Living in Christ

Once again it is Sunday! I am posting a sermon I preached, hoping that in anyway, it would speak to those of you who are following these posts. May God be with you as you continue on your walk with Him. And, as always, may God richly bless you today!! H Trent! “The Test for False Prophets.” Scripture: 2 Peter 2. Introduction: You know, there are a lot of things that we see and hear these days on our radios and through our televisions, even from those around us. From the programs we watch and listen to, like reality shows, the news, even movies. It can sometimes be difficult for us to determine if what we are filling ourselves up with contains any truth or not. Sadly this is also the same theme for those of us in the church. I mean, how do we know what is being taught to us is the truth, and how do we know that the one's doing the teaching are themselves, true? Pretty big question isn’t it? We need ministers that live according to the Word that they are entrusted to teaching. We ...

I was blessed that God allowed me to be born to the parents I have. Although I was at times, very rebellious, they taught me a lot about the "real world." That, as I got older, I would have different choices to make, about a great many things. Our lives are a reflection of the choices we have made. We all make bad choices, and we all make good choices, and the outcome or the consequences of our choices are what eventually makes us the person we are right now. "Now a young man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied, "There is only One Who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself." "All these I have kept,...

As we become more intimate and more personal in our relationship with God, we learn that there are things we must do to prepare ourselves to listen to God, to accept His word for our lives, and to apply His instruction for our lives. "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation.' " Luke 3:4-6 We need to learn that if we are to receive the powerful presence of God, we must prepare ourselves. John the Baptist was God's messenger to help people prepare to receive the Savior of the world. John preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matt 3:2). Those who heard John's message and prepared their lives recognized Jesus when He came, and they left to follow Him. This was especially true of the disciples, whose hea...

I have written quite a bit the last few posts on knowing God, seeking God, making time for Him, making time to read His Word. Today I would like to get the "rubber on the road!" Friends, we spend so much time in our lives speaking, running, just plain being busy that our prayer life is suffering. Ask most Christians and they will tell you that they spend less than 5 to 10 mins a day praying and even then, guess who is probably doing most of the talking? "Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed." Mark 1:35 As I studied this evening, one thing I realized from Scripture is that the disciples would often find Jesus praying during the morning hours of the day. When they needed Him, they knew to go to the place of prayer. When Judas betrayed Him, he led the priest's guards to Jesus' place of prayer. Think about this, most of the time when we have important issues ...

My kids will tell you that I have a saying----God gave us two ears to listen with and one mouth to speak with for a purpose. If more of us would understand what that means, there would not be as many conflicts and instances of strife around. Jesus sort of made a similar statement, but in a different way: "But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear." Matthew 13:16 How do we put that into perspective? Well, when you became a Christian, God gave you spiritual sight and spiritual hearing so you could begin experiencing His presence and activity all around you. The Holy Spirit helps you to develop these spiritual senses as you walk with Him. Spiritual sensitivity to God is a gift that must be accepted and exercised. Scripture indicates that those who are spiritually dead cannot see or understand spiritual things (Matt. 13:14-15). Without spiritual eyes, you can be right in the midst of a mighty act of God and not recognize it, and completely miss it. There ...

Have you ever tried to do something you knew was impossible? Many of us think that getting to know God personally is impossible. You know, I think the disciples might have thought so too. There are many instances recorded in Scripture where God asked someone do something that, at the time seemed impossible. Consider this episode take from the Book of Matthew: "As evening approached, the disciples came to Him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." Matthew 14:15-16. Now, Jesus asked His disciples to do something that clearly was impossible. There were five thousand men, along with their families, and they were famished. Our passage goes on to say that they were only able to come up with five loaves of bread and two small fish--obviously not enough to feed a multitude. And f...

We have had two lessons on knowing God, and this one will be the same but different. Why? Because one of the most important things we can ever do in our life is to get to know God personally, intimately, spiritually, and intellectually. "And God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Issac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name Lord, I was not known to them" Exodus 6:2-3 As God has walked with His people through the generations, He has progressively revealed His nature according to His purposes and the needs of His people. Abraham, Issac, and Jacob knew Him as God Almighty because they needed His mighty power to protect them from their enemies. Moses and the Israelites learned that God was Lord, Master over every nation and everything. God not only delivered them from the most powerful ruler in the world, but He also brought them in the Promised Land. They came to experience Him as Lord, preeminently powerful over the pagan gods ...

Today is Sunday and many of us will find ourselves in church. Some of us won't be attending and that's ok. For this Sunday I decided to try something a little different. I decided to start posting a sermon that I have already preached. I would like to post one every Sunday, but I need your feedback. I really pray over my posts hoping that I will help to lead at least one person to a more meaningful relationship with God. It is my desire to help anyone who desires to know God. That is why I do what I do here. If you would like me to try this for a short time and see if it helps, let me know. If you would rather I just continued with a regular post on Sunday, let me know. We are all the body of Christ and I will take all the help and suggestions I can get! As always, May God richly bless you today! Harold! From Bondage to Freedom Scripture: Psalm 81:6-10 Intro: We can get ourselves trapped in situations that we are unable to get out of. Whether it is a financial situation, a temp...

We have been looking at God's Word for the last two times and also today. I believe that speaking on, teaching on, or learning about God's Word is very relevant to society today as I think that many of us are suffering from spiritual starvation. A lack of knowledge of the Word of God! When you open the Word, does it every cause you discomfort? When you read the Bible does what you read make you uneasy? Do you find that when you listen to sermons, the Scripture seems aimed directly at you? Well friends, I would like to say that it is in these moments that you are experiencing the reality that the Word of God is alive and can read your thoughts and judge your intentions. "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 When God's Word speaks to you it is always for a purpose. God kno...

God's Word! Given to us by Divine inspiration. 66 books by 40 different authors over a period of around 1500 years. Jesus Himself quoted from over 24 books of the Old Testament. The last post spoke on how we suffer from a lack of knowledge because many of us are not as diligent in our Bibles as we probably should be. But, even though many of us are diligent in God's word, we need to learn that knowing God through experience is radically different than knowing about God from a theology textbook. Not only did Jesus quote from the Word, He lived it and demonstrated to others how to live it, how to really know God. Consider: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent." John 17:3 As Jesus prayed, He prayed that we would know God. According to the Bible, you cannot really say you know God unless you have experienced Him. (Phil. 3:8, 10). Biblical knowledge always involves experience. There is head knowledge,...

By now, if you have been following along, you should begin to see that these teachings are short, to the point, and following a path. That path is intended to lead us all into a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to demonstrate the power of that relationship by helping us to live it in our everyday, day to day lives. With that being said, our subject today is on God's Word---our Bibles! "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children." Hosea 4:6 You read this twice and you think, "Wow! These are very harsh words." And, they are and they were intended to be. Many of us know that Israel was judged. We, hopefully, learn this from our churches, from our Sunday school classes, etc. etc. But, how many of us really understand why God judged Israel? The passage today is to the point. Lack of knowledge! A sta...

Yesterday we looked at what it meant to have integrity and to strive for integrity. Today we are going to look at being faithful. I believe that the Scriptures teach us that God rewards those who are faithful. You might ask, faithful in what? Faithful to do what? Well, throughout our lives, God will seek to grow us in our faith. He will continually bring us to times when we must trust Him. He will lead us into situations that require a "little" faith, and if we are faithful, He will then take us into situations that require even greater trust in Him. Each time you are able to trust God at a higher level, God will reveal more of Himself to you. Your faith and experiencing God are directly linked. "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much." Luke 16:10 The best way to tell if you are prepared for a greater revelation of God is to see how faithful you have been with what God...

Do you know what real freedom is? I believe that real freedom is in having nothing to hide. Living a life of integrity allows you to have this freedom. For those of us that don't know the meaning of the word, integrity means moral soundness or purity, incorruptness or honesty. Your integrity is measured not by what you say about yourself, but by what God and people say about you. Today we are going to look at Samuel to get an understanding of what it means to be a person of integrity. Samuel had lived all his life among the people of God. Leaders that had preceeded him were dishonest and corrupt; it would have been easy for Samuel to compromise in his dealings as well. Near the end of his life, however, Samuel could boldly stand before his nation and ask them to reveal any offense he had committed against any of them. They couldn't think of even one: "Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey ...

I write a lot of things that have to do with ourselves and other people. And this is because of the society we live in today. There is a lot of stress and peer pressure out in the world. Our friends, our employers, even our families place desires and needs upon us, and if we don't stop and take a moment to determine what God would have us to do, we would continually find ourselves striving to please everyone around us while neglecting our Lord. Many times we will have to make a choice between pleasing God and pleasing those around us. As important as it is to strive for good relations with others, it is even more important to maintain a steadfast and obedient relationship with Christ. Disobeying God to keep peace with other people is never wise. Peace with God is always paramount. Even the apostle Paul new this to be true: "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Chri...

"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3 You know, many times I believe that Christians often settle for much less than what God wants to do through us. We read also in Jeremiah 32:27: "I am the Lord, the God of all flesh! Is anything too hard for Me?" We read that and our lips say, "No Lord, nothing is too hard for You." It's funny though, when we face difficult situations we begin to qualify our belief in God and lower our expectations of what God will do. It's one thing to believe God could perform a miracle in the Bible, or even a thousand years ago, or even in the life of a friend; it's quite another matter to wholeheartedly believe God can do anything He chooses to do in our lives. Friends, when Almighty God speaks to us, what we do next proves what we believe about Him, regardless of what we say. God revealed to Moses His plan to orchestrate the greatest exo...

After having a conversation last night with someone that rejects God, I started thinking that some of the things they were saying made since. It later startled me to realize that I wanted to double-check myself to make sure that I was on the right path. You see, many times in our walk with Christ people that are more intelligent that us will cross paths with us. And many times those individuals will be people that for whatever reason have chosen to reject God, Christ, the Bible, and that anyone that follows God is uneducated and needs to be attacked and hated. Most times these attacks can leave you weary of speaking about Christ or even cause you to start to doubt what you believe because they can make themselves appear to know all truth. As I meditated on the conversation and flipped through God's Word I came to the realization that faith in God does not come from ignorance. Faith is based on what we know. And we can only get what we know about God, from God Himself by goin...

I've been asked, "What is something you have learned in your Christian life?" Not a real easy question to answer because I have learned so much, but one thing I have learned is that the Christian life is a pilgrimage. At times the road is difficult, and we get lonely. Sometimes we may become discouraged and consider abondoning the journey. I think that it is at such times that God will place a friend alongside us. "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." Proverbs 27:17 One of God's most precious gifts to us is friends who encourage us and lovingly challenge us to "keep going." According to Scripture, a friend is one who challenges you to become all that God intends. Jonathan could have succeeded his father to become king of Israel, but he loved his friend David. He encouraged David to follow God's will, even though it meant that Jonathan would forfeit his own claim to the throne. (1 Samuel 19:1-7). ...

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways highter than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 It's a lot easier to read this verse than to acknowledge this verse. Most people, Christian and non-Christian, have the same problem with God. We think linear, so we try to make God linear. But, rarely does God do something exactly as we think He will. Our problem is that we try to second-guess God, saying something like, "Oh, now I know what God is planning to do." Moses experienced this as he learned how God was going to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt. God told Moses that He was going to harden Pharaoh's heart. But, the result was not what Moses anticipated. Instead of allowing the Hebrews to leave, Pharaoh increased their hardships. And instead of becomming a hero among the Hebrews, Moses was hated for bringing grea...

As one examines what the Scriptures teach about the fruits of the Spirit, you could be intimidated. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23. Working all nine of these traits into our life seems impossible, and it is. However, the moment we became Christians, the Holy Spirit began a divine work to produce Christ's character in us. Let me say this, regardless of who you are, the Spirit works from the same model, Jesus Christ. The Spirit looks to Christ in order to find the "blueprint" for your character. The Spirit will immedately begin helping you experience and practice this same love that Jesus had when He laid down His life for His friends. The same joy He experienced will be filled in you. The identical peace that guarded the heart of Jesus, even as He was being beaten and mocked, will be the peace that the Spirit ...

You will hear a lot of things said about what the marks of spiritual maturity are. I think that one of the most important marks of spiritual maturity is the willingness to sacrifice personal comfort in order to strengthen others. Look at our verse today: "Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." Romans 14:19 Notice that Paul uses the words pursue and edify. To pursue means to passionately focus one's undistracted effort toward a goal. Here Paul urges Christians to pursue only activities that promote peace and behavior that builds others up. This is not a casual matter either. It involves using all the resources God has given us to ensure growth and peace in the life of a fellow Christian. To the Colossian church, Paul wrote that he labored, " striving...to present every man perfect in Christ." (Col 1:28-29). This took concentration and effort. The word edify means to "build up....

Being able to obey what God asks of you comes from your heart. When you begin struggling to obey God, that is a clear indication that your heart has shifted away from Him. Some people claim: "I love God, but I'm having difficulty obeying Him in certain areas of my life." That is a spiritual impossibility. Let's read what Jesus said: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." John 14:21 You might be thinking that this is a pretty harsh statement to make. Is Jesus telling us that if we don't keep His commandments that He won't love us or come to us? Again, let's read what Jesus says: "He who does not love Me does not keep My Words, and the Word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." God will not reward rebellious people. If I were to ask you, "Do you love God?" you might...

"Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him." 1 John 3:6 I believe the Bible makes two things clear about sin. First, living a lifestyle of sin indicates that you are not walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, regardless of what you think or say about your spiritual condition. You cannot spend time studying and meditating on God's Word, praying and walking in fellowship with Him, and persist in sin. You just can't. Second, if you do not hate sin the way God does, then you do not truly know Him. You might say, " how can you believe that or even say such a thing?" Well, John makes it clear: if you have a lifestyle of sin, you have not seen Him and you do not know Him. The keyword here is lifestyle. There are those who continue in their sin, but still insist that they love God and belong to Him. You may have prayed a "sinner's prayer," or made a commitment in your church, or even been bapt...

I think there is an important difference between doing something for people and doing something for God. You see, God always deserves our very best effort! "Whatever you do, work at it with all you heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Jesus Christ you are serving." Colossians 3:23-24 NIV People will always disappoint us, betray us, neglect us, and mistreat us. Some people will constantly ask for what we can give them while offering nothing to us in return. From our human perspective, these people deserve our minimal effort at best. What then should motivate us to serve people, except our love for God? God deserves our love, and He demands that we love others in the same way He does. We are to love our spouses, not as they deserve, but as God commands. (Eph. 5:22-23). We are to treat our friends, not as they treat us, but as Jesus loves us. (John 13:14). We are to wor...

You know, the Israelites of Jeremiah's day believed they could trust their army, the dilomacy of their king, and their foreign alliances to protect them from the powerful Babylonian empire. They gave lip service to their trust in God, but their actions showed where their faith really was: in their military and financial might. However, God spoke through Jeremiah to warn them that He would not bless those who trusted in anyone or anything instead of Him. Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord." Jeremiah 17:5 The Bible tells us that placing you ultimate trust in anything other that God is idolatry. How can you know if your faith is not truly in God? Ask yourself these questions: Where do I turn when I experience a crisis? When I am hurting or afraid, to whom do I go? When I have a financial problem, whom do I want to tell first? Where do I seek comfort when I am under stress or ...

Jesus, realizing that His role was that of a servant, never sought to initiate activity for the Father. (Matt. 20:28) The servant never sets the agenda, the Master does. The servant must be so alert to what the master is doing that whenever the master begins to move in a direction the servant quickly joins him. Even the Son of God did not assume He knew the best thing to do in a situation. "The Son can do nothing of HImself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel." John 5:19-20. Jesus looked to see the Father's activity and then joined Him. Jesus knew His Father so well that He was keenly sensitive to divine activity around Him, immedately recognizing His Father at work. It is possible for us to be so busy trying to bring God into our activity that we don't even noti...

It has been said that the greatest sin anyone could ever commit would be the sin against love. That is to reject Jesus, the One Who loved us so much that He gave everything just to be with us. Consider the prophet Hosea in the Old Testament, "When the Lord began to speak to Hosea, the Lord said to him, ' Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.'" Hosea 1:2 NIV The question to consider is this, why would God command someone to take and "adulterous" person and make them their spouse? Well friends, we need to look deeper into what was going at the time of Hosea. The nation of Israel had turned its back on the Lord. Scripture tells us that they were commiting the vilest of sins against God. Worshipping other gods, committing adultery, slandering, stealing,and even God's priests were guilty of committing the same things. God was asking Hosea to...