has been entrusted to you. Don’t be a good-for-nothing.
You are only truly fulfilled when you are fulfilling the purpose for which you were created.
You’ve been given a great gift. Now go share it.
Do you think you’re paying good money to watch what goes on up here week after week at church?
Sadly, that’s what many church attendees believe; but that’s not the way God designed the church.
Some Christians consider themselves followers of Christ and even members of Tabernacle, but they feel like they are on the sidelines of what God is doing in the church, and desperately want to be a part of what God is doing.
On the other hand, there are some people that have been sitting on the sidelines just watching everyone else serve with no desire to get in the game, however, they need to awaken to the fact that they are on the team and need to do their part.
Today is an opportunity for us to realize what it takes to get in the game and be a part of what God is doing at Tabernacle and/or in the greater kingdom of heaven on earth.
Paul in this letter is combating heresy in the church and people who have distorted the image of Jesus. Paul loves this church dearly and cares for their spiritual maturity and well-being. Paul’s response doesn’t attack or spend time critiquing the wrong view, rather Paul draws people to worship the risen Savior by showing Jesus in His supremacy, power, and beauty.
Colossians 1:15-20 will present to us the most essential truth of the Christian faith. Christianity is centered on Christ being God and God making peace by His own blood for the sins of man.
This is the first sermon of now, our Lead Pastor, Dr. Zach Crook preached at Tabernacle.
God has wired us all with a need for other people; for community. But what is biblical community?
Biblical community is a small gathering of people for Bible study, ministry, and accountability.
When it comes to biblical community, just attending a worship service like this doesn’t put you in community. It’s difficult to experience community within a large group like this.
Being in community means that you know others and are known by others. You serve and are being served by others. You love and are being loved by others.
There are three facets of the power of community among followers of Christ.
1- Community reflects God’s nature
2- Community mature God’s people
3- Community extends God’s Kingdom
Community isn’t all about us. It’s about reflecting the glory of God in our lives as we yield to Him and He transforms us by His power as we exercise the spiritual disciplines He gave us.
Genesis 1:1 is the most well-known verse in the Bible. Here we see the God Code for humanity, where, God, the Creator of the whole universe presents Himself as the Intelligent Designer who designed the entire universe.
God shows us in Psalm 1 that the person who delights in the Lord will be given a life of joy, delight, happiness, and a full soul. The life of blessing is the life lived in the Word of God and in the Presence of God.
Trust God and delight in the Word and you will have His blessings lavished on your life. Trust yourself and the council of the wicked and you will receive the punishment and wrath of God.
This morning, Carlos Oliveira talked about Heaven:
-
What is Heaven?
-
What will life be like in Heaven?
-
What happens next?
Many Christians don’t exercise the spiritual discipline of reading God’s word, so what can you do to have such a hunger for the Word of God to the point that you couldn’t imagine living a day without feeding on it?
In 1 Peter 2:1-3, the Apostle Peter is equating a hunger or longing for the Word of God with a newborn infant hungering for milk.
Using that analogy, if you want to hunger for the Word of God, you have to:
1) Experience God – taste and see that He is good! Confess Christ as Lord and Savior.
2) Eliminate Congestion – confess and repent of those things that keep you from God’s Word.
3) Eat Healthy – change your diet and begin to feed on God’s Word.
4) Expect Growth - when you do the three previous points, growth will be a natural result.
Would you wish your life in Christ on anyone else? In other words, is your life in Christ so exhilarating and fulfilling to the point where you would want EVERYONE to know about it and have the opportunity to experience it? Or do you see your Christian life as a burden, to where you wouldn’t wish it on ANYONE?
Consistency and persistence are two crucial characteristics we need to have when we pray.
Being consistent means that prayer has become a part of your life. It means constantly adhering to the same course or form. Being consistent in prayer is the idea of having regular time with God on a daily basis. If we are going to emulate the character of Christ in our lives, and see God do amazing things, there is no way that can be accomplished if we’re not consistently abiding in Him.
Being consistent means that you are constant and continuous. Now, being persistent means that you endure tenaciously, even against great odds or obstacles.
George Mueller once said: “The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere. If they desire anything for God’s glory, they should pray until they get it.” That’s the idea of persistence: always praying and not losing heart regardless of any obstacles or delays.
So keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Be consistent. Be persistent in prayer.
Some people are hopeless all the time, more than hopeless, they are complainers. However, most people are not necessarily without hope all the time. Instead, when they go through some tough seasons in their lives, they feel hopeless and feel like nothing is ever going to change.
Hopelessness is difficult especially because it is always related to pain and hardship. It is like a part of the package. Hopelessness, pain, and hardship.
When we feel hopeless we can only focus on the negative things that are going wrong in the moment. We only focus on the here and now. We get tunnel vision and we cannot look past our hardship.
However, Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”
The struggle and the hard times are nothing compared to the reward in the end. Just like Paul did, you also should do the same in your life when it comes to your understanding of going to heaven! You can have hope again because these troubles are nothing in comparison to what is to come!
We wonder why the church is powerless in our day against society. It’s because we try to keep one foot in society and one foot in the Gospel, however, the Gospel is a radical call for commitment and selflessness.
We are all full-time missionaries and stewards of the Gospel. Don’t fall asleep because that’s the reason why we were created, to live for God 24/7 and to be like Jesus Christ in our daily lives.
When it comes to the discipline of prayer, the conversation we find in Luke 11 is fascinating. Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
The disciples didn’t ask Jesus to show them how to perform miracles. They asked Him to show them how to pray. Why? They already KNEW how to pray. Every Jew knew how to pray. Maybe because something always happened on the heels of Jesus praying. Perhaps they saw this as a source of power, so, they said, “Jesus, teach us to pray.”
Take time and trouble to stay spiritually fit. Learn how to pray and how to practice all the other spiritual disciplines as well. The disciplines of Scripture engagement and Prayer are paramount to your spiritual growth, those are the two on which we are going to focus the most. So start to practice them as soon as possible. A year from now you are going to wish you started today.
In Matthew 11:28-30 we see the gentleness and kindness of Christ towards us. Jesus gives us the invitation to come to Him and the promise that if we come to Him, we will find rest.
In the kindness of Christ, our souls can find rest and enjoy the life God has set before us because we are no longer burdened by things we cannot control. Free from the anxious worry and burden of the eternal resting place of our souls we can enjoy the life set before us and have true happiness and peace.
The world operates on a principle of unforgiveness and retribution. We see this play out constantly on the news where people are assaulted or killed for something they said or did. Then follows the cycle of unforgiveness, hatred, and revenge. We see the devastating results of unforgiveness all the time. One gang at war with another gang. One race hating another race. Former friends who now can’t stand to be in the same room. A family who once shared sweet fellowship is now divided. Such is the way of the world, and this should not surprise us since they have not known the forgiveness of God.
However, for the believer, this is not the case. We respond differently to insult and hurt because we are different. We understand forgiveness because we have been forgiven, and because we have been forgiven, we have a platform to forgive others when they wrong us. Furthermore, we have the supreme example of forgiveness in Christ and we follow his example. In other words, Christians are forgivers because God is a forgiver and we emulate him.
Forgiveness is hard. Though, arguably, one of the most challenging parts of the Christian life, it is liberating! If we will commit to doing the hard work of forgiveness, we will reap rich rewards.
Have you ever picked up a cup filled with coffee expecting it to be hot, only to find it cold or lukewarm? What did you do or what were you tempted to do? Probably spit it out.
Have you ever picked up a Coke or a Dr. Pepper, expecting it to be ice cold and bubbly, only to find it hot or lukewarm and flat? What did you do or what were you tempted to do? Probably spit it out.
Why? Because lukewarm coffee and lukewarm coke are not ideal. THAT’S what Jesus is communicating to this church in Laodicea and to Tabernacle Family this morning.
So if you sense you are lukewarm, be eager to repent, realize the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus, ask God to open your eyes to your spiritual condition, clothe yourself with righteous living, and open the door to deep and rich fellowship by meeting Jesus where He is: in the Word and in Prayer.
God’s work is an unlikely work, and He chose unlikely people from unlikely places to accomplish His unlikely mission to save a lost and dying world.
The Samaritan woman did not have the Great Commission, but she had met a great Savior and she was compelled to bring people to meet her new Master.
You may feel like you are too unlikely of a person for God to use. God changed the world through eleven sinners from a little slave province in the Roman Empire. He used this no-name woman. He can certainly use you too.
If you are so bothered by the direction of this country that you are debilitated, depressed, and discouraged, then it may be that you are putting too much stock into THIS world instead of the next. Remember, this world is NOT our home. And our life is but a “vapor” and a DOT compared to eternity.
We have a responsibility to our city and our state and our nation to be responsible citizens. But this is not our destiny!
So, are we in for the long haul? Thus, enter the open door of salvation and service, and also, endure to the end by obeying the Word and claiming the name of Jesus unashamedly.
When David faced the giant Goliath, this was an impossible problem for him to resolve by himself.
But David knew something about God. God is not someone that will save you using conventional weapons. When God decides to deliver you from some situation, very often He will not do it the way you think. God is always going to do in a way where He will get the glory, and that is why so many people get trapped in impossible situations.
God is bigger than that, so let Him work through you using not conventional weapons. Be open to what God wants to do to you and through you so you can experience deliverance from Him.
In this parable, there are two sons: the younger and the older. The younger son was the Rebellious son, and the older son was the Religious son. Which son are you?
The truth is both sons were lost – yes, one left and one stayed at home. The younger was unrighteous and the older was self-righteous. Neither were right with God!
Both sons were in need of God’s grace, just like me and you. This grace can only come from the Son telling the story, the Redeeming Son – Jesus Christ!
Are you a part of the walking dead that has confessed Christ as Lord and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you were to die in this instance you would spend eternity with God; yet you are simply going through the motions in a “zombie-like” state, not really “alive” in Christ?
Don’t you long to “strengthen whatever it is that remains?”
Are you ready for a reality check in your life?
Repent from your apathy and slumber. Wake up to this life in Christ that’s available to you!
Have you been seduced by Jezebel?
Have you been sucked into a pseudo-Christian sub-culture that tells you to confine your religion to your personal life; keep your religion to yourself?
Have you been compromising the truths of God and the practices of Christ-followers to keep from being rejected, ridiculed, or persecuted?
Are you being seduced into tolerating sin and error and heresy?
The storm of tolerance toward immorality and idolatry is gathering quickly, as well as the storm of intolerance of the world toward those who believe in absolute truth.
How secure and stable are you as the storm approaches?
We all have guilt that haunts us of our failure, so, what do we do with it?
In John 21 we are going to find Jesus’s love is greater than our failure.
The only way to lay the persistent ghosts of your sin on our conscience to rest is knowing the same love that saved you through Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection has paid for every sin of our past, present, and future.
Walk in freedom today. Stop practicing sin and living as a slave to that sin. That sin you once walked in does not still rule over you. Don’t let it haunt you.
What would you do if faith was illegal?
Daniel was going into a circumstance like that, and just like him, we are called to live for God even when circumstances are not in our favor.
How can you experience resurrection today?
In the book of Acts, shortly after the Apostles Peter and John were used by God to heal a man who was lame from birth, Peter told the crowd that they were guilty of crucifying Jesus, the One who had come to bring.
“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.” (Acts 3:19-20).
So, RISE UP!!! And EXPERIENCE RESURRECTION TODAY!
Jesus' atonement on the cross.
He paid the debt from mankind to God. He tore the veil and gave us direct access to the presence of God. That work was finished completely on the cross.
But God is not done yet. You and I live in a world filled with fallenness. Sorrow. Suffering. Loss. Real pain and disappointment.
The good news on this Good Friday is that Jesus finished the work on the cross, but he isn’t done yet. He’s not done with your story. He’s not done with your kids. He’s not done working through your life or in your church. He’s not done with his creation and the complete renewal he promised would one day come. A new heaven and a new earth. All things set right again.
He is not done yet.
Maybe you are not on fire for Christ because you have compromised your faith with things from this world. You need to quit trying to live in both the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world. Your happiness will not come from being able to live in both worlds.
TRUE joy is found in surrender and submission to Jesus Christ. Live in freedom and not compromise.
What next step can you take TODAY as an act of repentance?
There is this growing intolerance of the truths of God’s Word, and growing persecution of those who cling to these truths. It was in this type of culture and conflict that Jesus is addressing the church at Smyrna.
The motto of the Marine Corps is “Semper Fi”, short for Semper Fidelis. It’s a Latin phrase for Always Faithful, or Faithful to the End. It signifies the dedication and faithfulness that individual Marines are expected to have to The Corps and to their fellow fighting men and women.
As we see the gathering storm against those who confess Christ, will you be fearless in the midst of persecution, and faithful to the end and be a conqueror because of your living hope in Jesus Christ?
The question “Can anything separate us from God’s love once we are saved?” is answered by Paul in this text to the Romans.
Nothing can separate us from God’s love, so we are to live a life connected to His love. To live a life connected to God’s love is to learn to walk in intimacy daily with the God of our salvation.
Romans 8 is a chapter that should make you walk away in awe and star-struck at the love of God. We see the eternal, never-ending, unconditional love of God for those who are in Jesus, us.
Do you live your life to refresh others?
In this sermon, Dennis Swanberg talks about how we can be a refresher to people around us. Watch this sermon and share it with your family and friends!
Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe He resurrected from the dead? Do you believe He can save you from sin and guilt and shame? Do you believe He can give you eternal life? Do you believe it?
Have you ever heard a married man or woman say something like the following when it comes to their husband or wife: “I don’t love them anymore”, or “I’ve fallen out of love with him or her”? It means that their “affection” has grown cold for them, or that they are just “tired” of them.
That’s why I’m not sure I like the phrase, “falling in love.” You don’t FALL in love; you GROW in love.
Just like many marriages are dissolved because of a lack of “unconditional” love, churches can be dissolved and disappear due to a lack of this same type of love, which we will see this morning.
We need to guard against the very issues that Jesus addresses in these churches and be a church on fire: burning brightly and effectively with a love for God, a love for our one another, and a love for our neighbors.
In this series, we will focus on the first three chapters of Revelation. We are going to look at seven real churches that Jesus addressed to either rebuke them for something that was amiss or to encourage them to press on. We will ask ourselves what we might need to change or to continue in order to be healthy and on fire, lest the fire die out and we become ashes.
The title of this series comes from the fact that these churches were, at the time of the writing of these letters, growing and expanding and “on fire”.
Perhaps you, like the recipients of this letter 2000 years ago, need to be reminded of who Jesus is, what He’s done, and what He’s going to do when He comes back.
The best shade trees you'll ever plant are the ones you'll never sit under!
None of us are self-made. We're all sitting under "shade trees" that were planted by our forefathers, by our families, and by our friends. Now, it's your turn to leave a meaningful legacy by planting your own shade trees for others to sit under.
Not everyone can be a legend, but everyone can leave a legacy.
We have been united with Christ to live for Him in this life and with Him in our death.
Paul is showing what and why those who are saved by faith through grace will walk in obedience. Our motivation to walk in obedience is Christ in us, and the overflow of God dwelling in us results in obedience and love for God. Obedience is not a matter of making God love us, it reflects our love for God and us being united with God.
Christ must be the center of Christianity. You will find joy when you say I am not enough, God is.
You are united with Jesus so live like it. You are destined for glory, so live like it.
Christ died for our sins, and for that reason, there’s no intermediate between us and God anymore. Jesus tore the veil in two. In 1 Peter 2:5, Peter tells us that we need to be a holy priesthood, so WE ARE THE PRIESTS! Because of this, we get to walk with God! We get to commune with Him!
Commune means to converse or talk together, usually intensely and intimately. Do those words describe your communication or communion with God?
Commune with God so you can:
1) Exercise your faith
2) Experience the supernatural
3) Extend God’s glory
Are you ready to step out in faith and watch God work?
Sometimes we can get complacent in our walk with Christ in a certain season, and think that this is the way things will ALWAYS be. And then God comes and changes things to where we move into greater dependence upon him.
We as a church are seeking our next Lead Pastor, but in the meantime, what do WE do? What’s the next thing we need to prepare ourselves for this new season?
We need to Consecrate Ourselves. We need to Come Clean!
What battles have you lost time after time, and what battles are you losing, because you are harboring sin in your life? God wants you to experience the abundant life, the exciting adventure of being a follower of Christ. And He wants to use you and this church.
God always uses clean instruments. So the question is, ARE YOU CLEAN?
Pastor Jeff Lynn will be preaching in the next few weeks in the book of Joshua. It’s about what you are going to do during this time of waiting.
This is a great time for you to prepare for whatever man God calls to lead you into this next frontier. You may believe that you should just “maintain” during these next few months as the Pastor Search Team does THEIR job in calling a new pastor. However, I believe this is no time to sit idly by.
I believe YOU can prepare yourself for the arrival of your next pastor.
Wouldn’t it be great if, when your new pastor comes, you would be ready to follow his leadership and be spiritually prepared for what God has for you?
This is a great time for you to step up and be a part of what God is doing and will do at Tabernacle Church.
We live in a world that does not want to accept fault. We live in a world that does not want to see their own sin. Believers sometimes do not want to see their sins in their lives. If we don’t recognize our sins, there is no genuine repentance, and consequently, there is no confession of these sins.
In the eyes of God, there are just two types of people: the righteous and the unrighteous. So how do we obtain righteousness?
Philippians is well-known as the book of joy. Just like Jesus was in Paul's heart and mind, we need to seek God with all we have so we can have a deep relationship with Him.
Know Jesus! Obey His words! Hil will is good to you and He wants to bless you infinitely so you can bring glory to Him and bless others!
In this sermon, Pr. Greg Schanfish reminds us of five things every Christian needs to do in times of transition. They are:
1- Evangelism
2- Discipleship
3- Fellowship
4- Ministry
5- Worship
May this be your mission not just in this time of transition, but every day in your life!
In the holiday season (and the rest of the year), be like Mary. She wanted to be WITH Jesus, she was not trying to DO things for Jesus. The most important thing you can do for yourself and your family is to be with Jesus, enjoying His presence for all the days of your life!
Jesus came to earth to be the Christ, our Savior, and LORD. He is worthy of all our praise and because He came here we have free access to the Father. Hallelujah!
Matthew was the Gospel that was used more than any other Gospel for the first 200 years of the Church. This was the Gospel used for the new believers, and Matthew was written to the Jews because its genealogy starts with Abraham.
There are so many Old Testament quotes in Matthew that will prepare Jews to hear that Jesus is really the fulfillment of this promised coming boy, the Messiah.
One of these prophecies is the Three Wise Men, which Dr. Utley will be speaking today.
Here is a man, Luke, a physician, gentile, not an apostle, did not walk with Jesus, but wrote one of the Gospels. He has written more words than any other person in the New Testament.
That’s a man who wants to make the Gospel relevant to gentile people.
Jesus was born to save the Jews and the Gentiles, men and women, the poor and the rich, to anyone who believes in Him.
Given who you are, with your characteristics, personality, being an extrovert or introvert person, how can you be the light of Christ for this world?
You have a place to be used by God. You are most fulfilled when you are fulfilling the design you were created for.
In the midst of so much uncertainty, Dr. Bob Utley brings a message about the importance of Unity, not Uniformity.
In a season of transition, Scotty Sanders brings a word from God about waiting on Him.
Let's live and lead each day with the confidence that no matter what the circumstances are, God will be with us.
In his farewell sermon at Tabernacle, Pastor Todd talks about Joshua 1.
The book of Joshua begins with Israel closing one chapter in their history, under one leader (Moses) and opening up to a new chapter under a completely different yet wonderful leader in Joshua.
Today, we will hear the LORD comfort Joshua and elevate any fear he might have had. In studying this story during a transitional time in Israel’s history we too will find rich application leading into a time of transition as well.
In the words of Pastor Todd, in this time of transition do not fear, but instead be strong in the LORD, trust in His leadership, His sovereign plan, and His Word.
Our passage this morning comes with a stern warning from Paul not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. This is important because the intimacy of our relationship with God hinges on this question. Our relationship with God is often presented as that of a husband and a wife. How do you grow in intimacy with your spouse? By learning them and spending time with them.
Being kind, being tenderhearted, and forgiving one another are characteristics we need to have if we don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit. It seems overly simplified, but that is being an imitator of Christ. These simple actions are what it looks like to live in holiness because these actions are imitating the life of Christ who lived and walked in holiness.
Paul uses various examples and gives us some real practical do’s and don’ts in our Christian living. So walk in a manner worthy of God’s call by putting off the old and in the Spirit’s power, putting on the new.
Put off the old, avoid becoming callous, avoid dishonesty and speaking the truth, avoid sinful anger, avoid unwholesome speech and all kinds of malice, and put on the new self pursuing righteousness, kindness, and a tender heart are one of the examples Paul says in this text.
This lifestyle can be treacherous and difficult at times, but He is worth it. Your old life will want to hang on forever and drag you with it but God is here and He wants to take care of you. He loves you!
In today’s passage, we see that Christ has given each one of us a gift because of His victory on the cross and He has given each of us a gift that we would build each other up in love. Just like putting the kids' toys together may be frustrating, we are motivated out of love for our children. We are to build one another up in love, yes it is frustrating, yes there is pain, but it is for God’s glory.
When we serve together as a church, that is the body of Christ functioning properly. We need you. The body of Christ needs you. This kind of service “makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
In chapters 1 to 3, Paul has been laying out a great theology concerning our salvation in Christ. Now based upon this strong theology Paul starts in on hard-hitting life application.
Based upon the truth He discussed, Paul launches into how we are expected to live in response to that powerful Gospel truth. Paul is urging the Ephesians and all those reading this letter to Walk the Talk! He is saying that we need to do what we preach, never being hypocrites.
We need to walk in a manner worthy of God’s call on our lives by pursuing unity in the body.
Life is easier with help, and there is no better helper than Jesus. There is no one more powerful and no one more capable. He literally can move Heaven and Earth if He so desires.
Prayer is the means by which we have access to His help. In Ephesians 3, Paul is helping us by encouraging us to access the power of Christ in prayer. For it is by prayer that we allow Jesus to bear our burden.
So pray for spiritual strength and to understand God’s love for you in Christ because He can do infinitely more than you could ever imagine.
The book of Ephesians is Paul revealing the mystery of God’s eternal plan of salvation. God gave the Jews everything they needed to decode the mystery of the Messiah in the Old Testament. The resurrected Jesus says as much to the men on the road to Emmaus as He rebukes them for not understanding the Messiah in the Old Testament and then unfolds to them how the prophets testified to Him.
Paul devoted much of his written ministry to showing Christ in the Old Testament. But like a good mystery, the believing Jews understood Jesus as Messiah, but the twist for them was that it has always been God’s plan to save the Gentiles too and that they would share in the exact same inheritance as the Jews.
This truth is all over the Old Testament, but the believing Jews just didn’t see it because when they read the Scripture, they were using their conformation bias to confirm their racial and spiritual superiority.
The mystery God revealed that we will see in the text this morning is God’s eternal plan of salvation that was carried out by Christ so that both Jew and Gentile would be saved and have access to God.
In Christ, we have been saved to share the Gospel with the lost so they too will have access to God.
“All for One and One for All.” It’s this expressive phrase of unity that Paul is addressing in these verses. The origin of this phrase does not come from the French language or the Three Musketeers book, it was originally found in Latin and from Shakespeare. The original order is “One for All and All for One.” And it's this word order that fits our text perfectly.
Here Paul is discussing how both Jew and Gentile can be brought together in Christ. This was once a mystery but now has been revealed in the Gospel.
Christ is the One and we are the All. One died for all and All and for the One. Jew or gentile, black or white, male or female. Christ died once for all and all can be one in Christ, hence, One for All and All For One.
Many people treat their salvation like a priceless work of art and place it under lock and key.
God’s beauty is displayed when someone does you wrong and you forgive them, even when they are not willing to acknowledge their wrong. This allows the world to experience a glimmer of God’s forgiveness and mercy. God’s beauty is displayed when you confess and apologize to others for your shortcomings.
No real artist would ever desire their piece of art to be put in a vault to be experienced by the world. God is an artist and you are His masterpiece that He wants the world to experience Him through.
We are to go out and display God’s grace and mercy to the world in our lives. To bring worship to God. Our lives are to be lived in such a way we draw all men to Christ.
Art speaks. What are you saying about God?
Have you ever seen God answer your prayer?
Prayer is the lifeblood for the believer in his or her communication with God. It is simply talking to God.
Prayer is all over the Bible and in today’s passage is no exception.
In God’s Word, we have examples on HOW to pray, as we see in the sermon on the mount where Jesus teaches His disciples to pray. He offers a model or outline for all of us in the Lord’s Prayer.
The Bible also guides us on WHEN we should pray. In 1 Thes. 5:17 we learn that praying without ceasing is an excellent (and maybe the only) option. To always be in a prayerful spirit, ever seeking the Lord.
Finally, the Bible also establishes great reasons WHY we should pray. We should pray because God has made a great effort in moving Heaven and Earth to have a relationship with us. He made a way for us to pray. A way for us to have an intimate relationship with Him, the creator of the universe.
He loves you and wants to hear from you every day!
Have you ever seen God answer your prayer?
Prayer is the lifeblood for the believer in his or her communication with God. It is simply talking to God.
Prayer is all over the Bible and in today’s passage is no exception.
In God’s Word, we have examples on HOW to pray, as we see in the sermon on the mount where Jesus teaches His disciples to pray. He offers a model or outline for all of us in the Lord’s Prayer.
The Bible also guides us on WHEN we should pray. In 1 Thes. 5:17 we learn that praying without ceasing is an excellent (and maybe the only) option. To always be in a prayerful spirit, ever seeking the Lord.
Finally, the Bible also establishes great reasons WHY we should pray. We should pray because God has made a great effort in moving Heaven and Earth to have a relationship with us. He made a way for us to pray. A way for us to have an intimate relationship with Him, the creator of the universe.
He loves you and wants to hear from you every day!
Have you ever seen something that you cannot unsee? And when you see it, it changes everything about the way you previously saw life?
When you come into the reality of God’s grace made known it will change everything. If you see God’s grace and you are unaffected you should be afraid because that means that it has not changed your reality. When you come into contact with God’s grace you will be changed with the desire to worship and praise God as Paul did in Ephesians chapter 1 and your love will cause you to keep His commandments.
We are to praise God for the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our salvation. We can see the grace of God in the work of the Son for purchasing our forgiveness, the grace of God in the Father’s plan of salvation, and the grace of God in the Spirit’s work of bringing us to heaven.
As Christians, it is our responsibility to not only understand God’s Word but to accept it and in discipleship, to teach the Word of God to others.
In this particular passage, we have doctrines mentioned that most people don’t understand and some don’t even believe. Some people might say, “I don’t believe in predestination.” Ok, but well, there is a problem with that, because Paul clearly says in v. 4 that God predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, and in v. 11 he says again that we are predestined according to His plan.
Understanding God’s role in your salvation through Christ in election and predestination will produce peace in your heart, and it will cause an eruption of praise and appreciation to flow from your heart to Him.
A couple of years ago, Leonardo Da Vinci painted Monalisa, one of the most famous paintings in entire history. Da Vinci had the ability to take something ordinary and all but worthless and make it priceless. Well, at least for a season, because nothing on Earth lasts forever.
But God has the ability to take worthless and make it priceless for eternity. This is exactly what has been done for us in Christ. This is the mystery of God revealed throughout the book of Ephesians, that we who are dead in our trespasses and sins have been made alive in Christ.
No matter how worthless you have felt, or how low you have lived. Through faith in Christ, you have been made holy and blameless in the eyes of God.
We have all made massive mistakes, but how we handle those mistakes determines our character in the situation and the outcome for the future.
2 Samuel 11 ends by telling that what David did with Uriah and Bathsheba was evil in the sight of the LORD. God was unaware of what David was doing. God is no passive observer. Instead, in 2 Samuel 12, we see God, as an act of mercy, sending Nathan the prophet to David to call out his sin. It was an act of mercy because if God did not pursue David concerning his sin, who knows how long David would have lived in the misery of unconfessed sin. The story would be very bleak and hopeless. Perhaps is that your story? Are you living an unconfessed sin?
God sent Nathan and he chose to tell the king a story. At the end of the story, King David is all fired up at the point of declaring death to the person in the story. So Nathan drops a truth bomb on him and says, YOU ARE THE MAN!
Whoever you are, wherever you are today, take responsibility for your sin. Confess your sin to God and the people you’ve hurt. So you can be forgiven, restored, and finally live in freedom!
No one goes from zero to shooting and murdering a friend in the parking lot. No one is just going to get a pin with a grown wild tiger, like Siegfried and Roy. You find a pet sin. What you consider a baby sin. A little sin cub that you can manage and you feel like you are in control of. You allow the sin to grow but you think you are in control.
The progression of David’s sinful spiral is the same for us. David was passive to God's call, his passivity leads to compromise, and compromise will always lead to sin. The cost of compromise is destruction, but Christ's compassion calls us out of the darkness. Hallelujah!
Have you ever been shown kindness? The power of kindness is amazing. Maybe it was just someone keeping their word in doing something for you that you really did not expect them to do.
Or have you ever been shown kindness when you did not think you deserved it? We call that grace and there is nothing more powerful than grace.
Kindness is when someone does something for you just because they want to bless you.
Be kind always!
As believers, we will see a lot of parallels in our own journey of sanctification and we can learn some valuable lessons just as David did.
In these chapters, we will break up the story into 6 major parts: The Good times, The Hardship, The Fugitive, The Wavering, The Darkness, and finally, The Restoration.
1 Samuel 17 is one of the most famous chapters in all of the Bible because it contains maybe the most well-known story. The story of David and Goliath.
This text is just a further illustration of God’s power and David’s heart that reflected his passion for and faith in God. David felt righteous indignation and clearly, he knew that the battle belonged to the LORD and He would certainly give him the victory. David showed faith in God when he was convinced that if no one else was going to step up to defend God’s honor he would.
You can share in His victory for all of eternity if you would but place your faith in Him for the forgiveness of sin. So when trusting in Him completely, Christ can give you the courage needed to face any challenge for His Glory.
In 1 Samuel 16, David is anointed by Samuel as the new king of Israel. This unexpected selection sets in motion a life of incredible ups and downs in the life of David.
The story of David unfolds the way it does and is recorded in so much Biblical text because of David’s connection to Jesus.
In this series, we will examine the life of David and learn what God has for us from His story, but also we will look at each passage in the larger meta-narrative of Scripture and see how it connects to Jesus.
The things of the heart that God sees might be overlooked by the world but God sees them. He sees you. Know today that God takes the humble, overlooked, and forgotten things of this world and turns them into something beautiful for His Glory.
As citizens of Heaven, we need humble leaders leading humble congregations to resist the devil, to stand firm in their fight, and to trust God.
1- My Call as your Leader is to Shepherd with Integrity (vs. 1-4)
2- Clothe Yourselves with Humility (vs. 5-6)
3- Watch Out for The Devil and Resist Him (vs. 8-9)
As citizens of Heaven, we trust God with our lives and therefore exhibit Christ-like courage when suffering for Him.
1- Don’t be surprised when suffering comes… Instead, rejoice (vs. 12-16)
2- Take courage, suffering reminds believers that this world will be judged by God (vs. 17-18)
3- Take courage in suffering by trusting in the sovereign plan of God (vs. 19)
In service to the suffering, God has given the gift of prayer and us (the Church).
1- Preparing Yourself to Serve the Suffering (vs. 7)
2- Serving the Suffering through Hospitality (vs. 8)
3- Serving the Suffering with Your Gifts (vs. 10-11)
As Citizens of Heaven, we arm ourselves with the resolve of Christ in suffering justly for doing good and therefore we live differently than the world.
1- Arm yourself with the resolve of Christ (v. 1): be willing to suffer rather than give into sin.
2- To Arm yourself with Christ is to make war against earthly desires (v. 2-3): Peter talks about sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
3- Don’t be surprised when the world slanders you, God is your Judge and theirs. (v. 4-6): The world won’t understand when you depart from them to pursue Christ, so don’t worry about it.
We can endure suffering because we have been preserved by the blood of Christ to be presented to the Father in glory.
1- Suffering for Good (vs. 17)
2- Jesus Suffered for the Unrighteous (18-20): He suffered once for all, was empowered by the Spirit, and will deliver His people
3- Jesus will Subject all things to His Judgement (vs. 21-22)
Why do good? To have the opportunity to share the message of Christ.
Why do we share? Because Christ is Lord of your life.
Why is Christ Lord of your life? Because you fear God more than you fear man.
So, as citizens of Heaven, we do good, even under persecution, so as to have an opportunity to share our faith.
The church should always select from among themselves men of high character who are tested and qualified to serve as Deacons. Here are the characteristics and qualifications of being a Deacon.
1) Deacons are problem solvers, not problem starters (6:1)
2) Deacons serve the church body by ministering to people (6:2)
3) Deacons have good character - men of good reputation, full of the Spirit, wise, and responsible (6:3)
4) Deacons promote healthy churches (6:5-7)
5) Deacons carry themselves with dignity (1 Tim 3:8)
6) Deacons must not be double-tongued or insincere (3:8)
7) Deacons must not be addicted to alcohol (3:8)
8) Deacons must not be greedy (3:8)
9) Deacons must be tested (3:10)
10) Deacons are to be men of incomparable family values (3:12)
As citizens of Heaven, believers inherit eternal blessing from God and are called to live and speak in such a way that represents the gift and blesses others.
1- We Show our Faith by Properly Loving One Another (v. 8)
2- Remember, Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right (v. 9)
As citizens of Heaven, we honor God by following the example of Christ in respect, submission, and consideration toward others.
1- In Honoring the Example of Christ Wives Respect their Husbands through Submission (vs. 1-6)
2- Husbands, Be Considerate and Honor your Wives (v. 7)
1- For the Sake of Christ, Submit to Governmental Authority (vs. 13-17) - This goes for governmental authorities at all levels. From our local city government to state and even national government. Obeying God means submitting to governmental authority.
2- Be Submissive to Those you Work For (vs. 18-20) - Ask not what your work can do for you or how much they can serve you, ask how you might do your best and represent Christ at your work, even to those who treat you poorly.
What is your identity?
In this sermon, Pastor Todd will conduct you to know what is your true identity. So, embrace your new identity in God (vs. 9-10) and allow your character to reflect this identity for God’s glory (vs. 11-12).
In this passage in 1 Peter 2, Peter tells us two things we need to work out in our lives.
- Come to Christ, the Living Stone, and allow Him to shape you (vs. 4-5)
- Stand upon the cornerstone of Christ or stumble over Him and be destroyed (vs. 6-8)
To properly love one another and grow spiritually we must:
1- Put aside all love-spoiling vices that Peter tells us: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander (vs. 1)
2- Be hunger for the Word of God (vs. 2-3)
Believe in Christ and be given the Paradise of God, or reject Christ and be given the punishment of God.
- Christ Carried Our Contempt and Condemnation (vs. 32-38)
- Captured by Grace: The Conversion of a Criminal (vs. 39-42)
- The Compassion of the King (vs. 43)
Peter speaks with such conviction like we have no excuse to not love others. But the real question is “practically, what does that look like?” I see three ways in this passage:
- By better understanding our ability to love (v. 22)
- Understanding how to love (v. 22b)
- Understanding our lasting source of love (v. 23-25)
This text is very practical for what Peter is commanding God’s people to do. As we sojourn from this life to the next Peter calls us to fear the LORD. But not only will we be better instructed on how to fear God but also we will learn some amazing truths about the Gospel along the way.
1- While on this Earth we are to Live in Reverent Fear of God (v. 17-21)
2- We Should live in Reverent Fear Because There is no free pass (v. 17)
3- We should live in reverent fear because, in Christ, we have been redeemed from our former and empty way of life (v. 18-19)
4- We should live in reverent fear because our faith and hope are a result of God’s providential plan to bring glory to the name of Christ (v. 20-21)
Be Holy by fixing your Hope on Grace and by no longer being controlled by sinful desires.
1- Holiness is a lifestyle (v. 15-16)
2- Be Holy by Doing the Hard Work of Fixing your Hope on Grace (v. 13)
3- Be Holy by Not Falling Prey to Old Desires
Life is tough, but salvation is good! So turn to Christ for joy in this life. You are an object of God's affection.
1- Rejoice Knowing that Difficult Times Purify your Faith (6-7)
2- Purified faith brings depth and inexpressible joy to your relationship with Jesus (v. 8-9)
3- Trust in Christ from All of Scripture (10-12)
This is not your home, so act like it by daily obeying Christ and praising God for the Living Hope you have in Him.
- As a Resident Alien, Walk in Daily Obedience and Forgiveness (v. 1-2)
- Praise God You are Born Again to a Living Hope (v. 3-5)
In this Parable of The Unmerciful Servant, you will learn that you need to:
1- Receive God’s Forgiveness.
2- Because God has Forgiven you, You Must Forgive.
We are all gifted to be a part of the body of Christ; so work together to grow this body for His glory. In Eph. 4:11-16 Paul names some of the different gifts and roles, but more importantly he continues the idea of congregational unity.
1- The Bodybuilding Instructors (v. 11): Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers.
2- As an Instructor, Build up the Body by Equipping Them (v. 12): We are equipped to build the body by Reaching Out and Reaching In.
3- The Purpose (v. 13): Unity.
4- The Results (vs. 14-16): Spiritual Maturity.
Giving is not based on God’s need to receive but your need to worship Him through your finances. In Luke 21 you will learn that:
1- Let Giving be an Overflow of your Heart in Worship
2- Give Sacrificially
1- What Not to Do: Don’t Devote Yourself to Toxic People (v. 1) - Never lose your redemptive focus when dealing with unbelievers. It’s a fine and dangerous line between ministering and absorbing. Jesus had this purpose when He was with unbelievers.
2- What to Do: Personally Devote Yourself to God’s Word (v. 2) - The Word of God is intended to help you grow in knowledge of God and His desires to better your relationship with Him.
3- The Results of Personal Devotion (v. 3) - Devote yourself to God and Become a Strong and Fruitful Follower. Don’t immerse yourself in the ways of sin but instead delight in the Word of God and be blessed.
In this sermon, Scotty Sanders talked about three “Acts of Boldness” every Christian can do:
1- Speak when it is easier to say nothing
2- Take advantage of opportunities God gives you to show kindness
3- Find your ONE. Remember of the 5 I’s: Identify, Intercede, Invest, Impart, and Invite.
Maybe this year has distracted you and you have prayed less, read God’s wordless, served less, or gave less. What better way to start 2021 than by adding a spiritual habit that you lost in 2020 or maybe you never had. Starting a small spiritual habit might not seem like you are doing much, but if you are consistent, one day you will wake up as a different person. First and foremost we will start with prayer. Remember always that in a time of worry, don’t worry but instead go to God in prayer. In this text you will learn how to:
- Turn your Worry List into a Prayer List (Phil. 4:6)
- Worry Less, Pray More and Have Peace (Phil 4:7)
At this sermon we will look at 4 observations from Paul’s Prayer:
1- Be humble in prayer (v. 14-15)
2- Pray for spiritual strength (v. 16-17)
3- Be anchored in and experience God’s Love (v. 17-19)
4- Let God be glorified in the miracles He does in you and through you (v. 20-21)
We need to see Christ as He is- not in a manger, not on the cross, not in the tomb but seated on high enthroned as King of heaven.
1- The One on the Throne (v. 1-6a) - Thrones always symbolize the power and rule of the sovereign who sits there. This Throne is over all other thrones, to show authority and reign of the One who is sitting on the Throne. This is the Christ we worship. This is the King. When you see Him as He is, you will have the same words as Hale. “My only regret is that I only have a life to give.”
2- The Worship of the Heavenly Beings to the One on the Throne (v. 6b-8) - Now there is a shift from the One seated on the Throne to the ones who are worshiping. We are introduced to four creatures. Their song is, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty! Who was and is and is to come.” Praise is offered by the creatures for God’s holiness, omnipotence, and eternality.
3- The Worship of the Heavenly Council to the One on the Throne (v. 9-11) - You don’t get the kingdom of God without making Christ the King. The idea of praying to receive Christ to not go to hell isn’t the promise of scripture. One of the byproducts of praying to receive Christ is forgiveness of sin and salvation of hell. But salvation only comes when you make Christ the King of your life. The reality is that Christ reigns and He will be coming back again. When you see Him if you are in Christ, you will only wish that you could have given more in your life to make His name great.
The King has Come to be our Example so emulate His attitude and let Him exhale you.
1- Follow the Example of Christ in Selflessness and Humility (Phil. 2:3-8) - A good understanding of vanity is emptiness. Empty is the opposite of full. If you only worry about getting your things done, you will only find emptiness. Yes, if you are only full of yourself, you might think you have everything but in reality, you will have nothing. So be like Christ. Have a selfless attitude all the time.
2- Like Christ, Have a Humble Attitude (v. 6-8) - Christmas is about God becoming a man in Christ. This process was a humble one. You must have the same attitude that Jesus had when He came to the earth.
1- The King has come for you to personally experience the manifest presence of God. (v. 14, 18) - The Word Became Flesh. In other words, God became Man. There are three reasons why this affects us personally: 1) So God could dwell with us; 2) So we could personally experience His glory; 3) So we could know Him more.
2- Come to Christ with a humble heart and receive and recount His blessings of grace (v. 15-17) - We need to live like John the Baptist who was satisfied with so little because in living under His call he had so much. We need to live pointing to Jesus in everything we might do.
At the end of a year like this, the Christmas story is so important because it reminds us that the King has come to rule over all. Because He reigns, we can live above such divisiveness as we know right now. Jesus is sovereign over all. Remembering who the King came to be and who He is, will help you turn to Him instead of being led away from Him. The King has come, so go to Him, worship Him, find peace with Him, and tell the world about Him.
- Do you want to step into the calling and the life that God has for you? Do you want more out of life?
If not, 2. Are you willing to settle for a life that is less than what you could have?
Your life is too short to live for a vision that is too small. Don’t waste your life. Live for what is greater. Christ came for the purpose of building His kingdom here on earth and to last throughout all of eternity. Live for the sole purpose of building Christ's kingdom on earth now for your eternal rewards.
-
Accept the Call to Be a Burden Bearer (vs. 1-2) - This is the calling for every Christian. Paul says if we bear one another’s burden, we will fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is the law of love! To love your neighbor is to bear their burdens, and not to see their need and just keep walking by focused on your stuff.
-
If Ready, Help Restore The Straying Follower (vs. 1-4) - You may not be ready to do this. Don’t miss that all-important “you who are spiritual” phrase. It refers not just to a follower of Christ who has a heartbeat, but to one who is abiding in the Spirit. Paul is not saying that this person is better than the next one, but that they are in a surrendered relationship with Jesus Christ, and they are now able to help restore the straying follower. But remember, do it with love and gentleness!
-
Show Appreciation (v. 6) - Paul wants these believers to show their appreciation to those who have helped them. Gratitude is a simple but powerful gesture. If your hard heart cannot accept the help or instruction with thankfulness, you need more time maturing in Christ. Always show appreciation to all those who help you.
-
Do Not grow Weary in Sowing Good (vs. 7-10) - God is the one who brings the harvest for those who sow good into the world, and He brings forth judgment for those who sow evil as well. God always keeps His promises. Trust Him!
We have two main points for this message:
-
Circumcision, like any Act of Obedience, is not Necessary for Salvation (Gal. 5:2-12) - These believers were told that Jesus was good but they also needed to be circumcised to be saved along with following the letter of the law. Paul has no patience for those who corrupt the Gospel. Be careful to not believe in false teachings, like the Galatians here in this text.
-
Walk in the Spirit and Be Recognized by The Fruit of the Spirit and not by the Works of the Flesh (Gal. 5:13-26) - The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self Control. Against such things, there is no law. And just like the seed must die for the fruit of the cotton plant to burst forth, the follower must die to self if the new life of the Spirit is going to shine through.
Here are three points we can get from this text. My desire is that you can apply these points to your life and you will see how God will transform your life!
-
Living for Lesser Things Will Rob You of Joy in Service (Gal. 4:12-15)
-
Living for Lesser Things Will Turn Your Friends into Enemies and Your Enemies into Mentors (Gal. 4:16-20)
-
As Children of Promise our Call is to Freedom and Trust in LORD, Not to Take Matters into Our Own Hands (Gal. 4:21-5:1)
-
Grasp the Purpose of God’s Law (Gal. 3:19-25): What Paul does here in these six verses is explain to the Galatians that the law was never meant to save but to show our need for Jesus, the Messiah. Paul has been building this argument by saying “that instead of earning righteousness by obeying God, you are declared righteous by God’s grace through faith in Christ.” The law was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made” (v.19).
-
Live under the Benefits of being a Child of God (Gal. 3:26-4:11): In Christ, we see several benefits in these verses. First, being a blood-bought, born again child of the King brings unity among many variances within humanity, so as Christians we are one in Christ. Second, as children of God, we are not only one in Christ, but also through faith we are adopted as heirs to the kingdom. Lastly, as children of God, we have the Spirit of Christ in us that allows us to cry out Abba Father. Abba is a term of intimacy, not infancy. It’s a personal cry of the heart that only comes from the most intimate relationship shared between a child and their father. It's less about something that is said in prayer and more about your position with God that allows you to talk to Him.
God’s plan has never changed. We are saved by grace through faith. Trusting in the Gospel by faith alone overcomes anxiety and emptiness.
Understanding the covenants are signposts to seeing Christ throughout the Bible. The covenants are the keys to see how God’s eternal plan of salvation and seeing how all the prophets have been pointing to Christ.
If we fail to interpret the Bible as Christ and Paul did, we will fall into the same failure and heresy as the Galatian church and many heretical churches across the centuries; we add “you should-s” statements. “You should-s” looks like adding to the Gospel with ceremonies like the Galatians’ desire to point to Abraham and circumcision. “You should-s” look like the Galatians’ desire to point to Moses and the need to keep the law.
When we create “you should” statements and add them to the Gospel, really, it is a desire to be in control of your eternal destiny and prove to ourselves and the world around us that we are enough. But you are not enough! That is the point, Jesus is enough!
-
We are Justified by the Same Faith today as Believers were in the Old Testament (vs. 6-9) - It’s not like in the Old Testament they were justified by works and in the New Testament we are justified by faith. No, it’s always been about faith. We have the same Gospel, in the OT as we do in the NT. In verse nine, God called Abraham “the believer”. So just like Abraham believed that ‘God would make him a great nation and all the families on the earth would be blessed’ (Gen. 12:2-3), we need to believe that God is gracious and He cares for us. It was not Abraham’s works that saved him, it was his faith, and because of this faith that God counted him as a righteous man. This was and still is a miracle of God motivated by His grace.
-
Christ Redeems Us by Becoming a Curse for us (vs. 10-14) - These verses really get to the heart of why we need faith which allows us to be forgiven because if we are not forgiven we are cursed. We need to understand two things here:
2.1. We are all under the curse of God’s Law - we are guilty before God for breaking His Law, we are condemned by God, we are separated from God, and finally we are hopeless without God.
2.2. Christ Came Under the Cross of God’s Judgment for us - literally, He became the curse for us. By becoming the curse he covered our guilt, endured our condemnation, suffered our separation, and his death overcame our hopelessness.
-
Don’t Be Led Astray - Paul asks “did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” The Spirit of God is not and cannot be earned. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, is everything to the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and you would never be converted if the Spirit did not show you your sin and your need for Jesus. It was God’s grace that allowed you to hear it and it is your faith by which you received it. No works involved. Don’t be led astray. It is by faith you receive salvation.
-
Beware of Self Reliance - When we do a couple of good things, and suddenly we take credit for doing these things, this opens the dangerous door to self-reliance. When you try to do it on your own you usually will mess it up. It was God who brought you into this world. His son died in your place, His Spirit brought you to salvation and you can do nothing apart from Him.
-
Stop Suffering Needlessly - You will always be trying to do enough, but it will never be enough. Why would you suffer for something you could have avoided? All you will find when adding some work to the Gospel will be disappointment and judgment. You can’t do anything more than what Christ has already done to be justified. What you can do is trust Him and then honor Him by letting Him live through you. God works through you by His Spirit because of your faith in Him.
Thorns can be turned into blessings and weakness can be turned into strength when Christ is in you. In this message, we will have five questions to answer.
-
What was the Thorn? - Some scholars think it could have been a physical ailment or disability. It could have been physical, but also it could have been mental or spiritual. We don’t know for sure. For you, the “Thorn in the Flesh” might be a physical ailment or a mental struggle like depression or anxiety that never seems to leave you or it might be a particular person who is getting under your skin. Whatever your thorn, identify it and bring that with you through the rest of the text.
-
Why did God Allow the Thorn? (v. 7) - For Paul, it was to keep him from exalting himself. In other words, humility. There is no space to exalt yourself as a follower of Christ, and God may allow a thorn in your life to keep you humble. There is always a purpose for the pain we are feeling.
-
Why Doesn’t God Remove the Thorn? (v. 8-9) - Three times Paul pleaded, “It hurts LORD, please take it from me.” This is our natural response to the pain. In 1 Cor. 10:13 we read, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, He will provide the way of escape also so that you will be able to endure it.” You may think “God won’t give me more than I can handle.” But the truth is that “God will not give you more than you can bear with Him.”
-
Why is The Thorn Good for You? (v. 10) - When you allow God to flip the script and turn weakness to strength, you will be content and be more able to endure. That is what Paul says in v. 10, ”Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
-
What Happens when we Don’t Let our Weakness Become our Strength? - We could also phrase it: What happens if we don’t turn to God when life gets too hard to handle? The answer is that the thorn becomes infected. So whatever your thorn is today - loneliness, anxiety, isolation, sadness, shame, sexual temptation, etc... turn to Christ, trust Him and you will be able to endure it.
Christ was Crucified so we could be justified. Therefore worship Him by allowing Him to live through you.
-
We are Justified by What Christ Did not by What We Do (v. 15-19) - The word “Justified” according to N.T. Scholar, NT Wright means “a declaration that somebody is in the right.” When we take Justification into the realm of faith you have the idea of being declared righteous or seen as right in the eyes of God. We receive righteousness this by faith. Therefore we are justified by faith in what Christ accomplished. Also, our behavior matters. When the Righteousness of Christ is given to you by faith you are a new creation, with a new nature inclined to obey God instead of rebel against Him. Remember, we are justified by God to live for Him, which brings us to the next point.
-
Let Christ Live Through you (v. 19-20) - These two verses are the Gospel living and paradigm shift in your Christianity. It puts the Why back in what you do. It’s the Why behind How you choose to live. We know that God requires obedience and wants us as believers to die to sin. But, like the Judaizers in Galatia, we don’t make the rules. Some of the things we die on the sword for are not even biblical mandates. Christianity is not about do’s and don’ts. Paul lives his moral life before men to honor Christ, not to earn God’s favor. In the same way, Worship God! Let Christ live through you. Be an ambassador for Him! Live morally above reproach because His sacrifice means something to you!
Paul was active in leading this church in Antioch. He left this diverse church with Jews and Gentiles living together in Christian harmony. But when Paul came back, Peter and the other Jewish Christians were pulling away from the Gentile Christians. Paul was shocked when Peter seemed to revert back to Jewish cultural mandates in keeping the Jewish believers separate from the Gentile believers. Taking our eyes off Jesus will do the same to you today as it did Peter then. Which brings us to two main points:
-
Keep your eyes on Jesus, not the Context or Culture - Peter in the past had such bold faith that he walked on the water toward Jesus. At first, he was doing it. But the moment he took his eyes off Jesus and started giving his attention to the context that surrounded him he started to sink. This is a theme in his Christian walk. In the same way, Peter was a hypocrite with the Gentiles believers and Paul was forced to confront Peter to his face about this grievous mistake. Paul says the truth of the Gospel was affected by Peter’s wavering and excluding.
-
The Gospel is an Equalizer and Unifier - When we come to the Cross and we see our sin that nailed Him there, we suddenly all become equal. Christ did not die for a certain type of person, Christ died for sins. He rose from the dead to defeat death for everyone. But also because it makes all men equal, it should also unify all men. So when dealing with cultural challenges or political arguments among believers and church members we must stop focusing on what divides us and start focusing on what brings us together. Otherwise, we will get nowhere.
The Gospel transformed Paul completely and we should let it do the same to us. So let the Gospel bring you from death to life in salvation.
-
The first type of transformation Paul experienced was a transformation from life to death. Paul elaborates on this Gospel transformation by showing what he looked like as a dead man. He was a persecutor and destroyer of the church beyond measure. It was Paul who stood there and watched other Jewish leaders as they stoned Stephen to death for sharing the truth of Christ from the Old Testament. No man could influence him or sway him, which leads us to Paul’s transformation in v. 15-16. God, sovereignly set him apart from birth, had grace on him, and revealed Christ to him. God saved Paul. This is the first and most important transformation everyone listening needs to make. If you have not yet to surrender to Jesus Christ as Savior, realize that the sin you are in makes you dead. But God can bring you to life through faith in Christ who died to pay the penalty you deserve for the sin you have lived in. Come to Christ today!
-
Secondly, let the Gospel be your purpose. Jesus saved Paul, but the salvation had a greater purpose and calling beyond himself. His calling might be a lighting fast mention but it takes Paul on a lifelong and oftentimes difficult and dangerous journey. Paul knew that his calling was to preach the Gospel. He had a secondary and specific calling to the gentiles, but it was not like Paul waited till he found gentiles before he started sharing the Gospel. This gave Paul purpose his whole life long even when he was not specifically with gentiles. You might have a secondary calling, but that can’t supersede your first call. Paul was an apostle and missionary, but the Great Commission held first priority. Choose today to obey the Great Commission as you go and make disciples. Get involved in a small group and make yourself accountable to a few Christian friends. This is our calling. So go, preach the Gospel and make disciples.
Salvation comes through Christ alone so don’t add anything to the Gospel that saves you.
-
We can Trust Paul as His Message and Authority Come from God (v. 1-5) - This may seem like a minor point, but we need to be reminded of Paul’s authority. It’s easy to breeze through the introductory material and get to the hard hitting battles in the body of the letter. We need to understand that every word Paul penned was inspired by God. Inspiration means that the Holy Spirit led Paul to write what he wrote while still leaving his distinct human personality intact. His orders came from the top, and how we need to understand authority these days. Submitting to authority, whether it be societal, or biblical helps us to learn to obey God better. We must obey the LORD above all.
-
We Must Not Let Anything Distract from the Gospel (1:6-10) - In verse six Paul is amazed that they have so quickly turned to another Gospel. In verse seven Paul makes it clear that this is not really another Gospel because there is only one Gospel. The message they have turned to was a false Gospel and no gospel at all. The term Gospel means good news and the message these believers have been distracted by was not good news. People are always adding some type of work to the Gospel or putting some secondary issues on the same footing as the Gospel. This corrupts the message of Christ every time. We need to understand that Salvation is by God’s Grace alone, through Faith alone, and in Christ alone, as revealed in the Scriptures.
We must count the cost of following Jesus so as to be true followers and to live a life of effectiveness for Him.
-
A Faithful Follower Counts the Cost of Discipleship (v. 27-33) - Jesus uses two illustrations in the beginning to make the same point.
1.1 The first is about construction. Who does not first consider what a house would cost before they build it? You need to consider how much will cost, so you can finish your construction. In the same way, you need to consider what it would cost you to follow Jesus.
1.2 The second illustration works much the same. What king or general would not consider the size and strength of an opposing army before going to battle? Every successful wartime mission considers the enemy. They know their weaknesses and strengths. If you are willing to follow Jesus no matter what, that means you are willing to weigh the cost of being unpopular, the cost of losing your job… and maybe even the cost of your own life. -
Counting the Cost will Keep you Salty (v. 34-35) - Staying salty means staying useful. If the salt loses its saltiness, it is useless. This is just like Christians becoming ineffective for the Kingdom. They lost flavor. This is a constant battle to not let the comfort of this world distract you from following Jesus. Keep staying salty.
Christ’s great forgiveness awakens the soul to love. Let us lavish our love on Christ greatly!
-
The Pharisees’ Prideful Prayer - There is No Salvation in the Strength of Man (vs. 9-12) - In the Pharisees’ prayer, he exalts himself to God and over others. He compares his strengths to the weakness of others to justify in his mind his righteousness. He was boasting about his strength in comparison to the people around him. The point is: God was not impressed with his strength, and even today He is not impressed with our “strength.” The idea that someone can trust themselves for righteousness is contemptible to Christ. Righteousness is only given by God as a gift.
-
The Prayer for Mercy - Weakness is the Way of Salvation (vs. 13-14) - The Pharisee goes to the front of the temple to offer prayer to God with eyes lifted to heaven. The tax collector on the other hand does not go down front. He even does not lift his eyes to heaven. He sees himself so low and unworthy that he cannot worship like everyone else. He sat in the back and beat his chest. The beating of the chest was an outward expression of his sorrow for his sin and acknowledgment of God’s righteous anger towards his actions. In Christ, our sins are not just covered they are done away with. Our sins are no more. When God sees us He does not see us in our sins. When God sees us, He sees us in the righteousness of Jesus.
-
Christ Will Exalt The Weak (v. 14) - J. I. Packer says “In our society strength, at least imagined strength is applauded and weakness is thought of as a defect. We like to have the idea that we are strong. For Christians, weakness should be a way of life. Yet most of us try desperately to be sufficient on our own, and we resent our limitations and our needs.” We don't have to become something else to worship. We do not have to pretend to be strong. We can only worship when we lean into our weaknesses because our weaknesses display the greatness of God. Jesus showed in this parable that projected strength is a true weakness. Real strength is embracing your weakness and living a life of dependence upon Christ.
In this parable, a man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was robbed. They stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead. It was terrible. The Priest and the Levite pass by and they do nothing, but then a Samaritan comes by, and he feels Compassion for the half-dead man. He cared for him. He was not too busy to feel compassion. He immediately stops and helps. The Good Samaritan bandages his wounds with oil and wine, which were both expensive. The Samaritan picks the dying man up, puts the man on his own donkey, takes him to an inn, and cares for him. The next day the Samaritan takes two days' wages and gives it to the innkeeper and says “Please, take care of him while I am gone and whatever more you spend above what I have given you. I will repay you when I return.” What Compassion!
Jesus’ point must have been well received because when Jesus asks the lawyer “Which of these men proved to be a neighbor to the man who was robbed?” The expert of the law can’t even bring himself to say the word Samaritan, so he says “The one who showed mercy.” And he was correct. Jesus finishes the parable with the command “Go and do the same.” This command applied to the Jewish expert in the law and it applies to us today as well. The overarching point is: “Love your Neighbor, even if they are your enemy.” Love your neighbor even if you feel hatred toward them. The radical command to love your neighbor applies even to those you might consider an enemy.
What are you imaging? Who are you reflecting?
Reflecting Jesus’ image is accessible for you today. Reflect His image in its entire purpose.
Jesus is not telling us exactly what Heaven and Hell will look like but is contrasting the life a believer lives and the life an unbeliever lives on this earth while expressing the eternal consequences of both. The rich man lived the life of luxury on this earth while Lazarus struggled his whole life long. Lazarus lived his faith despite the suffering and abject poverty that was his life. He loved God and did not complain. The rich, like the Pharisees, assumed he was blessed by God because he was rich. The rich man is not to be admired but pitied. He was not even given a name. The contrast is not just economic but spiritual. The point Jesus is making is “don’t put your hope in earthly things because Heaven is not based on your earthly status.”
In this parable, we also learn that:
- Hell is REAL
- Hell is PAINFUL
- Hell is ETERNAL
- Hell is LONELY
Hell is a real place for those who don’t repent and that lack of repentance is often seen in a lack of obedience. For the rich man was too late, but you still have time to repent of your sins and turn your eyes upon Christ. Take the first step today.
As servants of Christ we must forgive because we have been forgiven.
-
God’s Forgiveness is Extravagant and Knows No Bounds - In the parable, the first servant owed what he could not pay. What was the master's response? Mercy motivated by compassion. The king forgave the debt and set him free, and this is what God has done for you and me. We owe a sin-debt that we have no capacity to pay.
-
God’s Forgiveness is Based on His Mercy, not our Ability to Earn it - The servant came to his king with nothing to offer. All he had was an immense amount of debt. The king would have been justified in taking action against his servant to have the debt paid, but the king forgave him. God’s forgiveness is based upon His own love for you and mercy toward you.
-
Because God’s Forgiveness is Limitless, a True Follower Always Forgives - How easily we forget the mercy we have been shown when we are expected to show mercy. This is what it means to be human. We are naturally vengeful and selfish. But as a servant of the king, we are expected to be different. We are expected to show forgiveness as we have been forgiven.
-
The Choice of Forgiveness is Yours - As a Follower of Christ, there is only one choice to make: forgive. Release yourself from the burden of holding in the hate and contempt. You will be the only one to be hurt if you do not forgive. Turn to Christ and forgive. Take the first step today.
While the world is ever changing and volatile, God is never changing and stable, so refrain from worry and seek first His Kingdom. We can refrain from worry because:
-
There is more to life than material needs (v. 23) - Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. Life is more than material needs, and it is more than just surviving. Jesus came to give you an abundant life.
-
We trust God to provide for our needs (v. 24) - Have faith that God knows what you need and ask Him to provide, then trust Him to do it the way eE sees fit. God created you, He called you, He saved you and He loves you.
-
Worry is Ineffective (v. 25) - God knows you and He got you. Stop worrying, because it does not give anything good to you.
-
Seek God first and let Him worry about you (v. 31) - Trust God in life’s uncertainty, and do not let uncertainty cause you anxiety. The only way this will happen is daily focus on him. It is that simple.
God gives us all abilities to be used for the Glory of His name. When He comes again, may He find you faithful.
-
True followers multiply what has been entrusted to them: The first two servants show that they were true followers because they were good stewards of the master’s money. They trusted him, obeyed him, and invested that which he had given them. They produced fruit. The third servant was not a true follower, because he did not multiply that which was given him, instead he buried his talent. He was crippled by fear and was lazy. Therefore, he received no praise, but he was thrown out of the master’s presence.
-
The desire of a true servant of the LORD should be to hear “well done good and faithful servant.” - What is your talent? You need to understand that the talents belong to the Master. It’s not yours. You do not have the right to bury it. The only thing you can do with what you have been given is to invest it for the Master’s glory. It all belongs to the Master. Multiply your talent. Don’t lose the blessing for good stewardship.
There are many people who want to claim Jesus, but only those who produce fruit show themselves as true followers. There are 3 examples that Jesus talks in this parable:
-
The Seed: it is the one thing that does not change from yesterday to today. The seed is the Word of God. 2000 years ago, the Word became flesh and made its dwelling among the people.
-
The Soil: The different types of soil in this parable represent 4 different types of hearers and how they respond to the message.
-
The Sower: You are the sower, and sowers cast the message of God everywhere they go. Your job is to sow. God’s job is to bring the harvest.
Desperate times call for desperate measures so let us pray with desperation.
-
The Call to and Cause of a Desperate Prayer (v. 13-14) - When life is good, when we are full of joy and are cheerful, we should give Him praise. And when life is hard, or you are in trouble, we MUST pray. The call is to pray. He holds the power that you want access to.
-
Prayer is Effective (v. 15-18) - James is very strong here. He says the prayer offered in faith will restore the sick, the LORD will raise them up and they will be forgiven. He goes on to say that the prayer of a righteous man will accomplish much. Your call to action is PRAYER, and if you have not yet sought God in desperate prayer, start today and don’t stop til you get your answer.
As followers of Christ, integrity should define our lives in both word and deed.
-
Let integrity guide your words (let your words be true) - When we speak, we should speak with integrity. We should not have to swear against heaven or earth or make some kind of binding oath on your loved one's grave to get people to believe what you are saying. You should stand by your word. That’s it.
-
Let the integrity of your words be seen in your life - Let your “yes” verbally be a “yes” in action. Let your actions affirm the Christian words that you say. Not only is it a false witness to lie, but also it’s a false witness to say one thing and then do another.
James teaches us at least three points in this text.
1. Be Patient (v. 7- 8) - Patience carries the idea long-suffering, and having a tranquil spirit while waiting. A lack of patience often leads to a situation worse or it strains the relationship that you are in. So James gives us a clear command: “Be patient and wait on the LORD.”
2. Complain Less and Love More (v. 9) - Don’t become Dr. Complains-a-lot. Instead, be like Paul and find contentment in Christ through every life situation.
3. Be The Change (v. 10) - Be the example of contentment by not complaining. Follow the example of Jesus Christ.
Be honest with yourself and ask the Lord to show you where your treasure is. The answer is the direction your heart is traveling.
1. First of all, be open to the application that challenges your use of wealth. Don’t be defensive. Be willing to listen to what God wants you to change or improve through this text (v. 1)
2. Wealth is given to be shared, not hoarded because it does not have eternal value (vs. 2-3)
3. You have a heart problem concerning money when you don’t pay what you owe (v. 4)
4. A luxurious lifestyle is not the goal for a follower (v. 5)
You need to (1) stay in your lane by stopping the slander and letting God be the Judge (4:11-12) and (2) stay in your lane being faithful with what you have today and let God worry about tomorrow (4:13-17). Don’t seek the “American Dream” without God. It will destroy you.
God wants to help us to remain faithful in all life’s circumstances, both in the good and bad times. Living faithful in good times can’t make us arrogant, and in bad times we need to continue to remember that God is in control of everything. If we act in that way, we will bring glory to God and good for us and others.
The call of God for us today is to be faithful in what we know God wants from us and to trust God with what is unknown by us.
Even when life is disrupted we must obey the Word of the Lord and trust in His provision. Just as Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath trusted the Lord to provide for them, we need to trust and obey the Lord to provide for our needs today.
Life is disrupted but in Christ you are never alone and if you stand with Him, God will use you to magnify His name. Sometimes life will get hot, but Christ will always be with you. Even though God has ordained many of the difficult situations we live in, He still has a plan for everything. Trust Him!
This season might be really hard on you and your family. Satan wants to use it and see it destroy you emotionally, spiritually and see it tear you family apart. Through Joseph’s life we will learn that God will use the difficulties of our lives to bring glory to Him and good for us.
We need to live a repentant life everyday. In this text, James shows us some actions we need to take so we can live a life that pleases God.
1- Submit yourself
2- Resist the devil
3- Draw near to God
4- Purify your heart
5- Humble yourself
The Resurrection must be the power that overcomes your sin before it helps you overcome your current situation. Jesus is Alive!
This text taught us that (1) we lack peace because our desires are focused on ourselves. We need to be free for our own selfish desires. It also said that (2) we do not receive because we do not ask, and when we ask, we ask wrongly, to spend it on our passions (James 4:3). Finally, it shows us that (3) God desperately desires a relationship with us, if we are willing to live for Him.
How do you act with other people? How do you behave in the world despite the circumstances? Wisdom is more the words you say. It is a lifestyle you live.