No Closet Off Limits

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God tells us to be filled with His Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit of God means first, repentance, then resistance of the devil, and then renewal. It means there’s not one room in your temple where God is off limits. There’s not one closet He doesn’t have a key to. You are filled with the Spirit in your church life, in your business life, in your sex life, in your political life, and in your social life. In the big things and the little things, in your money, in your exercise, in your sleep, in your eating, in your lying down, and in your waking up. You give Jesus the keys to it all. Then when you are filled with the Spirit, there’s no more room for Satan.

ACTION POINT:

If there’s room for Satan, the Spirit is grieved and I am not filled with the Spirit. Repentance, resistance, renewal! Don’t try to repent until you’re honest and face your sin. Don’t try to resist until you’ve repented. And don’t try to be filled until you resist, until you choose against Satan and yield to God’s blessed Holy Spirit.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

God Puts Things In Proper Order

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord…” 2 Peter 1:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Have you ever noticed how God puts things in sequence in the Bible?  For example, the Bible says, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.”  It never says “peace and grace”—always “grace and peace.”  Why?  You’ll not know peace until you know grace. 

The Bible also says “Believe and be baptized.”  Not “Be baptized and believe.”  If you were immersed or sprinkled before you gave your heart to Jesus and truly believed, you haven’t been “baptized” at all.  True baptism follows true belief. There is another order that God has put in the Bible. Not only grace and peace, not only belief and baptism, but repentance and faith. Always in that order: repentance first, then faith.  If you’re having difficulty with faith, try repentance.

ACTION POINT:

There’s nothing so damning, so debilitating, as sin in the heart. The writer of Hebrews says, “Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Running For The Soul Winner's Crown

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.” 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Here’s what Paul was saying to those in Thessalonica: “When Jesus comes, my crown is going to those that I’ve led to Him.”  Now that’s a crown that doesn’t corrupt.  When you die and go to heaven, are you going to take somebody with you, or are you going to heaven alone?  “Must I go and empty-handed, must I meet my Savior so; without one soul with which to greet Him, must I empty-handed go?” Now I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I’m concerned because most people in church are not active soul winners. That’s tragic.

You say, “But, Pastor, I give my money.”  I don’t care how much money you give.  If you’re not endeavoring to bring souls to Christ, you’re not right with God.  You say, “Well, I teach.”  I don’t care how eloquently you teach.  If you’re not trying to bring souls to Jesus, you’re not right with God.  You say, “Well, I attend faithfully.”  I don’t care how much you attend.  If you’re not trying to bring souls to Jesus Christ, you are not right with God. 

Andrew Murray said, “There are two classes of Christians: soul winners and backsliders.”  You are one or the other.  If you don’t have a passion to see people come to the Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder if you know the Jesus I know. 

ACTION POINT:

My dear brother, my dear sister, there is a crown to run for.  It’s the soul winner’s crown.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

A Prize To Possess

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2b

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Jesus is our example.  He is a champion who, when He ran His race, received a crown of joy.  When an athlete runs, he runs to win a trophy. In our verse today, what is “the joy that is set before Him”?  It’s winning the race.  He “endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

That crown gave Him the ability to endure.  If you keep the crown in mind, you can bear the cross.  But you cannot have the crown if you despise the cross.  We are crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a few trophies that I won back in high school on a championship football team: a gold football, a letterman’s sweater and a silver cup. Do you know what happened to all those trophies?  Someone broke into the house and got the gold football. The moths had a camp meeting in the sweater. It’s gone.  There are no more letters on that letter sweater. What happened to the silver cup, I haven’t the foggiest.

ACTION POINT:

Friend, athletes run “to obtain a corruptible crown; but we for an incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Running the race, Jesus had the joy that was set before Him and He endured the cross.  He despised the shame.  There is a prize to possess. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Jesus, Author and Finisher

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” Hebrews 12:2a

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If we will look to Jesus, Jesus will be the author and finisher of our faith. The word “author” in the Greek literally means “example,” “leader,” or “originator.” Jesus is the example of faith, but He’s also the originator of our faith. Faith comes from beholding the Lord Jesus Christ, looking at Him.

You see, all the other heroes of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 can cheer us on, but they’re not our chief example.  He is the One who never sinned, who never failed.  His name is Jesus. The more you behold the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re going to find out that He is the author and finisher.

He’s the one who originates the grace. He’s the one who fires the starting gun. He’s the goal toward which we run. He is the coach who runs alongside us and gives us courage and strength to run the race. 

ACTION POINT:

It is Jesus all the way. If you want faith, fix your eyes upon Jesus Christ. Keep “looking unto Jesus.”  Your faith will grow. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Death Claims All

1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.

2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. - Ecclesiastes 9:1-3

How true are these verses!

Men are evil, some claim goodness but our intent is slanted toward love of self.

Life is supposed to be slanted toward the love shown to others.

We claim as a race of people, both good and bad, but there is none good except God.

It is true that some strive to do the right thing while others just want to be as evil as possible.

As long as we are in this mortal body there will be a battle raging against the spiritual self and the carnal self.

We must pray for guidance, study God's word, apply that truth and teach the truth.

We will face many trials.

Then death comes.

22 It is all one; therefore I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' 

23 When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.  - Job 9:22-23

14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.

15 Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! - Ecclesiastes 2:14-16

Repentance is available while you live, after that comes judgment.

26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

27 And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house-

28 for I have five brothers-so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'

29 But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

30 And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'

31 He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'" - Luke 16:26-31

When The Gospel Isn't Good News

The good news is that Christ came to forgive sinners.

He took your burden of sin and payed your penalty.

The wrath that was yours, He accepted.

This good news comes with another side to it.

Those who don't repent are not forgiven, still in their sin they will perish, forever separated from God and doomed to Hell.

Have no pleasure in unrighteousness!
Pray, repent and share the gospel.

Let this blessed gospel be good news to you and others.

The gospel is an individual gospel.

You are redeemed individually.

We worship corporately but never forget, salvation is for individuals, depending upon individual grace that is given as a gift by Christ through the blood shed on the Cross.
Individual repentance and an individual relationship with Christ.

There must be a realization of sin, knowing you need a Savior, followed by repentance and obedience.

God will indeed set things right in His new kingdom.

Sin and death will be abolished!

Our God does indeed reign!!

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."  - Isaiah 52:7

8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."

12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." 

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry." 

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." 

21 But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." - Romans 10:8-21

5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering-

6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, - 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9

9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,

10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,

12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. - 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. - Romans 8:18-25

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"- - Galatians 3:13

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:3-4

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  - Isaiah 53:3-7

22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. - 1 Peter 2:22-25

Thanks Pastor John!!