Podcasts about by his spirit

In this episode of Cincy Reformed, Rev. Dr. J. Brandon Burks, pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Northern Kentucky, gives five reasons why he is Dutch Reformed.   For more information, see:   On the History of the Dutch Reformed Church: A Goodly Heritage: The Secession of 1834 and Its Impact on Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and North America https://www.heritagebooks.org/product... The Reformation of 1834 https://marsbooks.online/products/the... Dutch Calvinism in Modern America https://www.eerdmans.com/978080280009... "Integration, Disintegration, and Reintegration: A Preliminary History of the United Reformed Churches in North America," in Always Reforming: Essays in Honor of W. Robert Godfrey (ch. 13) https://www.amazon.com/Always-Reforme... Introducing the United Reformed Churches https://cincyreformed.podbean.com/e/i... The Reformed Dutch Influence upon American Presbyterianism https://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ct... The Dutch Reformed in North America https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article...   On Covenant Theology: Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/sac... Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives https://www.heritagebooks.org/product...   On the Sacraments: The Lord's Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/lor... Covenantal Baptism https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/cov... What Do We Mean By Sacrament, Sign, And Seal? https://heidelblog.net/2018/07/what-d...   On the Ordinary Means of Grace: The Means of Grace and Sanctification: Part I https://www.wscal.edu/devotion/the-me... The Means of Grace and Sanctification: Part II https://www.wscal.edu/devotion/the-me... By His Spirit and Word: How Christ Builds His Church https://reformedfellowship.net/collec... One Major Difference Between The Reformed And The Evangelicals https://heidelblog.net/2022/12/one-ma...   On Liturgical Worship: The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship https://wipfandstock.com/978153269176... What Happens When We Worship https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/wha... Lost Keys: The Absolution in Reformed Liturgy https://www.academia.edu/35514237/Los... NOT HOLY BUT HELPFUL: A CASE FOR THE “EVANGELICAL FEAST DAYS” IN THE REFORMED TRADITION https://www.midamerica.edu/uploads/fi...   On the Confessions & Church Order: With Heart and Mouth: An Exposition of the Belgic Confession https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/wit... But for the Grace of God: An Exposition of the Canons of Dort https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/but... The Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/the... Saving the Reformation: The Pastoral Theology of the Canons of Dort https://www.wtsbooks.com/products/sav... The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Commentary https://lexhampress.com/product/36697... Crisis in the Reformed Churches https://heritagebooks.org/products/cr... Church Order https://www.urcna.org/church-order Commentary on the Church Order https://archive.org/details/churchord...

Please join us as we recap Joe Beam's book, Seeing the Unseen (Preparing Yourself for Spiritual Warfare). The dedication reads, “For my wife, Alice, If it had not been for her unquenchable love, I surely would have lost my spiritual war.”Satan's strategies haven't changed because they are still effective. First, he distorts the truth, next comes a hardening of the heart, then sensitivity is lost followed by an immersion in sensuality and finally spiritual destruction. His game plan worked with Adam and Eve and sadly it is still successful today.Destruction comes to those who don't love Truth. Christians aren't immune, however, God hasn't left us defenseless against evil. The vantage is ours but we must choose to use it:Spiritual Vision = Discernment + Bible Knowledge“Humans didn't invent evil and we will never eradicate it. Knowing there is a devil deceiving people into sin arms me for a successful fight.”Helpful questions to ask ourselves:Who benefits, God or satan?Who would be pleased, God or satan?Which people in my life encourage me spiritually or worldly?Just as gold is refined, so is our faith. Through trials, pain, and loss we must learn to trust God on this journey and not give the devil a foothold. Remember what he used to get to Job, evil people, natural disasters, boils, and even good people. He uses the same on us. “We don't have enough strength to face life when things get bad. Fortunately, God does. By His Spirit and by His power, He places His strength in our hearts.”“We cannot live like the enemy and continue in the ranks of the righteous. It is a war of commitment. The one we surrender to becomes our master.” (2Pet. 2:19)Connects with the Native American adage:“Two natures beat within my breast, one is cursed, one is blest, One I love, one I hate, The one I feed will dominate.”Are you ready to see the unseen? As Kate says, “Let's dive in!”You can listen to Joe Beam and his daughter on the podcast Relationship Radio…Marriage Helper found on Apple podcast.

This week Tim finished his message on By His Spirit.

"The Arrival of Peace" Isaiah 9:6; Luke 2:13-14Advent Series - Preparing for the Lord part 2 of 5Pastor Nate ClarkeDecember 8, 2024You and your family are invited to celebrate Christmas with us at our Candlelight Services on Christmas Eve, December 24 at 3:00 and 4:30 PM.Learn about this year's Kingdom Builder's project: https://www.oasischurch.online/kingdom-buildersHow should Christians think about voting and politics? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak82aD16r04NEW KIDS SPACE NOW OPEN!We have expanded with 3x more space for the babies, kids, and youth in your family.https://www.instagram.com/oasischurchva/reel/C8FqHIipr3u/OUR NEW VISION STATEMENT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0WFhtL7h3ISERMON NOTES:- Isaiah 9:6- Luke 2:13-14- The Arrival of Peace- Peace: well-being, wholeness, flourishing. The absence of conflict or turmoil.- Conflict with people- Conflict with nature- Conflict with ourselves- Conflict with ourselves. Genesis 3:7-8, 11- Conflict with nature. Genesis 3:16-17- Conflict with people. Genesis 3:12- The origins of all conflict is our conflict with God.- Ephesians 2:13-14- Peace with God allows you to work towards peace with others, nature, and yourself- Romans 12:18- Matthew 5:9- Leviticus 26:6- John 14:27- Philippians 4:6-7- Colossians 3:15- Until Christ returns, we won't know our final peace.- Matthew 10:34-36- Matthew 24:6-8- We receive the Prince of Peace to make us right with God. By His Spirit, we work for peace in our lives and in the world. And in faith we await for God's finished peace when He returns. - Isaiah 55:12-13- Isaiah 65:25- Isaiah 48:18- Isaiah 66:12Oasis Church exists to Worship God, Equip the believers, and Reach the lost.We are led by Pastor Nate Clarke and are located in Richmond, VA.Stay Connected:Website: https://oasischurch.online Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oasischurchva/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OasisChurchRVA/

By His Spirit, Christ has baptized believers into Himself, so that they are dead to sin and death but alive unto God.

Join us here at BCC as we continue our series titled, “The Church Embodied” as Pastor Jeni once again preaches on the theme of how we are the embodied Church of Jesus Christ. Specifically this week, Pastor Jeni preaches from Acts 2:42-47 and talks a bit about the origins of the Church and what we can glean from its early days in context to us today.Things to consider as you listen:Digital connection is masquerading as the God-given gift of connection & community.“devoted themselves” - persist obstinately - keep on with devotion - associate closely - to continue to do something with intense effort with the possible implication of doing so despite difficultyThe Holy Spirit embodied within the people of God pressed them into one another with extreme devotion.We're invited to ponder how our worship/study of God is compulsively enmeshed with our communal life & prayer.By His Spirit, God builds the Church.Devoted community rooted in continuous commitment to God & one another compels a lonely, lost world to wonder about the Good News that binds us together.

By His Spirit, by Suzy Baldwin-Noutehou

July 30, 2024 Today's Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 15:10-35; Acts 24:24-25:12Now 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20–21)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Are your prayers big? Jesus teaches us to ask (Matthew 7:7-8; 21:22), so pray! Ask! Go big! We probably think our prayers are big. We pray for our loved ones who are sick and need healing. We pray for miracles, like when a dear one has cancer or is near death after a tragic accident. We pray that God would bring peace where there is war. Those are big prayers! But even the smaller ones can tend to seem big at the time, like asking God to make things work out with my crush or to get into the college I've dreamed about. But are any of these things really that big? I don't mean to minimize our requests or discourage praying for any of those things. Jesus says to ask, so ask! Ask big!In Ephesians 3, St. Paul prays for the spiritual well-being of the Ephesians. He had just rejoiced in the mystery of the Gospel, namely that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:6). That's BIG, bigger than what most Jews could think or ask. When some people brought Jesus a paralytic for healing, Jesus first forgave his sins (Matthew 9:2). A paralytic getting up and walking is big, but isn't the forgiveness of sins even bigger?Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). That's a BIG prayer. It's one that you and I pray often, just as Jesus taught us. Thy will be done! It's a hard prayer to pray when we want that loved one healed. But, just as Paul teaches the Ephesians, God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (3:20). God has indeed done the biggest thing of all. In Christ, God has saved you from eternal death by His suffering and death on the cross. That's God's good and gracious will for you and certainly bigger than anything we could ask or think.Paul prays that the Ephesians would get just how BIG God's saving love is. It seems rather small that Christ dwells in your heart through faith, but in Him, you are filled with the fullness of God. By His Spirit, you experience the breadth, length, height, and depth of God's love for you in Christ. Rooted and grounded in THAT love, with the power of His Spirit at work in you, everything else appears pretty small. Sure, you still pray for your loved one to be healed. Of course you do! But faith clings to the promise of eternal life in Christ. Faith clings to Jesus, even when our prayers aren't answered in the way we had hoped. Faith rejoices that even death itself is undone in the One who loves you so much that He died and rose again for you.The last part of Luther's explanation of the Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer in the Small Catechism reads: “God's will is done when He strengthens and keeps us firm in his Word and faith until we die.” That echoes Paul's prayer for the Ephesians and for you and me. To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Hear us, Father, when we pray, Through Your Son and in Your Spirit. By Your Spirit's Word convey All that we through Christ inherit, That as baptized heirs we may Truly pray. (LSB 773:1)-Rev. Joel Fritsche, director of Vicarage and Deaconess Internships and assistant professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. LouisAudio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.The Lutheran Confessions play a vital role in the church—both centuries ago, and today. But, do they apply to the daily life of a layperson? Pastor Andy Wright offers a resounding “yes” in his book, Faithfully Formed. He quotes, summarizes, and synthesizes key teachings from the Confessions, revealing their relevance in the daily lives of ordinary people.

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ...    When trouble comes to us, all we have to do is to learn to put our faith in God each time we have a problem or potential problem.   We put our faith in God by turning to God in prayer, asking for help or asking God for wisdom in dealing with the problem.     Each time we call on God asking HIM for help, we put our faith in God.     And we learn to call on God over each concern, each time we are concerned.  

The gospel of Jesus is an invitation out of restlessness, anxiety, and anger and into a life of meaning and purpose. By His Spirit, there is power over sin, death, and the dominion of darkness.

Today's Devotional "By His Spirit" Zechariah 4:6-7 lmjministries.org 5/2/24Join us for coffee, conversation and community. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/justbeinglmj/support

It all began with a childhood dream, A vision I held dear, a future gleam. Walking with God, I've learned a lot, Days of tears, of questions, of a renewing my mind with the word of God. Crying, doubting, rejoicing, Discovering Christ's wonders at my core. Unlearning, relearning the truth divine, A journey of faith, a soul on the line. I've reached where I dreamed as a child in my heart, It was a long journey Understanding myself in Christ's embrace, Finding God`s purpose, letting go of past disgrace. Forgiving those who spoke words unkind, Those who Doubted my worth, In all this, Trusting God's was what I hold on toTrusting in His abilities, His ways, His faithful word, In His presence, my doubts all unheard. This journey with God, is a testament of grace, A story of triumph, in His love's embrace. Listen, my friend once told me this truth, That God's got a plan just for you, A plan of goodness, not of despair, A future filled with hope beyond compare. But it's not about what you've got in mind, You can't force God's blessing on your own design. When you walk in His divine ways, divine plan for your life, He'll give you strength to face each day, Even when your flesh says, "Give up now," His voice inside will show you how to always move forward. Look at Joseph, what a story, Facing trials but holding onto his view, That one-day nations would bow at his feet, Trusting God through every defeat. He found the power to endure the pain, Because he knew God was with him, again and again Look at Jesus, our example so true, Facing death, he prayed to God anew. Luke 22:42 “Father, if it be Your will,” he pled, “Take this cup away,” Yet not my will, but Yours be done, In God's will, He found strength, God's own Son. Luke 22:43 An angel appeared from Heaven's height, To strengthen Jesus in the darkest hour. When God sends you forth, fear not, my friend, He goes with you, His strength won't end. Walking with God, Satan stirs awake, Especially in waiting, when solitude takes. A season to seek God alone, In isolation, Satan's voice may buzz. I've been there, in that waiting place, Long and hard yet filled with grace. God came through, strengthening day by day, Ignoring worldly voices, I chose to obey. Like Peter, who dared to oppose, Saying, “Lord, this fate You must oppose.” But Jesus knew His Father's call, Ignoring the world's whispers, standing tall. Proverbs 3, 5-6, "Don't lean on what you think you know," In every step, acknowledge Him, And He will guide you where to go. I clung to these words in my time of need, Reminding myself of God's faithful deed. In Matthew 8:26, Jesus spoke with power, To His disciples in a fearful hour. "Why so afraid?" He gently asked, Then calmed the stormy sea so vast. If they had known who was with them there, Their faith wouldn't waver in despair. Their faith was weak, easily shaken, For they didn't grasp the power they were forsaken. But with Christ, we see the fullness of faith, He's the author and finisher, the One we embrace. Christ is our faith, our foundation secure, With Him, we're filled, our hearts pure. By His Spirit, we see and understand, Walking in His faith, led by His hand. So let's fix our eyes on Jesus alone, Running life's race with faith fully grown. With the faith of Christ, we stand strong and bold, Knowing God's with us, our story unfolds. In my waiting, I strengthen my conviction in Christ, Learning to discern His voice, clear and precise. Fine-tuning my ears to His gentle call, No confusion or doubt, I know His voice above all In your waiting, remember the faith you possess, It's not about human understanding, but God's access. Man's limits fade in His boundless grace, God's plans exceed what our minds can trace. Jesus showed us with the fig tree example, Speaking to mountains, making the impossible simple. Our minds can't grasp how mountains can move, But with Christ's faith in us, they surely move. Believers, we see obstacles as trees to be cleared,   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/assumpta-widak/message

The last and final door I shared last week was Heavenly Door 24- Zechariah 4:6. “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, ‘This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. ‘“As we enter the new Hebrew month of Adar on sundown Thursday February 8 we are entering the month of power and strength and joy ! That is what the Hebrew word Adar means ! There has been so much spiritual warfare as we entered a time of promotion and purification and sanctification ! Now we advanced and it's time to enter the next few months of His power and strength but BY HIS SPIRIT only! We want the “Ruach” or breath of the Lord's power to guide us! I'm positioning myself to receive from His Spirit and Give from His Spirit!Today is RELEASE day for my new book “365 Prophetic Revelations from Hebrew Calender - Experience the Power, Blessing, and Abundance of Aligning with Gods Times and Seasons “Get your copy today here or any major bookseller https://amzn.to/3SMr5by

Summary: In this day we must have a deep relationship with the Lord and one another that is without the bonds of obligation and oppression. Giving the greatest gift God has given us, our free will, back to Him, and not to anything else is what He is after. It's all about the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our lives. Show Notes: God is raising up sons who know who they are. We must walk with God without bonds and obligations to anything if we are to please Him. You cannot have a walk with God if you got bonds. That's not just with people, it's religious concepts, ideas, and obligations. The less we are bonded to anything the freer we are to express our hearts. We must decide where we are going to give our free will. What are we going to be bonded too? Will we give it to other things or God? Being bonded to one another in relationship through the Holy Spirit is a bond that creates life. We are losing all our concepts, ways of thinking and things we have been bonded to other than Him, as we all come into His Lordship. Quotes: Knowing that you have this relationship with the Lord, you're not concerned about losing out with God, not doing enough, we have to come out of that whole arena of being obligated. You cannot have a walk with God, the way He wants you to walk with Him, if you've got bonds. It's really a foreign concept to Americans because we are free and we are independent. That's not God's sons. By His Spirit, He is setting us all free to be something that we could never be by our own will, our own attempts. It's all about your heart, being free and expressing or being who you are, in the Lord. What are you going to do with your freedom? Are you going to give it to the Father and become bonded to him? Or you're going to give it to a career? A man or a woman? Ideas? A government? Or are you going to take the greatest gift you have from God that free will, and you're gonna give it to...

By His Spirit and His Word, the Lord has given His people the ability to spiritually discern. Believers are to exercise their discernment.

Jesus is the gift-giver. He has given Himself to us, poured Himself out upon us. By His Spirit, each of us is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, to benefit not just himself--but all. As we pursue the Lord and ask for His Spirit to be manifest through us, we can trust the Lord is going to do His part. We have the opportunity of partnering--working together--leading to maturity and unity.

David continues his sermon series in Romans. Today, he is in Romans 8:12-17. Sermon titled "By His Spirit." Come back each week to hear him walkthrough the whole book of Romans.  Dont forget to follow First Baptist Church of Olton here on PodBead to get the latest sermons from Brother David. Make sure and go subscribe to our YouTube Channel also. We stream live every Sunday at 11 am. We invite you to come and worship with us even in your PJ's!

We worship a God who speaks. All that is contained in the heavens and earth has been created and is presently being sustained by the LOGOS, the Word of God, God made flesh, who existed in the beginning, even "before" the foundation of the world (Genesis 1; John 1; Colossians 1; Ephesians 1).The Lord Jesus spoke creation into existence. By His Spirit, He inspired the Bible to be written through the agency of men. And when He proclaimed His Good News in and around Jerusalem, His stories and parables displayed a dazzlingly simple but profound logic that not only encouraged the brokenhearted but silenced His fiercest critics. His teaching glistened brightly like the very stars He has created, numbered and named, fitting His wisdom into brilliant constellations of exhortation, rebuke, encouragement and hope.On part two of our conversation with Professor of Philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, Travis Dickinson, Travis unpacks the glorious brilliance of Jesus' timeless teaching and proclamation of Good News and reminds us that the life of the mind is a commandment; an essential part of Christian discipleship. Though we fall short of obeying any of the commandments, a pursuit of knowing more about God's love and mercy in light of our own sin can only serve to strengthen our faith and enable us to give reasonable and logical defense for the hope that is in us.Travis Dickinson is the author of three books with one more on the way. His most recent book, Logic and the Way of Jesus, discusses logic and critical thinking modeled in the life and ministry of Jesus. And his forthcoming book, Wandering Towards God: Finding Faith in Doubts and Big Questions (IVP, October 2022), argues that leaning into our questions and doubts can lead to even greater faith as we discover truth and knowledge. Dr. Dickinson also posts articles and resources about the study of apologetics and philosophy on his blog, www.travisdickinson.com.Related Links: You may order Dr. Dickinson's book, visit his personal website, and access free copies of our related 4-page Watchman Fellowship Profiles: Book: Logic and the Way of Jesus by Dr. Travis Dickinson: https://uhop.me/LogicJesus Website of Travis Dickinson: TravisDickinson.com Watchman Fellowship Profile on Atheism by Robert M. Bowman, Jr.: watchman.org/Atheism Watchman Fellowship Profile on Agnosticism by W. Russell Crawford: watchman.org/Agnostic Watchman Fellowship Profile on Scientism by Luke Barnes and Daniel Ray: watchman.org/Scientism Watchman Fellowship Profile on Street Epistemology by Daniel Ray: watchman.org/SE Additional ResourcesFREE: We are also offering a free subscription to our 4-page bimonthly Profiles here: www.watchman.org/Free.PROFILE NOTEBOOK: Order the complete collection of Watchman Fellowship Profiles (over 600 pages -- from Astrology to Zen Buddhism) in either printed or PDF formats here: watchman.org/notebook. SUPPORT: Help us create more content like this. Make a tax-deductible donation here: www.watchman.org/give.Apologetics Profile is a ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit www.watchman.org © Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

Fix Your HeartA Journey Through Psalm 37What are you fixing your heart on? Where do you need to turn your attention towards Jesus today? By His Spirit comes wisdom and understanding. He is everlasting and faithful in His promises.Don't follow after the wicked ones or be jealous of their wealth.Don't think for a moment they're better off than you.They and their short-lived successwill soon shrivel up and quickly fade away,like grass clippings in the hot sun.Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his eyes.Fix your heart on the promises of God, and you will dwell in the land,feasting on his faithfulness.Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh,and he will give you what you desire the most. - Psalm 37:1-4 TPTDo not fret because of evildoers,Be not envious toward wrongdoers.For they will wither quickly like the grassAnd fade like the green herb.Trust in the Lord and do good;Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.Delight yourself in the Lord;And He will give you the desires of your heart. - Psalm 37:1-4 NASBMay you learn to feast on God's faithfulness. He is trustworthy!Thank You!Becoming a PatronIf you are one of the many who have been blessed by Cultivate Connection, please consider becoming a monthly patron. Creating space for people to connect with God in this busy world is so vital.As a patron, you empower us to continue producing and developing tools for people to connect with God, discover identity, and awaken purpose for their lives. Learn more on our website at CultivateConnection.comWe Need You!Cultivate Connection is listened to in 129 countries and averages 2,000 listeners a week. Help us reach even more people by sharing this episode on Facebook, Instagram, via email, or whatever other way you prefer.Visit our Facebook page and share your thoughts or ask a question. We read every comment and love responding!Leave a review on iTunes or your favourite podcast app. Your ratings and reviews mean a lot and help this podcast get discovered by others.And lastly, subscribe to Cultivate Collection Weekly, our email providing you with resources and inspiration to help you grow your relationship with God.

2 Cor 10:5 The biggest strategy of the enemy is against your mind. The devil tries to get you to second guess the word of God and anytime you second guess what God has said about you then that's an attack of the devil against your mind. Gen3:4 The oldest trick of the devil is the illusion of freedom and he makes the lack of boundaries seem exciting. He is consciously fighting against everything that you hold sacred. The movie “Matrix” paints this picture perfectly (The moral programming of the spirit). The devil has fought against objective truth and this idea will cause us to self-destruct. God isn't trying to limit our experience, he's trying to protect it. John 15:26 In the Holy Spirit, we understand that there is objective truth. We must fight for the proper definition of truth. The ministry of the spirit explains that in the Old Testament, God gave rules but in the New Testament, God came into us to empower us to do. The ministry of the spirit is in us and empowers us to live right. Don't let the devil blur the lines. God helps us to live in a manner consistent with our new nature BY HIS SPIRIT. Jer31:31-34 Ezekiel 36:26 -27 Romans 8: 1-2 By the Spirit, Sin is no longer irresistible. A man who lives in condemnation actually never knew he was free from bondage. The fact that we see contradictions doesn't mean we aren't saved but there's a need to be reminded by God's word to mortify the deeds of the body and work the word of God in your life. How do we mortify the deeds of the body; 1. Accountability - Have a system of accountability. They say evil association corrupts good manners. If you want to have a prayerful life, have prayerful friends. Have the right association. 2. Have and maintain a vibrant devotion- It is counterproductive to be fighting habits. Walking in the spirit is the most effective way. You don't fight temptation effectively when it is standing in front of you, you should prepare ahead. Sanctification must be a growing reality, it might be gradual but the process must be evident.

Those called to counsel will offer ministry 1. Through His Word. 2. By His Spirit. 3. With A Prayerful Seeking Heart. 4. In the Context of Church Life, Relational with His People. That's how God works His counsel into our hearts and lives and those we minister. We are all called to counsel! ----------- Get on the waitlist! BiblicalCounselingAcademy.com

How are you doing living out the Christian life? Good? No Struggles? Well Pastor JD will continue going through the checklist of things we need to get in order found in this passage in Titus and he will give us some really good news. God is the one who will do it in us... By His Spirit!

Jesus was Mary's baby. But He's your baby too. By His Spirit, we each carry divinity in our hearts as He sealed our salvation with the indwelling of His Spirit. Oh, the wonder.

A huge “Shout Outs” to you all - all my dear and precious listeners from United Kingdom, United States, Norway, Nigeria, Germany, Philippines, Switzerland, Jamaica, Brazil, Estonia, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Netherlands, India, Vietnam, New Zealand and Ethiopia. Yes! Detox with Abi reached listeners from 18 countries this year! I just want to say a huge ‘thank you' for joining me this year on Detox with Abi detox a platform to encourage change within by God's way of thinking, with the Word of God. Of a truth, I could not have published 245 episodes of Detox with Abi without your support. As 2021 is winding down and I wrap up Detox with Abi for this precious year 2021, I would love to leave you with 1 Corinth 2:9-13. These scriptural verses blessed my heart this last week and I hope that you will be blessed as well. “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭2:9-13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ I just want you to remind you that because you love God; because you are God's child, God planned great things for you this year. Things may not go fully the way you speculated, however take stock of God's faithfulness. Be intentional about thanking God for what He has revealed, done and yet to be seen, so far this year. A lot has happened this year A lot! Yet, God kept me and mine in the midst of it all because He reminded me of the Word He revealed to me last year- Do not leave the house- Do not leave His presence. Indeed, the Word God spoke to me has been my anchor this year in the midst of storms. His abiding and manifest presence has been our Stay. So remember- God also has great plans for you in the year 2022 and beyond. By His Spirit, He will be communing with your spirit. By His Spirit, He will reveal His mind concerning you So get ready! Be prepared! For year 2022 will be your best year yet in Jesus' name. Amen --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/abimbola-arawande/message

The church is an exiled community. Once we were in bondage to sin and the Devil, but God, in Christ, had delivered us and set us free. Christ is leading from that place of bondage to the promised land in the New Heavens and Earth where righteousness dwells. By His Spirit we are being made over into a new creatures made in His likeness. Therefore as returning exiles we are to put away from us our old way of living and live according to a new ethic.Time:MorningMinister:Pastor Taylor KernTexts:Ephesians 4:25—5:2Series:Ephesians

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ... God is our teacher.  By HIS Spirit we are taught all things of God.   II Timothy 1:12-14   For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that HE is able to keep that which I have committed unto HIM against that day. 13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 14 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.   It is God who chose us to salvation to be the elect of God.  It is God who changed us into a new creature after we were born again and God who gave us His Holy Spirit to live in us and created us in HIS own image.  God causes us to live in peace, love, joy, and in all the fruits of that Holy Spirit of God.   Gal. 5:22-23   The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.   As we follow the Holy Spirit of God, these fruits of the Spirit manifest themselves in us and we end up fulfilling the law of God as we walk on this earth.   * For more extensive information on this podcast, click here:  Jesus Ministries Podcast Blog * For writings on additional subjects, click here:  Jesus Ministries Exhortations Blog 

God's rich kindness leads us to change. By His Spirit, He enables us to be more like Christ every day. 

More than two hundred volunteers assisted October Books, a bookstore in Southampton, England, move its entire inventory to an address down the street. Helpers lined the sidewalk between the two buildings and passed books down a “human conveyor belt.” Having witnessed the volunteers in action, a store employee said, “It was . . . a really moving experience to see people [helping]. . . . They wanted to be part of something bigger.” We can also be part of something much bigger than ourselves. God uses us to reach the world with the message of His love. Because someone shared the message with us, we can turn to another person and pass it on. Paul compared this—the building of God’s kingdom—to growing a garden. Some of us plant seeds while some of us water the seeds. We are, as Paul said, “co-workers in God’s service” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Each job is important, yet all are done in the power of God’s Spirit. By His Spirit, God enables people to thrive spiritually when they hear that He loves them and sent His Son to die in their place so that they can be free from their sin (John 3:16). God does much of His work on earth through “volunteers” like you and me. Although we are a part of a community that is much bigger than any contribution we may make, we can help it grow by working together to share His love with the world.

Prayer Champions, are you, friends, with God? As God's friend, we don’t have to compete or fight others for our position in Christ.  God has us where He wants us.  We can bloom where we have been planted.  God wants us to have healthy relationships with others and enjoy our lives to the fullest. God grants us the spirit of discernment so that we don’t have to be fooled by people who want to harm us.  A right relationship with God will help us to develop the right relationship with others.  By His Spirit we will be able to Pray for, Honor,  Encourage, Accept,  Live in Peace With, Comfort, Forgive, Serve, and, Be Kind To one another. John 13:34-35, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." NIV

By His Spirit you can fulfill every dreams and desire in your heart. No matter what challenges or obstacles you may be facing today, know that when you surrender every areas of your life to Him, you can live in complete victory by His Spirit.

2 Cor. 11:4 and Gal 1:6-7 speaks of "Another Gospel". We are living in the days of "Post Modern Religion" and the influence of FALSE teaching that presents the Gospel as 'whatever seems right for you'. Pastor Dave gives a clear teaching of the WORD OF GOD. Galatians 1:7 ".....there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ"(KJV). Are you listening with ears to hear and confirming for yourself the accuracy and TRUTH according to the Word of God of those that you listen to.? Matthew 7:14 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves" (KJV). May God Bless you and teach you BY HIS SPIRIT as you listen with hearts to receive.

By His Spirit by Lighthouse Church Ottawa

Grab a beverage (this is not to insinuate alcohol) and now read Deuteronomy 28, the full chapter. I will wait. (tapping fingers but not impatiently. Your eyes will light up) Notice the first two verses. Read them again.1 "Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD, your God, will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: Now continue to read to vs. 15.Let's do some observations:1. Notice the conditions? Diligently obey, and careful to do… "all His commandments…" (the Word of God) THEN you are blessed.2. Blessed are you in most areas of your life where you have influence. Can you do God's Will at work, at home, in your personal life? We are called to do just that. We live so short lives here on earth and then are headed to eternity. Does it matter how we live our lives on the earth? Youbetcha! As we say in Wisconsin. We only get one shot at this life. How will we respond to God? I want? Or what He wants?3. Lest people think this is legalism to obey the Bible (His Word), let us remember the words of Christ to His disciples. "If you love me, you will obey my commandments." Let this sink in: IF YOU LOVE ME. YOU WILL OBEY. HMMM. That is a game-changer. "Hey BSC, my church says I am no longer under the law?". How will you know what sin is if you don't know the bible and what the law has to say? How will you know you are offending God? Did you know the law shows us our sin? And it shows us God's righteous character? How will you get to know God personally if you don't know His character? He sent the Holy Spirit to help us. see 1John 2:26-Did you know you cannot keep the law? No one could. But He can help us if we ask. Yeah, let that sink in. Why? Because Grace is the power to change to God's will, in our opinion. Besides, think about this: John 14:15 is one of the verses that show us He is telling His disciples that HE IS GOD (they are His commandments because He wrote them!) And without the Holy Spirit's help, we cannot obey. Now have fun and go read Titus 2:11-12 because this is the definition of grace. Waiting. Grace is Christ coming to save us and then empowering (blessing us) to be taught AWAY from ungodliness. What is ungodliness? What is evil? Evil is anything outside of God's will. Now ask yourself questions about how the Lord may see your life? Ask Him for revelation. This is bible study. Back to Deut 28. The first 15 verses discuss the blessings. I showed this to my daughter, and she looked at me and said, "Dad, the Lord is doing the work!" I said, "I knowwwwww! And I don't think we were designed by Him to live in this world without His help. Do we want to live our lives in our own strength? And that is what much of Christianity is today. Managing our walk with God through our minds and what we think we need to love God. That is not how the Bible says we are to walk. We are to take His word and apply it to our life IN HIS POWER and BY HIS SPIRIT. But please read the curses now, which is the next part of this chapter. He wants us to be fruitful, and the curses section is about people who reject His commandments (His Word), to do their will, and are now on their own. Curses should bring us to the fear of the Lord. As we read the curses how should we respond? How can we ask God to help us to obey? Did you notice that perhaps there was some pushback in your heart to obey His word? That is the war that goes on that Paul spoke of in Romans 7. Go read that too. How can you ask Him to help you? Hint. Read Romans 12. Who was this written to? And why?We can conclude that for us to be blessed, God's purpose is for us to carry out His will which is revealed in His Word. So, it is about Him and His Will. Not about you or what ministry you will have. Just serve Him right where you are. How should we respond to God to live a praiseworthy life? Perhaps we can drop to our knees and ask for His help to obey His will, and His word BEFORE WE ASK FOR HIS HELP FOR OUR NEEDS.To finish our bible study today, here are new testament promises about the blessing from God, which is Matthew 6: "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' 32 "For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.Notice vs 33. Yep. Seek first the Kingdom of God. Have you lost your first love? The one in revelations? What if it isn't emotionalism but actually that we stop putting the Lord Jesus Christ first in every area of our life? Can we repent and ask for His rulership in all areas of our life?If you are like us and struggled to know how to study the bible to live a praiseworthy life to God, our blog has many resources and tools. Your life will never be the same. https://biblestudycompany.com/blogLove to know your feedback. Share, please.

Dr. Joan Boney, Jesus Ministries ... Hebrews 13:5 ... Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for HE (God) hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. God will not fail us ... call on God when you are concerned or fearful. We have a power the world does not have.  We have the great power of God.  And with God, nothing is impossible. We have access at all times to the wisdom that is from God. This is a promise of God to HIS children: James 1:5   If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. By HIS Spirit, God brings thoughts to our mind to show us what to do in the issues of this present life. As we do those things shown us by God, the problems begin to unravel and vanish. God knows exactly what will work for us.  And God knows the future and how to set us up for those things ahead. All we have to do is turn to God, asking HIM for help ... and then follow those ideas which God sends to our mind by HIS Spirit. The knowledge of how God works does help us also. ( Click here for podcast and to see scriptures )

In Part 4 of our series: By His Spirit, Pastor Andrew Gard reminds the church that when we are led by the Spirit, we have the ability to experience real change.

In Part 4 of our series: By His Spirit, Pastor Andrew Gard reminds the church that when we are led by the Spirit, we have the ability to experience real change.

Pastor David Crammer 1. It’s By His Spirit 1 Corinthians 2:9–12 NKJV But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the […]

Today, is the second episode in the series on Victorious Living titled,  "By His Spirit, We Rise." Join Lauren Gaskill as she gives us hope through the Word of God and talks about how to receive the grace we need to live victoriously and conquer every battle with our Savior's help. This episode is filled with so many good takeaways, so grab your Bible, pen, paper and get ready to follow along! We have a weekly newsletter that comes out every Monday!  If you do not receive it, go to our website: www.shefoundjoy.com and sign up today!  You will get to read inspiring and encouraging messages from our speaking and writing team. The tour is half over, but we still have dates in Sioux Falls, SD; OKC, OK; Tallahassee, FL; and Port Charlotte, FL.  Go to www.itickets.com/shefoundjoy and get your tickets today!  Group rates are available without a discount. We have a Patreon page!  If you are interested in partnering with us to continue bringing quality content to thousands of listeners, go to www.patreon.com/shefoundjoy to sign up and have a chance for some awesome bonuses.

Lord’s Day #19Intro…Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 19 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism and I will be talking to you today about questions 50 - 52.Transition…This week, we wrap up the section on Jesus Christ and next week we will move on to the Holy Spirit. But we can’t finish up our discussion of Jesus unless we talk about where He is now and when He will return. That’s the focus of the last 3 questions.Lord’s Day Focus...Question 50: Why is it added: and sits at the right hand of God?Answer: Because Christ ascended into heaven for this end, that He might there appear as Head of His church, and that the Father governs all things through Him.So, last week we talked about Jesus ascending into heaven because He had completed His earthly ministry. When Jesus ascended, He was actually receiving the reward of His completed mission. The Ascension of Christ marks the highest point of the Son of God’s exaltation. As He ascends into Heaven, to the right hand of God, He is entering into the glory that He has earned.But Heidelberg is asking, but why was it important to point out that Jesus now sits at the right hand of God? Well, for starters this is the language of the New Testament.Heb 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.Notice the progression that we see in this passage. After making purification for sins, He sat down. This shows us that Jesus’ taking His seat by God the Father in Heaven was the restful reward for having done what He was sent to do.You could think of it in this way; at the end of a long day of work most of us just can’t wait to get back home, to find our favorite chair, and to sit down to rest. When we sit down it is because our work is complete, at least for that day. Sitting down carries with it two ideas, the idea of rest and the idea of completion.Jesus sat down because He had earned a well-deserved rest, but He also sat down because His work of atonement was finished. All that was necessary for His people to be saved was complete.But why does He sit at God’s right hand? The right hand was the place of honor and power, which points to the reward Jesus received.Eph 1:20 When he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.When Jesus took His rightful place at the right hand of the Father, He was taking His place as the Head and ruler of the church, the head and ruler over all creation. Jesus has taken up the position of divine power and authority that is far above any other power or dominion. His name is exalted above every name in the universe and from His position of exaltation He rules and reigns over all.So, the language of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God is about His authority and rule, which is good news for believers. The one who rules among the stars is also willing to call us brothers and sisters…let’s think about that.Question 51: How does this glory of Christ our head benefit us?Answer: First, through His Holy Spirit He pours out His gifts from heaven upon us His members. Second, by His power He defends us and keeps us safe from all enemies.Now, I’m going to go back to Ephesians here because one of the benefits of Christ ascending into heaven is that He has sent His Spirit into the world to empower Christians for ministry, until He returns. We looked at this concept last week and found that it is actually a good thing that Christ has gone away from us. Jesus said in John 16, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”Then if we can skip over to Ephesians 4 we see what that will meanEph 4:10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.What’s the point of this passage? Well, it tells us that we benefit from Christ’s ascension by the fact that the Holy Spirit is with us and the Spirit comes bearing gifts. In fact, every believer in Christ has been gifted in some way, or in several ways, to serve the Lord, the body and the world. In this way, Christ is actually still working in us and protecting us. By His Spirit, He is keeping us safe from all of our enemies.Question 52: How does Christ’s return to judge the living and the dead comfort you?Answer: In all my distress and persecution I turn my eyes to the heavens and confidently await as judge the very One who has already stood trial in my place before God and so has removed the whole curse from me. All His enemies and mine He will condemn to everlasting punishment: but me and all His chosen ones He will take along with Him into the joy and glory of heaven.The return of Christ, the second coming, is one of the most hoped for, longed for and prayed for events for the Christian. The church throughout all the ages has looked at what Scripture teaches on this and have longed to see the day of Christ’s return, the day when the work of redemption will reach its full consummation, the day when the Kingdom of God would be fully and finally established for eternity.This day will involve numerous key events. First, the word that we see in Scriptures to describe Jesus’ return is the Greek term Parousia which means appearing. Jesus will appear in the clouds and it will be glorious to behold.1 Thess 4:16 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.Why can believers have confidence that we will be caught up together with Jesus? Because we belong to Him. He has purchased us from Satan, death and sin, by His blood when He died on the cross. He promised that He would come again to receive us and that He would be with us forever after that point. So when He comes in the clouds, He is coming to rescue us for good.But that is not all, His second coming will also mean judgment for His enemies and ours. On this day, final judgment will commence and all those who rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ will face the wrath of God that they rightly deserve.This may not sound very comforting to you, at least not the part about judgment on sinners. But the return of Christ will usher in the judgment of God upon all the sin and wickedness of unrepentant men, women, and demons.The longing in our hearts for justice is a longing that God has placed within us and on that final day, true divine justice will be served. It is a comfort to know that one day all the wrongs in the world will be put right. It is a comfort to know that all the evil in the world will be accounted for and dealt with.It is also comforting to know that for those of us who have come to see our sin and wickedness for what it truly is and have also fled to Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life; we will not face God’s wrath. Jesus has already received the penalty that we deserved. He stood trial in our place so that we could go free. And with Him be taken into the joy and glory of heaven.Thanks for joining me today as I discuss the Heidelberg Catechism. I hope you’ll join me again next week as we look at Lord’s Day 20 together and discuss question 53.Conclusion…If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.Thanks for listening.

Worship songs:  Every Beat, Won’t Stop Now, How Deep The Father’s Love for Us, Great Are You Lord Connection Groups: Jesus' promise to be "with us always" is yet to be finalized in his promised return. Until then the promise is being fulfilled in three primary ways: By His Spirit. Read John 14:16-17 and Acts 2:1-4. Do you believe that you are filled by the Holy Spirit? Why or why not? Is there such thing as a Christian not filled by the Spirit? How might we become more aware of the Spirit with us day to day? By His Word. Read 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Have you sensed God's presence through the study of the Bible? If so, how? If we believe the scriptures are inspired and will reveal Gods teaching, rebuking, correcting and training, how can we be more in the Word? By His Body. Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. Christians are never in isolation in the Bible: Jesus called the 12. Paul always traveling with companions. The letters are written primarily to churches. How can we experience God with us with his people?

As Christ followers, we have access to the fire of the Holy Spirit. By His Spirit, God wants to do a work in all areas of our lives. Pastor Nirup talks about how God is at work in our lives and how He extends us grace to grow in Him.

09.05.17 - Replay of sermon by Warren Trotter 10.01.1974 - By His Spirit by Sermons from the Apostolic Faith Church of Portland, Oregon

The post By His Spirit appeared first on Friends Baptist Church.

Cornelis P. Venema joins us to speak about his book By His Spirit and Word: How Christ Builds His Church (Reformed Fellowship, Inc.). Venema engages in an extended exposition on the doctrine of the church and its ministry as described in the historic confessions and catechisms of the Reformation churches. These confessions emphasize the church’s indispensability to the salvation of believers, for the triune God’s redemptive mission is principally effected through the ministry of the church. Dr. Venema is President and Professor of Doctrinal Studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana.

Speaker or Performer: Pr. Mark D. Lovett Scripture Passage(s): Mark 7:31-37 Date of Delivery: August 23, 2015 In the name of the FATHER and of the +SON and of the HOLY SPIRIT.This miracle of healing the deaf-mute really is a living parable by which we can discover the kingdom of heaven and the work of the Almighty.The man was deaf and had a speech impediment. He couldn’t hear or speak right. This represents all humanity. This is you and me. None of us can hear God or speak rightly about Him.So Jesus sticks His fingers in our ears. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Finger of God. God sticks His Spirit in our ears by His Son. That’s the real miracle here: that God would care for us and love us by sending His only begotten Son to preach to us the way of life and salvation. And in sticking His Finger in our ears – by preaching the gospel to us, the words of the Spirit – He opens our ears that we would hear the Father. So Jesus looked up into the heavens and sighed. His sigh isn’t one of exasperation as ours would be if people kept begging us to do things for them even though they’re not as good as us and don’t even try to be. No, His sigh is one of compassion and long-suffering. Like a mother who sighs at the end of a long day with her children. She doesn’t sigh in hatred or frustration or exasperation. She sighs because she loves her children and has done what a mother should do: fed and clothed them, listened to them, ended their squabbles, bandaged their ouchies; told them stories of heroism and wonder. She is spent on her children and sighs in love and compassion.Jesus is spent on us. That’s what the cross is. He gave everything He had. Gave it all. On the cross He sighed, too. He sighed and gave up His Spirit to the Father. And the Father, who loves the Son and is well-pleased in the Son for His obedience and trust – gave the Spirit back to the Son three days later and the Son who once was dead is now alive forevermore. And He sticks His divine Finger into our mortal ears so that we would hear the Father and live forever.By His Spirit we hear rightly. We hear our Father in heaven who speaks to us by the Son. For the words the Son speaks are not His own but the words the Father gave Him to speak. And the Spirit, by whom we hear these words, brings all these words – these words of the cross and passion of Christ – to our remembrance. The Son of God continues to preach to us, to pour the Spirit of Life into our ears so that we would hear rightly and rejoice in the salvation of our God.And in hearing rightly – the whooshing of self gone, buried in Holy Baptism, and the voice of God resounding in our ears – we speak rightly. The Son of God has loosed our tongues to speak of God rightly. What we hear, we speak. The Lord is compassionate and long-suffering, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth (Ps. 145:17-18).So be slow to speak and quick to hear (James 1:19) for hearing comes before speaking. It is better to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools from foolish lips, for they don’t know that what they speak is evil (Ecclesiastes 5:1). Don’t presume to be a teacher – spouting off what you think you know about God and His ways – until you have become content with being a student who knows that it is not our words but the Word of the Lord that opens ears and unstops tongues and draws praise from the heart. Students always gather and listen to their teacher.That’s what the crowds teach us in this living parable of the deaf-mute. They did not consider themselves able to heal the deaf-mute but brought him to the Great Physician. Theydidn’t offer platitudes or quips about God and heaven and doing good or so forth. They didn’t leave their theology and the comfort of God up to Hallmark. They brought the man to Jesus.You have been brought to Jesus for you are not hear of your own accord. But the Lord has stuck His divine Finger in your mortal ears so that you hear His voice and follow Him. This is following Him; eating His Bread and drinking from His Cup. This is following Him: hearing His word and gathering with His Body.The world and the evil one continually attempt to stop your ears and twist your tongue. They flood you with your sins and the sins of others. But the Lord calls you to Himself though His the preaching of His word, the crowd that knows who He is, His Church, so that you stand before the Lord that He may heal you and give you ears to hear and a tongue to give thanks and to rejoice in Him. He does all things well. He even gives you eternal life.+ In Nomine Iesu +

Consider Divine revelation to be the foundation in the economy of God’s grace. Reflect on 1 Corinthians 2: 9-16 as knowledge of God by grace. "...but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him." In 2 Corinthians 4: 5-6 we read, "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." God shapes us to receive this very particular message. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God..." (1 Corinthians 2:12) God does two things on our behalf. He externally gives us a Word and internally enables us to receive it. There is an objective message and subjective reception. The knowledge of God is by grace alone all the way down. By His Spirit, God will provide the application of His message. T. F. Torrance in “The Hypostatic Union” about the self-revelation of God states, "To reveal God, the revealer must take the place of God, and only God can take His own place. This identity of Christ’s Revelation with God’s self-revelation is the ground of our assurance and certainty that what we know in and through Jesus Christ, is none other than God, and that there is nothing in God essential to our knowledge of Him which is hid from us, and that God as He is in Himself, is not a reality other than the God revealed to us in and through Jesus Christ. Thus the weakening in the affirmation of the Deity of Christ, results in indecision and uncertainty." Augustine put it this way in The Confessions, "When people see [your works] with the help of your Spirit, it is you who are seeing in them. When, therefore, they see that things are good, you are seeing that they are good. Whatever pleases them for your sake is pleasing you in them. The things which by the help of your Spirit delight us are delighting you in us. ‘For what man knows the being of man except the spirit of man which is in him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God”’ No one has brought as much clarity to the location of revelation within the broader economy, or story, of God’s works than John Webster. He states in Holiness, "that theological thinking about holiness is itself an exercise of holiness. Theology is an aspect of the sanctification of reason, that is, of the process in which reason is put to death and made alive by the terrifying and merciful presence of the holy God.” He also states, "... we need to make sure that we are thinking about the true God, and not about some God of our own invention,” and “theology is nothing other than an attempt to repeat the name which God gives to himself as he manifests himself with sovereign mercy, ‘I am the Lord, your Holy One.’" Consider that Professor Webster points to the danger of idolatry. He states, "A holy theology, therefore, will be properly mistrustful of its own command of its subject-matter; modest; aware that much of what it says and thinks is dust.”

Speaker or Performer: Pr. Mark D. Lovett Scripture Passage(s): John 3:1-15 Date of Delivery: June 15, 2014 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.The only true God, the only God, is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There are no gods beside Him. When one thinks on God, the true God, one must naturally be thinking of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To think on a god without this blessed, eternal, and most holy Trinity is to think on a false god, an unreal god.So when you’re reading facebook or some Hallmark card or some thing else that passes for godly wisdom these dark and later days, and you read something about God, His love, patience, kindness, gentleness, and so forth, unless it flows from and to the most blessed Trinity then it is a false, misleading dream. Which means unless it is fruit of the cross of Christ it is wicked and not of God. For we preach Christ crucified, who is the image of the invisible God, who is Himself God of God and very God of very God. Unless the wisdom and knowledge flow from and back to Christ Jesus, it is worldly wisdom and useless knowledge, for Jesus is the wisdom and the knowledge of God. All theology – all talk of God – is Christology, talk of Jesus, or else it is not of God.Take, for example, “God loves you.” Simple enough. Plain enough. But which God? Or, better still, how does God love you? Even if the god mentioned in “God loves you” loves you by helping you through your sin or difficulties, it still is not the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For that God – that is, the true God – doesn’t help you through your sin but puts sin to death by the resurrection of Jesus. God doesn’t make you stronger to withstand the onslaught of greater and more maleficent sins; God – the true God – puts sin to death precisely because you cannot win the battle against sin. The true God doesn’t give you strength to face or even defeat sin. That is why Jesus died on the cross. He alone faced and defeated sin. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world – your sin, which is your unbelief.And He has given you His Holy Spirit, born again by water and the Spirit. And by His Holy Spirit you are called sons of God, children of the Most High. By His Spirit you are confirmed in the faith and participate in the life of Christ, the risen and ascended Lord. It is the Spirit that strengthens you, not to stand against sins of the flesh, but to stand against temptation which leads to death. Temptation isn’t simply or merely temptation to commit sins – so called sins of omission or commission – but to disbelieve; to stop believing that your heavenly Father gives you all things and blesses you will all good. That is the faith of the Christ and that is the faith of those that share in His Spirit.You are tempted by the devil and his demons to stop believing that your heavenly Father is the source of all that you need, all that you have; to stop believing that He gives you all things for your salvation – whether good or bad in the eyes of men. You are always tempted to begin to look to this world and the Mammon of this world as the source of all that you need and as the object of your desire and happiness.Now someone might object: I’m tempted to commit all sorts of sin all the time! No, you are not tempted to commit this or that sin. You are tempted to the only sin: unbelief. You are tempted to call God a liar. That is the only true temptation and the only true sin. Everything else that we call “sin” is because it does not come from the truth which calls upon God as our heavenly Father and looks to Him and expects from Him all good and blessings. All your sins – be they habitual or premeditated or even hidden from you – all your sins flow from disbelief; they flow from the lie that God is not your heavenly Father and that you are not children of God, born of water and the Spirit.But you have died to sin, having been crucified with Christ in holy Baptism. Sin no longer reigns in you, you are under grace. Therefore, rejoice and give thanks to God in Christ for all things! You have been set free from sin – free from unbelief – and have become slaves of God, not disbelieving but believing! And now the fruit you get from your belief, from your faith in Christ that you are children of God for His sake, the fruit you get from your belief leads to sanctification and eternal life.That is why a person needs to be born again. To be killed and brought to life, quickened by the Spirit of God so that what they do they do in faith and not in unbelief. For those who believe and are baptized shall be saved, but those that do not believe will be condemned. And what is it that we believe? We believe that God sent forth His only begotten Son, even Jesus Christ our Lord, not to condemn the world but to save the world; that whoever should believe on Him should have eternal life and be called the children of God. And so you are.+ In Nomie Iesu +

Speaker or Performer: Pr. Mark D. Lovett Scripture Passage(s): John 16:16-22 Date of Delivery: May 11, 2014 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.Jesus is here speaking of His death and resurrection. A little while and the disciples would see Him no longer; and then a little while and they would see Him because He is going to the Father. And He can’t go to the Father unless He first rises from the dead. So on His way back to the Father from whom He came and by whom He was sent, on His way back to the Father the Son dies and rises from the dead.Jesus has ascended to His Father, to His God and to your God. Now He fills all things and all things are put under His feet. The joy of the Christian is rooted in the reign of Christ. Not merely or only the forgiveness of sins, as if that’s the whole reason for the Son of God to have been born of the Blessed Virgin, but our joy is rooted in His eternal reign. That is why no one can take away the disciples’ joy. That is why no one can take away your joy. It is rooted – it has its source – in the eternal reign of Christ, Jesus the Son of God.His kingdom is established and is an everlasting kingdom as the prophets foretold. It stretches into every tribe and nation, to every people and language. The Apostolic Commission given in Matthew 28, to go and make disciples of all nations is fulfilled; they have gone out into all the world beginning at Jerusalem and have preached the good news of Jesus to all nations. We call it the “Bible”; it is the preaching and teaching of the apostles. The fullness of the Gentiles is not yet, else the Lord would have already returned. But the word has gone out by His command through His apostolic office and now we are waiting – waiting with all the saints in heaven and on earth – for the return of our King and God, the Son of Mary.We wait in joy. Not mere happiness. Happiness as you’ve heard many times before is an emotion. It comes and goes. But joy remains. Joy remains because joy is not an emotional response to something, but an acknowledgement of that which is permanent and good. You have joy when the grain and wine abounds. But you also have joy when it’s a time of drought and famine. The reason you have joy in both good and bad is because these things are not the source of your joy, they are neither permanent nor good in themselves. Jesus is both: He is permanent and He is good. And He is the source of your joy, and nothing can take Him away from you. Nothing can take you away from Him.But that doesn’t mean they won’t try. Satan and his demons will try to take you away from your Lord. You own sinful self will try. The world will try. They have asked to sift you like flour. But the Lord Himself prays for you and by His prayer you are sustained in faith. our joy is found in the Lord who sustains you. And in answer to the Lord’s prayer that you be sustained in true faith, your heavenly Father gives you the body and blood of Jesus to eat and to drink. He gives you preachers to preach to you the good news that you are reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus. He gives you the Church, that bold witness of life in the face of death and hell.That is why the Christian life is not really about sinning less or doing good as measurable accomplishments. Certainly the Christian, as he grows in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ will desire to sin less and to do more good, but that’s not the source of his joy or confidence, neither is it the way you please God. If it were, then we would be damned indeed. For who sins less and less so that they become sinless? And who does good so that he becomes good? No one. So let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’ and don’t worry about tomorrow. Rather, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice.For the Lord of glory gives you power from on high, He pours upon you His blessed and holy Spirit, to sustain you in the truth faith that clings to Christ alone. He is among you, renewing your strength as you are here waiting upon the Lord, waiting for Him who is your Lord and your God. By His Spirit you soar like eagles over death and you run in the way of His commandments without tiring. For His yoke is easy and His burden is light and in Him you find rest for your souls.The Lord is among you to save you; to bless you; to give you eternal life. Blessed are you who wait for the Lord.+ In Nomine Iesu +

Speaker or Performer: Pr. Lovett Scripture Passage(s): John 3:1-15 Date of Delivery: June 3, 2012 + John 3:1-15 +In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.If there is anything in the Athanasian Creed that makes us Lutherans uncomfortable it is the final words: “At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire. This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.”It’s this business about doing good and evil and being held accountable for it and judged according to it that bothers us. We are saved by grace, not works. So what is this business about doing good and evil and so entering either eternal life or eternal fire?Well, it is nothing different that what St. Paul writes in Romans 3, “[The Lord] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking an do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” Which is really a commentary on Jesus’ words about separating the sheep from the goats and giving eternal life to the sheep and eternal fire to the goats.We can’t escape the fact that Jesus will come again to be our judge. And these words either relieve us or damn us.If we believe on Him, that for our sakes and for our salvation He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered, died, was buried, and on third day rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, that He did all of this that you would be His own, then His coming as judge is a welcome thing. If He did all this for you and for your sake to save you from death and hell, then when He comes to judge you He will find you not guilty of transgression and sin and will give you eternal life.But if you do not believe these things, if you think that you must do this or that and by your own works of righteous and good behavior stave off the wrath of God, then when He comes as judge He will find you guilty of sinning against the Spirit, which is unbelief. And He will cast you out into outer darkness.In short, those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, will do the works of God. Those who do not believe do the works of the evil one. So Jesus says, “By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37). And He says to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”Nicodemus didn’t come to Jesus to ask Him any questions or be received by Him or to be blessed by Him. Nicodemus came to give answers and to give Jesus his blessing. He says to Jesus, “Rabbi,” a title of honor and respect, “we know that you are a teacher sent from God because no one can do the works you do unless God is with him.” He’s not seeking a blessing from Jesus like the blind man who asks to see or the bleeding woman who sought to be healed or the leper or the tax collector who wanted forgiveness. He is trying to give Jesus his blessing.But it is dark and Nicodemus walks in darkness. And in the darkness he stumbles. He wants to be Jesus’ friend, but not at the expense of his own. So he comes to Jesus by night so his worldly friends will not cast him out. But in truth he needs the blessing of this heavenly friend. He couldn’t see what was really before his eyes. He thought he saw everything there was to see: a man of God doing the good works of God. But that was not all there was to see. He didn’t see the kingdom of heaven. All he saw was a man. Jesus sought to open his eyes that he could truly see.The world says that you must see to believe. But in truth, it is only by believing that we see. This is not only for supernatural things, but for all things. We believe we can get a job, so we apply for it. We believe we can get the girl, so we ask her out. We believe that the sun will rise in the morning, so we set our alarm clocks and prep our coffee pots. And our belief is rewarded. We get the job, the girl, and we rise in the morning. These are earthly things that the world does not understand. But you have been born from on high, washed by the renewal of rebirth by the Holy Spirit.A man must be born from on high because Spirit gives birth to spirit. By your birth through water and the Spirit you are re-born a spiritual people. Not simply a people with a spirit, but the people of God with the Spirit of God. And just as all earthly children are copies of their father, so the children of the heavenly Father are copies of their Father who is in heaven. By His Spirit you have been given His eyes to see and His ears to hear. Something Nicodemus lacked. And because he lacked eyes to see and ears to hear, he could not believe heavenly things.We are often like Nicodemus. We want Jesus as our friend, but not at the expense of our worldly friends; whether our worldly friends are people, money, time, or sleeping in on Sunday morning. But when we seek to keep our life we loose it and even what we have will be taken away.But you believe.Attending this divine gathering isn’t simply giving a nod to Jesus. It’s not simply saying to Jesus, “We know you’re a godly fellow and do a lot of great things for people.” That’s what Nicodemus did. He gave a nod to Jesus. He thought he would flatter Jesus with words of honor and respect, and by flattering Him would be received by Him. That’s what many people do. They give props to Jesus by singing songs about Him and wearing t-shirts with His name on them and putting bumper stickers on their cars. They say things like, “I believe in Jesus just not church,” or “I’m spiritual just not religious,” or my personal favorite, “It doesn’t matter where you go to church as long as you believe in Jesus.”But it does matter. It matters because Jesus is coming again to judge the quick and the dead. The quick are those quickened by the Spirit, born again. The dead are those who remain in their sin and are dead in their trespasses.But you have been born of the Spirit. You have eyes to see and ears to hear. You have been given the Spirit of God and are called sons of God. You are born of the Spirit and so you come from where the Spirit comes from and you go where the Spirit goes. And the Spirit comes from the Father and returns to the Father.Amid the distractions of crying babies and people getting up to go the bathroom and leaving before the benediction, the Lord’s blessing on you, amid the distractions of pitchy organs and fumbled words and off-key pastors; amid the distractions of reacting to what you think your pew neighbor is doing or thinking about the sermon or hymns or what’s for lunch, there is a heavenly reality that we are brought here into the presence of the Father by the living Spirit poured out on us in the name of the Son. There is the heavenly reality that this is heaven on earth where the kingdom of God breaks through the chaos of men and the living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob visits His people and blesses them with His countenance.Here the Son of Man is lifted up and gathers all men to Himself that seeing they may believe and hearing they may understand and turn and be saved.In Nomine Iesu+ Amen +

I. A Remarkable Yearly Salary Please take your Bibles and open them to Matthew chapter six. As we continue in our study in Matthew's Gospel, we are going to look this morning at verses 19 through 24. I like to be amazed by statistics and facts. One of the things that I came across recently was an amazing fact about Michael Jordan. Actually, there are many amazing facts about him, but in 1996, he made $30 million in salary from the Chicago Bulls for one season of basketball, $30 million. Isn't that amazing? For one season of basketball he made $30 million. What is even more amazing is that in 1996, Bill Gates of Microsoft averaged $30 million a day in stock appreciations. Can you imagine that? He made $30 million a day. How would you spend $30 million a day? What does an F16 jet cost? It was something like that. He could buy one every day or a battleship or something. It is just astonishing the amount of money. Now, if you make that much money, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand if you make $30 million a day. I know how much you love raising your hands. But at any rate, most of us do not have to wrestle or wonder what we are going to do with $30 million a day or even $30 million a year. And if you are going to get good financial advice, they are going to say you need to start storing up for your retirement. You are going to need to start young, and the younger you start, the more it builds. You have seen this kind of chart and all that. And one of the things you need the most is a good financial planner, somebody who is going to take care of your stock portfolio and see your retirement income building. Now, those of you who are Christians might say, “Well, that is so worldly, just the idea of storing up material wealth. Storing up wealth, that's just a worldly kind of concept. We shouldn't be storing up wealth. We should be living for others. We shouldn't be ambitious in that regard.” Well, the funny thing is Jesus says that is not true at all. You should be ambitious. You should be storing up. The fact of the matter is you will be one way or the other. What Jesus challenges us to do in this text is to be wise in what we store up, to be wise in how we prepare for retirement. And, really, to come to Jesus Christ and say, I want You to manage my retirement portfolio, the one that I get after death, the one that lasts for all eternity. Look at verses 19 through 24. They say, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." II. Overview of Chapter 6 Let’s look at the whole chapter, Matthew six, in context to try to understand Jesus' teaching here. One of the unifying themes of Matthew six is the issue of motivation. What is it that motivates you to do what you do? Now, we've seen in verses one through 18, Jesus talks about your motivation in your religious life. What motivates you, for example, to give to the needy? Is it the applause of man that they may see you and praise you and give you honor as a very generous person? Jesus says if so, “I tell you the truth, they [you] have received your award in full." Remember we talked about it. It's paid in full. You are owed nothing on Judgment Day. It is the same thing with your prayer life. If you pray so that other people will see you and honor you and respect you for your prayers, you have been paid in full. You sought earthly rewards. That is what you get, and that is all you get. It is the same thing with fasting. In verses one through 18, we see the issue of motivation. This is very key. Are you motivated by an earthly reward, namely the praise of men, or are you motivated by an eternal heavenly reward? And then in verses 19 through 21, Jesus challenges us to store up treasure in Heaven. There's no question. Right in the middle of the center of the chapter He's saying we need to be storing it up, but the key issue is, again, the motivation. And then verses 19 through 34, the whole last half of the chapter, has to do with your physical life. What motivates you every day in your physical life? Are you driven by materialism? And then next week, we will talk about anxiety. Are you driven by anxiety, concerned about physical needs? Is that what motivates you or is your eye up in Heaven? Are you thinking about an eternal life up there? That is what Jesus is getting at in Matthew six. And so right in the center here is Jesus' general principle that you should be wise in how you store up treasure. Be wise in how you store up treasure. III. The General Principle: Be wise in how you store up treasure (vs. 19-21) He states it negatively. He says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth." And then He says it positively; "But store up for yourselves treasure in Heaven." Do not do the one but, rather, do the other. Do not store up treasure on earth, but store up treasure in Heaven. Now, what is the underlying assumption here that Jesus is making? You are going to be storing up somewhere. You are going to be storing up something somewhere, and that just comes from life. You get up every day and you put on your clothes. You get up and you energetically move about your day. You are going to be storing something up that day. You are going to be working towards something. The question is what are you going to be working toward? It is the very same thing that Jesus gets to at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount here. Look at the end of Matthew seven. Jesus says, "therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice, is like a foolish man who builds his house in the sand." Now what's common? They are both building a house. The difference is the foundation and the fate of the house. We will get to that when we get to the end of Matthew seven. But you see the same thing. Every day, you are building something. Every day, you are storing something up. That's Jesus' underlying assumption. And what He's challenging you to do is be wise, be wise in what you do. Be wise in how you store up. Be wise in your investments. What is so beautiful about Jesus teaching style, and we see it throughout the Sermon of the Mount, is He gives you the principal or the command, and then He supports it with reasons. Isn't that beautiful? He could just tell us what to do. He could just command us. Next week He's going to command us not to be anxious, and He could just leave it at that. But instead, He supports it with reasoning. He reasons us out of anxiety in the same way He does it here, reasoning us out of materialism. And what are His underlying reasons? Well, one is clearly the impermanence of earthly treasure. The impermanence of earthly treasure, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." Moth and rust are those things that corrupt that which can be corrupted. Physical stuff around us is corruptible. It can rust; it can be eaten by moths. It can be destroyed. It looks worse 10 years from now than it does now. That is the way it is with stuff. We say, "What about gold? Gold is imperishable." Well, that's not entirely true. You can destroy gold. But you say, "Okay, for the gold then a thief can just break in and steal." Either way, the things of this life, the material things of this life that people put so much value on are impermanent. "Don't work toward them. Don't store them up", he says, "Where moth and rust destroy, and (then) where thieves break in and steal." And why is this? It is because of the inherent weakness of this material world system. It is a waste of your life. And Jesus does not want you to suffer that loss. He does not want you to get up every day and invest second after second, minute after minute, on that which means absolutely nothing, but instead to invest in something that will last. And so the second reason is the permanence of heavenly treasure. "But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven" Jesus says, "where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." In other words, anything you commit up to heaven, anything you cast up to Him, up to God, lasts forever. Nothing can destroy it. It is a place of incorruption. Incorruptibility is what heaven is all about. Nothing decays there. Nothing is destroyed there. And it's a place of invulnerability. It is a fortress or a citadel that cannot be attacked. There are no enemies inside the walls and there are not even enemies outside the walls. There's no danger whatsoever that the fortress of heaven can be breached and the treasure can be stolen. Absolutely secure. But the ultimate motivation or the ultimate issue here is the state of your heart. Now, any of you who have been listening to this preaching through the Sermon on the Mount understand how much Jesus is going consistently for your heart. That's what He wants. That is what He's yearning for. That's what He made. And He wants your heart to worship God. And so Jesus says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." What you value the most is what you will think about. Isn't that true? What you place highest value on is what you spend your time thinking about, what you ponder. Perhaps for some of you, you value your job the most or your house or some prized possession. Perhaps you value your children or your family, your spouse. These things are things that people put value on. But what you value the highest is what you will think the most about. You ought to keep a record of your thoughts and see how often you think about God, the Father. How valuable is He to you? How valuable is heaven to you? Jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Now your heart, remember we talked about the heart? The heart is not that part of you that pumps blood. No, it is that part of you that thinks, that part of you that feels, that plans, that has a will, that internal part of you. And wherever your treasure is, that part of you will be consumed by it. And that is what Jesus says, and that's a real issue here. Materialism or anxiety about physical things can take over a heart; it can crowd out thoughts of God. And then Jesus is saying, “[No,] set your hearts on things above,” just like the Apostle Paul says in Colossians three. IV. The Biblical Doctrine of Rewards, Both Earthly and Heavenly Now this brings us very much to the issue of the biblical doctrine of rewards- the biblical doctrine of rewards. "Where your treasure is", Jesus says, "There your heart will be also." I have given a lot of thought to this. There are lots of rewards around. All you have to do is watch television to see how many things there are that you can be rewarded with. Like a BMW, the ultimate driving machine. Wouldn't that be something to sit in a BMW, the ultimate driving... I'm not sure I'm worthy of that. I mean to sit behind the wheel of the ultimate driving machine. But of course, Preference by L'Oréal tells me I'm worth it so, but that's only for women. You're worth it, you know. So I don't know how much it is. Is that expensive? It probably is. If they have to advertise that you're worth it, it must be expensive. But there are all kinds of enticements to material rewards, aren't there? Nearby where I used to live up in New England, in Newport, Rhode Island, there are a bunch of mansions up there. I don't know if any of you have been up to Newport, but there are a bunch of mansions built by Robber Barons. People who are railroad magnates and all that and they just became incredibly wealthy at the end of the 19th century, and they built mansions with gold bathtubs. Would you like to take a bath in a gold bathtub? Wouldn't that be something? Or would you like to look at a fire surrounded by a gold-encrusted hearth? Or to look at a chandelier where instead of just glass, there are actual diamonds cut in there, wouldn't that be something? You have to pay $6.50, at least you did five years ago, just to look at it, just walk through. That's how expensive it is. So there are all kinds of material inducements in this world, material rewards. Well, the Christian says, “that whole thing is unseemly. I don't want to think about rewards. I'm going to be a mature Christian and I'm not going to do anything for reward. I'm just going to serve God. And I'm going to love my fellow man, and I'm not going to be concerned about what I get out of it. I don't want to do it for that reason. I just want to serve God.” And so we tend to think of rewards as something that's dirty or something that's somehow bad. There was a resolution made by Jonathan Edwards. He made a series of resolutions when he was just 20 years old and they still challenge me today. Listen to this one, "Resolved to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can with all the power, the might, the vigor, the vehemence, yay, even violence I am capable of." He's saying, “I'm going to live every day to gain as much pleasure for myself in the next world.” You say, “That sounds unchristian.” No, that's exactly what Jesus is telling us to do. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” He says. Live for it every day. So I said, “Well, what is this treasure? What is it that we're storing up?” And so I started to look at the idea of rewards. Now if living for rewards is selfish, if it is basically evil, then why does Jesus motivate us to do it? We looked at this last time, remember? Matthew 5:12. To the persecuted, those who are suffering persecution, what does he say? "Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Jesus is clearly motivating by rewards. Matthew 5:46. "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?" There He does it again, motivating by rewards. Here in Matthew 6:1, “If you do,” it says, “be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them.” Why not? Well, if you do, you'll get no, what? “Reward from your father in heaven.” You don't want to lose your reward. So don't live for earthly praise. And then as I've mentioned, Matthew 6:2, 5 and 16, He says time and time again, “Truly I say to you they have received their reward in full." In other words, there's nothing going to be owed to them on judgement day for those good works. They did them for the praise of men and they got the praise of men, and that's it. And then here in Matthew 6:20, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” If Jesus did not want us motivated by rewards, why does He do it so consistently? It is because he does want us to be motivated by rewards, but the right reward, and therefore the contrast is not between living a selfish life and an unselfish life. It has nothing to do with that. The contrast is between living a foolish life and living a wise life. A foolish person lives for rewards that disappear. They go away. But a wise person lives for rewards that will last through all eternity, for all eternity. I was reading a book recently by a pastor named John Piper, and he gave a beautiful illustration of the futility of living for material rewards. He said, suppose, for example, you were going with a friend of yours to a major art museum, let's say, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and you are walking down a wing of the museum and you are with your friend and he looks over and says, "That's a nice looking painting over there. As a matter of fact that's a beautiful looking painting. I think that would look great in my bedroom." So he steps across the cord in there and takes the thing off the wall, puts it under his arm and you are standing there aghast. Your eyes are as big as saucers, and so you continue, or at least he does, and you are just standing their motionless and then he sees a little statue over there. He says, "Boy, that looks good. That's a good looking statue. I think that would look good on my mantelpiece." So he takes it and he has the painting in one arm and the statue. Finally, you just can't contain yourself anymore. You say, "What are you doing?" "Well, I'm becoming an art collector. Everybody should be an art collector. That's what I'm doing. I'm collecting art. Don't you like this painting? Or do you think there would be a better one for my room?" "You're crazy. They'll never let you get out of here with this. They're going to come and arrest you if you don't put that back immediately. Good thing I'm the only one that saw you." Is there any difference at all between that and materialism? People are moving through this life, collecting things off the walls. They are not going to let you get out with it. You are going to have to leave it at the door. It belongs to this world order. You're supposed to be living for the next world. I don't see any difference at all. We have a lot of art collectors around us all the time, don't we? Why do we live for material things? That's not what they are there for. We are supposed to be moving as aliens and strangers in this life, God says, taking the material things of this world, holding on to them loosely saying “What do you want me to do with this, God? You handed it into my hand temporarily.” Well, put it over here and do this with it, build the Kingdom. And to think of becoming an art collector like the illustration. I just laughed out loud when I saw that. But then I started thinking about the issue of what rewards are. What is the standard way of looking at rewards? What do you think of when you think of heaven? I heard an old, old story or I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory. Have you ever thought about your mansion in glory? I think this is how people tend to think of it. If you are really good, if you are saved by grace and we know that rewards, by the way, the reward is not forgiveness for sins. We are all instructed Protestants, aren't we? We know that good works do not pay for sin. I just have to say that every week. You cannot use your good works to pay for sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. But once you are saved, now you are supposed to do good works. Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do." So we are supposed to be doing good works every day. Some of us are more obedient than others. Some crank out more good works than others. Supposedly, they make it through the issue of the motivation. You are doing it to serve God, and now you have a whole pile of good works. Well, what does it buy you? It buys you a better mansion in heaven than the guy who didn't do as many. Have you ever thought that way? That is what some people think. In other words, you get this big kind of living accommodation whereas the other people live in the poor side of town in heaven. It is a very materialistic way of looking at heavenly rewards. Or maybe you get five gold crowns, whereas the other guy only gets three or one. Or you get lots of jewels in there. Well, I don't know, the whole thing made me feel uncomfortable. I said, “This doesn't seem like a right way of thinking about rewards.” So I began to think again about Matthew 6:21. “Where your treasure is, [what?], there your heart will be also.” So the treasure is something that you are supposed to set your heart on, something you are supposed to focus on. Now, do you think that Jesus would ever entice us to idolatry? That He would entice us to think about mansions, streets of gold, pearly gates, rather than God Himself? He is enticing us to a reward which is intimately connected to the Heavenly Father. Would He do anything other than that? Your rewards are connected, I believe, to the Heavenly Father. That is what I think the rewards are. You are saying, "Well, I don't understand." Let me see if I can explain it. Hebrews 6:10 says this, "God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them." What does it say there? That it would be unjust for God to forget each of the things that you've done. God won't forget them. You may forget them, probably you should forget them, so you don't get some ego trip, that you're such a righteous person. But, God will never forget what you have done to serve Him. Anything done for God, He will make note of it, and He will remember. And then on that great day of judgement, Revelation 20:12, it says, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the Great White Throne, and the books were opened…. And the dead were judged by what they had done, as recorded in the books." Now, we know that all of us have sinned, but our sins have been blotted away. If we have faith in Jesus Christ, our sins have been washed away, through the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other forgiveness for sin. But then, what of the good deeds? God has recorded them, He has noted them, He has not forgotten one, and He will repay. He will give a reward. 1 Corinthians 4:5 says, "He [The Lord] will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time, each will receive his praise from God." There it is: praise from God is the reward. Praise from God. It is not a bigger mansion than the other guy. It is praise from God for the good deed that was done. 1 Corinthians three says this, "No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be tested with fire, and the fire will show the quality of each man's work. If what he has built remains, he will receive his reward." There is that word reward again. “He will receive his reward. [But,] if what he has built burns up, he will suffer loss. [He will suffer loss.] Yet, he himself will be saved, yet as only as one escaping through the flames." V. The Danger of a Lost Reward: Materialism (vs. 22-24) Now, I don't know if you noted the subtitle of my sermon here, 'Storing Up Heavenly Treasure' Jesus protects us from what? Loss. He protects us from loss. He doesn't want you to suffer that loss. He wants you to live every moment, so that on that day, there will be a whole pile of works done righteously. Those are the works that are done for God. They are the works that are done for His glory, to build the kingdom. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good work, which God prepared in advance, for us to do.” There will be a whole pile of them. So that loss is what Jesus is protecting us from. The works, in other words, the good deeds, lead to praise from God. This came down to what I think is the most significant verse on this entire issue, and that is Hebrews 11:6. As a matter of fact, it is so important, that I printed it out for you. Take your little insert here, and look at it. Now, Hebrews 11 is a great chapter. Maybe one day, under the providence of God, we will have a chance to go through it, but it's just called the 'faith' chapter. If you want to learn about faith, you go to Hebrews 11. But I printed it at the bottom here, so you wouldn't have to turn. It just says this, Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” “Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe, [number one,] that He exists. [And number two, what?] that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." You have to believe two things in order to come to God. You must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. You have to believe that God rewards. This is a very important verse. You can't just dispense with rewards as though they are not important. They are intrinsic to faith. It is intrinsic to faith to believe that God is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. But, I think we have had a too materialistic way of looking at what the reward is. What is the reward? It is God, Himself. What does it say? You must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who earnestly seek what? Him, He's what you get. And this is the image I get. With your life, you are weaving a tapestry. Every day, you put in a thread, maybe a gold one, a blue one, a purple one. You are weaving together a picture. When I was in Pakistan, I saw these Persian rug weavers. They had come over there from Iran, and were working there in Pakistan. And they did incredible work. Tiny little knots made one at a time. And with every action, every moment, you are making a little knot, and putting a rug together. Now, when Judgement Day comes, your rug is purified if you are a Christian. Anything that was not done for the glory of God, anything done for selfishness, etcetera, God will purge it out. But, then what is left? He will sit down, and look at this purified rug, and He's going to go over every single knot to encourage and praise you. That is your reward. I imagine He will go through it this way, "May 29, 1999. You got up. No one else was up yet, and you got down on your knees and prayed. Nobody talked to you, nobody saw you; you didn't do it to be praised by anyone. You didn't tell anyone about it. You just did it, because you wanted to pray to Me, and to build my kingdom. Well done, good and faithful servant. Good job. That brought Me pleasure, and now I am sharing My pleasure with you. And then an hour later when you saw your spouse, you encouraged her or him. You encouraged her. And, you said a word of praise to her, so that she would be faithful and strong in her walk with me. Good job. Well done, good and faithful servant." Every single act is noted by God, and in Heaven He brings you into His pleasure with that. And your pleasure becomes His pleasure, His pleasure, yours. You see the strength of the relationship. It is not that you get a bigger mansion than the other guy. It's that God shows you all that He did through you. For, it says in John 3:21, "Anyone who is born of the light comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly, that what He has done has been done through God." Everything was done through God, but then He opens it up, and you see the pleasure of God in those acts. That's the reward. Those are the rewards, plural. Every single moment noted, purified, and praised by God. Don't you want that? Don't you want to live for that? Don't you want to store up as many of those as you can? So that today, every moment, you could live for the praise of God and the pleasure of God. It says in Ephesians that we should find out what pleases the Lord and do it. Please Him, and do you think that He will let you in on His pleasure here on Earth? A little bit. He'll give you a sense of the Holy Spirit inside you, comforting you saying “Good job, keep going.” But it's not the full pleasure yet. You'll see that in heaven and He'll just open wide at that point and show you His pleasure in the life you've lived. That's the reward. And Jesus does not want you to lose one of them. Not one of those moments does He want you to lose. He wants you to have it all. And so He wants to protect you and so He's going to protect you from materialism here, next week from anxiety. And why does He protect you? It is because materialism and anxiety cause you to turn away from the Kingdom of Heaven and start working on earthly things. And you will waste that time; that section of your life will be barren of fruits. He does not want that to happen. And so He says in Verse 22, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good [or single], your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Jesus here talks about the single eye. Now is this a warning for Christians? Yes, it is. It is a warning for those who are members of the Kingdom of Heaven, who are disciples, that we should not have a "double eye". It says in the NIV, if your eyes are good, a better translation would be if your eye is single, if you have a focus, a concentrated focus. And Jesus does not want us, His disciples, to waste our time, to waste our resources on anything less than the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you remember the story of Rumpelstiltskin? Rumpelstiltskin, that weird, twisted little man in, I think it's a Grimm's Fairy Tale. And there was this miller who had a daughter and he boasted about his daughter that she was able to... You remember what she could do? Turn straw into gold. Well, it couldn't be done, and so she was locked up in a room full of straw and she had to turn it into gold. She didn't know how to do it. And then Rumpelstiltskin pops up and says, “I know how to do it. I know how to turn straw into gold. But you have to give me your first born.” Remember that whole story? Well, I'd like to not focus on the issue of Rumpelstiltskin, but the issue of turning straw into gold. That's the way I look at it. Every moment, this day is given to me, and I can turn it up into something eternal. Some reward for God. Anything, any moment, an interaction with a Non-Christian at Kroger, I can talk to them about God. And it's just a regular interaction unless I redeem it and turn it into something. Paul says that we should redeem the time because the days are what? They're evil. And so it's kind of like you are given a bunch of straw, and God, supernaturally, asks you to weave them into heavenly gold. By His Spirit, you can do it. Every moment can be used, if you take it and live it for God. You say, “God, what do You want me to do today? What do You want me to do as I walk into Kroger? What do You want me to do as I walk into church? What do You want me to do now that I've woken up this morning? What should I do?” “Live for Me. Do what I command you to do. Walk with Me and you'll turn the straw of moment by moment by moment, into heavenly gold, which can never be taken away from you.” But the problem is materialism, it creeps in. In Matthew 13, in the Parable of the Seed and the Soils, it says, "The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful." Oh, that you would not be unfruitful! Do you know it is possible to be a Christian and be unfruitful? Oh, that you would not be unfruitful. But, did you hear what it said? It said the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. Isn't that Matthew six in reverse order? We get to the deceitfulness of wealth first. We get to the worries of this life next. Both of them choke out the seed so that it is not fruitful. Both of them choke it out. I don't know much about gardening except this, I can kill anything. There's no plant that I'm not fully capable of killing. I even once killed a cactus. I don't know how you can do it, but when I got it I did some various things. I don't know if I over-watered it, under-watered it, put it in the... I don't know. But I've been told it's very difficult to kill a cactus. But I did it. But at any rate, I asked somebody recently, “Alright I don't know that much about gardening, what is it about? Why do we need to weed a garden?” He said, "Well, we weed a garden so that it looks good.” No, no, no, you don't weed the garden so the garden looks good. You weed the garden because the weeds soak up nutrients and water that are meant for the plants. It's a waste, a waste of resources. Furthermore, according to the parable, the thorns grow up and choke out the plant. In other words, the thorns get bigger, and they block the sun, so that the sun can't get through. It's just a total waste of resources. And so there's no fruitfulness. There’s no water and nutrients flowing through the vines into the tomato, or into whatever it is you're growing. There's no fruit. Worries of this life, deceitfulness of wealth choke it. Why? Because you then turn and start putting your resources towards something that is not the Kingdom of Heaven. You are wasting your life. And therefore there's no fruit. And so Jesus says, "I want you to have a single eye." Do you remember back in 1992 in Barcelona? Do you remember the big Olympic flame? Do you remember how it was lit? Do you remember? There was an archer. And do you remember that man, I think he was Spanish, and he had some problem walking, but he was an incredibly skillful archer. And the only thing that I remember was that he pulled that thing back, the camera focused in on his face, and the concentration was incredible. So also was the pressure. How many people do you think were watching that guy shoot that arrow? Would you like to shoot an arrow high up across something and three billion people be watching you? And if you miss, left or right, boy, it doesn't look too good. So he concentrated with a single eye on the target. And it flew over there and hit just beautifully, it was just perfect. You remember that, the flight of that arrow, just beautiful. Well, Jesus is calling on us to have a single focus, a single eye, The Kingdom of Heaven. We'll talk about it next week. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. Single focus protects you from loss. So does a focus on a single master. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” You have to choose. Both money and God force the choice. Ultimately, God is a jealous God. He is going to crowd out everything that's not God. Money is a jealous god. It will crowd out God from you. You have to choose. And so the issue again comes to the heart. “Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Materialism chokes out love for God. You love your house, you're living for your house, you're living for your career, or you're living for anything earthly. It chokes out love for God and love for His Kingdom. VI. Application: Stewardship of the Heart So what is the application for us? It is very plainly, a matter of stewardship. Each one of you is a steward. You are a servant committed to watch over certain resources. The resources are, some of them intrinsic to who you are, your good clear mind, your physical body and strength, your gifts, your spiritual gifts, all these things have been committed to you temporarily. They are yours for a little while. On judgement day, God is going to want them back, so give them back. And then let's see what you did with them. He's going to demand an accounting from you. And judgement day is coming very soon and Jesus wants to protect you from loss on that day. Now, the ultimate loss is the loss of your soul. I've been saying, and I'll say it for the third time, good works never pay for sin. They never pay for sin because God expects them anyway. There is only one thing that can wash away sin and that is faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. But once you have faith in Jesus Christ and you start storing up works, Jesus wants to protect you from loss. Protect you from loss through hypocrisy, namely doing good deeds to be seen by men. We don't want to lose it. We don't want Jesus to say, "Truly, I have said to you, you have received your reward in full." He protects us from loss from hypocrisy. Also loss from materialism, that we're taking and wasting our lives building a bigger house, building a bigger this, bigger that; bigger barns to store up more. What a waste. He's protecting us from loss through materialism. Next week He'll protect us from loss through anxiety. But He wants us to have our full reward. And so, what you need to do is take an inventory of your resources. Take an inventory of who you are yourself, personally. What has God given to you? And what spiritual gift has He given to you? What time does He give to you? He has not promised any one of you tomorrow, has He? You have today. Serve God today fully, and then by His grace, He'll give you another day if He wills. Serve Him again tomorrow, with your time. And take your talents, each one of them, and use them for the glory of God, for the building of His Kingdom. Take your treasure, your money, and use it for the building of the glory of God, for His Kingdom. Now serving God very practically in a local church takes time, doesn't it? There'll be people, your brothers and sisters here calling you, and encouraging you to teach in the Sunday school program. You shouldn’t answer quickly. Pray about it. There'll be other people who will be challenging you to serve in other ways, with the outreach ministry for example, or with hospitality in some way. Maybe you have a gift of administration. Don't answer quickly. Eternal reward is hanging in the balance. What will you spend your time on this week, this month, this year? Will you spend it building the Kingdom of God? If so, you're going to do it in a local church just like this one. So take these matters and pray over them and make sure that you don't suffer the loss that Jesus is trying to protect you from. That on judgement day, He will say to you time, and time, and time, and time again, "Well done, good and faithful servant, [well done, that was well done. Praise goes to you, because you lived faithfully.]" And you give it right back to Him and say, "God, through your strength, you enabled me to live faithfully". Let's pray.