Sermon Teachings of Pastor Turner Miles

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We examine what the meaning of Jesus preaching to spirits in prison and Noah's flood as a picture of baptism actually mean. It's a crazy section of scripture that many have misinterpreted and many preachers have even skipped over.

If you have not trusted Jesus for salvation then now is the time. Today is the day. He died and gave his life for all of the sins of the world and yours are included in that. Confess with your tongue and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is lord and you will be saved!

If you have prayed for this or want more information please let me know. My personal email is tmiles1220@gmail.com

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We look at the importance of how we perceive Jesus and the effect it has on us as we live out our daily lives. This is made clear from Col 1:15-23

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Phil 2:12-18 - 12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. 17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God,[e] just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. 18 Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.

Intro:

If the theme of the book of Philippians is “Joy” then the theme of chapter 2 could be “becoming like Christ!”

The beginning of Chapter 2 lays out the attitude and disposition of Christ for all of us to glean from and establish as a bar of living for the believer.

In Phil 2:6-8 we see three unique dispositions of Christ revealed for us.

· Submission

o Phil 2:6 - Though he was God, he did not think of equality with Godas something to cling to.

· Humility

o Phil 2:7 - Instead, he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

· Obedience

o Phil 2:8 - When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Point 1: (Vs:12) Work Hard

12Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.

I want to start by making note of what working hard does means and what it does not mean.

What it does not mean:

· It does not mean that we can in some way or fashion apply enough effort to our devotion or witness for God that we would ever earn our acceptance or love from God.

o News Flash: God loves you already!

o 1 John 4:16 - We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

o God is not merely loving at His core, He is love. His existence is the completion and perfection of love.

· It does not mean that we can work our way into heaven or God’s graces.

· Eph 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

What it does mean:

· Paul says we are to work hard at showing the results of our salvation!

o Especially by our demonstration of obedience to Him with reverence and fear.

· We need to work out what God has worked in.

o This tells me that there are going to be times when this does not happen naturally for us. If it becomes an exercise in “obedience” then maybe there is some internal opposition that happens in the life of a believer that would require some extra…

The good news about this is: we aren’t left to ourselves trying and groping to achieve some modicum of obedience.

o 13For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

o God places the desire within you and the power needed to succeed in your obedience to Him.

o I wonder how many believers God has been working in them and establishing His lordship over their lives but they have been pushing back and resisting? I wonder how many believers have had moments of great obedience to God in bringing Him glory but only to hold back and shun the power available to continue in that obedience?

o I believe that this is what Paul is making reference to when he says we need to “work hard”

All this talk about work is really summed up with God both giving and doing all the work. It is a cooperation with the Holy Spirit in our sanctification.

Point 2: (Vs:14) Don’t Complain

14Do everything without complaining and arguing,

This may seem trivial or somewhat pointless (especially if you don’t have children yet lol). But when we begin to survey the whole of scripture we begin to see that God is very serious about the issue of complaining.

Between the books of Exodus and Numbers we have no less than 14 different occasions noted that the Israelites complained about Moses or God or both.

Almost from the beginning we see them start to complain. Here are a few of the complaints that they gave.

o Exodus 5 – They complain because Moses tried to free them so Pharaoh made it harder on them.

o Exodus 14 – They complained that Moses wanted to kill them when Egyptian armies were closing in on them at mouth the Red Sea. God splits the sea and destroys the armies showing them that He would protect them.

o Exodus 15 – After they were rescued by God at the Red Sea crossing they settled at the oasis of Marah but the water was too bitter to drink so they complained to Moses again. God changed the bitter water into sweet water to drink for them as a sign that He would refresh them.

o Exodus 16 – (one month out of Egypt) They complained about the lack of food. So, God gave them mana and quail to eat every day. (Moses told them that their complaints were toward God now and it would be God who would address them about it).

o Exodus 17- They complained again about being thirsty. Moses has had it at this point.

o 1At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin[a] and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. 2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?

This was faithlessness. It is the heart that says, “I know better than God. If only he would follow my plan.”

Grumbling, whining, and thanklessness are not ultimately the heart’s responses to circumstances, but to God.

Thanklessness and grumbling — regardless of your situation, even your suffering — reflect your heart. They are sin.

It penetrates to the core and rots your heart from within.

In fact if you read through the book of Numbers you find that in chapter 14 all of the Israelites that were in Egypt would not make it into the promised land. It would be inhabited by their children.

Only Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to enter into the promised land.

All this because of complaining and arguing.

God is very serious about this matter and Paul placing it in these verses only shows us that we are no different than those ancient Israelites in the exodus.

Point 3: (Vs:15) Live Pure

15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

The Greek words for this verse can be translated as – Live pure, harmless lives… the Greek word for “harmless” is also used as “hornless”. It’s a word used to describe a sheep whose horns were cut off.

*We did this on a cattle ranch in Australia. The main purpose of cutting the horns off of the cattle (in this case) was so that they wouldn’t hurt each other and also because it would cause the meat to be tougher due to the healing after the wound.

There is an obvious parallel to be taken from this wording. When we live clean, innocent lives we are essentially living harmless/hornless lives that will be for the protection of other people. We won’t hurt other sheep, and what’s more than that is we will become a powerful shining light pointing the way in a dark and lost world.

Point 4: (Vs:16) Hold Firm

16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

This exhortation by Paul is a little kick in the pants to the Philippian church. He was basically telling them “Hey don’t go ruin all this work God did in you and negate all my suffering for you!”. Like hey stay in this. It’s all worth it! It’s all going to pay off at the end of the race. There is a prize for every one of you who hold on firmly to the Word of Life!

This is true for you and me also….

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Pastor Turner looks at 3 results of the working of God through difficult circumstances revealed in Phil 1 through the Apostle Paul.

12 And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters,[c] that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. 13 For everyone here, including the whole palace guard,[d] knows that I am in chains because of Christ. 14 And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers[e] here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message[f] without fear.

15 It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.

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[The most ancient manuscripts of Mark conclude with verse 16:8. Later manuscripts add one or both of the following endings.]

[Shorter Ending of Mark]

Then they briefly reported all this to Peter and his companions. Afterward Jesus himself sent them out from east to west with the sacred and unfailing message of salvation that gives eternal life. Amen.

[Longer Ending of Mark]

9 After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. 11 But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her.

12 Afterward he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country. 13 They rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them.

14 Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.[d]

15 And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. 17 These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages.[e] 18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

19 When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 20 And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.

Part 1: The Backstory

· The story picks up with 2 of the “Mary’s” (Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James) who have ventured to the tomb to anoint Jesus body for burial. They had to wait until sunrise on Sunday because would signify the end of the sabbath and it would have been prohibited to do this on the sabbath.

· The main concern they had was how they were going to move the stone away from the tomb entrance. Much to their surprise they discover that the stone was already rolled away when they got there.

· (Vs:5) They are greeted by a young man clothed in white robes sitting inside the tomb. Later the bible indicates he is an angel.

· (Vs:7) The angel tells them that Jesus has gone ahead of them to Galilee (as he had told them before his death).

· (Vs:8) tells us that they fled from the tomb with astonishment and fear, yet they said nothing to anyone

Part 2: Mark 16 Ending Issue

Basic overview:

In some of our bibles after Mark 16:8 there may be some sort of footnote or short statement that says something like this: [The most ancient manuscripts of Mark conclude with verse 16:8. Later manuscripts add one or both of the following endings.]

· There are multiple endings that are available for the gospel

· Early manuscripts that have been found do not include the “long ending” of Mark –Mark 16:9-20

· The longer versions (which we see today) began to be found on Greek manuscripts anywhere from 600-800 A.D.

o The older manuscripts (earlier (pre 600)) have the abrupt ending to them at 16:8.

· Newer manuscripts began to show up with an addition to Mark 16 and we ended up with 3 endings.

· This makes a person wonder “why did this happen?” and “how should I feel about it?”

My response:

· The added writings seem to be an amalgamation of parts of Matt 28 & John 21. So the doctrine or the essential thrust of the message does not veer from synchronicity of the other gospels.

· Even though the longer endings are not found in early manuscripts the long version is actually quoted in writings by early church fathers dated as early as 100 A.D. (That means they could have been alive with the some of the older original 70 disciples etc…)

· The additions do not in any way change the revealed gospel message. In fact it actually reinforces it in many ways by an exhortation to all the believers to be active in the proclamation of the gospel to “all” creation.

Part 3: The Rest of the Story – Working with God in His Mission

Vs:9-14 - 9 After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went to the disciples, who were grieving and weeping, and told them what had happened. 11 But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her.

12 Afterward he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country. 13 They rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them.

14 Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.[d]

Point 1 – We must confront our own unbelief first.

We see Jesus rebuke the disciples several times during his ministry for a lack of faith.

· Luke 9:41 (they are unable to cast out a demon)

· Matt 8:23 (they are afraid because of a storm)

We equally see Jesus affirms others for a demonstration of faith.

· Matt 8:10 (faith of the roman officer)

· Matt 15:28 (faith of the Canaanite woman with a sick daughter)

We need to deal with the corners of our life that hide unbelief. If we have doubts and fear about the truth of God we need to begin to expose it and challenge in light of the truth of His Word and promises.

Areas of our lives that demonstrate unbelief are:

· Lack of obedience to the scriptures

· For those of us with a “BC” life (before Christ) it could be looking back to our old life with a desire to taste the unsaved paths again.

· It could be a life of living by sight rather than faith.

Lets confront our own unbelief first!

Point 2 – All Authority Belong to Christ

Mark 16:15-20 - 15 And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. 17 These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages.[e] 18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

19 When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 20 And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.

Even though this was not likely the exact words of Jesus (as I pointed out earlier the additions to the ending of Mark 16) it does nod to what Jesus did say in Matt 28…

Matt 28:18-20 - 16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[b] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

We are working in cooperation with the Lord when we share the gospel! The exciting thing about this is that God gets to work in whatever ways He wants to work to reveal Himself to someone. That is His part but our part is simply to proclaim and declare that Jesus is the only way to heaven and He is inviting everyone in!

Point 3 – Expect lives to be changed!

It is true that God does the impossible part taking someone from spiritually dead to spiritually born again.

And when He does that miraculous work in a person they will never be the same again!

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Mark 13 is some of Jesus' most prophetic words about the future. In this sermon pastor Turner looks at the 2 questions everyone asks. What's it mean and when will it happen?

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Link to my other podcast: https://alloutwar.transistor.fm/

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.[a]” 2 I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this.

3 Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4 For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”

5 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, 6 “My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to[b] King Rezin and King Pekah.[c] 7 Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River[d]—the king of Assyria and all his glory. This flood will overflow all its channels 8 and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other, O Immanuel.

9 “Huddle together, you nations, and be terrified.
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!
Yes, prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!
10 Call your councils of war, but they will be worthless.
Develop your strategies, but they will not succeed.
For God is with us![e]”

A Call to Trust the Lord

11 The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,

12 “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
13 Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
He is the one you should fear.
He is the one who should make you tremble.
14 He will keep you safe.
But to Israel and Judah
he will be a stone that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem
he will be a trap and a snare.
15 Many will stumble and fall,
never to rise again.
They will be snared and captured.”

16 Preserve the teaching of God;
entrust his instructions to those who follow me.
17 I will wait for the Lord,
who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my hope in him.

18 I and the children the Lord has given me serve as signs and warnings to Israel from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies who dwells in his Temple on Mount Zion.

19 Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?

20 Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. 21 They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven 22 and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

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