The Most Liberating Discovery

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. (Philippians 3:1)

No one had ever taught me that God is glorified by our joy in him — that joy in God is the very thing that makes our praise an honor to God, and not hypocrisy.

But Jonathan Edwards said it so clearly and powerfully:

God glorifies himself towards the creatures also [in] two ways: (1) by appearing to . . . their understanding; (2) in communicating himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which he makes of himself. . . . God is glorified not only by his glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . .

[W]hen those that see it delight in it: God is more glorified than if they only see it. . . . He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

This was a stunning discovery for me. I must pursue joy in God if I am to glorify him as the surpassingly valuable Reality in the universe. Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship. Indeed the very essence of worship — being glad in the glories of God.

We have a name for those who speak their praises of God when they have no pleasure in what they praise. We call them hypocrites. Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Matthew 15:7–8). This fact — that authentic praise means consummate pleasure and that the highest end of man is to drink deeply of this pleasure for God’s glory — was perhaps the most liberating discovery I have ever made.

John Piper 

Is what you do for Jesus keeping you from Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.

Psalm 19:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I believe in church attendance, but if your relationship with the Lord and with others is suffering, then you need to stay at home and get on your face before God.

Sometimes a businessman will get very prosperous in his business—and at first it seems a good thing. He tells his wife, “Honey, you know how I couldn’t give you much when we got married? Well, now I can.” But soon the pursuit of a nice home and nice things consume him. A sadness descends upon his wife and children, and they lament, “Oh, Daddy….Oh, husband…what we would give to just have you spend time with us.”

ACTION POINT:

What tragedy it would be if what you do for Jesus keeps you from Jesus. Stop the cycle today. If you know you’re a workaholic, stop it. If you know your walk is far from God, get it right.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Awakening

Definition of awakening: 

act of waking up: the moment of becoming suddenly aware of something vitally important 

for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."  - Ephesians 5:14

Wake Up!

We are not responsible for when or how God moves.

He is sovereign.

He can do anything He wants, anywhere He wants, anytime He wants with anyone He wants. 

However, we are responsible as a church for creating an environment, an atmosphere where if and when God is ready to move we are ready to receive it!

Get ready!

The church wakes up.

Prayers go up.

God shows up.

Heaven sits up.

Eyes tear up.

Sin packs up.

Spirit stirs up.

Angels listen up.

Worship picks up.

Body gets up.

City is shook up.

Lost looks up.

Satan backs up.

The demons are jacked up.

Barriers that prevent awakening 

1. Hardened hearts

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. - Romans 2:5

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, 

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 

9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 

10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' 

11 As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" 

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."  - Hebrews 3:7-15

The people are the church!

Our problems stem from hardened hearts.

Crime, love of self, chasing money, rotten politics, etc

And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,  - Isaiah 29:13

Where's the passion?

Are we just going through the motions?

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  - Psalm 34:18

Dear God, break us and soften our hearts!

2. Deadly pride!

16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 

18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 

19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.  - Proverbs 6:16-19

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." - James 4:6

Pride will destroy your soul.

It says we don't need God.

Holy God is waiting.

Help us God not to be found without You.

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:14

Dear God, we repent of our pride and seek Your holy Face!

3. Disobedient decisions!

7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?'

8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions.

9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.

12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. - Malachi 3:7-12

You cheat God by lack of tithes, because you are disobedient because of a hard heart.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:21

You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. - Deuteronomy 8:18

Your skills, your smarts, they are a gift from Almighty God.

Dear God, please forgive our selfishness and lack of trust!

4. Grieved Spirit!

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Ephesians 4:30-32

We have grieved the Spirit.

Definition of grief:

Feelings of distress, sorrow, heartache and heartbreak 

To cause sadness

Deep sorrow, especially that is caused by someone's death

We have grieved the Spirit, by our unholy actions!

And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. - Judges 16:20

" I remind you that there are churches so completely out of the hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn't find it out for many months."

A. W. Tozer

Have mercy Lord!

Dear Holy Spirit, we ask for Your forgiveness.

Send an awakening!

Thanks Pastor Kevin!!

Make War with Unbelief

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:16–17)

When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7–9).

When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6); and, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Join me in this battle! Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief. Unbelief in the promises of God is the root of anxiety, which, in turn, is the root of so many other sins. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God, Paul said in Ephesians 6:17. The shield by which we quench Satan’s fiery deceits is faith (verse 16) — faith in that very word of God. So take up the shield in your left hand and the sword in your right hand, and let us fight the good fight of faith.

Take up the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and fight the good fight — to live by faith in future grace.

John Piper 

Are you “doing” for Jesus rather than listening to Jesus?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Discipleship is fellowship with Christ, knowing Christ, loving Christ, abiding in Christ.

I’m afraid too many have joined the movement of Christianity rather than having surrendered to the man of Christianity. These people are doing things for Christ, rather than sitting at the feet of Christ.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with service, and we ought to serve God, but we need to learn that we must minister to Jesus Christ as His disciple before we can minister to others. Jesus values the time you spend with Him far more than the things you do for Him. Do you know that?

ACTION POINT:

Before you head out this morning or go to bed tonight, make sure you make a date with Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Our Good Is His Glory

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

One common objection to Christian Hedonism is that it puts the interests of man above the glory of God — that it puts my happiness above God’s honor. But Christian Hedonism most emphatically does not do this.

To be sure, we Christian Hedonists endeavor to pursue our interest and our happiness with all our might. We endorse the resolution of the young Jonathan Edwards: “Resolved: To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

But we have learned from the Bible (and from Edwards!) that God’s interest is to magnify the fullness of his glory by spilling over in mercy to us — to us sinners, who desperately need him.

Therefore, the pursuit of our interest and our happiness, even if it costs us our lives, is never above God’s interest and God’s happiness and God’s glory, but always in God’s. One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace by making sinners happy in him — in him!

When we humble ourselves like little children and put on no airs of self-sufficiency, but run happily into the joy of our Father’s embrace, the glory of his grace is magnified and the longing of our soul is satisfied. Our interest and his glory become one.

When Jesus promises in Matthew 6:6, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you,” this is a reward he wants us to seek. He does not lure us with joy we shouldn’t have! But this reward — this joy — is the overflow of turning away from human praise, and going into our closet to seek God.

Therefore, Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory. They put their happiness in God himself and discover the glorious truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

John Piper 

Is all truth God’s Truth?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God made the mind of man. All true discoveries and all true knowledge in this world come from God. It is God’s Truth, and we do not have to be afraid of it. But that doesn’t mean we are to casually stroll down the devil’s lane of godless philosophies.

God’s Truth doesn’t change like philosophies. Malachi 3:6a says, “For I am the Lord, I change not.” I don’t know whether that means anything to you, but it means an awful lot to me, dear friend.

ACTION POINT:

The same God who loved us enough to put His Son on the cross 2,000 years ago loves us with that same love today. We don’t have to worry when we come to God in prayer that we might catch Him in a bad mood. Now, if that doesn’t start your motor, you don’t have one.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Power of a Superior Promise

I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts. (Psalm 119:45, my translation)

An essential element of joy is freedom. None of us would be happy if we were not free from what we hate and free for what we love.

And where do we find true freedom? Psalm 119:45 says, “I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts.”

The picture is one of open spaces. The word frees us from smallness of mind. “God gave Solomon . . . breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore” (1 Kings 4:29). The word frees us from threatening confinements. “He brought me out into a broad place” (Psalm 18:19).

Jesus says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The freedom he has in mind is freedom from the slavery of sin (John 8:34). Or, to put it positively, it is freedom for holiness.

The promises of God’s grace provide the power that makes the demands of God’s holiness an experience of freedom rather than fear and confinement. Peter described the freeing power of God’s promises like this: “Through [his precious and very great promises] you become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:4).

In other words, when we trust the promises of God, we sever the root of corruption and sinful desire by the power of a superior promise.

How crucial is the word that breaks the power of counterfeit pleasures! And how vigilant we should be to light our paths and load our hearts with the word of God!

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

John Piper 

Is God generous or stingy?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

James 1:5 tells us that if we lack wisdom, we are to ask God. Let me tell you what that literally means: If you lack wisdom, ask of the “giving” God. Have you thought of God as the “giving” God?

ACTION POINT:

What does it mean to you that God yearns to pour out His blessing upon you? Do you say to yourself, “Oh goodie—let me see what I can get from God”?

Or does it humble you that the Almighty God who created the air you breathe, the ground you walk upon, and the body you are draped in…this God loves you and wants to bless you? I pray it is the latter, for that is the heart of a child of God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Live Confident in God’s Sovereign Power

The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe . . . (Ephesians 1:19)

The omnipotence of God means eternal, unshakable refuge in the everlasting glory of God no matter what happens on this earth. And that confidence is the source and power of radical obedience to the call of God.

Is there anything more freeing, more thrilling, or more strengthening than the truth that God Almighty is your refuge — all day, every day, in all the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of life?

If we believed this, if we really let this truth of God’s omnipotence get hold of us, what a difference it would make in our personal lives and in our ministries! How humble and powerful we would become for the saving purposes of God!

The omnipotence of God means refuge for the people of God. And when you really believe that your refuge is the omnipotence of God Almighty, there is a joy and a freedom and a power that spills over in a life of radical obedience to Jesus Christ.

The omnipotence of God means reverence, recompense, and refuge for his covenant people.

I invite you to accept the terms of his covenant of grace: Turn from sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; and the omnipotence of God Almighty will be the reverence of your soul, the recompense of your enemies, and the refuge of your life — forever.

John Piper 

Do you continually complain?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:14-15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know the problem with many of us when we obey God? We murmur about it while we are doing it! And God is taking notes, because halfhearted obedience isn’t obedience at all. Remember, God is looking at the heart, not the deed (see 1 Samuel 16:7).

Do you know why we murmur? Because we’ve taken our eyes off Calvary. Jesus didn’t murmur on the way to the cross. Do you thank God for the pains in life? Or only the gains?

ACTION POINT:

Ephesians 5:20 says, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Life Hangs on the Word of God

He said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:46–47)

The word of God is not a trifle; it is a matter of life and death. If you treat the Scriptures as a trifle or as empty words, you forfeit life.

Even our physical life depends on God’s word, because by his word we were created (Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 11:3), and “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

And our spiritual life begins by the word of God: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

Not only do we begin to live by God’s word, but we also go on living by God’s word: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

So our physical life is created and upheld by the word of God, and our spiritual life is quickened and sustained by the word of God. How many stories could be gathered to bear witness to the life-giving power of the word of God!

Indeed, the Bible is “no empty word for you” — it is your life! The foundation of all joy is life. Nothing is more fundamental than sheer existence — our creation and our preservation.

All this is owing to the word of God’s power. By that same power, he has spoken in Scripture for the creation and sustenance of our spiritual life. Therefore, the Bible is no empty word, but is your very life — the foundation and kindling of your joy!

John Piper 

Does going to church feel like going to the dentist?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

So many people have the idea that being a Christian is like taking foul-tasting medicine—it tastes awful, but you know you’ll feel better one day.

They’re like the young man who prayed at a prayer meeting with few in attendance: “Oh God, be with us now, and help us while the rest of the people are out there having a good time.”

ACTION POINT:

Do you ever feel that going to church or having a quiet time is like going to the dentist? Then you’re getting your satisfaction in life outside of a relationship with God. It’s time to spend some time in prayer and ask God to renew your spirit.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Sin Stained Redeemed Life

He is forever working His perfect will, in you, everyday, in every way.

By His word, you are being fed words of life which leads to changing you.

His word is life!

His blood cleansed you, wretched sinner and you were wrapped in His righteousness.

This is the Cross of Christ, forgiveness where there should be none, restoration, redemption and eternal life through the One who is able!!

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. 

8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.  - Psalm 138:7-8

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. - Philippians 1:6

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge-

6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you-

7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. - 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. - 1 Thessalonians 5:24

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. 

2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 

3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!  - Psalm 57:1-3

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,

3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,

5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. - 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5

Be redeemed!

Fall before His throne of grace!

There is mercy through Christ!

Jesus’s Pursuit of Joy

[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Does the example of Jesus contradict the principle of Christian Hedonism? Namely, that love is the way of joy and that one should choose it for that very reason, lest one be found begrudging obedience to the Almighty or chafing under the privilege of being a channel of grace or belittling the promised reward.

Hebrews 12:2 seems to say fairly clearly that Jesus did not contradict this principle.

The greatest labor of love that ever happened was possible because Jesus pursued the greatest imaginable joy, namely, the joy of being exalted to God’s right hand in the assembly of a redeemed people: “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross!”

In saying this, the writer means to give Jesus as another example, along with the saints of Hebrews 11, of those who are so eager for and confident in the joy God offers that they reject the “fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25) and choose ill-treatment in order to be aligned with God’s will.

It is not unbiblical, therefore, to say that at least part of what sustained Christ in the dark hours of Gethsemane was the hope of joy beyond the cross. This does not diminish the reality and greatness of his love for us, because the joy in which he hoped was the joy of leading many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10).

His joy is in our redemption, which redounds to God’s glory. We share the joy with Jesus and God gets the glory.

John Piper 

Jesus exceeds what the world has to offer

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Deuteronomy 6:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever tried to take a tasty bone away from a dog? It’s a good way to get bitten! But what if you put a steak in front of him? The dog will drop the bone to get that steak.

This is the mistake so many parents are making today. They spend their time telling their children “Don’t do this. Don’t do that. That’s wrong.” By such behavior, these parents are failing an entire generation. Many times, children are never shown the riches of Jesus Christ. In every 24-hour cycle, there are a multitude of teachable moments for sharing and modeling life in Christ.

ACTION POINT:

Children must be shown that what they have in the Lord Jesus Christ is so much better than what this world has to offer. But are they seeing that in your life?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Hope for the Worst of Sinners

“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19)

Moses needed hope that God really could have mercy on a stiff-necked people who had just committed idolatry and scorned the God who brought them out of Egypt.

To give Moses the hope and confidence he needed, God said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” In other words, “My choices do not depend on the degree of evil or good in man but solely upon my free, sovereign will. Therefore no one can say he is too evil to be shown grace.” That would imply God is not free, and election is not unconditional.

The doctrine of unconditional election is the great doctrine of hope for the worst of sinners. It means that when it comes to being a candidate for grace, your background has nothing to do with God’s choice. That’s good news.

If you have not been born again and brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ, do not sink into hopelessness thinking that the excessive rottenness or hardness of your past life is an insurmountable obstacle to God’s gracious work in your life. God loves to magnify the freedom of his grace by saving the worst of sinners.

Turn from your sin; call upon the Lord. Even in this daily devotion, that you are reading or hearing, he is being gracious to you, and giving you strong encouragement to come to him for mercy.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

John Piper 

We Seek You Lord

You are continually being distracted by demons!

Yes even in worship.

As you sit in worship, you contemplate your grocery list, lunch, chores, what to do after church etc!

But in times of trouble we run to God with no distractions.

Seek God!

2 Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, "A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar" (that is, Engedi).

3 Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

4 And Judah assembled to seek help from the LORD; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD. - 2 Chronicles 20:2-4

Trouble brings unity!

All people need God!

Don't wait until disaster strikes to seek His face.

He waits for you.

5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,

6 and said, "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?

8 And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying,

9 'If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you-for your name is in this house-and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.' - 2 Chronicles 20:5-9

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. - 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

We need you every minute of everyday!

In the midst of chaos God will be there!

We seek Your face Lord!

Thanks Pastor Kevin!