But - I didn't deserve that!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. Hebrews 12:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

As a child, did you ever get a spanking you didn’t deserve? Maybe now and then your dad or mom would just be in a “spanking mood,” and they’d spank everyone they could get their hands on?

Talk about being indignant! There is nothing worse to a child than to realize, “I got spanked, and I didn’t deserve it.”

You know what’s funny? At that point, we never stop to think about all the times we deserved a spanking and didn’t get one!

Our Father is mercifully loving and graciously wise to give us what we need at all times. Sometimes we need His hand of love in comfort; sometimes we need His hand of love in discipline.

ACTION POINT:

Thank God that His hand of mercy extends to you when you don’t deserve it and that His hand of discipline extends to you when you do.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Light Out of Darkness

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. - 1 Thessalonians 5:5

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," 

12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.  - Psalm 139:11-12

There is pain in the darkness, both physical and mental.

It's a place of not being able to see.

It can be literal or perceived.

It's a place filled with sorrow, the kind that swallows you up and leaves you breathless.

In it, you are seized with fear, it's the unknown, it's the letting go of the control we are convinced we have, but really don't possess.

It's that stomach seizing, hold your breath feeling that leaves you in turmoil.

Be humble before the Lord.

It is a temporary affliction, a testing of your spirit. 

It matters not the ending of it.

We have God who never changes.

He has told us.

He has promised.

He will never leave or forsake us.

Cancer, emotional distress, physical ailments, addictions and whatever means Satan can use to destroy.

We were created by a holy God for His glory and purpose.

Our soul belongs to Him.

He is in control working all things together for good. 

Trust, faith and hope, these things are found in the Lord.

Cultivate them, savor them and rely on them.

Don't waste your affliction!

Remember that Christ alone holds the key to eternal life, there is no other who saves!

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. - Ecclesiastes 12:7

14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 

15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 

16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 

17 But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, 

18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 

19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.  - Psalm 103:14-19

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"

68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,

69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." - John 6:63-69

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. - John 17:1-5

to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' - Acts 26:18

6 "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 

7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

8 I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.  - Isaiah 42:6-8

What Is Meekness?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

Meekness begins when we put our trust in God. Then, because we trust him, we commit our way to him. We roll onto him our anxieties, our frustrations, our plans, our relationships, our jobs, our health.

And then we wait patiently for the Lord. We trust his timing and his power and his grace to work things out in the best way for his glory and for our good.

The result of trusting God, and the rolling of our anxieties onto God, and waiting patiently for him is that we don’t give way to quick and fretful anger. But instead, we give place to wrath and hand our cause over to God and let him vindicate us if he chooses.

And then, as James says, in this quiet confidence we are slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19). We become reasonable and open to correction (James 3:17). James calls this the “meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13).

Meekness loves to learn. And it counts the corrective blows of a friend as precious (Proverbs 27:6). And when it must say a critical word to a person caught in sin or error, it speaks from the deep conviction of its own fallibility and its own susceptibility to sin and its utter dependence on the grace of God (Galatians 6:1).

The quietness and openness and vulnerability of meekness is very beautiful and very painful. It goes against all that we are by our sinful nature. It requires supernatural help.

If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ — if you trust him and commit your way to him and wait patiently for him — God has already begun to help you and will help you even more.

And the primary way that he will help you is to assure your heart that you are a fellow heir of Jesus Christ and that the world and everything in it is yours (1 Corinthians 3:21–23). The meek inherit the earth.

John Piper

When darkness overshadows you...

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant... let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Isaiah 50:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I’ve always been amazed by the advice worldly people give to someone who’s hurting: “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!” Can you visualize someone dangling over a cliff, holding onto a rope, and trying to tie a knot? It takes two hands to do that!

The first thing we need to remember is “Don’t demand to understand.” There are some things in life you and I will never understand. When God allows darkness to overshadow your life, don’t set about trying to explain it. That’s a recipe for frustration.

Trust that His light will come. “Stay upon God” in the Amplified reads, “Let him rely on, trust in, and be confident in the name of the Lord, and let him lean upon and be supported by his God.”

Wait for Him. He will come to you. He is walking beside you.

ACTION POINT:

There’s someone out there who is hurting today and needs more than a pat answer of encouragement. Give them the light of Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Ideas Have Consequences

The aim of our charge is love. (1 Timothy 1:5)

Victor Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau during the Second World War. As a Jewish professor of neurology and psychiatry he became world renowned for his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which sold over eight million copies.

In it he unfolds the essence of his philosophy that came to be called Logotherapy — namely, that the most fundamental human motive is to find meaning in life. He observed in the horrors of the concentration camps that man can endure almost any “how” of life, if he has a “why.” But the quote that stirred me recently was this:

I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. (“Victor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview,” in First Things, April 1995, p. 41.)

In other words, ideas have consequences — consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior — good and bad — does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil.

One of the ways that the Bible makes plain the truth that ideas have practical consequences is by saying things like, “Whatever was written in former days was written . . . [that] we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The ideas presented in the Scriptures produce the practical consequence of hope.

Again, Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). The imparting of ideas through a “charge” or through “instruction” produces love.

Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.

Another way the Scriptures show us that ideas have consequences is by using the word “therefore” (1,039 times in the NASB). “Therefore” means that what follows comes from somewhere. For example, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Or: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Or: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34).

If we want to live in the power of these great practical “therefores,” we must be gripped by the ideas — the views of reality — that go before them and stand under them. Ideas have consequences. So, let’s bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s word.

John Piper

Two Presidents said this about their mothers:

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One time I had the privilege of speaking with the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, about his salvation and personal relationship with Christ and prayed with him about that. He looked me in the eyes and said, “I want to tell you, my mother was the most godly person I have ever known.”  He then went on to tell me about her influence in his life.

Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother.” This time every year we celebrate our mothers. Oh, the power of a mother’s love!

Do you know what children need? A – B – C: 

Acceptance 

Belonging

Confidence

ACTION POINT:

Thank God for magnificent mothers!Thank God for the impact of godly mothers in the lives of children.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How can I be sure of my faith?

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. - 1 John 5:13-15

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:1-10

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. - Romans 10:9-10

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. - Romans 10:13-17

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 10:20-21

8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. - Colossians 1:8-14

3 test or traits of authentic faith

1. Belief 

20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

25 And this is the promise that he made to us-eternal life.

26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie-just as it has taught you, abide in him.

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. - 1 John 2:20-28

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. - 1 John 4:1-6

Sound teaching-doctrine matters and false doctrine kills.

2. Obedience 

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. - 1 John 1:5-7

God is light. 

Walking with Him we become people of light.

3. Love

14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. - 1 John 3:14-15

The Gospel makes our unity possible.

Our disunity makes the Gospel laughable.

Cultivate a love for the truth.

Ask God to give you fresh assurance of His love.

Take responsibility for fellow member's spiritual health and vice versa.

Keep leaning on God's sufficient grace.

but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."  - Hebrews 10:38

Thanks Pastor Matt!!