Saturday, April 25, 2015

What Is Honor?

“Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me.” John 8:49

I had a conversation with someone this past week about honor, I said we are to have honor in everything, and he said honor had nothing to do with it. This is one of our largest problems in the world today, people rarely honor anything. God is not honored for the most part, marriage is not honored, parents are not honored, Pastors – churches- and Christians are also not honored, and etc, etc, etc. The list of things that should be honored can just continue and continue, however, honor is a rare thing these days. Jesus was accused of being a devil and Jesus response was “I have not a devil” and in this they dishonored our Saviour. To compare Jesus to the devil or even to say He possessed the devil was dishonoring to Him and His Father just as it would be to say a Christian is a devil or possess one. Jesus went on to say “but I honour my Father” even though He Himself was dishonored. As Christians we need to understand what the word honor means - to prize, that is, fix a valuation upon; by implication to revere” To prize something as valuable and to revere it, sounds like money doesn’t it, but it is not, while we are to honor much in our life outside of money. First we are to honor God; God should have the upmost prize, value, and is to be revered more than anything else in all creation. We live in a sad time because God is rarely truly honored in this world and even less honored in some forms of worship called churches. One cannot honor God if they do not serve and worship Him as Sovereign. Jesus said while they did not honor Him as the Son He honored His Father. We are to all worship them both as God because both are God. The Lord also told us multiple times that we are to honor our father and mothers. Exodus 20:12 "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." This is the second most un-honored commandment in the scriptures outside of failing to honor God enough. I see children everywhere failing to honor their parents, this is a disgrace. We are to honor the Son Jesus Christ just as much as we would honor the Father. John 5:23 "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." I must ask this question “how can one honor either if the use either of their names in vain, which is something I hear even from a lot of preachers in pulpits. It would do us all well to study the definition of the word “vain” because there are a lot of folks who have no idea what it is. God said to honor the elders (that is ministers) but to them that teach TRUTH they are to be honored with double honor. 1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.” Elders that teach truth will be the most dishonored in this world, this is why God told us to honor them double. I, like Christ Jesus have also been called a devil many times for preaching the truth. Last we are to honor all men; to honor everyone is a very rare thing today. People are too rude to honor others. This world is about “ME” and I am the only one who matters. This is sad and ungodly. 1 Peter 2:17 "Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king." That honor of all men includes loving the brotherhood which are the Christians among us but especially those of the household of faith with is the local church. We, as Christian’s need to take another look at honor and what God says about it. We need to make sure we measure up to what God expects of us. The world is worldly and they will never honor God or Christians for anything, but we who are of faith ought to know better.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

The Fruits Of The Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (23.) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22 – 23

I love these scriptures, I love them so much I have used them almost certainly hundreds of times in my sermons over the last eleven years I have been pastor of this church. These are the fruits of the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit of God. When we think of fruit we think of a tree or a vine that produces fruit and we pluck the fruits and eat them. An apple tree produces apples and almost all of us love apples. A grapevine will produce grapes and there are so many wonderful things we can do with good grapes. We will not find either one of these (the apple tree or the grapevine) producing oranges or strawberries because that would be against their nature. God had just listed several things (evil things) that the lost person produces, idolatry, hatred, variance, envyings, murders, drunkenness, etc. etc. and etc. God said in verse 19 “Now the works of the flesh are manifest…” this is the lost persons works because it is all they know. It would be as rare for them to do different and produce good works as it would be for an apple tree to produce oranges. The lost person has no good in them, because the Lord said of them "...There is none righteous, no, not one:” Romans 3:10 this is why God will not accept any of their works no matter what. However, with this being said the saved person is different and they can produce good fruits acceptable to God. Now what is the difference between the lost person and the saved person? It is the Holy Spirit; one is not saved until that person has the Holy Spirit in their heart. No matter what a person does they are not saved until the Holy Spirit has brought a change to them. What changes, first He quickens the spirit of the person who is lost. Ephesians 2:1 Second, He delivers faith, not just any faith but saving faith enabling the person to believe on Christ, third He opens the spiritual ears and eyes of the person so that for the first time they can see and hear the gospel, and fourth He leads them to salvation in Christ Jesus. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Romans 8:14 The fleshly man, the natural man, the man that the Holy Spirit has not led and caused to hear and see will never turn from their natural lost state, no matter what. Here is a very blessed fact, as many as He (the Holy Spirit) leads, He looses none, and all are saved. While the Holy Spirit is making all these changes in the person being saved, He is also producing more fruits in that person like love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and etc. etc. etc. These are not fruits the person produced before salvation because they are fruits of God. That’s right God has a seed in you (the Holy Spirit) that produces good and acceptable fruits because He cannot produce bad fruits no more than a grapevine can produce strawberries. After a person is saved then any bad fruits produced are done so by the old natural man, which we still have. This is why the lost person cannot have good fruit and the saved person will never produce bad fruits if they lean on their godly side. Let us all work hard to lean on the fruits of the Spirit and not our own natural fruits. If you are saved then you have them, their there, just search for them. Remember Paul told young preacher Timothy "But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (12.) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:11 - 12

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Be Glad; All The Time, And In Everything!!

“The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.” Psalms 64:10

I know words are easy; I know telling a Christian to be happy is easy, but being happy in sad times are hard. For a Christian we must all understand that God has appointed us to death, therefore we will all die at one time or another. God never promised us a tomorrow on this earth. He never promised us we would live to be a hundred years old, nor did He even promise us any amount of years. But this we do know, God has appointed our departure from this life and He has appointed it to please Him. The thing about serving a Sovereign God is He does as He pleases, and He needs none nor has any counsel. His will, will never be changed, EVER! As we read in the Ninth Chapter of Romans; creation is His and He can do as He please, to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. No one has the right to ask God “what doest Thou”. It is hard watching your family gets sick and dies before you do, but again we do not get to make that decision, God does. My mother once told me that “mothers are not supposed to bury their children” and I told her that is Gods choice and not ours. I told her the longer she lived chances were she would bury more children, and she did have to bury another son. Life is hard, and even for believers. We are not exempt from hurt or even death because we are God’s beloved. We never know when we will wake up one morning and have a terminal disease. Death come to all age believers and always will. We must as believers have faith in the Lord no matter what. We ought to be happy in everything, even in great sickness. We are the Lords, bought and paid for by the blood of His own Son Jesus Christ whom was put to death at the young age of 33 years. Trust in the Lord and you will always be happy because the Psalmist just told us we would. I know yes I know the heartaches of life. I lost one brother at the age of 47 just a year older than I was at the time. I lost a second brother at the age of fifty, both too young to die, but both dead by God’s will. I lost my sweet mother last year just before Thanksgiving. I know by my family’s history on both sides I may not live much longer because the men on both sides have dies at 60 and under with heart disease. We never know when cancer or other fatal diseases may be found in us. Life is hard in general but when it is us or our families it hits harder for us. Contrary to what some preachers many preach God never promised us healthy, wealthy, or wisdom. God has promised us what we get and we get what He wills for us. I know sometimes we just want to ask why? Well, that’s a question for God, so I would ask Him. As a Pastor I sometimes find it difficult to find the answers outside of “it was Gods will” because there truly are no other answers. Our faith must be strong in the Lord and the stronger it is the happier we will be when tragedy comes to us. Be happy, because no matter what, you are Gods child and everything is in His will and nothing happens He does not control completely. The Apostle Paul reminds us "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption...That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31 Glory in the Lord beloved; what waits on the other side of this life is most glorious. Let us all pray that God will be merciful to us, but let us all be happy in the Lord no matter what.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Constantly Persecuted.

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (9.) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;" 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9

As Christians we have so much to feel blessed about, and our blessings are innumerable. As Christians we do not have to wonder if persecution is coming but rather when and how it is coming. We have seen much in the news this last week about some Americas hatred for Christians. We had two states and two Governors in deep trouble for attempting to protect the Christian business owners. We saw a Pizza place in Indiana shutdown because they said they would never cater a Gay wedding. I believe it is unbelievable that some American people find it necessary to threaten Christians just to get their point across. Christians are not obligated to serve the ungodly people in this world. Just because the Government may choose to allow Gays to marry it does not mean Christians must service them. As a Pastor I will never perform a wedding ceremony for a Gay couple, nor will our church ever allow them to join or serve in our church. Some people attempt to equate the persecution of blacks with Gays but they are not the same. God never declared it an abomination to be black, but He did with being Gay. With this being said one cannot compare the two. When God has so much condemnation over one act it will always be condemned by God. With this being said, as Christians we are acting ungodly in accepting the sin as just. It is not my job to condemn anyone for any act, in fact God told us to love our enemies and to pray for them that despitefully use us. It is my job to preach the word of God and to tend to the Lord’s local flock that God has chosen for me to oversee. As a Pastor I will preach to anyone, including Gays. We do not disallow anyone from attending our services but that is as far as we will allow it to go. Neither I, nor our church condemns anyone, we hate no one, we simply as Christians adhere to Gods word like the pizza place in Indiana. But we will all be persecuted by many haters of God right here in America for standing on Gods word. The Lord reminds us in John 15:18 "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." This is why Paul told these folks at Corinth “We are troubled on every side…” because Satan controls the world system and he will control it to be Anti-God. The world hates Christians but is also hates the Jews, why, they are not the same as we are. The Jews are not Christians; they totally reject Jesus Christ. They are nothing like Christians, so why, why are they persecuted along with Christians? It is because of the world’s hatred for God. He is our one of very few things we have in common with the Jews. They hate us because of God. Paul went on to say “…yet not distressed…” The word means – Anguished – which means tormented or agonized – why would we be? As Christians we understand much more than the lost and we know what is going to be in years to come. We know that vengeance belongs to God and He will repay them. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Romans 12:19 Paul went on to say “…we are perplexed…” which means - to have no way out, that is, be at a loss – because while we disagree so much with the ungodliness there is nothing we can do but to allow it in the world. We see so much hate for Christians and must wonder why. Why would they want to close or burn down a pizza place because they will not service Gay weddings, because they are Christians? Yes, indeed and it is perplexing. However while we may be at the point of being perplexed, Paul said “but not in despair;” which means - to be utterly without a way – Because we know God has a way to resolve our persecution. If the States will not protect Christians then God will. I do not trust government, I trust only God, and I know that He has the power to protect me as His child. Paul concluded in verse 9 by saying while we are persecuted, God will not forsake us and while we may be cast down, we will not be destroyed, no matter how much they may hate us. Therefore I applaud the folks at the pizza place in Indiana and God has rewarded them with love gifts of almost a million dollars to continue. Folks, don’t be afraid to standup for God and the scriptures, because His power is greater than theirs.