Have you topped out your pain tolerance?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And He said unto me, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Are you in pain right now? The Apostle Paul walked that same journey.

When you’re hurting, there are 3 possible ways to pray.

     First, you can pray that God will give you an escape from the pain. That’s normal—in fact, that’s how drug stores stay in business!

     Second, you can pray that God will give you the strength to endure the pain. And that, too, is a natural response. If we can’t escape the pain, we can pray to endure the pain.

     Third, we can ask God to enlist the pain in our lives for our good and His glory.

ACTION POINT:

If we pray to escape our pain, then we see pain as our enemy. If we pray to endure our pain, then pain is seen as a master. But if we pray to enlist our pain, we see it as our servant. We are able to find God’s grace to glory in our infirmities, that the power of God may be manifest in our lives.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Faith for the Future

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

If “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus],” then to trust him now in the present is to believe that his promises will come true.

Those are not two separate faiths — trusting him, and believing in his promises. Trusting Jesus — believing in Jesus for salvation — means believing that he keeps his word. Being satisfied in the crucified and risen Jesus includes the belief that at every future moment, to all eternity, nothing will separate us from his love, or keep him from working all things together for our good. And that “good” is ultimately seeing and savoring the beauty and worth of God in Christ as our supreme Treasure.

The confidence that this all-satisfying good will be there for us forever is based on all the glorious grace of the past, especially the grace that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (Romans 8:32).

We need to taste now the spiritual beauty of God in all his past achievements — especially the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins — and in all his promises. Rooted in this past grace, our confidence and trust lay hold on all that God himself will be for us in the next moment, and in the next month, and in the endless ages of eternity.

It is he and he alone who will satisfy the soul in the future. And we must be sure of this future, if we are to live the radical Christian lives that Christ calls us to live here and now.

If our present enjoyment of Christ now — our present faith — does not have in it the Yes to all God’s promises, it will not embrace the power for radical service in the strength that God (in every future moment) will supply (1 Peter 4:11).

My prayer is that reflecting like this on the nature of faith in future grace will help us avoid superficial, oversimplified statements about believing the promises of God. It is a deep and wonderful thing.

John Piper 

You can sin all you want to

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When a person is saved, they are always saved. However, some people distort this truth. They get the idea that if it’s true, they’ll sin all they want to. 

Friend, I’ll let you in on a secret: I sin all I want to. The thing is, I don’t want to!

You see, if you’ve have really surrendered yourself to God and asked Him to save you, Peter tells us you’ve become “partakers of the divine nature.” If the only thing that keeps you from sinning is fear of losing your salvation, I wonder if you’ve ever been saved in the first place.

Does becoming “partakers of the divine nature” mean that you don’t sin any more? No. Before I was saved, I was running to sin. Now, I’m running from it. I may slip, but because I’m saved, I have a desire to live pure and clean to the glory of God.

ACTION POINT:

What about you? Do you have a desire to be holy? Or do you treat the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” as a license to live a sinful life? If it’s the latter, you’re in trouble.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When Reason Serves Rebellion

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13)

This is not what I expected the proverb to say. I would have expected it to say, “The coward says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!’” But it says, “sluggard,” not “coward.” So, the controlling emotion here is laziness, not fear.

But what does laziness have to do with the danger of a lion in the street? We don’t usually say, “This man is too lazy to go do his work because there is a lion outside.”

The point is that the sluggard creates imaginary circumstances to justify not doing his work, and thus shifts the focus from the vice of his laziness to the danger of lions. No one will approve his staying in the house all day just because he is lazy. But they might excuse him if there is a lion in the street.

One profound biblical insight we need to learn from this is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what we want. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right, even if they’re wrong.

This is what the sluggard is doing. He deeply desires to stay at home and not work. There is no good reason to stay at home. So, what does he do? Does he overcome his bad desire — his laziness? No, he uses his mind to create unreal circumstances to justify his desire.

Jesus said, “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). We love the darkness so that we can keep on doing what we want without exposure. In this condition, the mind becomes a factory of darkness — a fountain of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions, and lies — anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction.

Consider and be wise.

John Piper 

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!