You Can Trust Him

Pastor Mel was away again this week, so our sermon was by Lanny Loe, our Minister of Missions. As noted above, this sermon is titled, 'You Can Trust Him.'

Romans 1:17 - "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

***God is working in our lives, continually teaching us to take the next step

***It is okay not to understand; it is not okay to stop trusting

Luke 2:48 - 50: "When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them."

***When the events do not fit into our standard of good and bad, we become anxious

***When difficult days come into our lives, He has been preparing us beforehand for these tragedies

Mark 9:30-32 : "They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it."

***God knows what you are going to experience and He loves you so much that He tries to prepare you for it

John 8:25-27 : "Who are you?" they asked.
"Just what I have been claiming all along," Jesus replied. "I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world." They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father."

John 16:12 - "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear."

***Jesus wants you to understand - He wants to reveal Himself and His ways to you

***Understanding often occurs with hindsight and the gentle remindings of the Holy Spirit

***You can know Him, but sometimes you can't always find Him

***When your understanding is clouded by tears, grief, and shock, rely on your relationship with God

***When you don't understand....trust

Are You Living Like Jesus' Disciple?

Pastor Mel was out of town for two weekends in July, so we had the privilege of hearing two of our other pastors' preach on those Sundays. This sermon was by Bo Stevens, our Minister of Discipleship. As noted above, this sermon is titled, 'Are you living like Jesus' Disciple?'

John 13:31-38: "When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!"

***The essence of being a disciple is having a desire to follow Jesus

***Jesus' call of discipleship is a call to total abandonment to Him

***Bondservant: voluntarily chosen; obedient no matter what He may ask

***Volunteer: does what suits him

***Jesus does not call us to periodic volunteerism; He calls us to be His servants daily, with nothing held back

***Do we want to follow Christ on our own terms or are we willing to be a bondservant?

John 15:12 - 14: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command."

***Do you actively love your brothers and sisters as God has loved you?

***The Lord does not want us to just tell the gospel....He wants the world to see Him in you and me

***The world will see the reality of the gospel as we live like disciples and love one another with a love that doesn't exist naturally in this world

Prayer: Joining God

John 5:17, 19-20; 2 Kings 6:15-18

John 5:17 - "Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

John 5:19-20 - "Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these."

***Have you learned to recognize the activity of God in your life?

***When you look at Jesus' life, He is always keenly aware of what His Father is doing

***If you don't pray, you will find yourself out of step with God and miss opportunities that might be right in front of you

***Prayer opens your eyes and hlpes you see what He is doing

2 Kings 6:15-18 -"When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.
"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike these people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked."

***There is a difference when you see things from God's perspective rather than man's. Our eyes can deceive us. When God speaks, He changes our circumstances

Ephesians 6:12 - "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

***There is a spiritual battle in our land

***Your perspective in life is greatly influenced by your prayer life

***God is at work. Are you prepared to join Him?

Prayer: Knowing You

John 17:20-26

John 17:20-26 -""My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

***You are a plant...Jesus is the living water

***Does your life look like a withered plant in need of restoration?

***Prayer is giving your life to God and receiving live from God

Luke 11:1 -"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

***Prayer is, first and foremost, a relationship with God as our Father

***If you don't know Him, how can you ask to receive from Him?

***The essence of prayer is knowing God

***"Prayer is the contact of a living soul with God." -- EM Bounds

***When Christ begins to pour Himself into you, you will know His joy

***Jehovah Shammah - 'the Lord is there.'

***You cannot know the joy of the Lord's presence until you know Him...and you cannot know Him until you learn to pray

***Jesus didn't teach his disciples to preach, but He did teach them how to pray

***Knowing how to speak to God is more important than knowing how to speak to man

John 7:38-18 - "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Prayer: Knowing You

Hebrews 11 - 12 -

Hebrews 11 - The roll call of the faithful - they released their life so God could work through them

***The same God that spoke everything into being is the same God that speaks to us

***When we make our lives available like the men in Hebrews 11, God's will WILL be accomplished

***When God announces what He's about to do, it's as good as done

***If you are self-centered when God speaks, you have missed the experience

***You are a child of God and that gives Him the right to express Himself in your life

***God doesn't use just anyone - He uses His own

Hebrews 12 -
Hebrews 21 - 'Therefore let us run the race set out before us...'

***How should you face 2009?

***Faith = confident expectation that God will do what He says

***The key to the future is what God will do when he finds one who believes and will follow Him

Hebrews 11:5 - 'By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.'

***Without faith in 2009, there is no way you can please God

***Hebrews 12 begins with 'Therefore...' We have a choice - the saints (ordinary people) in Hebrews 11 made their choice...we need to make ours.

***NOW is our choice to decide whether to follow God.

***Don't say, "I hope everyone else responds"...YOU respond!

***Facing 2009 is a heart choice

New Life

***God's love is eternal

***Why has God kept His hand on us?

John 20:21 - "Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.'"

***The Father had a purpose for sending Jesus to earth

***The coming of Christ was very costly

***The prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane shows us that Jesus' death was not His will, but the Father's will

***For Jesus to do the will of the Father meant sacrifice for everyone that was dear to Him

Philippians 2:5-11 - "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

***The Father sent Jesus...Jesus now sends us

Luke 18:18-30 - "A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

***The cost of discipleship cannot compare to the reward of eternal life

***There are two words that can't be said together...'No Lord.'

Hebrews 12:1-3 - "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

***Have you taken account of your life this year? What do you sense that God may require of you as you head into the new year?

***Satan will try to bring discouragement by telling you the cost of obedience, but he will never tell you the cost of disobedience....(LOVED THIS!)

***Can people see eternity in your eyes?

***Are those watching your life convinced that eternity is real?

***Choose today to live your life for eternity.

Loving Others

1 Peter 1:17-25 - "Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you."

***The storms of life are real and many people are just trying to survive.

***If you call yourself a Christian, God hears you.

***Your salvation cost the precious blood of Christ.

***You can love one another because God first loved you.

***Put aside excuses and care for one another -- find a way to bring joy to another.

***Do you say you love people or do you love them? Do you look for ways to bring joy to another? What would it be like if every believer were kind to one another?

John 13:3 - "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

***People who are confident in their salvation have no trouble serving.

***We live in a tough world and people need a family to love them.

***Ask God to give you someone to love this week.