Jesus Will Rule the New World Order

PRAY OVER THIS

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7

 

PONDER THIS

We are the bride of Christ and like with every wedding, the bride must be ready. Every bride is beautiful. God wants a beautiful bride. Just as a woman spares no expense to be beautiful on her wedding day, the Church needs to make herself beautiful.

There will be no world order until the King is on the throne. Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Have you ever played checkers? In checkers, you move the checkers on the board, seeking to move your piece into the king’s row. Then you say, “Crown me.” The kingdoms of this world are being moved around like checkers, but soon God will move His Son into King’s row and say, “Crown Him.” And He’ll be King in Zion. I cannot wait for the time until our Lord comes, and we are going to have a new world order. On that day, the Church, Israel, Satan, and Jesus will be in their rightful places.

How do you invest in the bride of Christ, the Church?

Is Jesus king of your life? Why or why not?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time to consider how you are preparing for the day when Jesus will be fully recognized as King.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Gain of Serving God

“They shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” (2 Chronicles 12:8)

Serving God is utterly different from serving anyone else.

God is extremely jealous that we understand this — and enjoy it. For example, he commands us, “Serve the Lord with gladness!” (Psalm 100:2). There is a reason for this gladness. It is given in Acts 17:25. God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

We serve him with gladness because we do not bear the burden of meeting his needs. He has no needs. So, serving him can’t mean meeting his needs. Instead we rejoice in a service where he meets our needs. Serving God always means receiving grace from God to do what we have to do.

To show how jealous God is for us to understand this, and glory in it, there is a story in 2 Chronicles 12. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who ruled the southern kingdom after the revolt of the ten tribes, chose against serving the Lord and gave his service to other gods and other kingdoms.

As judgment, God sent Shishak, the king of Egypt, against Rehoboam with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen (2 Chronicles 12:2–3).

In mercy God sent the prophet Shemaiah to Rehoboam with this message: “Thus says the Lord, ‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak’” (2 Chronicles 12:5). The happy upshot of that message is that Rehoboam and his princes humbled themselves in repentance and said, “The Lord is righteous” (2 Chronicles 12:6).

When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, he said, “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak” (2 Chronicles 12:7). But as a discipline to them he says, “They shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries” (2 Chronicles 12:8).

The point is plain: serving the enemy and serving God are very different. How so? Serving God is a receiving and a blessing and a joy and a benefit. Serving Shishak is exhausting and depleting and sorrowful. God is a giver. Shishak is a taker.

This is why I am so jealous to say that the worship of Sunday morning and the worship of daily obedience is not at bottom a burdensome giving to God, but a joyful getting from God. That is the true service that God demands. In all you do, trust me as the giver.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Isaiah 54:5

    [5] For your Maker is your husband,

        the LORD of hosts is his name;

    and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,

        the God of the whole earth he is called.

Revelation 21:2-6

[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.” [6] And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Hosea 2:19-20

[19] And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. [20] I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

Luke 12:36-37

[36] and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. [37] Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

Jesus is Our Most Valuable Gift

PRAY OVER THIS

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:8

 

PONDER THIS

After Joyce and I had determined to get married, I bought an engagement ring. I was working my way through college, and I had many jobs to be able to pay for school and living, but I also wanted to buy an engagement ring.

I remember going into the jewelry store and finding the ring I wanted to give to Joyce. It’s a very small ring with a very flawed diamond, and there have been so many times I have asked Joyce, “Would you let me buy you another diamond?” But I cannot even begin to get her to consider it. That ring is precious to her because, at that time, it cost me so very much. Though it may have been minimum to somebody else, it was maximum to me. I would go in each week and pay a little on that ring, and with great joy, I gave Joyce that ring.

Knowing the value of what you have been given is important. We need to understand what the Lord Jesus paid for us. He sought us. He bought us. He gave us the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. When we know the value it cost Him, that changes us.

What is something valuable to you? How do your actions show the value you place on that item?

How valuable is Jesus to you? How is that evident in your life?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of different reasons Jesus is valuable to you. Consider what changes you might need to make in your life to properly demonstrate that value.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Something to Boast About

By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

The New Testament correlates faith and grace to make sure that we do not boast in what grace alone achieves.

One of the most familiar examples is Ephesians 2:8. By grace, through faith. There’s the correlation that guards the freedom of grace. By grace, through faith.

Faith is the act of our soul that turns away from our own insufficiency to the free and all-sufficient resources of God. Faith focuses on the freedom of God to dispense grace to the unworthy. It banks on the bounty of God.

Therefore faith, by its very nature, nullifies boasting and fits with grace. Wherever faith looks, it sees grace behind every praiseworthy act. So it cannot boast, except in the Lord. The author of grace.

So Paul, after saying that salvation is by grace through faith, says, “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Faith cannot boast in human goodness or competence or wisdom, because faith focuses on the free, all-supplying grace of God. Whatever goodness faith sees, it sees as the fruit of grace.

When it looks at our “wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,” it says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31).

John Piper 

Bible Study

Isaiah 53:11-12

    [11] 

    Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

    by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

        make many to be accounted righteous,

        and he shall bear their iniquities. 

    [12] 

    Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

        and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

    because he poured out his soul to death

        and was numbered with the transgressors;

    yet he bore the sin of many,

        and makes intercession for the transgressors.

John 17:3

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

Luke 9:25

[25] For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

2 Peter 1:3-4

Confirm Your Calling and Election

[3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, [4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

We Are Made to Know God

PRAY OVER THIS

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.”

Psalm 42:1

 

PONDER THIS

There are many differences between man and animals. One main difference is man has a concern for destiny. No animal knows he’s going to die. He doesn’t think about dying. God gave animals instincts that He didn’t give to human beings, but He gave human beings spiritual insight and revelation that He didn’t give to animals.

A bee can build a six-sided cell in the honeycomb. Beavers can build dams. Spiders can build webs. But the spider cannot build a six-sided cell, and the bee cannot build a beaver’s dam. They have instinct; they don’t have knowledge. They don’t have logic. A man may not have instincts like this, but he knows that he is here for more. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has set eternity in the hearts of humans. We are not mere animals. We don’t believe in immortality because we prove it; we prove it because we believe in it. Immortality is instinctive in us.

Augustine, a church father, said our hearts are restless until they rest in God. You’re made in the image of God. You are made to know Him and to rest in Him.

How would your life change if you lived like you were made for God?

What are some areas in life where you need to rest in God?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time to rest in God today by reading Scripture and meeting with Him in prayer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers