Does the World Know You?

This is a followup to last weeks message.....

1 John 3 (New King James)

Verse 1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. My Grandfather would say, LISTEN, do you understand this LOVE that the Father has bestowed on US? Do you realize what it cost HIM to save our miserable sinful souls? In understanding this manner of love, and our original sinful condition, you then see how amazing that it is that we should be called children of GOD! Unable to stand justified on our own before the Almighty and all Holy God, we stand as kin to Christ before the Father justified in His Beloved Son! But, don’t miss the second part of verse one. Therefore the world does NOT KNOW US, because it did NOT KNOW HIM! We are to love our neighbor (those of the world), care for them, help them and witness to them, just as Christ did and as He taught us to do. However; until the Lord thru His Spirit calls them, our ways will be foreign to those that do not believe. More important, their ways – should be foreign to us. By drawing ourselves closer to HIM, we will no longer be native to this world, no longer a true native of the U.S. For our true residence is now in Heaven with God’s Saints. The first part of verse 2 says: Beloved, now we are children of God… Yes sir, we ARE the children of God, let us show this community, our work places and neighborhoods that we are HIS Children, His People – set aside, justified and righteous thru His Son, Seeking HIS favor; not the worlds…

How Do They Know The Difference… (A Do-over of an old message)

How Do They Know The Difference… Are you making a difference in this world as a Christian? Does the world see a difference in your life, from the one they live? The Bible Teaches us that GOD IS HOLY, (Leviticus 11:45 For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy) we are to Stride with Him to be Holy seeking Righteousness. God's power is beyond our comprehension, He knows every hair on my head, every cell in my body. While we may not be capable of comprehending the total awesomeness and Power of God, we should be humbled and fearful in the knowledge of Him that we do have. We are to share His Gospel Message, His Love, and His Compassion with all that we meet. God loved us enough to give the Best that He had to offer – Christ our Blessed Savior and Lord! Do they (the world) see the difference that HIS sacrifice has made in you? Do you show charity to those less fortunate? Do you share His Spiritual Blessings with those seeking? Do you build your brothers and sisters up in the spirit every week here at Church. Have you traced The hand of God lately, or just been frustrated with the choices you have made on your own? Do you share the Blessings God has bestowed upon you over the past week? OR - Do you dabble in the worlds offerings that appeal to your senses? Forgetting through the week that we are only passing through this world and we are not to grow roots. Must I remind you that the world is watching, they are waiting to see what it will take to entice you to leave the path that God has placed you on. How do they know the difference? Dare I say - By every word you speak, by every step you take, by watching how you react when you stumble – oh yes they are watching. Will you Honor God, and walk the straight and narrow? Or will you take the easy way, yielding to the lusts of the flesh and the path of least resistance. When we make the wrong choice – they are watching, and we are marginalizing the testimony and impact of this Church. SO - When you stumble, will you grumble, cuss & curse His name, or will you give Him praise and thank Him for another growing opportunity? THE Truth - will stand the test of time... Will you stand for the Truth at the time the test comes? That my dear loved ones will Truly be the difference! **(PRAYERFULLY)** Praise His Holy Name – “Dear Father, may we live humbled lives before you, and we pray Father that this Church is living the Difference for You! Dear Lord Jesus, we watch and wait for your return – and pray that You will find us busy about Your work when You get here. Teach our hearts through a spiritual mind today, this very day Father give us a double portion of your Spirit to honor and praise YOU with. We pray in Your Strong Son’s Name – In Jesus Name Amen…

Doing It Right… What’s in Your Heart? (1st Post of 2 this Weekend)

Doing It Right… What’s in Your Heart? 

Taking offense and then action to the sins of others is a serious and Righteous matter, but, it opens the door of opportunity for examination of the sin in your life. Isn’t it often amusing the things people decide to hold the line on for others, but won’t address the sin issues in their own heart? Matthew 7:3-5; …and why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite, First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 

A Righteous Life – Seeking after the Face of God is not just the things we see on the outside. The things most Christians pay attention to are vocabulary, smoking, drinking, carousing and adultery – you know “the big sins”. However in God’s eyes, there is a constant, Sin is Sin, and all is unacceptable and ugly from His perspective. SO – today Christians attempt to abstain from all the biggies, but on the inside they fight other battles. 

Bitterness, Cynicism, Contempt, Rebellion, Sarcasm, Discord, Strife, Antagonist, Selfishness, Pride, Self Righteous, Demeaning and Un-Forgiving are other Sins of the heart that do not align with the Christian Attitudes that Christ spoke of in Matthew 5. Nor are they a product of the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul wrote about in the letter to Galatia. 

We are glad to take His name, but we won’t spare the energy or time that it takes to get to “KNOW HIM”, so that we can be more like Him. Friends, if you haven’t surrendered your heart completely to Christ, YOU are still in control. If you harbor those ugly things in your heart – you are quenching the very Spirit of God that will give you freedom over them. Demanding obedience without balancing it with Love and Compassion will breed contempt and despair. 

We must read our Bibles, Pray for the Holy Spirit to Minister to our hearts and then surrender it all to Christ. His Spirit will fill our surrendered hearts, then obedience will occur as Fruit of that Spirit and His Love will cushion the trials and temptations that test us and purge and purify our hearts. Humility will fill the crevices of pride, and the Joy of Christ will emanate from the Spirit from within. Christ and crotchety don’t really go together, I don’t remember Christ every being that way in my Bible studies, do you?

Psalm 23 - A Psalm of David (I learned these Truths as a Boy)

Psalm 23 - A Psalm of David 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. The Lord is my Shepherd – meaning I willfully submit myself to HIS Leadership, and will not look for any other to take HIS place. I will offer no other person or possession the opportunity to consume my loyalty or love, which will always belong to Christ.  

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. Thru my yielding to His Authority, and His will, He provides the human comforts I need to survive. He provides my rest, my comfort, and cool refreshment in the time of need. He leads me by the Still and Comforting power of His Spirit  

3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness, For His name’s sake. Our precious Father provides restoration for us in the midst of our sheep like behavior of getting lost and wondering off the path, entertaining things that do not fulfill the Spirit within us. Thru providing restoration when we stray from Him, His Spirit within us leads us in the paths of Righteousness, coaching and urging us to seek His Righteousness for we are called HIS People, His name’s sake. 

 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. We walk in this condemned, damned to eternal death flesh, walking in the shadow of that death every day of our life, yet while wrapped in Christ’s justification and righteousness we need not fear that evil. For God has sent His Son to pay the price for our redemption, and Christ sent the Holy Spirit to walk with us, so God is literally with us in Spirit. Therefore; His Word and His Spirit (rod & staff) offer comfort and counsel to us, just as the Shepherds crook or staff is a comfortable sight to the sheep as the shepherd keeps the dogs and wolves at bay. Matthew Henry said that “the Gospel is the rod of Christ’s strength; and there is enough in that to comfort the saints when they come to die, and underneath them are the everlasting arms of God”. 

 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. He, God has provided for me all things pertaining to this life and the one after in spite of my enemies and those that hate the Holiness and Righteousness of GOD! You Father have anointed me with your spirit, pulled me from my wickedness and provided for me to overflowing. I abound in YOUR Mercy, I abound in Your Grace, and I bask in Your Joy to overflowing. Amen. 

 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD, Forever. Thru Conviction! Thru Dedication! Thru Determination! Thru Devotion to HIM, HE will Bless, and HE will provide the very FAITH that we need to CONTINUE, His Mercy, Grace and Goodness will be a part of us and follow us thru our days on this planet, until He calls us home or comes to take us up. Oh yes, and on that Blessed Day, He will take us to be with Him, forever and ever! No man, no beast, no serpent, no power on earth and no power in Heaven can pluck us from the hand of God. We are the Bride of His Son, and our Relationship has been established thru Promise and Proclamation of Almighty GOD – Forever more Amen.

The Power In God's Church... (Not To Be Ashamed)

Romans Chapter 1: Verse 16 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes… For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Christ!!! Not ashamed!!! If God is the same today as HE was the day HE created Adam, the same as HE was the day He required of Abraham to kill and sacrifice his son Isaac… WHY do we look at Him differently today? GOD is HOLY, does the Church today even take time to grasp that concept? His POWER is Awesome and Wondrous, yet the Corporate Church has held HIM at arm’s length; denying the Author and Power of the Church His rightful place, in the process marginalizing the Church in the local communities. NOT Ashamed? Do we speak Christ as we gather each Sunday morning? Or is the only Christ speech we hear that of the Pastor and our Sunday School Teachers? As Christians, we are to be a lump of moldable clay, and Christ is to be the Potter. Do our conversations here in Church, at home, at work and in our neighborhoods reflect the marks of the Potters hand? Can those around us see the smooth finger and hand markings of the Potter in our lives? Our lives should point constantly to Christ, unafraid of the whispers and snickers of those around us. So really, are we unashamed? To offer anything less than our all to Him, is to sin, another doctrine of the Church that is quickly being squeezed out. A radio Pastor, Alistair Begg whom I am growing to love more each day, once said to his congregation “loved ones, as long as sin in our minds remains simply a nuisance, or an inconvenience, or an embarrassment; then we will never ever deal with it, and we will never make any progress”. As long as we visit the same old haunts of our past, talk the same way, keep the same habits, and visit the same entertainment that we did prior to accepting Christ – we will never grow, and sanctification will be stifled at best. We can’t serve two Masters, so who will win out? To not be ashamed as a Church, we first must not be ashamed as individuals. We must approach God on HIS turf, humbling ourselves, poor in Spirit and acknowledging HIS Holiness and Righteousness. WE MUST Seek HIS face while flat on our faces before Him. We pray each Sunday to be a Beacon in the Community for Christ, it’s time that we start showing Him we are serious. To be a Godly Loving Church we must grow to the next level of Glory. We must allow God to be GOD in this Church, yielding to His Holiness, before we can ever truly be a Loving Church. For in understanding all of His Power, all of His Glory, all of His Holiness – we can begin to understand what it meant for Him to send His Son for us. Then in turn, through grasping the magnitude of that transaction and the impact it had on the TWO OF THEM, we can understand the depth of GOD’s love for us. And we will understand the depth of our shame – in being ashamed of Christ. It is my prayer, that God will fan the spiritual embers in our Churches, to set a fire blazing for HIM. That He will begin a huge Spiritual awakening in us as such has never been seen in this generation. Then it is my prayer that we are not only a Beacon for Christ but we become the Harbor to which many lost souls seek salvation and refuge. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes… Let us know the POWER of GOD, which is our salvation through His Son’s Shed Blood. It’s more than just believing folks, it is following Him in sacrifice, and seeking purity in our souls through HIS POWER & STRENGTH. Living in this world – yet not being a part of it – and not being ashamed!