Father in Heaven, thank you Lord for giving us your Holy Word to guide and develop our walk in and with you. Lord we simply ask that you to grow us to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with you. Father, please forgive us our many sins as we learn to do the same for others. In your heavenly name Father, we pray, Amen!
Today’s focus is on reflecting on what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. We don’t know first-hand, and yet our Lord gives us thought after thought, through instruction on what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. The Prelude will start off our study by beginning with Matthew 13:31-35
Some days, it seems like God calls us to hit the bricks, to get off our posterior and live. Really live. Living in and with Him, and if we are, then we are given the resources, tools, and skills to do incredible things right in the middle of bedlam, anarchy, and chaos. Like making bread on a campfire in the middle of floating ash, dust, and chaff, somehow with God it works out.
But in spite of that good news, I still struggle.
You know it seems sometimes that we live in impossible times. Some of us are just barely getting along, living in God’s light in a clouded, crowded, confused world of sin, and a society bent on chasing after itself. It’s all we can do sometimes not to lose hope in ourselves and our culture. That is when we need to step back and realize that we need our God even more than ever.
It is hard for us sometimes to concentrate on the business at hand. Living God-centered lives in the middle of all the bedlam and anarchy fueled by selfishness, fear, and sin. With the world and its adherents, literally flying helter skelter in every direction we look, seeking to gain advantage over the competition. Those who seek to replace the one, true, and only God, our Lord, with self-made gods, and worldly instituted favored flavors of fashions of the moment. Yea, that’s our environment… the world at large in summary.
And rest assured, this mess that we find ourselves living in… is nothing new. Please let me take a moment to share with you some thoughts our God had and has, about man-made stuff, and the foolishness of paying heed to it. As I read, please see if you can see any similarities to our present day. Reading from Isaiah 44:9-20:
I had thought of using for today’s message, the title: How warped am I, Not living in Gratitude! But I think I am not alone in the fact that there is no defense for our not being grateful for this life we now find ourselves a part of. And so, I thought that I would try for the positive approach and see where I ended up. Hence; Blessings & Miracles, Thanks Be to Our God!
Although, honestly…all that I need to go with today’s title is a rainbow, a unicorn, and possibly some salt-water taffy, for that syrupy effect! I’m sorry for the cynical thread just taken, but it is important for all of us to consider, just how blessed each of us are in the midst of the onslaught of miracles our God favors humanity daily, if not minute by minute, the live long day! And my cynicism comes from my recognition of my ungrateful nature.
I am an inheritor from a stiff-necked people in a rough and tumble world, and like all of us at times in our lives, we tend to totally forget that its people like you and me in our fallen nature that add to the fallen nature of this world that suffers and suffers from our pollution of sin.
You know after thinking about it, after reflecting on my own sin, and lackluster performance in thanking God for all He has, is and will provide for both yours and my existence, … maybe the original title: How warped am I, Not living in Gratitude! … Is an appropriate label for today’s thought.
This weekend is one of those most sacred secular weekends on our National Calander. Not only is our Country’s birthday this Tuesday, but the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg happened on the 1st thru the 3rd of July 1863. 160 years ago today the battle of Little Roundtop on the Union left, Culps Hill on the right, and the fact that today the second day of the battle, the Union just barely hung on from being overwhelmed on both ends of the fighting.
If you looked at the three days battle field, it is shaped like a fish hook containing ridges and hills and fields, with both sides North and South, just pounding the life out of each other like a family brawl gone amuck, with 50K casualties.
This time for me always reflects those words that Lincoln would speak in his Gettysburg Address months later on November 19, 1863. At the dedication of the Cemetery. Lincoln would say that there should be a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth!
But what does that have to do with you and I being Owned by God, and free for Righteousness? I think every generation of Christians has a decision to make. Are they (or are we the people of the here and now), going to boldly go out into the world and bring light into the dark, illuminate the truth from lies, and free people from the slavery of sin, selfishness, and evil? Physically and spiritually!
There are days in this life of ours that just reek with thoughts of the abyss, feeling of woe, and events reflecting mayhem, lostness, and unfairness. You know like today. Where it seems like all day long we are exposed to all of the suffering people go through, from the mistreatment of nature, animals, and even our pets, to what seems like the disparity of the good being punished while the bad apparently get even more from this life of the working day. It’s enough to almost make a person cynical, and loose hope of the moment.
And yet the more I think about it, the old cliché holds true as ever: “Today is what you make of it.” In fact, let me quote to you from the writer of New Testament letter to the Hebrew Christians of his day. Reading from Hebrews 4:12-13;
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
The author who wrote the book of Hebrews 2,000 years ago is encouraging you and me today, as long as it is today, to not let all the distractions of the world lead our hearts into sin and disbelief. That I am sure is why our hospital (First Baptist Church of Ogden Utah), is a congregation dedicated to worshiping and serving God, which leads to the healing of our hearts.
The first title I had for today was:” Public vs. Private, What’s the Difference?” but that sounded too argumentative. Then I almost titled today’s Message: “Mom’s good necklace, is in with the Hogs”. It was my attempt to rename an idea expressed in Matthew 7:6;
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs…
But that really cuts short on what I really want to talk about today. Really, I need to quote Matthew 7: 1-6;
1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Or there is a time to share and time just for you and God! By the way, when the Lord uses pigs & dogs when He is teaching Jews, He is trying to get their attention! Are people projecting their smugness or receiving God’s blessings? And dogs & pigs referred to might be us.
I hate to out myself in front of a crowd, but it is, … what it is, … and it would appear that God in addition to wanting my obedience to Him, God also wants my faith and trust in Him. That when God speaks repeatedly to us about in scripture… God providing for us. Well, I need to trust in Him, and belief that He really means it!
Well, I do want toplease God, but living by Faith? Doesn’t God help those who help themselves? What about personal responsibility, and being accountable for the financial, health, and security of my loved ones? What about helping God so that He won’t have to help me? I know from experience, that if I don’t take charge of my destiny, the situation will take control of me. So, what is: “Living by Faith” and how does that please God?
Today, I would like to address faith and some of the concerns and thoughts that I think a lot of us struggle with in this Faithwalk of ours.
Perhaps it will help us if we look at a prime example of what living by Faith is not. The Lord has given us the history of our adopted family in the Old Testament. As a people of God, we have struggled from the beginning with trusting in and actually living a real relationship in and with our God. Faith is not living religion by going through the motions. How often you go to church, how much you give, or what you do around the church, just to say to God; “I did that!” In fact, faith is not based on you, but on God living inside of you, His Spirit living in the people in your life, guiding His Church, for His purposes.
There are so many people that rely on their sophisticated knowledge and their worldly wisdom. Mistakenly believing that they are the product solely on their hard-won efforts to excel. They scoff at any idea that all useful wisdom, all enduring knowledge is a gift of the Spirit of the one sovereign God of all there is… and more!
May our prayers and searches this morning lead us to a greater understanding of wisdom, … knowledge, …And all of the associated gifts of the Spirit. A Spirit so holy and majestic, it can only be associated in conjunction with the Godhead. And that is a thought that is very timely on this Trinity Sunday.
Yes, this Trinity Sunday, a whole lot of the Christian world is reflecting on the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or, how God establishes, creates, redeems, and sustains the creation of everything. You can spend the rest of your life trying to understand some of what God has done, is doing, and what He will do, not ever mastering the subject, and yet it will not be a wasted life.
Last week, our church observed God’s unleashing of His Holy Spirit into the world for our edification. This week, I would like to talk to you about two of the gifts of the Spirit that we all learn about in scripture. Let me just mention in passing 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, and in Romans 12:6-8, list a lot of those gifts of God.
Good morning to all of you who struggle to make sense of this thing we call a Faithwalk in our Lord. For those of you who wonder what makes us different from the rest of the big world, and what binds us with parts of it.
Today the Christian Church observes and celebrates the unleashing of our God’s Holy Spirit into all of our reality. Pentecost!… As a result, all of humanity has a choice to make each and every moment, hour, and day. Do we exercise our free choice to accept the invitation of God the Son into our lives, … open our hearts to God’s Holy Spirit, … in order to build and house the Temple of our God, … Father of all that is Holy and good!
Additionally, today our Jewish friends also remember today. Brothers and sisters around the world today observe Moses giving the Ten Commandment from God at Sini on Pentecost. Please let me summarize The Law, based on, Exodus 20:3-4, 7-8, 12-17;
I want to welcome all of you on a Sunday that many in the Christian Church celebrate as Ascension Sunday. The time that our Lord left this earth physically (as we understand it), to sit at the right hand of the Majesty of Heaven. There is nothing that requires us to observe the Ascension on this day or any day, because we really don’t know the specific day, but we remember the Ascension of the Lord as a promise that has been kept by our God.
Our Lord was foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. They said He would come and die for us. Accomplished. Our Lord prophesied that he would rise in three days. Accomplished. That God would send the Holy Spirit. We will celebrate and observe that fact next Sunday on Pentecost. That he would leave and come back, and we await and long for this happening, to this very day! All the above exist to remind us of our incredible family, and help us to remember that God’s plans are in His hands.
But what is God’s timeframe for all that He has in store for people like you and me? That question and so many more go all the way back to the very time that our Lord was completing the last verbal instructions to the disciples before His ascension to be at the thrown of majesty. Reading from Acts 1:6-11:
