Do you carry a swim suit “just in case”?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Romans 13:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One of my favorite stories is about a father who leaves his son at home one Saturday afternoon because his son wasn’t feeling well. He tells his son, “Don’t go swimming with your buddies.”

The son says, “Yes sir!”

The dad returns by way of the swimming hole and notices his son frolicking with the other boys. He stops the car, calls his son over and says, “I told you not to go swimming.”

“But I didn’t intend to go swimming. I just came down to watch, and I fell in,” the boy said.

The dad began feeling sorry for his son until he noticed he had his bathing suit on! The son explained, “I brought that along…in case I was tempted.”

ACTION POINT:

Friend, don’t make any provision for the flesh.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Our Good Is God’s Delight

“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jeremiah 32:40–41)

God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in him are one and the same pursuit. God’s quest to be glorified and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience: our delight in God, which overflows in praise.

For God, praise is the sweet echo of his own excellence in the hearts of his people.

For us, praise is the summit of satisfaction that comes from living in fellowship with God.

The stunning implication of this discovery is that all the omnipotent energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him.

The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all disinclined to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us happiest is what God delights in with all his heart and with all his soul. These are amazing words: “I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).

With all his heart and with all his soul, God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy because the consummation of that joy in him redounds to the glory of his own infinite worth.

John Piper 

Do you want to know how to run your race?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; 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 12:2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What does it mean that Jesus is the “Author” and “Finisher” of our faith? The Greek word archegos means that He is the Captain, Leader, or Prince of our faith. The Greek for “finisher” is teleiotes, which means He is the Completer of our faith.

How do you have the power to run your race? By looking unto Jesus, because He is the author and the finisher. “Author” here doesn’t mean someone who is the author of a book. It means the leader, the example, the one who has gone before us: Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” You see, Jesus had His eye on the goal.

Jesus paid the price because Jesus could see you saved. Jesus could see people being born again. Jesus by faith could see the Church. He had His eye on the goal and paid the price.

ACTION POINT:

Do you want to know how to run the race? Jesus is your example. Keep your eyes on Him. He is the Savior who not only shows you how to run the race, but He lives within you through the Holy Spirit and runs the race through you. Praise God—we are never alone!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

He took your sin; you got His righteousness

BIBLE MEDITATION:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Jesus suffered like you suffer. But He suffered more than that, because He took not only your suffering; He also took upon Himself the suffering of the world. The sins of the world were compressed and distilled upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrew scholars tell us that there is an intensive plural in Isaiah 53 that speaks of the death of Christ. They say that it literally means that He “died a thousand deaths.”

Do you know what that means? That Jesus, being infinite, suffered for a finite amount of time what you, being finite, would suffer for an infinite amount of time. A great exchange took place. He suffered upon that cross an eternity of hell for every one of us.

ACTION POINT:

Tell the Lord Jesus today how much you thank Him and are grateful for what He did to secure your salvation. This hymn writer expressed it to well…

“What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Wait, He Works

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.

At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the Bible talks about God’s working for us. That’s not at all in Isaiah’s mind when he says, God “works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I am lost and need a Rescuer.

God works for me means I can’t do the work. I am utterly in need of help.

And this glorifies God not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.

Listen to the way the Bible talks about God working for you, and be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. Let him do that work.

“No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).

“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).

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:12, 15).

“To your old age . . . I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

“I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

“Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11).

“Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work” (Philippians 2:12–13).

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

John Piper 

Awakening Part Two

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

Lord, pour out Your Spirit on Your people!

Wake us from our sleep so that we may know You and Your will!

Barriers that prevent awakening

1. Shallow worship 

We were created to worship God.

Give your life to God.

Testify that God is indeed good.

Participate in worship.

God is searching for worshipers.

19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." - John 4:19-24

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

Your heart must be in worship.

Don't go through the motions.

Dear God, we worship You with all we've got for as long as we've got ... not for what You do but simply for Who You are!

2. Weak prayers

We are not bold in our prayer.

He is an all powerful God who is able.

We need You every minute of every hour!

He restores all things!

17 And someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.

18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able."

19 And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." - Mark 9:17-19

25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."

26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead."

27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"

29 And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." - Mark 9:25-29

Prayer and fasting is our lifeline to God!

"The devil fears nothing from prayer-less work, study or religion. He mocks our religion, he mocks our toil but trembles when we pray."

Samuel Chadwick

Lord, bring revival!

Dear God, may we as Your people learn that we can pray big, bold, confident prayers.

We don't know Your will but You have said" we have not because we ask not".

3. Christ-less preaching

We must preach Jesus!

He alone is able!

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

11 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 

12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.  - Amos 8:11-12

"America needs Godly men in the pulpit that will preach God's word. People don't need cute stories or 20 minute sermonette. The world has taken the gloves off. They're throwing knockout punches. It's time for God's preachers to stand and declare Thus Says The Lord God". 

Steve Gaines 

" We put men into pulpits because they have degrees. But you can have 32 of them and still be frozen".

Leonard Ravenhill

Incredibly gifted preachers have lost their passion for God!

They sprinkle a little Jesus.

Boldly preach the word of God.

Share the good news of Jesus Christ across the street and around the world.

Love people regardless of their level of education, color of skin or socio-economic status.

Dear God, we lift up one name and one name only, the high and holy name of Jesus. The name that is above every name!

No repentance!

Your sin is your downfall!

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 

2 Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.  - Hosea 14:1-2

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.  - Hosea 14:9

"The chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without Hell". 

William Booth 

Founder, The Salvation Army

The late 1800's 

We must call people to repentance, that is our command.

We must love people, but the second part of that is to point out that you must repent.

There is accountability for staying in your sin!

19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, - Acts 3:19-20

Dear God, we repent of our sin and plead for Your mercy!

Thank you Pastor Kevin!!

The Best Is Yet To Come

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. - Hebrews 11:16

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. - Hebrews 11:10

2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. - John 14:2-3

32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

34 Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' - Matthew 25:32-36

2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." - Revelation 21:2-5