Faithful?

Proverbs 20: 6 ESV 6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? 

 Have you thought lately of what God requires of you and me? It seems to center around one thing of great importance…Faithfulness. 

 God doesn’t desire that we do great things, He just wants us to be faithful. 

God doesn’t care if our churches are big or small, He just wants us to be faithful with what’s right in front of us. 

 He doesn’t expect us to accomplish unfathomable feats, He just wants us to be faithful.

What have you been faithful to this week? 

 The simplest thing we’ll do all week long, is just to be faithful to His call. How’s that working for you? How is that happening on Sunday mornings? People might find true joy and satisfaction, if they were faithful to God. Who in the world doesn’t want to be joyful and satisfied?

 Faithfulness is just the completion of some of the most simple spiritual tasks. 

I meet with a group of guys on Tuesday mornings @ 5:30am to pray. This small group of brothers are faithful. Faithfulness is one of the most treasured natures of our God, and it should be the case with His followers too.

 What needs to change today, to make you more faithful to the will of God?

Off with the Old!

2 Corinthians 5: 17

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

A few of us know what a brand new car looks and smells like.

They even sell the new car smell in a bottle, so to keep reminding us of what the new care used to smell like.

After a while, that new car smell kind of wears off.

It isn’t long, and the car that once was show room quality, is far from what it once looked like.

That’s not the way it is with a new believer in Christ, though.

The old has got to go, so the new is introduced.

A new creation is new, and nothing from the past should get in the way of the newness.

Is that true of you today? Is the new still looking new, or have you allowed some of the stinky stuff from the past back in?

The old has got to go, as it has to do with Jesus.

The way we used to think, or act, is ancient history…or at least it should be.

What from the past has still got you all weighed down?

If you are a child of God, then the old stuff should be long gone.

The old life won’t be allowed in Heaven, where as the new life will one day find even more newness.

That seems like a great bargain, for the old jalopy life I used to drive…or what used to drive me… 

Are you Hot?

Revelation 3: 15 - 16

¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

I think most church people if they were asked would give an obvious answer to the hot/cold question.

Not many people would confess to being luke warm, that’s for sure.

So if you missed church 8 times or more during the summer, what would that make a person? Hot or cold?

And if I were to truly ask that question this morning of some people, many might give the obvious response… “Are you judging me?!!”

That might be an unmistakable sign of being luke warm or cold all together.

If you just stated that your red hot on fire, and you’re wrong about that, God will correct you  just be sure of that.

I don’t meet too many people these days, who would out and out admit their freezing cold.

I think we look at other people in our churches, and we compare ourselves to them.

That would probably be our first mistake.

A fired up believer has distinguishing charter traits, that ice cold or luke warms ones don’t have.

When you see a hot on fire follower of Jesus, there’s usually no mistaking them.

If you’re making steady progress in your walk of faith, you are most likely stoking the fire.

If you’re not, then maybe the fire has gone out all together.

Seriously, I don’t want Jesus to treat me as this big old loogie, or vomit one day, when all along I thought I was this hot thing, and then found out that I wasn’t… 

Stop!

Romans 14: 13

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.

I deal with people every day.

It’s what I do, and it’s what I have been called to do, and yet we all deal with people to some degree or another.

The more I’m in the middle of ministry though, the more I realize how selfish we all can be.

Most of us have made up our minds, that we’re going to make ourselves look right, at any cost.

It surely happens in the church, but I thought the church should actually be different.

You’d be surprised at how many people are intentional in putting stumbling blocks in the way of a brother or sister.

A brother or sister is a person who believes the same things about Jesus that we do.

There are correct ways of working out conflict, without putting stumbling blocks in place.

Honestly, there are times I really love e-mail, and I also despise it sometimes too.

We use e-mail at times to share words we probably wouldn’t share face to face.

I have seen people use words in e-mails, that are meant to be a stumbling block, and sometimes I think they are put there on purpose.

I wonder if Jesus was ever a stumbling block? But then again we stumble and bumble over Him all the time, don’t we.

He was clear and concise in His words spoken, so there was nothing ever lost in translation.

Maybe we should communicate with each like Jesus did, so we can prevent ourselves from being an obstacle… 

Ignoring the warning!

Proverbs 3: 5 - 6

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Yesterday morning, I left church after our Men’s early morning prayer meeting, a sign appeared on the instrument panel of my car.

For some reason, I knew the warning sign wasn’t probably a good thing.

I then began to reason, and wondered how long I could drive this way, without getting into more trouble.

And then I thought… “Don’t we do that with God sometimes?”

The first thing I should’ve done, was call an expert who knew what the sign really meant, because I sure didn’t understand it.

People these days try to figure out their spiritual problems out for themselves, without first calling in an expert.

But since we have accepted Jesus as Savior, maybe we should trust our lives to His care.

God causes things to happen at exactly the right time, and He knows what He’s doing.

I want good things to happen in my life, the problem is, I want them right now, which in turn wears out my mind.

If our minds are all worn out all the time, then maybe we’re not trusting and acknowledging God.

The One who can bring repair, is just a call away.

If I had ignored the warning sign on my car, then I might have done some permanent damage.

Are you ignoring any warning signs from God? What will it take to call Him for repair? Maybe His ways are actually better than ours… 

Need a Doctor?

Matthew 9: 12

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”

I got one of those calls after church yesterday, that caught me a little off guard.

Someone died without having a church, and they inquired if I would lead the funeral service.

This family made a visit to our old church a number of years ago, but they thought they could get along just fine without a spiritual family, that is until now.

I think that’s what the writer of Hebrews meant, when he said we shouldn’t forsake the fellowship of the saints.

Over the last five (5) years, this family suffered without anyone to care for them spiritually.

After heart attacks and strokes and diseases, death finally came.

This is the sole reason we’re involved with the ministry, Heaven’s Gates/Hells Flames in October out of our church.

The one’s who need a doctor, are right in our communities. They actually live right next door to us.

Who do you know, that needs the love of the Great Physician?

Would you knock on their door, if your knew they had a need only you could fill?

Do we really care for those who are sick?

I wonder sometimes if I really care about those who are sick, spiritually or otherwise?

One thing I do know, the person that passed on, I can’t help, but the ones who will be at the service in Wrightstown on Thursday afternoon, they will hear the truth.

What they do with the truth is up to them, but I’m going to help the sick, just because I have been called to do so…

Power!

Acts 4: 23

²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

There’s something powerful in the church, when it prays together.

It must be true for the church too, that when they pray together, they stay together.

Our church had a special time of prayer yesterday (Sunday) morning.

Prayer is the glue that keeps a church from getting all riled up about trivial matters.

When a church prays together, the church receives power.

When the church prays together, the purposes of God are achieved.

Our people then walked the streets of Winneconne, and deposited prayers among its residents, in 5 different corridors.

When church people pray, God’s presence is perceived.

When we pray, we know without a doubt, that God is working and moving and answering.

When we come together and pray in agreement, something powerful is about to happen.

Are you anticipating His power?

Are you praying in agreement?

That’s when the presence of God is manifested, and people are conscious that God has taken control…