I am sure that many of us have asked the question:
When am I going to catch a break?
Jeremiah 29 speaks to the core of this very issue, and God assures us that He has good for us, that He believes in us, and that He wants us to prosper.
Jeremiah 2911 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
But he always has a better word than the one we fish for.
Herb Brooks, as he prepared for the 1980 Olympics, was not interested in “all star” teams. He was interested in telling his players to “Put your talent inside a system that is designed for the betterment of the team”. First things first, and second things … not at all.
God wants us to thrive. He wants us to reap the fruits of our labor. He wants us to dream dreams and to celebrate. But He has never pushed some of the “thriving” that we see today.
What good is it to thrive at the expense of others?
That can’t be God’s way.
And so before we read Jeremiah 29:11, we must read 29:7.
God’s hand on our lives means our pouring out onto others. He gives us what He gives us so that we can give it away. Without the “give it away” part, there can be no give.
Jeremiah 297 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Seek the welfare where God has called you. If the people around you have welfare, you will have welfare.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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This is an easy situation. For as many times as we see someone snap because of a preponderance of terrible circumstances, the other option can be worse.
Sometimes, good circumstances can put us in a state of the status quo … the idea that “what we have is good enough”.
But what happens when what we have … is not good enough?
Exodus 2 11 … after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
In one action, Moses loses EVERYTHING.
He loses his power and influence, his wealth, and his favor. In defending the slaves, he loses favor with them. And it isn’t long after this that Moses treks the desert and starts over. The cold and hard reality of our lives is simple. We are full of sin and never to credit for our good fortune. We simply don’t have it in us to succeed in our own morality.
Our reality is this.
Circumstances do not make our day … they simply reveal what is in our hearts … and sometimes it is not good.
Sometimes having everything … Is NOT Enough. And this is because the EVERYTHING that we need is not what we need at all.
The TRUTH is the only thing that matters, and sometimes we live our lives defending something that is legally okay but hideous to God. “It only matters what we can prove” only lives in a court room … To God, the TRUTH is everything.
In the case of Moses, starting over was exactly what he needed.
And in the end … A palace, a position, a wealth of power, and the favor of all men were not at all what Moses needed.
To free the slaves, He would need a stick.
Because … A stick in the hands of God is better … than everything we need.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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There is much evidence that Jesus was not that “soft, cuddly, and gentle man carrying a sheep on His shoulder”.
In fact, I like to picture Him like an NFL linebacker getting ready for a play.
He was all day tough.
He was not afraid.
And He was not willing to give even one inch to the enemy and His advances.
I believe that God wants us, also, to be tough minded people.
Joseph needed to be tough.
Anointed with dreams and visions, blessed with wisdom, and covered by a very tough group of older brothers, Joseph had everything he needed. His dad favored him, he began to believe that he was favored, and a resentment grew on his brothers. In Genesis 37, we get to see the reason that jealousy rears its ugly head:
Genesis 375 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
Not long after that, Joseph is falsely accused, sitting in a prison cell, and wondering why God had abandoned him from the very calling that God had put on his life.
Sometimes our dreams are put on hold.
Sometimes we make choices that ruin them.
Sometimes we must fight through so much to see them come to fruition.
No matter your situation, God is not raising you up to be soft.
He is raising you up to be a fighter.
I have to think that Joseph’s circumstances were influenced by human choice. His dad chose to favor him. His brothers chose to be jealous. Joseph chose to think highly of himself at a level that dishonored God … and others.
And Joseph ended up in a prison cell.
This is not the end of the story (Read in and around Genesis 37 and find out for yourself). And it isn’t the end of your story when you end up in a slump. It is a reminder to get back to what and who God has called you to be, much like Joseph did. He has called you to:
Use the gifts and talents that He has give you to benefit others … just like Joseph did.
Make your prison into a palace … just like Joseph did.
Realize that happiness is an inside job … just like Joseph did.
Live from virtues, values, and relationships … just like Joseph did.
Reign victorious and then forgive … just like Joseph did.
God shares the story of people in the Bible so that we can realize that He works through broken people, just like us, in order to show His glory.
Be tough.
Don’t give up.
And remember:
God sometimes takes a long time to act suddenly.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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And we will not make it out in the way that we want to.
There are three things that we will never defeat.
We will never defeat Satan.
We will never defeat Sin.
And we will never defeat Death.
Those three things will completely, and without hesitation, destroy us.
We will surrender to them.
I hate to focus on the enemy … but I have to.
Look at the world we live in.
There is light … and there is darkness.
There is day … and there is night.
There is good … and there is evil.
Our universe is bipolar and the extremes are exactly as we would expect them to be.
There is a God … and there is a devil.
There are Angels … and there are demons.
In his writings on evolution, Darwin claimed that “some variations help individuals survive and reproduce better than others.”
It makes sense, and yet it doesn’t. Either the organism had it in it or it didn’t. What was the step of an organism BEFORE an eye? … and how did that intermediate step help it survive?
And what of the wing, or the leg, or the fin?
Do we really believe that we came to be through random chance? … or random processes?
Consider that what has intelligence was DESIGNED.
And consider that there is a God … and a devil.
Consider that you are broken … that you are selfish, and self serving, deceived.
And consider that you will never, ever, no matter how hard you try, defeat death.
But there is hope.
A Jewish fisherman told us about our hope.
John 111He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–
Our hope is not in ourselves, it is in Jesus.
He came to us, but we did not receive Him. Then we killed Him. And then He rose from the dead.
And right then and there—a new faith started. And it was based on this man Jesus.
You are not an accident.
You are not the result of some cosmic explosion.
Your heart beats. Your eyes focus. And your brain thinks.
And deep down, you know that you are broken.
There are many groups who blame the Christian faith for making them feel guilty … and I understand why.
But it is not the faith of Christians that make people feel guilty. We feel guilty because we ARE GUILTY.
Let me say this again:
WE ARE GUILTY
And there is not a court around that would declare us innocent.
Our surrender is inevitable.
For me … I am going willingly.
I surrender … to Jesus.
He is my only hope.
And from where I sit, He will crush Satan, He will forgive me of my sin, and He will defeat death.
Surrender?
It’s not a bad word.
It is my honor … and my privilege … and my hope …
That I could surrender to the King of the Universe.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Our world is filled with darkness. In many ways, it is hard to fathom how broken we have truly become. We have found a way, in lieu of logic, to celebrate evil and condemn good. The prophet Isaiah even warns about it:
Isaiah 5 20Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness
But that is not what today’s message is about.
Today’s message is about our response to the darkness.
There was a time when the hope of the world was at a cataclysmic low. And the enemy was rejoicing in victory. The disciples had run away, the Romans were executing, and even the religious leaders were questioning what they had done.
We had stooped so low that even a Roman soldier, hardened by the process of execution, told everyone to quiet down in their callous mockery.
Jesus’ mom stood at the foot of the cross broken, and the disciple whom Jesus loved had to wonder: “Where is the hope?”
The hope … is in Jesus.
It will always be in Jesus.
And He is … the ultimate underdog.
God knew that we would need to blame something for our hideous behavior. He knew that we would need to make sure that we got our revenge on something. He knew that we would want to hold someone accountable for what was going on.
And, so many times, we do just that in society:
If we don’t have money, we blame the rich.
If we don’t have a good relationship, we blame the church.
If we don’t have health, we blame the doctor, or the healthy.
And if we don’t have freedom or hope or life, we blame those who have it in abundance.
We … NEED … a SCAPEGOAT.
And He has willingly filled that role.
He just simply … took the blame for all of it.
And when they killed Him, the emptiness grew in abundance. The hope of anything good was crushed and Satan and his minions celebrated the fall of man.
But Jesus was not done.
He was just beginning.
And He was going to turn the tables in such a way that we might all take heed, take a knee, and bow to the King of the Ages.
Jesus was going to go into the pits of hell, be punished as a sinner, and rise from the grave.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth saved the world.
And the exploding faith that resulted in His actions transcended all of humanity.
The women discovered Him.
The Greeks followed Him.
The Romans who opened their eyes and relinquished their power.
The rich gave their money.
The poor gave their hope.
The Jews realized that they had missed the whole point and the Gentiles that they had lived without structure.
When Jesus came and gave His life the rules all changed or were thrown out or were finally understood.
The reality today is as great as it was when He rose from the grave.
John 1 says that those who RECEIVE Him are born of God. They then RECEIVE the keys to the palace, the right of the firstborn, and, most importantly, access to the King.
We have access! The darkness of this world has been defeated.
It has been crushed.
And we are the diplomats who carry out the hope of humanity.
2023 is a year that is very important. It is important because it is now. But it is more important because never has the gospel of Jesus been more important to take to humanity. And each of us, in our gifts can do it in our own design.
So take the gospel, this gospel, to the individual or to the group.
Take it to the broken and the stalwart.
Take it to the law breaker and to the one who thinks he is perfect.
Take it to all races and nations and people.
Just make sure that you take it.
It is the hope of all of humanity—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Our Hope is not in how much money we have or how powerful we are. We can not rest our destiny on our character, or our good choices, or what great things that we do in our life.
Our Hope is in Jesus Christ’s blood from the cross redeeming us … paying for us … and holding us up from being dropped into the pits of Hell.
If we choose to be Unsatisfied … with our things, our status, our relationships … it will ultimately be the undoing of us. Because our pursuit of finite things with an internal soul that is, in fact, infinite, will end up empty and without hope.
But if we choose to be Unsatisfied with our longing to be with God, then we will be filled to the brim.
In Hebrews 11, people did remarkably unselfish things in their pursuit of God. This is because they were sold out for God.
Hebrews 11 says:
Hebrews 11 He (Abraham) was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
I love that chapter. It isn’t just Abraham. It is God telling us about men and women who pursued God with an Insatiable spirit. They pursued Him because it meant everything to them. They pursued Him because He was the most important part of their very being.
And He did not disappoint them.
He was the architect. He sat in the high rise office and dreamed of the city.
And He was also the builder. He went down and rolled up His sleeves and prepared a place for them … and for YOU.
The only thing remotely close to this on earth is the mom of a child in anticipation of her child. She dreams, and prepares, and puts together a place for her baby that is perfect. In anticipation of her child, she is maniacal about preparing a home.
That is our God.
He is worthy of our pursuit.
In 399, I said don’t be insatiable.
In this blog, 400, I am encouraging you to do just that.
He will never let you down.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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I have heard this before and I think it is a great word for today.
The reality for most of us is this: We grumble. We grumble and complain. And we want more. The words of scripture are not put there for us to judge others — they are put there so that we can judge ourselves.
In Exodus, the Hebrew people constantly complain and grumble.
Exodus 15 24So the people grumbled against Moses … (and God)
And it what did they grumble about? Security, food, water, the flavor of the food, how hard it was, and the list goes on and on.
The disciples judged someone for wanting a prominent position … because THEY wanted a prominent position.
Matthew 20 25Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Watching “A Football Life”, Bill Parcells tells his friend Mickey, “If I could just win ONE Super Bowl.” They win one, and later he tells Mickey, “If I could just win just ONE MORE Super Bowl.” How many Super Bowls would have satisfied Bill Parcells?
Bill Gates once made the comment that “he could not afford to NOT work on Sunday”, that church and religion were detrimental to his financial security. How much money would satisfy Bill Gates?
But these are not the questions that we must answer.
What WE must answer is what it would take to satisfy us.
What is it that we truly need?
The reality is that our desire to fill ourselves up NEVER be satisfied. We are simply, when left to our own devices, INSATIABLE.
Much like the freed Hebrews, and the disciples, and Bill Parcells and Bill Gates, our desire for more will never be satisfied. We will always want what we do not have, and what we can never get.
2000 years ago Jesus stood over the city of Jerusalem and it simply says, in John 11:35, “Jesus Wept”.
As we approach the Christmas season, let us understand that our stockings are full. Let us understand that our cupboards are full of food. Let us understand that when we complain of high prices or political situations that we do so from a place and time that might be the easiest time to be alive in the history of the world.
Let’s all purpose to pursue something that will bring us to fulfillment … the Living God. For in Him … we have life.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Do Not Miss The Entire Message Of The Gospel- it is Jesus delivering us from an unbeatable enemy.
2 Corinthians 110 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
If we think the enemy that stands before us is formidable, think about Moses. His adversary was none other than the Egyptian army. And he was already a reject. In a moment of anger, Moses killed an Egyptian soldier. Moses then escaped from the King who wanted him dead, and fled to the land of Midian. He was, by all accounts, a fugitive.
So what does God ask him to do? He wants him to go back and confront the King. Living in comfort and peace, Moses had to wonder: “God, what are you thinking?”. In a face to face encounter with God, he asks the very question that I would have asked: Who Am I?
Exodus 3 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
The Egyptians believed in multiple gods.
They built the pyramids and everything they had on the backs of the Hebrew people.
And they had a strong system of leadership with an army to back it up.
The rest is history. God wins. The slaves are freed. And the Hebrew people move on from the land of Egypt. They were, in fact, Delivered.
In 2022, we are in need of a different Deliverance. And this one is probably a higher priority than what the Hebrew people faced. The Hebrew people, while enslaved, knew who God was. Do we? I am not sure. But if we are looking for solutions in society, we need look no further than the gospel of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
IDENTITY We are children born of God. When we begin to question this, we will be lost. We are NOT the center of the universe—Jesus is. We are not amazing and able to do all things, we are sinners saved by grace who NEED JESUS. And we don’t need Jesus AND … we need Jesus ONLY.
MARRIAGE The building block of our society. There is nothing more vital to a community than a man and a woman working together to build the city that they live in. A couple unified in marriage and God-fearing in their everyday life will build a strong city.
FAMILY Children are a blessing from the Lord, but they are NOT to be worshiped, or hated, or both. They are to be corrected and guided and loved. They are to show respect, and holiness, and honor. And they are the greatest gift that God can give.
MONEY Give. Save. Spend. You can’t take it with you.
LAWS Given by God and to be followed by a God-fearing government that understands that, as individuals, like us, they will someday be accountable before Him. So whether they are just or unjust, judgment will await them, as it will all of us.
Our God is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
He has shown Himself as a Lamb but we have not seen Him in the form of a Lion. I myself shudder at the idea that I would like very much to be ON HIS TEAM. He was an incredible Lamb … and he will be an incredible Lion (Lord have mercy. Seriously … Lord, have mercy and I do not want to understate this. Lord, help me, help us, to fear You, and You, alone).
The Egyptians challenged this notion that God was in charge … and it did not end well. Their army was destroyed, in a matter of minutes, in the Red Sea.
And so it is with us.
The great armies of the world pay heed.
The great rulers of the world pay heed.
The rich and powerful pay heed.
Every living thing pay heed.
God LOVES us, And those who are born again and live out the call on their life have a promise.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
We have a perspective on the way that things should go.
We want things to be convenient.
We would like to “all get along”.
We want to be politically correct and not offend.
But the reality is that Jesus offended others.
Especially those with great power who inflicted laws and rules on their people in order to “keep order”, and “have peace”, and “control the masses”.
Do not be Deceived.
Be Delivered
And in your Deliverance, get along with others. I for one will “get along” with anyone who allows me the freedom to preach the gospel in freedom and understands that I follow His rules, not man’s.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Do Not Miss The Entire Message Of The Gospel- it is Jesus delivering us from an unbeatable enemy.
2 Corinthians 110 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
Our God is steady. He is reliable. He is patient.
To doubt these things is to miss the very foundation of what will save us.
As we stand in thanksgiving this week, let us allow our gratitude to grow, to manifest, to overflow … from our inner being.
Because by His blood we are truly free.
I have mentioned it before, but the gospel is worth repeating. We have three great enemies that we will never, ever, defeat:
Satan
Sin
Death
All of these are formidable foes—they will win without close margin. And, in fact, they win every day over our society.
And many days, they are victorious in us … inside the very followers of Jesus.
Because we carry something that enables them to win: PRIDE.
Our greatest enemy is sometimes us.
FACTS—we are FORGIVEN.
FACTS—we are CITIZENS OF HEAVEN.
FACTS—we will be BORN INTO ETERNAL LIFE.
But the FACT that we must all embrace is that NONE OF THIS, NONE OF IT, is the result of us.
By His blood we are healed. By His blood. By His choice to die on the cross. By His dying.
1 Peter 224 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
We are moving into a new season.
It is a season of IGNORING GOD. Society has all but wiped Him out of the thoughts. He has been purged from the internet. There is a movement that is calling all of His followers haters.
We must rise.
Not in politics.
Not in fights for personal gain.
Not in our pursuit of worldly things.
We must rise in our Belief.
We must rise in our Faith.
We must rise in our Worship.
And in standing up for the broken, in our love, in our worship.
We have a chance to be rescued on this side of heaven from Satan, sin, and death.
I would even say that we have a RESPONSIBILITY to this call. To RESPOND to Him. To be who He has called us to be.
Deliverance is a RESPONSE.
It is a RESPONSE to His death on the cross. To the blood that was shed on our behalf.
Let Faith Arise.
In The Name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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2 MINUTE WARNING 