What You Need the Most Today

PRAY OVER THIS

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

 

PONDER THIS

How did these fishermen stand up and preach and see five thousand come to Christ? It was because He lives, and they were not dependent on their power of speech, their logic, or their winsomeness to bring these people to Christ. There was the living Christ inside of them. Anything I can talk you into, somebody else can talk you out of. We are not preaching facts about a dead Christ of history. We present the living Christ to you. Do you know what convinced Thomas? He had an encounter with the living Lord (John 20:24-29). When he had an encounter with the living Christ, he was convinced. Do you know what you need today? An encounter with Jesus Christ. In Acts 4, these people were brought in contact, by the Holy Spirit, with the living Christ, and they were convinced.

You see, other leaders come and go. But Christ is risen. It is an encounter with the living Christ that convinces people. I don’t have to depend on my ability to cause anyone to believe when I preach. My ability, my job, my joy, my responsibility is to bring you to an encounter with Jesus Christ. When you meet Christ, you will never be the same.

Who in your life needs the hope of the living Christ?

How is Christ different from every other leader people admire?

PRACTICE THIS

Praise and thank God for the living hope you have in Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

As Sure as God’s Love for His Son

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God strips every pain of its destructive power. You must believe this or you will not thrive, or perhaps even survive, as a Christian, in the pressures and temptations of modern life.

There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements, so many controversies and pressures. I do not know where I would turn, if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power, and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

Listen to Paul’s astonishing words in 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” The world is ours. Life is ours. Death is ours. Which I take to mean: God reigns so supremely on behalf of his elect that everything which faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry will be subdued by the mighty hand of God and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.

If God is for us, and if God is God, then it is true that nothing can succeed against us. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will infallibly and freely with him give us all things — all things — the world, life, death, and God himself.

Romans 8:32 is a precious friend. The promise of God’s future grace is simply overwhelming. But all-important is the foundation: I have called it the logic of heaven. Here is a place to stand against all obstacles. God did not spare his own Son! Therefore! Therefore! The logic of heaven! Therefore, how much more will he not spare any effort to give us all that Christ died to purchase — all things, all good, and all bad working for our good!

It is as sure as the certainty that he loved his Son!

John Piper 

Bible Study

John 3:16

For God So Loved the World

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 4:23-25

[23] But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, [24] but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, [25] who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

1 Corinthians 15:17

[17] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Isaiah 53:5

    [5] 

    But he was pierced for our transgressions;

        he was crushed for our iniquities;

    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

        and with his wounds we are healed.

Called to be Unashamed of God

PRAY OVER THIS

“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:17-19

 

PONDER THIS

In Exodus 12, God instituted the ritual of the Passover lamb. There was judgment on the land because of sin, but God told His people to take a spotless lamb, without blemish, and kill it. The blood was to be shed at each household, and they were to put the blood on the doorpost of each house—not on the inside, but on the outside. They were to be openly, publicly unashamed of the blood of the lamb. What had they done? They had made the sign of the cross.

Even there, so long ago, God pictured the sacrifice of His Son. And God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). And that is where we get the name, Passover. God will pass over you when the blood is applied. If you put the blood beneath your feet and pass over the blood, God will not pass over you. But when you put yourself under the blood, the judgment of Almighty God will pass over you. And this Passover lamb was a picture of the ultimate Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

How does it encourage you to know Jesus fulfills the prophecy of the Old Testament?

How often do you reflect on the reality that God has passed over your sin because of Jesus, our Passover Lamb?

PRACTICE THIS

Write down some of the things you have been carrying guilt or shame about and submit those things to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When Everyone Deserts You

At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:16–18)

This morning I was lingering over these magnificent and heartbreaking words. Paul is in custody in Rome. So far as we know, he was never released. His last letter comes to an end like this.

Consider and be astounded!

He is deserted: “no one came to stand by me.” He is an old man. A loyal servant. In a foreign city, far from home. Surrounded by enemies. In danger of death. Why? Answer: So he could write this precious sentence for our discouraged, or fearful, or lonely souls: “But the Lord stood by me!”

Oh, how I love those words! When you are deserted by close friends, do you cry out against God? Are the people in your life, then, really your god? Or do you take courage in this magnificent truth: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20) — no matter who deserts you? Do you strengthen your heart with this inexorable oath: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)?

Then let us say, “The Lord stood by me!”

Question: What was threatened in 2 Timothy 4:18? Answer: that Paul might not attain the Lord’s heavenly kingdom! But over against the threat Paul cries, “The Lord will . . . bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

Question: How was Paul’s attaining the heavenly kingdom threatened? Answer: “evil deeds.” “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

Question: How could an evil deed threaten Paul’s attaining the heavenly kingdom? Answer: by tempting him to forsake his allegiance to Christ through disobedience.

Question: Was this temptation the “lion’s mouth” from which he was rescued? Answer: Yes. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).

Question: So who gets the glory that Paul did not yield to this satanic temptation, but endured to the end in faith and obedience? Answer: “To him [the Lord] belong glory and dominion forever and ever” (1 Peter 5:10). “To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18).

Question: Why? Wasn’t it Paul who stood firm? Answer: “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me!”

John Piper 

Bible Study

Acts 7:60

[60] And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

2 Corinthians 9:8

[8] And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Ephesians 3:14-21

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

[14] For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, [16] that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [18] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

[20] Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, [21] to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Philippians 4:19

[19] And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Are You Ashamed of Jesus?

PRAY OVER THIS

“When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.” Matthew 27:29-31

 

PONDER THIS

Some years ago in New York City, there was a mother who was hanging clothes to dry outside when a fire broke out in her home with her baby inside. That mother’s face took the heat of those flames and was horribly scarred. Her hands were burned, but the baby was not touched at all by that fire. Not a hair was singed. One day that girl grew up and spoke to a friend who said, “Who is that hideous woman?” This girl said, “I don’t know,” and the mother heard.

Later, when they got home, the mother said “Darling, come here. I want to tell you something. When you were a baby, I went into a burning house and rescued you, not a hair on your head was touched, but these scars on my face and these scars on my hand are there because I rescued you from the flames.” When that daughter learned the truth, she was filled with shame and remorse. She said “Oh, my mother, can you ever forgive me?” Let us never be ashamed of Jesus and the scars He bore for our sake. How could we ever blush to speak His name or own His cause? Jesus wore my crown. The sacred mystery is that He bore the curse; the solemn misery is that He suffered our hell.

What does it look like to live ashamed of Jesus? To live unashamed?

Where is it difficult for you to live unashamed for Jesus?

PRACTICE THIS

Discuss with a close Christian friend what it means to live unashamed of Jesus.

 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers