Podcast appearances and mentions of christ well

Sermon Series: The Return of the King: The Gospel and the Future Sermon Text: 2 Thessalonians 3:1-15 Sermon Title: “The Right & Wrong Way to Wait on Christ's Return” Sermon Slides: SLIDE 1 – Sermon Title Slide SLIDE 2 – Today's Big Idea: Waiting on Christ, Should Sanctify Us in Christ. So, We Wait Well … When We Fervently Pray and We Faithfully Work. SLIDE 3 – Point 1: We Wait for Christ Well … by Fervently Praying to God for His Church (vv. 1-5) SLIDE 4 – Gordon Fee (1934-2022) – “The word ‘finally' has been suggested … [to be] a movement toward secondary matters, it is much more likely, in light of Paul's later habits … he has saved the final word for the matter that concerns him [most].” SLIDE 5 – Ephesians 2:19-21 – “So then … you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” SLIDE 6 – Matthew 13:1-9 – “Jesus … told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up … but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” SLIDE 7 – 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 – “For we know, brothers … that [God] has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction … you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia … your faith in God has gone forth everywhere … how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God … and to wait for his Son from heaven.” SLIDE 8 – Insert Copy of Point #1 of Sermon SLIDE 9 – Isaiah 55:10-11 – “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” SLIDE 10 – Luke 18:2-8 – “[Jesus] said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice …'' And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? … Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” SLIDE 11 – Insert Copy of Point #1 of Sermon SLIDE 12 – Point 2: We Wait for Christ Well … by Faithfully Working with God in His Church (vv. 6-15) SLIDE 13 – John 14:6 – “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” SLIDE 14 – Matthew 11:28-29 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” SLIDE 14 – Matthew 28:19-20 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” SLIDE 15 – Insert Copy of Point #2 of Sermon SLIDE 16 – Proverbs 14:23 – “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” SLIDE 17 – Insert Copy of Point #2 of Sermon SLIDE 18 – Four Uses of This Sermon for Our Church and Lives. SLIDE 19 – When We Don't Wait Well on Christ … What Shows is a Wrong Mentality. SLIDE 20 – When We Don't Wait Well on Christ … What Shows is a Deficient Theology. SLIDE 21 – James 2:17 – “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” SLIDE 22 – 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 – “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” SLIDE 23 – Spiritual Rest and Spiritual Idleness … Are Different Things. SLIDE 24 – When We Wait Well on Christ … What Grows is a Steadfast, Confident, Expectant Love for Jesus!

Ephesians 2: 4 " But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.."Two things here:1) God has GREAT love for us- so much so that He sent His son to die for our sins2) We are made ALIVE in Jesus even in our sin!!Be encouraged by this woman of God!! You are loved! And there is freedom in Jesus! Boom!✨Come hang with me on IG- https://www.instagram.com/mrsangelapitnikoff/✨Join our FB sisterhood!- https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingdomdaughterssisterhood✨Be more amazing and leave a review!- https://lovethepodcast.com/LoHGyj✨Want some fun free resources? Click here- www.thekingdomdaughters.com✨ Connect with me! thekingdomdaughterspodcast@gmail.com 

Date: May 8, 2022 Title: Honor Those Who Serve Christ Well Text: Philippians 2:19-30 Series: Philippians Preacher: Rod Montgomery

Today's episode is just simply meditating and reflecting on Psalm 139. Key focus: v23 “Search me, O God and know my heart:try me and know my thoughts.❤️

Today's episode is just simply meditating and reflecting on Psalm 139. Key focus: v23 “Search me, O God and know my heart:try me and know my thoughts.❤️

Today's episode is just simply meditating and reflecting on Psalm 139. Key focus: v23 “Search me, O God and know my heart:try me and know my thoughts.❤️

Today's episode is just simply meditating and reflecting on Psalm 139. Key focus: v23 “Search me, O God and know my heart:try me and know my thoughts.❤️

Today's episode is just simply meditating and reflecting on Psalm 139. Key focus: v23 “Search me, O God and know my heart:try me and know my thoughts.❤️

Today's episode is just simply meditating and reflecting on Psalm 139. Key focus: v23 “Search me, O God and know my heart:try me and know my thoughts.❤️

When you give your life to Jesus, you must represent Him well to the world.  We are living in a time where many politicians, journalists, judges, etc. don’t represent Christ.  As followers of Jesus, we must be a light to the world. Ministry site: www.kingdomencounters.us Are you living as an ambassador to the world around you? Right now, is a time where fear is celebrated, let the body of Christ rise up and celebrate the hope of world, Jesus! We are going to preach Jesus to as many people as we can.  We are going after a billion souls in Jesus name.  Colossians 3:17 says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." There has never been a window in history like the one we are living in now.  Amid anger, hopelessness, despair, fighting, tension, let us rise above the world and show them the Lord. Stay tuned for encouragement for the body of Christ. Stay connected through Evangelist Caleb’s social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalebWampler/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/evangelistcalebwampler

0 (1s): We got some worshipers ready in the room, man. I love it. Let's all stand together around campus. If you're able to hello to everyone who's watching from home, we welcome you. It's good to be together. Harvest Church and worship the Lord together this morning. So thanks for being with us wherever you're watching or tuning in. 1 (22s): Let's 0 (22s): Just take a moment and center our hearts on him this morning. Would you pray with me before? 1 (28s): Okay. 0 (31s): We just ask for your presence to be in our midst, or we know that when we gather in your name, you promise to come. And so we just make space for you this morning in our hearts and our homes in this place. So come and have your way. Holy spirit. 1 (49s): We welcome you. We want you need you. Let me choose to praise you this morning. Tap 0 (58s): Into the well that never runs dry. 1 (1m 2s): Meet us in 0 (1m 3s): This place this morning. We love you Lord in Jesus 1 (1m 5s): Name. Amen. 1 (1m 9s): yes. 1 (10m 19s): We just declare your praise this morning. Thank you for everything you've done for us. Thank you. That you're the guy who makes a way through the desert pathways through the sea. For us. You are here. You are here working in this place. 1 (10m 58s): you were here. 1 (11m 8s): 0 (11m 57s): I in the dark. Oh my God. 1 (12m 1s): 0 (13m 56s): I don't see it to work. And even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop and never stop work. And it never stopped. He never stopped. Or even when I don't see it Joburg even may not feel it again. You never stop. You never stop. You never stop in 1 (14m 23s): yes. 1 (16m 17s): That's our guy. Thank you. Jesus. Put our hope in you. God. When everything else is shifting sand, we know 0 (16m 28s): That we can depend on you. We can lean into 1 (16m 30s): You. You are our hope, our foundation. 0 (16m 40s): Thank you for your presence here. Just pray that there wouldn't be any heart. Leave this place without knowing your love, knowing your healing, knowing your reading 1 (16m 50s): Damn shit, your freedom, your mercy. Let it flow through our hearts. Today. We 0 (17m 0s): All stand in need of a savior this 1 (17m 3s): Morning. Thank you. And we 0 (17m 6s): Can receive the gift that you gave so freely. 1 (17m 11s): You don't have to jump through hoops. We just have to receive it. 0 (17m 17s): So the receive the love of the father today, 1 (17m 26s): Maybe 0 (17m 27s): Some of you this morning that just really need that word. Just receive the love of the father. 1 (17m 35s): he loves, he loves you completely 0 (17m 46s): Not because of what you've done. Just you're his sons and daughters, sons and daughters. Yes. So we do receive your lap this morning. Thank you for your presence here. We don't take it for granted. When you come and you meet with us, you speak to our hearts, that manna for today that our soul desperately needs. And we look forward to these times. We get to be together in your presence as brothers and sisters and be reminded of your faithfulness towards us. 0 (18m 31s): Amen. Amen. So good family to worship together. Let's take a few moments just to greet someone around you and say hello. We're going to be back here in just a few moments with some announcements that stick around. 2 (18m 48s): Hi. Good morning. Good morning. 0 (18m 56s): Good morning. Church 2 (18m 60s): All right. You guys are routing today. Y'all rowdy. All right. If you guys can take a seat. Hello. Church my name is Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and what I need is everybody to free up your hand. So two hands, give me two hands. All right. Two hands. This is, this is going to bring you back to Sunday school day. All right. Do you ans interlock your fingers like this? We go like this. Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the doors and you see all the people are right. So that's what we were taught, but is the, Church this, the building now the church is us. The people, this is the church. 2 (19m 41s): So I'm so glad to be joining with you guys here. Welcome if you're joining us for the first time. If you're joining us in person or sorry, online, we're glad to have you as well, but this is the Church. I'm gonna pull the scout. Oh, that's loud. Sorry. We we're just glad that you're joining us here. If you're joining us for the first time, we have a gift for you just to go swing by the info station and grab your gifts and yeah. Fill out info cards so we can learn more about you, find out your story and get connected in that way. Hope we're glad you're here and glad you joined us. So we have a, we have a website as well as a app for your phone. 2 (20m 21s): So those are just other ways to get connected and plugged in. We have a celebration of life for Dave Fletcher. Dave Fletcher passed away earlier this year. The COVID times have been really strange. So we're, we're going to finally have a celebration of life coming up here, November 7th at 1:00 PM. And that will be here at Church and all are welcome for that as well. There there'll be a reception to follow on the patio. So come celebrate Dave Fletcher and his Life. Another way to serve is, is our Thanksgiving food basket collection. We are gathering up Christmas or, sorry, not Christmas. Not yet. We're gonna have Thanksgiving dinners for those in our community that are in need. 2 (21m 4s): And so th we're collection items kind of a specific list. So that's sent out in the weekly email as well as you can get that information on at the info station, but there's some specific items that we're looking for. You can pick up that there and donations. We're trying to collect them by November 15th, so you can drop those off at the info center or at the Church office. And then, you know, Jesus talk a lot about leadership, but specifically servant leadership. The greatest way to lead was to be a servant leader. And so there's some awesome ways to plug in and to serve in the life of our church. A few of those are the welcome team, cleaning team, kids, ministry team, as well as safety team. So those are some ways to plug in, to get connected to our church, as well as we are going to be starting up some Life groups in January. 2 (21m 52s): And so if you're interested in hosting at your house, a Life group, it's a great way to serve others, go to the info station and sign up for that as well. With that, I want to invite up Sherrilyn she's going to come and announce the sisterhood night of worship. 0 (22m 8s): Thank you, Jeremy. Awesome. So I just have a special invite for all the ladies in the house. We're going to have a special gathering called the sisterhood night of worship, and we're going to be doing some sisterhood nights, hopefully quarterly coming up this fall and then through the new year. And we just like it to be all generations kind of gathering together. So we're inviting gals from grade school to grandma's and everything in between. And we just want to rub shoulders together as young women and older women. And when we can all learn from each other, come here in the sanctuary Friday night, November 13th at 6:30 PM. And we're going to gather and worship, hear a testimony, kind of get vision cast for the new year together as Harvest women. And then we're going to have an after party in the Life. 0 (22m 49s): There's going to be lots of fun. There's gonna be door prizes and all kinds of things. They're not gonna wanna miss it. So you can RSVP to just help us out, go to the website, AIG harvest.org/sisterhood. And you can find us there. Some of you might've got a card on the way in, if you didn't stop by the info center and you can get a little invite card or even grab extras to hand out to your friends, be sure to pass it on and invite all your neighbors and friends. Can't wait to see you there. 3 (23m 17s): Chapter three today, turn to Colossus chapter three. As you came in today, you probably notice that the property is torn up and have we got, we got plumbing issues galore. We had a person from the city come and talk to us about 10 days ago. And they said, Hey, you're blowing through thousands of gallons of water and we need to turn off your water. So we had the water turned off and we got a leak detection company out there. And they literally, they were able to detect the leak and draw a square on the black top about the size of this podium. And they said, that's where your leak is. And so we got a plumber out there and he cut into the black top and sure enough, our water main is busted as well as our sewage drain. 3 (24m 1s): So sewage main is busted as well. So we're the process of getting that fixed. And so hopefully we'll get that done and get the bathrooms reopened and get water back on. And we're at we're out of coffee because we had to have coffee made outside of the area outside of our church. And so we're running into all kinds of snags and they were having technical difficulties on top of that, but that's all right, we're going to get through the day by God's grace. And by next week, I think the bathrooms are going to be open. We're going to have plenty of coffee and the words to the, to the songs are going to be up on the screen. Does that sound good? Gotta deal. Okay. Sounds good. That'll be the plan before we turn into cautious chapter three, you've got a couple of jokes for you. You guys ready for a couple of jokes here? I've got a short one and another short one. 3 (24m 42s): Did you hear that the Energizer bunny got arrested? He was charged with battery. 4 (24m 51s): So that 3 (24m 51s): Came from Emily, a little young gal, about 10 or 12 years old and our Church. And so she gets five bucks. Cause I said last week that if you give me a joke that I use, that I actually use on Sunday morning, I'll give you five bucks. So somebody told me a pretty bad joke after first service that I will not be using. So that person will not be getting five bucks. So that five bucks is not guaranteed, but one more joke. And this also came from somebody in our church. Did you hear that Washington DC was so cold yesterday that we actually saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets. 4 (25m 25s): So I know it's, it's, it's the season. It's the season to vote. 3 (25m 34s): That actually came from my wife so that she gets five bucks. 4 (25m 39s): Yeah. So it is 3 (25m 42s): The time devotes. Probably a lot of us have already voted, but get out there and vote by Tuesday, November 3rd. And then we'll just trust the Lord for the outcome. It it's. We can trust the Lord. Amen. No matter what happens on Tuesday and following, we can trust the Lord Colossians chapter three, the title of the message today. New Life, Equals New Perspective how many could use a Perspective shift in the course of their life? Like, like we need a new set of lenses from time to time. I know when I started wearing glasses, I was so like I realized I couldn't see before and I get new glasses on and I'm like, wow, I can actually, I can actually see. And anytime I have to go back to the doctor and get new lenses, I'm always surprised at how bad my vision has gotten with those old set of glasses. 3 (26m 27s): We just need a new set of lenses from time to time to see things with crystal clarity, American pastor Rick Warren said he used to think that life was a series of battles. Life was a series of battles followed by times of blessings. That makes sense. But he's come to realize that Life is actually on two tracks. One track is blessing and the, the other is battle and they run concurrently blessings and battles run concurrently. We, we endure both. We put up with both by God's grace. And as we look at the scripture today, God's going to challenge us. 3 (27m 7s): And as we look at our lives today, God is going to challenge us. And the challenge is too find the blessing in the midst of the battle. I was just talking with somebody after first service and we've got a couple in our church. You've got a downs boy who they've who's about 25 now. And, and it is a 24 seven job. And as I thought about that, I thought, where do you find the blessing in that battle? Right? I mean, it's just a tough, tough life to be true on 24 seven caring for precious, a young man with down syndrome. But I know this couple well enough. If I were to ask them that question, they would say there's been blessings upon blessings upon blessings because of God's faithfulness over these last 25 years. 3 (27m 51s): And I think that's, that's true of all of us. We can all point to seasons of our lives, where things have been just really difficult, but God, but God has been faithful to show himself strong on our behalf. Yeah. Faithful to meet our needs in time of need. He's been faithful to you be there when we've absolutely desperately needed him to be there. Blessings and battles run concurrently. Your life can be filled with blessings, but the battles don't let up. We need a new Perspective. We need a new perspective. New life in Christ. Equals New Perspective it means this means that as, as a born again, person, you have the CA to see life through a new lens. 3 (28m 34s): And so I just really want you to do that today and begin to do that today. And then if you are having a hard time doing that, just ask the Lord, say, God, I need a new lens. I need a new perspective because Life right now is, is challenging. Some things have come up that have been unexpected things. Haven't worked out quite the way that I thought they would work out. I need a break. New Perspective the battles may come, but your life in Christ is born. Do you guys believe that? Do you believe that? If you're not, if you're not a Christian here today, I just want to make that promise to you that when the battles CA, when you're in Christ, your life is blessed. God will bless your life. He will take care of you, right? We may face battles, but God is with you with us. 3 (29m 16s): We may go through hard times, but God is faithful times may be lean financially, but I love what King David said. He said, I've been young and now I'm old now, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begging bread. He has seen the faithfulness of God. So you can have that same confidence that King David had thousands of years ago. He saw the faithfulness of God. Then we can see the faithfulness of God now because Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so he's reliable forever and ever a man New Life Equals New Perspective Colossians chapter three, verse one says this since you have been raised to new life with Christ, how many of you that you've been raised to new life with Christ since you had been raised to new life with Christ sets your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. 3 (30m 9s): So we've been raised to new life. How have we been raised to new life in Christ? Well, we can go back to Colossus chapter two, verses 12 and 13. And it helps us to understand how we've been raised to new life in Christ. This is what Clausius chapter two verses 12 and 13 says for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. So baptism is a picture of being buried with Christ and with him, you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. We talked last week about spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of our carnal nature. That's what we talked about last week and go back and listen to that message for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him, you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised him from the dead. 3 (30m 57s): You were dead, spiritually, dead, separated from God. You were spiritually dead because of your sins because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all your sins that should in itself lift a burden off of us. The fact that our sins have been completely forgiven, that everything that we've ever done wrong has been eliminated from our record. He has expunged our record. He has forgiven all of our sins in Christ. You have been buried with him in baptism and raised to new life because you trusted him. God made you alive with Christ. When he forgave your sins, we read in Romans six, five through 10. 3 (31m 39s): It says this. Since we've been United with him in his death, you will also be raised to life as he is. We know that our old sinful cells were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. Some of us need to hear that we feel at times like we are slaves to the bad things that we do, but God has declared that if we're in Christ, we're no longer slaves to sin. That means we've had this spiritual circumcision. Our carnal nature has been cut out of us and that we, we have the power, like God, over God's power in us to overcome sin and to stand firm in him as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (32m 21s): For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure this because Christ was raised from the dead and he will never die. Again. Death, no longer has any power over him. Verse 10, when he died, died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus, same N your new life is actually hidden, encapsulated in Christ. When the father looks at you, he sees you the righteousness of God. 3 (33m 2s): He sees the purity of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He sees us that our sins are forgiven and that we've been adopted into the family of God. And that we're blameless before him because, because God is good. Not because we're good. Your new life is hidden in Christ. Your new identity is Christ. Some of us need to hear that. I needed to hear that this week is because I was kind of evaluating my life and thinking about things that I didn't get done or haven't gotten done yet. I thought, man, if I failed in these areas of my life, are there some things I want to see happen in my life in ministry? If I failed in these areas and I started to feel bad about these things, and I realized, well, I asked myself the question, why do I feel so bad about these areas, these things? 3 (33m 44s): And I thought, well, because my identity is wrapped up. My identity is wrapped up in these things and instead of Christ. So I realized that I needed to confess that repent of that and make sure that my identity is found in Christ so that it doesn't matter how big the church is or how small the church is. It doesn't matter what problems we come up against in a family and our family doesn't matter what our kids go through. It doesn't matter. What, what things look like on the outside. My identity is in Christ. And with that, I have great confidence. Amen. You know, all, all kinds of things can become our identity. Our past failures, past mistakes, past, past, it's usually things in the past, things that happened in our past, they become our identity. 3 (34m 27s): They begin to define us. If we're not careful, let the crucifixion of Christ define you, let the power of the resurrected savior. Define you. Let the reality that he is forgiven your sins, define you. That let the reality that you've been adopted into his family and that you are loved just the way you are. Let that define who you are as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And then when you do that, everything else just begins to fade. Oh way, your sins are forgiven because of price. And your new life is hidden in, in Christ. I want this new identity to penetrate your body, soul, and spirit. That means your total being Bible says that we're body, soul, and spirit. 3 (35m 7s): So this new identity needs to penetrate needs to, we need to be convinced on every level that this is our new identity. Colossians three, two says that that our thoughts should actually change as a result of this new life, this new identity, Colossians three, two says this. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. Think about the things that haven't not the things of earth. So the things of heaven are, are good. And they're eternal. You think about the joy that heaven's going to be the peace that heaven's going to be. Think about health in heaven. There's not going to be any sickness in heaven. 3 (35m 47s): So thinking about the eternal things in heaven, things on earth are temporal. Anxiety is temporal. War is temporal. Sickness is temporal. Think about w w when we think about, when we think only about this, Life, we're left with fear. But when we think about the reality of heaven, we have confidence. When I think about heaven in light of all of the challenges that we go through on, on, in this life, I think God is on the throne. God is on the throne. Matter what happens on Tuesday, who's still on the throne, got us all on the throne. So we, we, we vote our conscience, hopefully according to biblical our biblical awareness and instruction. 3 (36m 32s): But at the end of the day, we can believe that God is on the throne. We can believe that God has overcome, that he has defeated the enemy. Verse three, Colossians three says for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, your real life. Sometimes we can't get past this ex this current Life. We think this is the a real thing. Listen, this is a brief time. These 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, a hundred years that we get here in the earth, whatever they may be. They are a little line in the long line of eternity. Think about eternity. It never ends. And so this brief time that we have on the earth, the thing that we feel is so real is actually not as real as eternity. 3 (37m 17s): And so what we do in this life echoes into eternity. What we do in this life impacts eternity, and that people are saved or not based on how we've lived our lives. We receive rewards or not based on how we live our lives here on the earth. We're saved by grace, but God has given us responsibility, sees our gifts and our talents much like Jeremy was talking about using our gifts and talents for his kingdom purposes. For you died to this life in your real life. Your real life is hidden with Christ in God, maybe as you're going through difficult times, you can say, Lord, I, I feel like I'm way too caught up in this life, in this little slice that I'm living right now. 3 (37m 57s): Lord, give me a kingdom perspective and eternal perspective and help me to think about eternity and how, how my life right now can impact eternity can impact somebody else's eternity can impact somebody else's life. And Lord help me to live there in that place for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, where all your sins are forgiven, where you have eternal life. That again, this Life is only temporal, a better life, awaits you. One commentator wrote the word hidden that our life is hidden in Christ. The word hidden implies both concealment and safety, both in visibility and security. You're not glorified yet, but you're safe and secure in Christ. 3 (38m 39s): The Bible says we're going to be glorified with him. What, when, when will we be glorified? Well, when Christ appears after rapture, believers will appear with him and be glorified. We read about that in a first Thessalonians four chapter chapter four verses 16 through 18. It says this for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shouts. Isn't not going to be a good day with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up, caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 3 (39m 19s): Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. Listen, when that happens, everything that we've gone through here in the earth will pale. It's going to be like, that was no big deal. He is suffering difficulty. It all pales in comparison to what will happen when we are raptured and caught up with the Lord in the sky, black back to Colossians three, verse four, it says. And when Christ, who is your life is revealed 5 (39m 44s): The whole world you will share in all his glory. 3 (39m 48s): New Life, Equals, New Perspective 5 (39m 52s): Number one in our notes. Number one we need, 3 (39m 55s): Yeah. Think about the things of heaven. More than the things 5 (39m 59s): Of the earth easier said than done, right? 3 (40m 5s): We need to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of earth, not easy, but doable. What's most naturally consumes our thoughts in this life. What most naturally, like when we're just not like in a spiritual place, but we're just in this normal place that's maybe carnal or whatever. What, what most naturally consumes our thoughts in this Life I wrote down a few things, 5 (40m 26s): Fear, fear just naturally wants to creep in right at every turn 3 (40m 31s): There's fear that wants to creep in, and then there's anxiety. And then there's the future. That's my list. Those are the things that naturally want to creep in when I'm not on guard. How about, how about yours? What's what's your list, as you think about that, let's work off my list because I think it probably has a lot to do with your list. Most what most consumes my thoughts when I'm in a bad place, will fear, fear about what fear about money. Anybody have thoughts about that fear about the Church fear about family, and then there's anxiety over decisions, uncertainties the unknown. Then there's the future retirement finishing. Well, et cetera. We've got all of these fears and anxieties about the unknown and the future is a big part of that retirement finishing well, et cetera. 3 (41m 17s): I've realized that most of these things I can do very little about, I can do very little about most of these things when I'm in a good place spiritually, when I'm got my mind fixed on Christ. And I'm thinking more about heaven than I'm thinking about the earth, what most consumes my thoughts then? Well, what most consumes my thoughts when I'm in a good place is, Hey, I'm going to heaven. So everything else pales in comparison to that, I'm going to heaven. And I want to take as many people with me as possible. So that's why I do what I do. I want to go to heaven and take as many people with me as possible. But at the end of the day, when my head's in a good place and when my heart's in the right place with the Lord, I know that God will take care of all my needs. 3 (41m 58s): Right. I know that God loves me. And I know that God knows all things. We were, we got that cough or the visit from the city. And then we had the plumber come out and he said, the plumber said, you know, it can be 50 or $60,000 to fix this problem that you have, have I said, okay. And I just said, well, let's just, you know, kind of continue to explore and see if that's really the case. So I really, I, I was, I was in, I was surprised by my lack of anxiety around that, because what I've seen with the Lord over the, over these last 17 years at the church, almost 18 years of the church has been going in the last 40 years that I've been walking with the Lord in the last 30 years of marriage and raising family. 3 (42m 44s): I've always seen the faithfulness of the Lord. Not because I'm good, but because he's good, he's just faithful with his family, with his people. And so as we hear this, we're like, wow, that's a lot of money, but if that's what it's going to cost, and that's what it's going to cost, and we'll be able to take care of that. And that's just the B it'll be what it'll be. We'll just trust the Lord. Right? So we just, the plumbers, who's a Christian. He said, why don't you pray and ask the Lord to make this not so bad. And, and we'll just see what the Lord does tomorrow when we re-investigate this whole thing. So we came back to the next day and I get here and they've been working for about 30 minutes. By the time I get here. And he said, you know what? You must have been praying all that long because now it's not going to be 50 or $60,000. It's only gonna be about a $10,000 bill right now. 3 (43m 26s): If you were to hit me with $10,000 in the beginning, it would've been like, wow, that's a lot of money. But when you can, when you're thinking about comparing it to 50 or $60,000, it's not that big of a deal. Right. That's Robin probably why he did it. Yeah. And so now we're just like, okay, we're going to get a whole new water line. New new sewage. It's all going to be good for the next foreseeable future. And it's only going to cost us $10,000. Now we'll probably have a $10,000 water bill as well, because we were going through thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons of water, the water, we were wondering where the water was going, because nothing was bubbling up. Nothing was surfacing. We didn't have any wet spots or anything. So we realized that the water main was lost it right next to the sewer main bust. 3 (44m 9s): And so all of the water from the water main was going right into the sewer. Yeah. And then interesting. So we, we, could've had a lot more damage if water was coming up and causing flooding and buildings or wherever, but even in, in, in that we could see the hand of the Lord protecting us. It's not going to be 50 or $60,000. It's going to be about 10,000 plus maybe another 10,000 water bill. But, but God has been faithful. I told that to Ron. And he said, well, thank God. We've got some extra money right now. We can take care of that. And we just, we, we, when we've got an eternal heavens heavenly Perspective, we can trust God for whatever goes sideways in our lives. 3 (44m 50s): We, we can believe God for what he wants to do in our lives. So when my head's in the right place and when I'm trusting the Lord, I know that God will take care of all of my needs. I know that God loves me. Isn't that good news. God loves me. He need to say that because it's true of you as well. God loves me. God loves me. That's an important thing. And God knows the result. The first list, fear, anxiety, the unknown of the future brings heartburn. Right? When I think about those things, it just gives me heartburn. 3 (45m 32s): And the results of the second list brings peace. The Shalom of God. So we have to intentionally change our thinking. We have to intentionally change our perspective. The reality of the new life needs to impact our body, soul, and spirit. The reality of our new identity in Christ needs to impact our total being so that we were thinking differently about the problems that we face. The obstacles that are before us, our whole being should be different as a result of our new life, our new identity in Christ. So again, we have to intentionally change our thinking so that we are thinking more about heaven than this earth. What might change if we're thinking more about heaven than the earth? 3 (46m 13s): Well, again, peace instead of heartburn, I could use some of that. Amen. We could all use some of that. We'll probably spend our time differently. Maybe not work as much because we're not so anxious about the future anxious about resources. So maybe we don't work as much. And we spend more time in kingdom work, mission strips ministry in the church ministry to our neighbors, et cetera. Maybe we use our talents differently. We use our talents to instead of, to work and make money or to serve our own personal needs. We use our talents to serve God, to help others and to help and to help serve others. We'll probably use our resources differently as well, helping others giving to the work of the ministry and the church or missions or food pantries or the homeless, et cetera. 3 (46m 59s): We have a food pantry here. And I was just curious, what was going on during this whole pandemic? What are we doing? Are we still actively serving people? And we've had conversations about that. And just out of the blue, I ran into the people who are doing the food pantry at our church. And I asked him, I said, can you just give me a list? Because they were talking about some of the stuff they were doing. I say, can you just give me a list of all of the things that we're doing as a food pantry ministry? So I wanted to talk about this because in a time when we could be hunkered down and fearful and staying away from people, this is stretching outside their boundaries and actually serving a lot of people in their time of need. So this is what they wrote. 5 (47m 37s): I said, just bullet pointed. So bold 3 (47m 39s): Bullet point it for me so that I can know what we're doing. And so I can share it with the Church. So this is why they said we're picking up food and delivering it to over a hundred people, weekly, a hundred people, weekly families and elderly up from 15 in the last six weeks. So they've gone. CA maybe six weeks ago, they were doing this with 15 people. Now they're up to over a hundred people. They're providing food for a captive hearts ministries. When they have access, they're collecting canned goods and 25 turkeys to hand out to current families and households that we support weekly. We're partnering with the foster youth program to support foster families with food for Thanksgiving alongside. 3 (48m 20s): And I love this part alongside with grace Bible and the salvation army. So grace Bible and AIG Harvest Church and salvation army, or I'll call elaborating working together. Why? Because we're all one, Church no matter where we meet we're all the body of Christ. And so we're collaborating, working together to meet the needs of those in our community. We continue to feed Church members who call an advance or show up on Thursdays. And then they said, we will be collect. We will be collecting funds and handing out gift cards on November 21st at grace Bible to the foster families who sign up for the holiday program, the event will be advertised on KSB Y and the foster youth website. 3 (49m 0s): And thanks to our sponsors, including Harvest Church in the village. So we get to help sponsor all of that good work, because people are using their resources, their time, talent, and treasure to step outside of their fearful little bubbles, maybe that they're in and say, Hey, we want, we know that there's people in need, and we need to serve those people in need, blessings and battles, run concurrently. 5 (49m 23s): Instead 3 (49m 23s): Of hunkering down, there are people who are really working to serve the needs of the people around them. I wonder how that might be speaking to us as a church. I mean, we're part of that, but in our own sphere, in our own neighborhoods, I wonder if there are people that God would ask us to serve the COVID battle is real, but so was the opportunity to bless others during this time. New Life, Equals, New Perspective number one. We need you to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. What does God want from you during this time, during this COVID time, some of us are using it as an excuse to stay home from church and stay home from other important responsibilities. 3 (50m 4s): And, and God's wanting to kind of change our perspective. He's wanting to kind of change our lens and help us to see that there are things that we can be doing to be a blessing. Even during this time, I promise whatever God asks of you. It will be followed by blessings. Anytime we're obedient, obedient to the Lord, there's a blessing that follows, but we have to battle through some stuff to get to the blessing. So put to death, the sinful earthly things lurking within your, in verse five. So put to death, the sinful earthly things lurking within you. What are those sinful earthly things? Lurking. I just wrote down fear and faithlessness. Anything of the flesh. 3 (50m 44s): We need to put those things to death. And then verse five continues. Having nothing, have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world. And I'll just say, if God doesn't have access to your money, then money might be your God and you can't serve God and money. So if you're hunkered down, holding onto all of your resources, because you're fearful, you can trust the Lord, give where the Lord asks you to give, give faithfully and watch what God will do to bless your life. There are people around you who will be blessed by your generosity. 3 (51m 25s): Amen. Amen. I don't get a lot of amens when I start talking about money, but I talk about it anyway. From time to time, verse six says because of the, he sends the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when you're lying. Life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Wow, it's a pretty good list. Now is the time to get rid of anger. We live in a pretty angry culture. Don't we there's so much divisiveness, so much division, and we need to work against that, right? The culture of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language. 3 (52m 9s): We need to, we need to work against that by reflecting properly, the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. If you're angry, don't, don't stay angry. Ask the Lord, why am I so angry? Especially in political times, like we're in, we can be so angry at people who disagree with us or people who are doing things that we don't understand. And all it does is take up, take up heart space and cause us to be hard-hearted and, and in a bad place spiritually. So if you're angry, ask the Lord to help you to forgive. Now is the time to get rid of it. Anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 3 (52m 51s): Don't lie to each other. Verse nine says for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. And so it says, put on your new nature and be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him. You've got so like waking up in the morning, you're just, you're deciding to go to your closet. You say, I'm going to put on this pair of pants in, and I'm going to put on this shirt, I'm going to wear these socks and these shoes, and this is what I'm going to wear for the day. I would encourage you instead of doing that well, you got to do that because you know, you don't want to go out undressed. So figure out what you're going to wear, but also decide to put on the righteousness, God, put on that New nature that God would have you to put on, make it a conscious decision. 3 (53m 31s): Like you do the wardrobe that you wear for the day where the stuff that God would have you to wear, put on your new nature, have a fresh perspective and see what the Lord will do. Be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him in this new life. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or Gentile, circumcised, or uncircumcised, barbarian, uncivilized slave, or free Christ is all that matters. And he lives in all of us. I've often said the church is about the only place where people of diverse backgrounds, well, maybe the Church and a bar can people can come together in diverse from diverse backgrounds and find friendship and find a community. 3 (54m 15s): I've told the story about the ex-con and his friendship, where they retired prison warden, but I've never told this story. I don't think I had a friend decades back and his name was Danny Barabis. And some of you remember Danny Barabis from days gone by with Danny was on the FBI's top 10 wanted list. Did you know that he was a felon in deep trouble with the FBI? He was on the FBI's top 10 wanted lists, but something happened with, with Danny brevis and he gave his life to the Lord. And, and Danny's life was radically transformed, such that when you knew him in Church after his is conversion, you didn't never, yeah, it never was suspect that Danny was on the top 10 FBI wanted list. 3 (54m 59s): He was such a tender tender, man. He loved people. He loved serving people. He cared about people. You'd see him. And yeah, you always want to give you a big hug and he'd show up. And he was in his suit and all dressed up and ready for church. And he was just ready to encounter the living. God. He had been transformed by the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He had a new garment of praise, garment of praise, garment of beauty that he wore in his life. Danny was the most meek humble and kind man that she had meat. And when I went to his Memorial service and the place was packed, it was filled with people who were going to miss this man of God. 3 (55m 41s): Danny had been transformed. And this man who was once on the FBI's top 10 wants list was now good friends with law enforcement officers throughout the church and throughout the community. Why? Because new life brings new perspective. New life brings new purpose. And this was going on in his life. We need to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. Number two, we need to look like we belong to God. Danny brevis looked like he belonged to God. His life was completely changed and that's what God desires for each of us. And I see God doing that in a lot of our lives. Our lives are being transformed by the grace of God. First 12 sense, God verse 12 says, since God chose you to be the Holy people, he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 3 (56m 34s): We need to look like we belong to God, make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends. You remember the Lord forgave you. So you must forgive 5 (56m 45s): Others. There's a class going 3 (56m 47s): On right now. And the Church office has called 70 times seven. And it's all about forgiveness. And it's a very difficult class, right? Because it's like a time to mine, your heart, to investigate your heart and to see if there's any unforgiveness there so that God can restore you to a place where you're able to forgive the person or people that you have bitterness toward unforgiveness toward. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn, to be like God, to begin to look like God. When you're able to forgive those who have offended you, when you're able to forgive those who have hurt you intentionally or otherwise, it's a great opportunity to begin to look like God. 3 (57m 29s): When we choose to forgive those who have offended us, we need to look like we belong to God. Number two, number three, we need to live with a God-sized peace and gratitude. And that is 5 (57m 42s): Totally possible. Living 3 (57m 44s): With a God-sized peace and gratitude. Verse 15 says this and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts for as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful, peace and gratitude. Let the message about Christ in all its richness, fill your lives with peace and thankfulness, with peace and gratitude, teach and counsel each other. With all the wisdom he gives, seeing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. When we sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, our lives will be filled with peace. 3 (58m 27s): Our lives will be filled with thankfulness and gratitude and whatever you do or say, especially in the midst of the battle, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ giving. Thanks through him to God, the father and trust this, that blessings will flow. New Life Equals New Perspective God's word reveals that to us. And I want to pray that as we wrap this up, that our new life in Christ would be filled with God-sized peace and gratitude that we, as the body of Christ would begin to look more 5 (58m 58s): And more. We continue to look more and more 3 (59m 0s): Look like God, and that we would think about things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. And so with that, let's go ahead and pray and invite the worship team forward. 5 (59m 8s): Lord, thank you for your word. 3 (59m 10s): Thank you that your spirit speaks to us through your word and I pray and thank you God that you confront our humanness, our sinfulness, God, you confront our lives so that we might be redeemed and think differently and have a different perspective, a new perspective, a born again. Perspective Lord. I pray that each of us, God, we think differently. I pray that we would look more and more like you in our daily lives. God, I pray that we'd be filled with peace and gratitude. And then when we're struggling with peace and gratitude, God that we would start to sing. Psalms Lord hymns and spiritual songs for your glorious purposes. God that we might have our perspective shifted and changed. 3 (59m 51s): Lord. So thank you for what you're doing with us and innocent through us. We love you Lord. And as we sing, whether we've got words on the screen or not, God help us to sing with all of our hearts as much as possible, or we love you. And we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go and stand up. 1 (1h 0m 48s): great. 1 (1h 5m 16s): Is your faith today, yesterday? 1 (1h 6m 46s): Yeah. Let's just still our hearts for just a moment. Maybe even close your eyes. If you need to, to just kind of tune out the noise and tune into his heart, his voice need to be reminded that he's the guy and he can move mountains for you. I mean, there's an area of your life. Are you trying out for breakthrough? You feel discouraged, man. I felt the Lord just wants to just stir you this morning. Just with hope. 1 (1h 7m 19s): smooth songs of praise do you shake? 1 (1h 7m 37s): good to see you, mate. 1 (1h 8m 29s): you made you songs to shape wrong. 1 (1h 10m 39s): 0 (1h 11m 31s): Love you. Thank you for your presence here with us today. Then as we head into this election week, may you be the rock we stand upon? And we put our hope in Jesus, God, we don't put our hope in the outcome of the election. We hope in Jesus. So just let that be our private suite. Let me look to you. We trust you. We lean into you. Just give us peace in the midst of the storm and certainty garbage. You are aware of every circumstance and you're always in control. We love you Jesus, and mean to you, pray for your will to be done and your kingdom in Jesus name. 0 (1h 12m 15s): Amen. Amen. Whew. Awesome guys. Well, we just want to make sure you always know there's someone here to pray with you. If you have any needs, please feel free to come forward and there'll be some folks to meet you. Other than that, have a wonderful Sunday, enjoy the beautiful day and we'll see you next week. Have a great one.

This episode looks at Colossians 1:28, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” We need wisdom from God to proclaim Christ well as we warn against false beliefs and teach true beliefs. We do this with the hope of taking part in God bringing others into complete maturity in Christ.

-Sung Psalm- 72---Paul will point out in 1 Corinthians 10 that the people of Israel -drank from that spiritual rock that followed them - and that rock was Christ.---How can Paul say -that rock was Christ-- Well, think back to the Exodus. Moses has just led Israel out of Egypt. They are in the wilderness. They have no water. The people complain -they are not grumbling yet - just complaining--. And God says that Moses should take the staff with which he struck the Nile - the staff of judgment with which God had struck Egypt with the plagues - God says,---take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.- -Ex 17-5-6---I will stand on the rock. You strike the rock and water will come out.--Why did Paul say -that rock was Christ-- Strike me - and living water will flow to my people-

A Psalm genre that we don’t often think about is the Kingship or Royal psalm. Now the average Christian might ask, “aren’t we to only worship Christ?” Well, yes! And since there are about 10 Psalms categorized as such, it deserves closer scrutiny.

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Song: The Son of God goes Forth to WarPassage: Psalm 118:19-29Hello everyone and Welcome to episode #9 of the Anno Domini Podcast. A podcast dedicated to the supremacy of Christ over all things including our days, weeks, and months.Join me as we explore how Christ is revealed through the cyclical life of the church calendar year. We’ll discover how this calendar once structured culture and how it can again. We’ll also discuss practical ways to observe and celebrate these holy days in our quest to glorify God and live the good life in the midst of all good He has given us. Welcome back friends. My name is Joe Stout and my wife Elizabeth and I and our 8 children live in the wet and occasionally sunny Pacific Northwest. For those of you who may be new, this podcast, Anno Domini which literally means “In the Year of our Lord”, this podcast explores the year of the Lord as it has been traditionally marked on the Church Calendar. Our first episode started at the beginning of the Church New Year which this year fell on December 1st. Unlike our modern tradition of marking January 1st as the new beginning, the Church calendar marks the first Sunday of Advent, or the coming of Christ unto a dark world, as the perpetual new beginning. We begin by celebrating the coming of Christ in His various ways. Since the dates are different each year, this cycle was from December 1st through December 23rd. After Advent of course we celebrate Christmastide or Christmastime with Christmas Eve, and then all 12 days of Christmas. We then move into the period of Epiphany, the revealing of Christ unto a broken world which falls from January 6th through February 25th this season. Ash Wednesday, which this year fell on February 26th marks the beginning of the Season of Lent, the season in which we find ourselves now. As I remarked in the last episode, “the time of lent precedes the victory of Christ on the cross…Jesus was tempted for 40 days … was humbled to the point of death on a cross and during all of this faithfully obeyed His Father in Heaven. Because He was faithful in this, God raised Him up to glory and Christ calls us to follow the same path.”As we enter Holy Week, the culmination of Lent, let us remember the promise of God found James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” PracticalAs I pointed out in the last episode, The period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is 40 days not including the Lord’s Day each week. This means that Palm Sunday is a unique holy day in that it falls within the Lenten Season but being that it is on a Sunday, any fasting would be abstained from since the Lord’s Day is meant to be celebrated with feasting and rest. Palm Sunday kicks off Holy Week which is the big finale of the Lenten season and concludes on Easter morning.Since part of the Anno Domini podcast centers around how we are to practically celebrate these holy days, I ought to give an account of the current events surrounding Palm Sunday 2020. As of the recording of this episode we are watching a local, national, and global historical event unfold. I’m of course speaking of the Chinese Virus that began in Wuhan China in December of 2019 and has spread around the globe. This virus is causing governments, gripped by fear, to self immolate entire economies, isolate people to their homes and hospital beds, and most egregious of all, forbid the gathering of people anywhere and everywhere for any reason at all. This means that for the last several weeks, showing up for the Lord’s Day service has been impossible for nearly everyone. Because technology often is a blessing when used rightly, many churches, ours included, have offered a live-stream of a Sunday morning sermon. This is nice and helps stave off feelings of isolation but a sermon is certainly not church. The gathering of a family to hear a sermon falls far short of our needed weekly gatherings. On Ash Wednesday, nearly a month before the madness began, I shared a hymn written by G.K. Chesterton that included the phrase, ”take not thy thunder from us, but take away our pride.” Never in my life have I seen a prayer answered on such a large scale in such a short time. As I said on Ash Wednesday, “…our rulers here on earth are faltering failures and we as a people are drifting and dying because our walls, made of gold in our prosperity, are actually entombing us. Scorn is a weapon to divide brother against brother. We are asking God not to spare His wrath or His thunder against us but instead to take away the one thing that is causing all of this mess…our pride.”One of the many things the global pandemic fear has exposed is the frailty of our reality. We think the things we know, the things that are familiar to us will last. The good times will never end is an easy lie to believe. Our walls of gold, as enduring as a the morning mist were entombing us into the false sense of security. Now as we shelter in place at the beginning of what is likely to be an unnecessary but very large economic depression we can take joy. God has heard our prayers, instead of allowing the walls of gold to entomb us forever, He is stripping away the pride of life that has caused such rebellion in our hearts. What an exciting time to be alive. I cannot stress enough what a blessing this chastisement has the potential to accomplish. If we humble ourselves before God during this time of suffering He promises to lift us up and strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. With the unknown comes a temptation to great fear. In fact this is the natural response. Those without the blessing of Christ’s covering will respond with fear because that is the only way the natural man knows. But we are Christians and we believe that the providence of God can be waited on expectantly to provide for us our daily bread. We also can now trust God to provide for us a life stripped of those things which prevent us from trusting Him. We also can trust God during this time to send His Spirit to awaken in us a devotion to Him that often proves impossible during times of plenty. As someone amusingly said in reference to the paralyzing fear surrounding this virus, “I wasn’t quite ready to give up this much for Lent.” Of course we know that lent is not about “giving things up” it’s about begging God to do whatever it takes, to take whatever it takes, to trust, follow, and obey Him in all that He commands. So let us receive this discipline from the Lord joyfully knowing that he scourges every son He receives. So practically speaking, what can we do this Palm Sunday since we won’t be allowed to actually worship as the Body of Christ? Well the things that have been helpful for the Stout family has been to treat Sunday morning as much like a Lord’s Day morning as possible. We get up, we get dressed, we eat breakfast, and then we gather together to worship together the King of Glory. We try not to treat our Sunday morning worship too casually. This is already a temptation for modern Christians and it only gets worse when you can’t leave your home. Therefore there is no watching the sermon in pajamas just as you shouldn’t go to church in your pajamas. Our church actually provides some songs to sing “together” and we sing along heartily. We hold our kiddos to the same standards of sitting still and not talking during the sermon. This is really quite inadequate for the long haul but is better than nothing. If one had to describe the essential reason for weekly Lord’s Day worship I would argue that the sermon and praise and worship are really pointing to the pinnacle of the service which is the Lord’s Supper. We’re going to talk about this in depth for our next episode on Holy Thursday and so I will develop my argument far more there but suffice it to say that I am persuaded, and am certainly not alone, that the sermon, the singing, the confession of sin, it is all leading us toward one major event, and that event is to eat a meal of Peace with our King. We were alienated from God and were His enemies but by the death and resurrection of Christ, we have been brought near to Him. This weekly meal represents this. It represents the fact that we are no longer at war with God but that through Christ we now have peace. It tells us that we belong to the King and that we belong at the King’s table. This unfortunately cannot truly be done at home, at least not in the way it has been instituted as overseen by the elders of your local church. Because of this, let us pray that the quarantine lockdown fears end and that we can go back to the Lord’s Table where those who have been baptized and claim Christ as King, we can go back to the table where we belong. BiblicalThere are several texts to chose from on Palm Sunday. We have readings from Isaiah, Psalms, Philippians, and the Gospel of John. If you are listening to this, it is likely you have heard the account of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a the colt of donkey. In three of the gospel accounts, we are told that as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on the colt, the people welcomed Him with praise and received Him as a King. In fact they were spreading their clothes on the ground as well as laying down branch of trees and in John’s gospel, those branches are referred to as Palms. This is Christ coming as King unto Jerusalem and for a large number of the cities inhabitants, He was rightly received as King. However, as we know, there were other forces at work in the city and the leaders of the Jews were consumed with envy and hatred of Jesus. While the Lord’s faithful were celebrating the coming of the King, others we’re biding their time and waiting for their opportunity to strike down the King of Glory. Our lectionary reading from Psalm 118:19-29 speaks of this. Let’s read the very word of God.Psalm 118:19-29Open to me the gates of righteousness;I will go through them,And I will praise the Lord.This is the gate of the Lord,Through which the righteous shall enter.I will praise You,For You have answered me,And have become my salvation.The stone which the builders rejectedHas become the chief cornerstone.This was the Lord’s doing;It is marvelous in our eyes.This is the day the Lord has made;We will rejoice and be glad in it.Save now, I pray, O Lord;O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.God is the Lord,And He has given us light;Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.You are my God, and I will praise You;You are my God, I will exalt You.Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!For His mercy endures forever.In this Psalm we are told that the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This verse is one of the most quoted in the New Testament. It is referenced in each of the synoptic gospels as part of the culminating meaning of the Parable of the Tenants. It was told by Jesus after He had entered Jerusalem in triumph but before He was betrayed into the hands of the Jews. If you remember, Jesus tells the story of vineyard that had been planted and the care of which was entrusted to a specific group of people. In the story these tenants are the Jews. When harvest time came, the Master sent servants to collect some of the fruit. The tenants, beat and treated shamefully all of the servants the Master of the Vineyard sends. These servants represent the way in which the Jews treated God’s chosen prophets…shamefully. At his trial prior to his death Stephan speaks these divesting words to the Jewish leaders…”Which of the prophets have not your father’s persecuted?” The answer is of course none. The Jews rejected them all. Finally, in the parable, the Master of the Vineyard decides to send His only Son thinking perhaps they will respect Him. Quite the opposite in fact happens and the tenets reach the pinnacle of their wickedness and throw the son out of the vineyard and kill Him, thinking they were securing the inheritance for themselves. But instead they planted the seed of their own ruin as the Master eventually comes and destroys those tenants and gives the vineyard to others. This speaks of the way God removed the Jews from the special status as His chosen people and grafted in the Gentiles in their place. Finally Jesus finishes by quoting Psalm 118:22 applying its meaning to the nation of Israel at that time. It was at this time that we are told the “ The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them.” The reason why this matters is that Jesus is not a safe person to be around. He is the kind of Friend that is absolutely going to get you in trouble with the people in charge. The Lion of Judah is dangerous and although He is good following Him means a choosing life of exchanging your own desires for those he gives you. Desires that will mean suffering. Jesus is a conquering King and when we follow Him we are actually following Him into battle. This battle is against the desires of the flesh, the lusts of the world, the pride of life, and against Satan himself. It is a battle that we can gladly and joyfully follow our King Jesus into knowing that it will cost us our lives. HistoricalPalm Sunday as I said earlier is the beginning of Holy Week. It is the finale of Lent and during times where gathering for worship is not outlawed there can often be services every day of the week. In Protestant Christianity there usually is at the very least a Good Friday service although even those unfortunately are becoming less frequent. During Palm Sunday often the church will be decorated with branches, sometime palm branches if they are available. In those denominations that celebrate Ash Wednesday, the branches used in worship on Palm Sunday are usually kept until the following Ash Wednesday and burned and the ashes from the Palm fronds are used to mark those penitent for the beginning of Lent. This is used to help Christians understand and realized the cyclical life of the Church and that God gives us patterns to follow faithfully. MusicalDuring our section on the biblical text for Palm Sunday, the theme of warfare came up frequently. The fact that Christ comes riding on the branches of trees is not a coincidental occurrence. In fact in two places the Old Testament records an event that bears certain similarities.In both 1 Chronicles 14 and 2 Samuel 5 we read this story.13And the Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley. 14And when David again inquired of God, God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 15And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” 16And David did as God commanded him, and they struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer. 17And the fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD brought the fear of him upon all nations.”As Jesus comes into Jerusalem riding on the tops of the trees just as He had done against the Philistines, we are told in the various gospel accounts of His actions. He curses the fig tree symbolizing the nation of Israel the curse being that they would be cut off for their unbelief and bear fruit no longer. He then weeps over Jerusalem because He knows of its coming destruction in just a few short decades. He then goes and makes war on those who would turn His Father’s house into a den of thieves. These are the actions of a King going forth to war. The only gospel that doesn’t mention this fact is the Gospel of John who chooses instead to focus on the imagery of a seed dying to bring forth a harvest. During His triumphal entry Jesus had one thing on His mind. Going to war. He was going to wage war against the domain of darkness in a way that not even Satan could have seen coming. He was going to die for the sins of His people. All of that is an entrance of sorts into the hymn we will be exploring today which was written in 1812 by Reginald Heber called the Son of God goes Forth to War. This song is a wonderful encouragement for the Church Militant, those of us in the body of Christ who are still here on earth doing battle for the King. Let’s take a look at the words.The Son of God goes forth to war:A kingly crown to gain;His blood-red banner streams afar:Who follows in His train?Who best can drink his cup of woe,Triumphant over pain,Who patient bears his cross below,He follows in His train.2The martyr first, whose eagle eyeCould pierce beyond the grave,Who saw his Master in the sky,And called to Him to save:Like Him, with pardon on his tongue,In midst of mortal pain,He prayed for them that did the wrong:Who follows in his train?3A glorious band, the chosen fewOn whom the Spirit came,Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew,And mocked the cross and flame.They met the tyrant’s brandished steel,The lion’s gory mane,They bowed their necks, the death to feel:Who follows in their train?4A noble army, men and boys,The matron and the maid,Around the Savior’s throne rejoice,In robes of light arrayed.They climbed the steep ascent of heaven Through peril, toil, and pain:O God, to us may grace be givenTo follow in their train.We have in this hymn Christ setting the example by being the first to go to war and gain His crown of glory. He of course accomplished this upon the cross which is why Paul tells us that He is seated in power, reigning right now at the right hand of God. He will continue to reign Paul assures us until all enemies have been vanquished, the world has been converted to Christ and only the last enemy remains, death itself. Then Christ will return vanquish the final enemy, unite heaven and earth in glorious renewal and the dead will be raised again to glory for the final judgement. The hymn writer continually asks “Who will follow in His train?” or this is another way of asking who will follow after the King? In verse one, those who are able to follow in His train are those who are ready drink His cup of woe and to be patient and bear the cross of Christ in this temporal life.Verse 2 tells the story of the first hero of the faith. Stephan who could see “beyond the grave” or through the temporal things that so often distract us to what really matter. Christ beckoned to Stephan as he was being stoned and Stephan like his Master asked God to forgive those who did the wrong even while he was in the pain of death. Who will follow his example?Verse 3 tells the story of the 12 apostles who were valiant men upon whom was the Spirit of Christ. These 12 men, unlike any men before or after, were chosen by Christ and we’re given immense suffering to endure for the cross. Some were fed to lions, some slain with the sword. We are told they bowed their necks their death to feel. In other word’s they were not afraid to die nor were they going to run away from the Great Commission. They remembered that Christ had charged them with that of going into all the world and baptizing the nations. As Peter famously said with his life on the line…”We must obey God rather than men.”Verse 4 speaks of the multitudes that have given their lives for Christ in humble and faithful obedience to Him. We are told men, boys, women, girls, anyone claimed by Christ through baptism that has gone before us and is with Him in paradise are now rejoicing around the throne of Christ in glorious garments. We are also told how they got there, through a steep climb toward eternity during their earthly life experiencing peril, toil, and pain during the journey. The hymn concludes by asking God to give us, the Church Militant, the grace to follow in their train. With that I will play this hymn and look forward to seeing you for our next episode exploring Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday. I hope that Christ fills you with encouragement as you worship Him this Lord’s Day in your homes and that we will soon find ourselves worshipping together once more in the beauty of holiness.

Creating For Christ Episode —- with Michelle Ruschman and Felice Gerwitz Have you wanted a business, what about creating for Christ? Well today’s guest, Michelle Ruschman is a work at home mom who has created beautiful items! Michelle was a special speaker in the “Come My Beloved” seminar series. You can still access the video […] The post Creating For Christ appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Saul was an unlikely candidate for transformation, so what actually changed him to be so like Christ? Well, it wasn't simply a matter of getting the right information.

Have you ever felt confused about some experiences at church or your Christian community? Have you ever feel beaten down or even oppressed in a place that's really supposed to be encouraging and challenging you to become more like Christ? Well, this episode is for you! F. Remy Deiderich, Author of the Broken Trust, helps us to identify symptoms of a spiritually abusive community. Listen in and please comment and share this podcast with your friends! Also, if you want to hear more from the host, like Jo's page: www.instagram.com/journeyingwithjo or email me at connect@journeyingwithjo.com.

Have you been struggling to grow in your relationship with God? Have you felt burnt out or too tired to continue walking with Christ? Well today, Libby is going to try to change that! By explaining what revival is and how you can obtain it, we hope that you will be able to be strengthened and encouraged to keep up your faith.  FaithtoInspire's Official Instgram:https://www.instagram.com/faithtoinspire129/ Libby's Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/libbylouwho129/ Grace's Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gracefrancis2/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Do you feel bad because you can't send your kids to a Christian Day School? Do you think the best thing for you kids is for them to go to public school so they can be exposed to all the ideas that are out there? Do you ever wonder if you are preparing your kids to stand under the cross of Christ? Well, that is the conversation we have today. We will attempt to answer some of these question. We are going to talk about the catechism, living faith, vocation, vocation, vocation. Come and join the conversation.

When we stand back and look at being or becoming a church member, what is it we seek by doing so? Is the church simply a place where we have an expectation of being served, or is it a place where we come to serve others through Christ? Well in this continuing series on what a biblical church member is by Pastor Tim Bresnahan, This question is explored with the under-girding from Thom Rainer's book, I Am A Church Member. And in the end, each of us must decide, are we personally servants of Christ to all others, or is the local church, and being a member of that church simply where one should expect their needs and wants served.

Among the word pictures used to describe members of the church we find the word disciple. Throughout the Gospel accounts many times the word disciple is used. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? Well listen to this episode and you will find out.

What are those terrifying words none would ever seek to hear from Christ? Well here they are. 'Matthew 7:21 ;Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’' What a tragedy for those who will stand before our Lord, and hear such words after having pleaded before him, 'Lord, Lord, did we not do these things in your name?' What a circumstance to find one's self in! And in this sermon from by Pastor Tim Bresnahan, we seek the deep reasons behind why such pleadings before the throne of Christ occur, but far more importantly, we come to understand how one stands before the throne of the Lord, and hear, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Your instinct is telling you one thing, but your mind is trying to rationalize everything, so it's telling you the opposite. Can you ever trust your gut feeling if you don't truly believe in the power of Christ? Well, Hosea trusted God even though God told him to marry a prostitute! Transcript/Show Notes: http://www.psalmstogod.com/stepOutOnFaith Instagram: shiree.hughes

44:05 no Info@opcmilford.org (Oak Pointe Church | Milford)Oak Pointe Church | MilfordWelcome to the weekly audio podcast for OPC|Milford. OPC|M is in Milford, MI. and is a campus of Oak POinte Church. Our mission statement, "Changed by Christ - Changing our World," drives everything that we do. Whether your're just exploring this whole business about "church" and "God" or are well down the road in enjoying your relationship with Christ, we hope you'll find OPC|Milford's podcast helpful and encouraging. Visit us @ opcmilford.org

How did Jesus think? Can I think like Him? His views... His feelings... His temper... Can I actually have the mind of Christ? Well, the answer is an absolute “YES!” And in this message Pastor Garry is going to show us how we can be... HAVING THE MIND OF CHRIST!