You are set apart for a holy purpose

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:28

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If God the Father chose us and the Holy Spirit set us aside for His holy purposes, then what part do you and I have? In our time here on Earth, there are two parts to our journey:  divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

Second Timothy 2:21 says we believers have been “sanctified…and prepared unto every good work.” Another way to say this verse is, “So if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”

You have been “sanctified” –set apart for the Master’s purpose—not to sit, soak and sour, but to be obedient to God for what He has for you to do.

Yes, salvation is free, but you must obey. God’s divine sovereignty in choosing us does not nullify our response to His call. You have been saved out of this world, sent back into this world to witness to the world, and that is the only business you have in this world.

ACTION POINT:

Now, you do not work to be saved. You work because you are saved. Someone has said and I agree: “I will not work my soul to save. That work, my Lord has done. But I will work like any slave for the love of God’s dear Son.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Grace Extending All Encompassing Love

Jesus has overcome!

We have victory in His death and resurrection!

He loves us, His grace covers us, we are forgiven through His blood.

Agape love!

Sacrificial, unconditional love, that being said, Christ died for your sin.

That is the purest form of love.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is 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

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. - John 17:23

Let all that you do be done in love. - 1 Corinthians 16:14

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. - 1 John 4:7-12

Part 2 Heaven Is More Than You Can Imagine

1. Eternal family reunion 

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

2. Believers will live in a perfect kingdom.

3. Believers will inherit a new body.

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. - Philippians 3:20-21

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.

43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. - 1 Corinthians 15:42-43

Your glorified body will be incredible.

Your body won't decay, grow old or hurt.

Man spends a fortune on products to try to stay young.

4. Believers will experience awesome worship.

Three insights on heavenly worship

1. It will be exciting.

11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,

Revelation 5:11

Power is in passion!

2. Worship in heaven will be enthusiastic.

12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"  - Revelation 5:12

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." - John 4:24

1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 

2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.  - Psalm 47:1-2

Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!  - Psalm 134:2

Truth

Intelligent

Head

Facts 

Information

Adoration 

Spirit

Emotional 

Heart

Fire

Inspiration 

Celebration 

3. Worship in heaven will include everyone.

13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" 

14 And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. - Revelation 5:13-14

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" - Revelation 7:9-10

5. Believers will live forever with King Jesus!

He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

The Deity Who Is The Christ!

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God, - Revelation 19:11-17

His perfect kingdom!

Thanks Pastor Kevin!

Prayer Is for Sinners

“Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1)

God answers the prayers of sinners, not perfect people. And you can become perfectly paralyzed in your praying if you do not focus on the cross and realize this.

I could show it from numerous Old Testament texts where God hears the cry of his sinful people, whose very sins had gotten them into the trouble from which they are crying for deliverance (for example, Psalm 38:4, 15; 40:12–13; 107:11–13). But let me show it from Luke 11 — in two ways:

In this version of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4), Jesus says, “When you pray, say . . . ” and then in verse 4 he includes this petition, “and forgive us our sins.” So, if you connect the beginning of the prayer with the middle, what he says is, “Whenever you pray, say . . . forgive us our sins.”

I take this to mean that this should be as much a part of all our praying as, “Hallowed be your name.” Which means that Jesus assumes that we need to seek forgiveness virtually every time we pray.

In other words, we are always sinners. Nothing we do is perfect. As Martin Luther said, on his deathbed, “We are beggars. This is true.” Even if we have achieved some measure of obedience before we pray, we always come to the Lord as sinners — all of us. And God does not turn away the prayers of sinners when they pray like this.

The second place we can see this is in Luke 11:13: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jesus calls his disciples “evil.” Pretty strong language. And he did not mean that they were out of fellowship with him. He did not mean that their prayers could not be answered.

He meant that as long as this fallen age lasts, even his own disciples will have an evil bent that pollutes everything they do, but doesn’t keep them from doing much good as they rely on his grace and power.

We are simultaneously evil and redeemed. We are gradually overcoming our evil by the power of the Holy Spirit. But our native corruption is not obliterated by conversion.

We are sinners and we are beggars. And if we recognize this sin, renounce it, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

John Piper 

What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Galatians 5:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One of the signs that you have stopped trusting God is that you cease to function. You simply drop out of life’s activities. You start fretting over this and that; you get distressed over a loss. When you get oppressed by the devil, what do you do? Close up shop, draw the drapes, go to sleep, get up late. Have you ever been that way? Worry will do that to you.

When you worry it is because you are not trusting God. You may say, “I lost my job.” Well, what are you doing? “I’m sitting around the house.” Well, quit it! You have more opportunity to serve God.

ACTION POINT:

Go down to the church and ask them to put you to work. Go to your local mission and volunteer. Mow a neighbor’s yard. Go shopping for an elderly person. Do what you need to do to find a job and when you’re done…do good! Do good because you’re trusting in the Lord.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Glorify God in Your Body

You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

“Worship” is the term we use to cover all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God. This is what we were created for. It might be singing in church. It might be sweeping the kitchen floor.

Don’t just think about worship services when you think about worship. That is a huge limitation which is not in the Bible. All of life is supposed to be worship.

Take breakfast, for example, or mid morning snacks. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Now eating and drinking are about as basic as you can get. What could be more real or more ordinarily human than eating and drinking? And Paul says, in effect, let all your eating and drinking be worship.

Or take sex. Paul says the alternative to fornication is worship.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18–20)

That is, worship with your body by the way you handle your sexuality.

Or take death for a final example. We will experience death in our bodies. In fact, it will be the last act of the body on this earth. The body bids farewell. How shall we worship in that last act of the body? We see the answer in Philippians 1:20–21. Paul says that his hope is that Christ would be magnified — worshiped, shown to be worthy — in his body by death. Then he adds, “For to me . . . to die is gain.” We express the infinite worth of Christ in dying by counting death as gain.

You have a body. But it is not yours. “You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

You are always in a temple. Always worship.

John Piper 

Is God practical? Or is His head in the clouds?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A preacher friend was walking away from another friend when this friend called out to him, “Well, so long! Love God. Hate sin. And watch out for trucks!” Now, that’s good advice. Trucks will hurt you if they hit you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re saved or lost.

We all need to love God. We all need to hate sin. But I want to tell you, we’re also human and we need to watch out for the things in life that may hurt us. God has given us the mind of Christ and we need to use that mind (see 1 Corinthians 2:16).

ACTION POINT:

God is very practical. He may dwell in heavenly realms, but His head is not in the clouds. Is your head in the clouds today? Are you alert to the things of this world that could harm you? Be sober. Be alert. And watch out for trucks!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers