God Rejoices Over Us!

I finished up my sermon series through Zephaniah yesterday, which focused on Zeph. 3:14-20.  Have you read Zeph. 3:17 before?

The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

Have you ever thought about what that would look like?

I picture it like a father wrapping his little son up in his arms, singing over him while just smiling and laughing.  And there’s nothing more than love that makes the Father want to do it.  Just the fact that the son is in the father’s arms is enough to make Him rejoice over Him!

Celebrating God at Work!

There is a lot to be excited about around Central right now!  I just had to share it on here and I hope you get excited about it too.

• 2 people made decisions during this past Sunday’s worship to repent and return to following after the Lord!
• I met with several young girls today who want to be baptized!  They talked about their professions of faith in Jesus and their desire to obey Christ in baptism and full commitment to the church!
• I’m meeting tomorrow to begin discipling the young man who made a decision this past Sunday!  Sunday was the first time he had ever been in our building, and the Holy Spirit grabbed a hold of him!
• There is a gentleman who is very close to making a decision for the Lord!  He’s really investigating the Scriptures and learning.
• We have a unique opportunity I’m hoping works out to disciple a man who made a decision in a church outside of Marion.  That church called me to ask if we’d follow up with him.  It was great meeting him this past Sunday, and I hope the opportunity fully presents itself.
• There are about 115 women signed up for our annual Mother’s Day banquet this Saturday!  The men in the church will serve the meal while the ladies enjoy the time together in fellowship.

If this doesn’t get you excited, I’m not sure what will!

Monday Morning Rewind- What is Our Message? (Acts 4:5-13)

What are Monday Morning Rewinds?  Click here to see my original post explaining them.

Yesterday’s sermon was the second sermon for our 2010 focus for the church: Live Intentionally.  This sermon dealt with the scripture text of Acts 4:5-13, examining Peter and John’s telling of the gospel, and applying it to our lives and church.  You can listen to this sermon here.

If you were to go to someone and share the gospel with them in 2 minutes or less, could you do it?

That’s how I started this sermon.  The gospel is the heart of Christianity because its the story of Jesus and His salvation.  Yet so many Christians are hesitant to share the gospel because they either think they don’t know how or they think they’re scared of rejection.

The point is– if the people of our church are going to live intentionally, we must know our priority (making disciples, from last week’s sermon) and we must know our message (what we are making disciples of).

In Acts 4:5-13, Peter and John are standing before Annas and Ciaphas, the high priest as well as some others who would have been apart of the Sanhedrin, being questioned as to how they healed a lame man outside the temple.  These are the same people who had just participated in an unfair trial of Jesus Christ, leading eventually to his crucifixion (look at John 18).  Understanding who these people are will help us better understand what Peter and John are saying.

Monday Morning Rewind: Seeing Salvation (Simeon, Luke 2:22-25)

What are Monday Morning Rewinds?  Click here to see my original post explaining them.

Yesterday’s sermon was the last in my Christmas sermon series, and the last sermon I’ll preach in 2009 (Bob Clark will be preaching at Central next Sunday while my family is away for Christmas). You can find info about the series here. This sermon dealt with the scripture text of Luke 2:22-35.  You can listen to this sermon here.

This sermon focused on Simeon’s perception of the birth of Jesus.  The main point was that in the midst of all we see around Christmas–lights, decorations, parties, shopping, movies, etc.–do we really see that it is a celebration of salvation that came through the baby Jesus?

Monday Morning Rewind- Salvation or Wrath?

What are Monday Morning Rewinds?  Click here to see my original post explaining them.

Yesterday’s sermon was the continuation of the series I’m preaching through 1 Thessalonians.  This sermon dealt with how we live in light of the return of Jesus in the context of 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.  The main point was not just for us to know that Jesus will return, but to know how to live in preparation for it. This message also brought out the truth that in the end, all people will face either salvation or wrath.  You can listen to this sermon here and find the accompanying PowerPoint slides (in PDF form).

I mentioned again in this sermon how dangerous it is to try to predict exactly when Christ will return.  Those who do this are elevating their thinking to being above Jesus’ (Matt. 24:36), which is a dangerous position to be in.  Satan tried that too.

But we know that Jesus will return, and Paul gives two illustrations to show us that there will be no warning (like a thief in the night, v.2) and no return (pregnancy pains, v.3).  Verse 3 tells us that many people will think there is peace and security, but then the return will come as sudden destruction because they are clinging to false hope.  How many people are putting their hope in anything other than Christ? It’s all false hope.

Paul then talked about how to live in order to be ready.  He contrasted living in darkness with living in light.  Those who are believers in Christ are to walk in the light.  In this text of Scripture, Paul tells us that sleeping and drunkeness are characteristics of walking in darkness (v.6,7).  Sleeping in the Greek language is a word that means yielding to slothfulness and sin. It’s used also in the Garden of Gethsemane account in Matthew 26:36-43.  And drunkeness is simply a state where we lose self-control and allow ourselves to be controlled by a substance.

The opposite of this is walking in the light, which is characterized by being awake or watchful (KJV) and sober (v.6,7).  To watch in the Greek language means to give strict attention to; to take heed lest through remission and indolence some destructive calamity suddenly overtake one.  Instead of being slothful regarding the return of Christ, we need to give strict attention to it and to the way we live.  Are we glorifying God with our lives?

Why do people walk in darkness?  John tells us this:  In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (1:4-5)  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

It takes a humble person to come to Christ because we must acknowledge and lay our sin out before us and Jesus.

Paul recognizes that we are in spiritual warfare, just like Jesus said in Matthew 26:40-41 that our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak.  No wonder Paul went from teaching the Thessalonicans to be watchful then goes on to mention armor to keep them safe.  He mentions a breastplate of faith and love (to guard our heart), and a helmet with the hope of salvation (to guard our minds).

In the end, we will all face either salvation or wrath, depending on what we do with Jesus in this lifetime.  If we accept Him, we experience salvation.  If we reject Him, we experience wrath.  So, salvation or wrath?