23
Apr '20
When Broken is Better
23
Apr '20
Psalm 34:17-18, “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Today’s devotional passage calls to mind Mark 2:17 where Jesus taught that those who are well have no need of a physician, only those who are sick. He was not teaching that there are some who are independently righteous and have no need of Him. He taught that only those who recognize their condition will seek the cure. Jesus promises that when a humble heart cries out to God, He will hear and deliver. Which is why I love to sing Rock of Ages:
“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.”
Broken before Jesus is better, because only He can – and will – make you whole.
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22
Apr '20
The Gospel Dynamic Empowers Our Civic Duty
22
Apr '20
As believers this world is not our final home. We are just passing through. Still, we do live in this world. Specifically, I live in and pastor a church in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, one of the sovereign states that constitute the United States of America. Therefore, we as a church have a civic responsibility to our local community, state, and nation. The gospel is what powers our civic duty. We cannot separate gospel truth from our community involvement and engagement. Belief and behavior. Profession and practice. One or the other is never enough. Both are necessary. Gospel truth cannot be separated from gospel living. This is our civic duty.
Tonight at 7pm we will livestream another installment in the series Biblical Counsel for Pandemics (our anytime), and we will be focused on Titus 3:1-7:
Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Kentucky, USA is my home, and I love it. It is also the home to many other people, not a few of whom do not share my worldview or my values; in fact, they are adamantly opposed to them.
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17
Apr '20
Eager to Preach
17
Apr '20
Romans 1:15 says, “So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.”
That sentence burns with a passionate fire for the gospel, for the God of the Gospel, and for the lost to hear the Gospel. Paul was eager. He was ready and willing to preach. Not his preferences, not his pet peeves, Paul was eager to preach the gospel. Should we be any different?
Life had but one value for Paul. To do the Lord’s work. Paul was consumed by an eager desire to glorify God. He served his Lord with a cheerful and joyful readiness, and in so doing he served others also. This zeal of service was evident in the “faithful men” that Paul mentored. Men like Epaphroditus who, Paul said in Philippians 2:30, “For the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.” Of course, Paul penned those words while in prison for unapologetically proclaiming the gospel!
With All Our Might!
Paul said, “as much as in me is…” that’s passion. Paul had given himself completely to the mission that Christ had given him. Every church has the same mission: going, winning, baptizing, and teaching! Have we given all? Are you willing to give as much as is in you? Our Lord has not asked for little pieces and parts of our lives. Serving Jesus is not about convenience and comfort. We are to serve our Lord and Savior with all our might, offering Him our time…our talent…our treasure…our totality of being so that we might see others rescued from the wages of sin. As J.I. Packer said in Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, the driving force of this evangelistic zeal is a love of God and concern for His glory, and a love of man and concern for his welfare.
Love for the Lost
Having compassion on those in need is Christ-like. Such compassion should mark us and motivate our evangelism. This certainly marked Paul’s evangelism. He loved Jews and Gentiles alike, and he was motivated to become “weak” if necessary in order to “save some.”
We all know what it is like to share good news with someone (having a baby, been promoted, found a job, got a raise, bought a car, the Reds’ won!). We are excited to share good news with others because we know they’ll benefit from hearing it. We know they’ll like it. So we want to be the one who shares the good news.
Can you imagine being less excited about telling someone the infinitely better news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Yet too often I am. How about you?
Love for the Lord
The greatest motivating force for our whole life, including evangelism, must be our love for Christ. Only our love for Him, and more importantly, His love for us, will keep us on track. Ultimately, our motive in evangelism must be a desire to make God’s glory known. When we tell the truth about God to His creation, they benefit and He is glorified!
The call to evangelism is a call to turn our lives outward from focusing on ourselves and our needs to focusing on God and on others made in His image who are still at enmity with Him and in need of salvation from sin and its penalty.
Paul said, “As much as in me is.” Let’s give ourselves, with all our might, to this purpose, with this passion.
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16
Apr '20
Do You Know Jesus?
16
Apr '20
Do you know who Jesus is? The only way to truly answer that question is to search for answers in the scriptures. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Jesus is a DIVINE Person
- “In the beginning” – That’s eternity
- “with God” – That’s equality
- “was God” – That’s divinity
Jesus is God spelling Himself out in a language we can understand.
Jesus is a HUMAN Person
In John 1:14 we learn that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” and John was an eyewitness to this so he parenthetically adds “(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
God the Son become the God-Man with His birth in Bethlehem. That was so because man has a problem. That problem is sin, and sin pays wages. Sin earns death. Men are spiritually dead by nature, and to physically die in that condition leads to eternal death and eternal punishment for our sin. Only man is able to pay for man’s sins, and only Christ’s death could purchase our pardon. The divine Christ became human in order to free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death (see Hebrews 2:14-18).
Jesus is the God-Man
Jesus understands us. He knows and cares. During His brief ministry on this earth He caused the blind to see, the crippled to walk, the deaf to hear, the mute to speak. All of that was to authenticate and demonstrate who He was, and how He alone is able to make you whole. Jesus never ceased being divine, and He will forever be a man. He was not and is not half-and-half. Jesus does not wear His divinity hat sometimes and His humanity hat other times. He is the only and the perfect God-Man.
- So human He got tired. So divine He said, “come unto Me, and I will give you rest.”
- So human He got hungry. So divine He fed thousands from a boxed lunch.
- So human He got thirsty. So divine He said, “drink of the water that I give, and you’ll never thirst again.”
- So human He cried at a funeral. So divine He raised the dead to life!
- So human He died on the cross. So divine that He rose again three days later and offers eternal life to all.
Ask yourself two questions.
Do I know this Jesus? Does Jesus know me?
Jesus addressed a large group of religious people when He said…
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” John 10:27-30
Do you know this Jesus? More importantly, does He know you?
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14
Apr '20
Not Ashamed
14
Apr '20
Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
After his conversion the only thing Paul boasted in was the cross of Jesus Christ. The message of the cross was the core focus of his life and ministry. 2 Corinthians 2:1-2: “And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
Not Ashamed
Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel, he gloried in it! He incessantly proclaimed it. Think about it. Paul was….
- beaten,
- stoned,
- imprisoned,
- robbed,
- shipwrecked, and
- hated
All because he was joyfully committed to passionately and accurately preach the gospel to every creature everywhere. Paul was not ashamed of the cross or his Savior. He encouraged his young protégé Timothy to follow his example. 2 Timothy 1:8, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
There is no shame in believing and living the Good News of Jesus Christ. That message is powerful, for everyone, and the centerpiece of God’s revealed will for humanity. Believe the gospel message, and by God’s grace you will be justified – made right before God in Christ. Behavior follows belief. Daily follow our Lord and Savior in faith and by His grace. We are saved and sustained by God’s grace. When we are tempted to be ashamed, refocus on God and what He has done and is doing in the world, and in us, rather than focusing on our embarrassment.
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12
Apr '20
The Day Death Died
12
Apr '20
Fear is powerful. Scripture teaches that the fear of God is the way of knowledge, wisdom, fruitfulness and joy. There is such a thing as healthy fear, but often our fear is unhealthy. You may discern the difference when your fear leads you to sinful practices. Fearing poverty, some put their career before anything and anyone else. Fearing loneliness, many behave against their better judgment thirsting for acceptance. Fearing failure, many will lie, cheat, steal, or worse. This means that the problem isn’t fear but what we do with our fears.
The greatest of all fears is the fear of death. That fears is universal, because death comes to us all. The rich cannot buy their way out of it. The intellectual can’t outsmart it. The physically gifted cannot outrun or outlast it. Death is the great leveler of humanity. No event is so sobering because no event is so final or so mysterious. The prospect of going through the veil by ourselves is enough to overwhelm any of us with fear.
Fear is what has humanity by the throat right now. We’re afraid to touch or be touched. We’re afraid of the air we breathe because we’re afraid of COVID-19. Our fear what we don’t understand, and we don’t know much about this new coronavirus other than out fears that it is a death sentence, either for ourselves or our loved ones.
Good news for the fearful!
Here is some good news. Christ Jesus came into this world to free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. John 11 recounts the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and provides a preview of Christ’s own resurrection. That chapter teaches us some comforting truths as we think about our own mortality. That will be our text this Easter morning.
One of my favorite passages of all scripture is John 11:25-6, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
View this morning’s livestream by following this link or by clicking the “Watch Video” button on our church’s Facebook page. A Facebook account is not required to visit that page.
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09
Apr '20
All One in Christ Jesus
09
Apr '20
Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Regardless of ethnicity, language, gender, education level, or socio-economic standing we all are made in the image of God. We also are all equally guilty as sinners by nature, and are all equally and righteously condemned to death. But God in His great love, while we were yet sinners, provided salvation for us all through the death of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead. All who repent of their sins and turn in faith to the risen Christ are equally saved and equal before God. A converted woman remains a woman. A poor person does not become materially wealthy at conversion, but all who come to Christ are received by Him, and the identity and inheritance of all believers is found in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
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05
Apr '20
Timeless Truth for Temporary Troubles
05
Apr '20
2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Times are tough right now. COVID-19 is easily transmitted, is highly contagious, and attacks the lungs. All of these reasons make the virus particularly virulent for seniors or anyone with a compromised immune system. This disease is serious. We know that much, and that’s about all we know.
Not knowing creates discomfort and anxiety. We want our questions satisfactorily answered. There is much we don’t know about COVID-19 and will never know. But there was a lot we didn’t last year at this time, and that will be true next year at this time. We are limited.
The problem isn’t with our limitations or with our questions. There is no shame in having questions. What we do with the questions is the issue. Don’t allow difficult life situations to cause you to forget what we do know. “Never doubt in the darkness what God has taught you in the light.”
Psalm 27:13-14 says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
Isaiah 45:22 says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
Our temporary troubles will be overcome by God’s timeless truths. Trust God’s Word. That will be our focus this morning during our 11am livestream. Here are your options for viewing the broadcast:
- Follow this link to view the livestream directly from our Vimeo page.
- Click the “Watch Video” button on the church’s Facebook page.
- Watch us on Facebook Live
- Watch us on YouTube
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02
Apr '20
Developing a Heart of Wisdom
02
Apr '20
How do we develop a heart of wisdom? Well, it’s not by invention, innovation, or perspiration but as a result of transformation. Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endureth forever.”
The fear spoken of here is not a groveling fear, where you’re waiting for something horrible to happen, and wishing that it won’t. Think of the fear of the Lord in the context of a father and son or daughter relationship, but instead of the child fearing what his father will do to him if he steps out of line, this is fearing what I will do to my Father as a result of being foolish instead of wise.
Biblically speaking, foolishness has nothing to do with education or intellectual capabilities. In scripture, unbelief is what marks a fool. “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God, they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good” Psalm 14:1, and the characteristics of a fool are living apart from and against the truth of scripture.
Life is brief. That hasn’t changed because of the coronavirus, but that has highlighted life’s frailty and brevity. We must take advantage of our limited time, for worship and service to the eternal God. Life is an opportunity we must use wisely, and that wisdom is found first in trusting the eternal God to rescue you from your sins. Sins which pay eternal wages.
Redeeming the Time
Ephesians 5:15-17 reads as follows: “See then that ye walk circumspectly [that means with situational awareness; careful attention], not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
Wisdom is found in understanding and following God’s will, and it’s God’s will that people should be…
- Saved – Mark 10:45; Luke 19:10; 1 Timothy 2:3-6
- Spirit-filled – Ephesians 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” This means being led of the Spirit and will be marked by joyfulness.
- Submissive – 1 Peter 2:13-15; Hebrews 13:17. Submission requires sacrifice and is to be joyfully rather than grudgingly offered. Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;”
- Sanctified – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20. This means living a life set apart from this world and to the glory of Christ. That kind of existence will not be perfectly lived, but is one primarily directed towards Jesus. That life looks like this:
- Consistent joy – 1 Thessalonians 5:16
- Continual prayer – 1 Thessalonians 5:17
- Comprehensive thanksgiving – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
- Suffering – 1 Peter 2:20-21; 3:17; 5:10. This is part, a regular and sometimes big part, of God’s will for our lives, and Jesus is our ultimate example in all this.
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27
Mar '20
Reconciled Ambassadors
27
Mar '20
2 Corinthians 5:20, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
Those who have trusted the Lord Jesus as their Savior are not only saved but are ambassadors of their Lord and Savior. An ambassador is an authorized representative who speaks not in his own name but on behalf of another. We who have trusted Christ have been empowered and tasked with the joyous responsibility to faithfully proclaim the promises of the gospel and urge sinners to be reconciled to God through Christ alone. We have no other message and serve no other purpose. May we represent our Lord well, so that others may trust Christ and be reconciled to God.
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