Sunday, October 23, 2016

Things That Abide


Things That Abide

A prayer of Moses the man of God.
Psalm 90

1 LORD, You have been our dwelling place
    throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born
    or You brought forth the whole world,
    from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

In this throw away culture we long for things that abide. Relationships can terminate quickly. People end relationships with little reason today. Things we buy do not last. They expect us to throw things away. We have watched stores and restaurants and sadly even churches close after many years of operation.

There are things that abide. The Bible tells us so!

1. God Abides

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.

Psalm 102.25 Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end.

    
Psalm 102.25 In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 They will perish, but You remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing You will change them
    and they will be discarded.
27 But You remain the same,
    and Your years will never end.

From Everlasting to Everlasting
God had no beginning
He will have no end
The Eternal Now 
God is not bound by the space/time continuum. He is everywhere. He was and is and is to come.

He is our dwelling place... Our true home... The closest thing to heaven on earth is the church when it is what God desires it to be, when we abide with Him and others.

Dr. Russell Metcalfe:  There is a recurring theme here of "home" or "dwelling" or "abiding." The Psalmist says, "Lord YOU have been our dwelling place." Then in Hebrews and again in Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 God is spoken of as dwelling or living in us. Hebrews seems to say that together, as a body, Christ is building us into a house where he can dwell. Paul prays "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." And do you remember Jesus saying to us (John 15) "If you abide in ME, and my words abide in you . . . ask what you will!" We do not dare overlook this theme of abiding, dwelling, being "at home."


Psalm 93.2 Your throne was established long ago;
    you are from all eternity.

Heaven is timeless. No night there.

The LORD God abides! and we with Him!


2. The Word of God Abides!

Isaiah 40.8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.

Matthew 24.35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

For, "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. I Peter 1.24-25

The Bible stands like a rock undaunted
’Mid the raging storms of time;
Its pages burn with the truth eternal,
And they glow with a light sublime.

Refrain:
The Bible stands though the hills may tumble,
It will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble;
I will plant my feet on its firm foundation,
For the Bible stands.

The Bible stands like a mountain tow’ring
Far above the works of men;
Its truth by none ever was refuted,
And destroy it they never can.

The Bible stands and it will forever,
When the world has passed away;
By inspiration it has been given,
All its precepts I will obey.

The Bible stands every test we give it,
For its Author is divine;
By grace alone I expect to live it,
And to prove and to make it mine.

We can trust what God says in His Word.
We can build our lives upon it.

Matthew 7.24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

There are different theories floating around out there and in the church that diminish the Word of God... General  Superintendent Emeritus Jim Diehl:
Ordination Service in Central Ohio
Watch out for false doctrines... Preach the Word of God
There are those in our church that are trying to blur the lines. If we drift away He will find someone else. His Word will be preached.
There are those trying to take us down a liberal road and it is all about the authority of the Word of God.


The LORD God is eternal, His Word is eternal...

3. The Soul of Man
Ecclesiastes 3.11  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

God has placed eternity in the hearts of men.

We will live forever in one place or another.

My friend, Paul Moore, planting a new church in the city, mission work in the DR. Pilot and his wife plane went down in a storm on the way back to the DR from Haiti where they had delivered medical supplies.  Chuck Ritzen and his wife Candy along with Benjamin Cole Brown, a photo journalist from Orlando. Their plane went down but they went up. Pray as they try now to recover the bodies of these two servants of God and memorial services take place. In tragedy God's people triumph!... And are transformed. 

We will live forever with Jesus if we believe and follow Him.



4. Heaven

Abides

II Corinthians 5.1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Jesus preparing an eternal place, His Father's House... As we sang this morning... We are inviting people to go with us. 
Being like Him
Being with Him

Buildings are temporary.
Photo #1 
Photo #2



5. The Kingdom of God Abides.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures through all generations. Psalm 145.13

Oswald Chambers October 19th
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." —John 18:36

Election time. We need to remember where our citizenship is. 

The Kingdom of God is invisible.

It is not a matter of talk but of power.

It is within you.
John 3.8  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Born again
Filled with the Spirit.

It is among you.
Jon Scott, ticket on the LIRR this week. Conductor heard us talking after he could find his ticket. She passed him. Then the guy sitting next to us said she will get you the next time..."' Jon was stressing. I said, "Let me do the talking" but I did not have to. 
Conductor, "Not doubled but substantially more."
Photo #3


Only God knows. And He does know! How many times have you heard someone say, "I was out of money and then a $10 bill came floating on the sidewalk." A few come right to mind... My Dad saying to himself,"If I just had another $20 for our family vacation...." Steve, "God if You are real, please feed me!" $10 bill on the sidewalk. 

It is coming.

United Nations is not the answer. It is an attempt by man, not a bad idea, just not God's solution.

Air Train, watching the people of the world come into that place... All of the world's great people...

Christ will soon appear.

We will cease to pray "Thy Kingdom come." When we get home.

What a day that will be!

Holy Holy Holy to our LORD God Almighty
Who was ans Who is and Who is to come.

Give yourself to things that abide, the eternal things that will  remain.
God, His Word, The souls of people, His Kingdom, Heaven

Sunday, October 16, 2016

The Journey of Your Life


The Journey Of Your Life

Psalm 84.5-7
Blessed are those whose strength is in You,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion.


There are different kinds of journeys in life. We take vacations. We make special trips, like trips to historical places or to the city. Those who have gone on mission trips have gone on a journey, Missionary Journeys like Paul, the apostle. A trip to the Holy land is referred to as a pilgrimage. 

We call the grief group online, The Blessed Hope Grief Journey.
There are the journeys of an education, the journey of learning a trade, apprentice and journeyman, master.

But life itself is a journey. I like what our District Superintendent said last week about wanting to help people age well and really enjoy and serve the LORD in the latter part of their journey.

The Word of God presents life as a journey. No other passage as the one we are looking at this morning captures the journey of life  like this one.

Pilgrimage is the Christian’s life journey to the Kingdom of Heaven or the way that God has set for us.

It begins with the word "Blessed" One of the beatitudes. You have the ones Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount with and then there are others in the scriptures.  This word comes from a root word which means to make progress, to go on and be happy.

Life can be a crescendo of glory. If you walk with the LORD, serve Him with all your heart, live by faith, share that faith with others... what Solomon said in Proverbs 4.18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

This passage as we have seen in our Bible Reading this week and in the Bible Studies shows that the path to heaven is filled with blessings but also has it shares of difficulties and struggles and pain.

We fight the good fight of the faith Paul  tells us in his letter to Timothy, his son in the Gospel. I Timothy 6.12

Life is a journey. Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. The focus of those whose main concern is the spiritual, eternal Kingdom Of God.

Let's look at this journey of life.

1. The Blessings of This Journey -v.5

Our Strength is in the LORD.
He had all power and all authority in heaven and on earth. Our strength comes from Him.
It comes from walking with Him in communion, from drawing strength from His Word and His Spirit and prayer.
He enables us to move.  
‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.' Acts 17.28

Our Hearts are set on pilgrimage.
To exalt, to lift up to sing

Our journey, our pilgrimage
By following Jesus our lives are brought to a higher plane, a higher level
This is why we are above many of the consequences of personal sin.

It is an upward journey. We are marching to Zion, an old hymn, based on these verses:

Come we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known;
join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne.

Chorus:
We’re marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion.
We’re marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God.

Upward... Heaven, The Highway Of Holiness in this life, above living in sin, above the low base places where sin abounds, above doubts and fears.

The blessings along this journey also include singing. Pilgrimage also means as we stated to lift in song. Another old song:

Singing I Go

Singing I go along life’s road,
Praising the Lord, praising the Lord,
Singing I go along life’s road,
For Jesus has lifted my load.

The passing days bring many cares,
“Fear not,” I hear Him say,
And when my fears are turned to prayers,
The burdens slip away.

He tells me of my Father’s love,
And never slumb’ring eye,
My everlasting King above
Will all my needs supply.

While this journey is filled with blessings, sometimes Joy Unspeakable and it is an upward climb there are also valleys along the path that leads to heaven.


2. The Valley of Baca Becomes A Place of Springs. -v.6

Baca = "weeping"
a valley in Israel
Many identify it as the Valley of Achor or Rephaim

We go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
We go through Valleys which make us weep.

Tears are the “bitter water” flowing out as a result of distressful circumstances, while the sweet water from the spring is to quench people’s thirst. It means when we are walking in the way of the cross, our tears do not flow in vain; they will eventually become a source of blessing. When we cooperate with God, accepting all circumstances with a heart of thanksgiving, and not resisting God's plan for us, our tears shall become sweet spring water. 
We have talked about many who have done this.

When we have learned our lessons, we shall be a source of comfort to those who are going through sufferings. Like the autumn rains becoming pools to quench the thirst of birds and animals. This is a picture of “sweetness coming after bitterness”, as in the story of Ruth.

Death can come expectedly or out of the natural order. It can swoop in and leave us very changed. Crushing experiences bring out sweetness or bitterness. Make it sweet!

Walt Disney
Let's never forget that this all began with a mouse.

Autumn rains... traditionally dry season

As we walk with the LORD we are refreshed in our most difficult times and then we eventually refresh others. We find by doing that we are refreshed.


3. Along The Way -v.7

Strength is given for each day and situation.
Promises of strength

Our strength will equal our days. Deuteronomy 33.25

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41.10

I am the LORD, there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you.  Isaiah 45.5

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58.11

Isaiah 40:29 
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Psalm 18:32 It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

Psalm 46.1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

We will appear before the LORD at this journey's end.
Part of the joy of this journey is what God has waiting in the end. We know what we are journeying to and how much of our life there will be a reflection of our living for the LORD here.

The judgment of Christ.

The rewards in heaven.

Eternity with Him.

Glad Reunion.

Wonderful surprises.

Faith will become sight.

No more death, crying or pain.


If you are feeling a little bad about your journey...
* One of the world’s greatest missionaries, David Livingstone consecrated his whole life for evangelizing in Africa. He lived a life of poverty and self-sacrifice, opened up the African continent to the gospel, sowing much seed, and was used greatly by God to awaken England for missions. Yet during his 23rd year on the mission field, Livingstone expressed an awful doubt believing that his ministry had been all in vain and that the mission societies were bearing no fruit after 23 years of labor. Although, in his earthly years of ministry, his labor seemed outwardly to be fruitless and ineffective, but as he persevered in being faithful in the work that God had entrusted him to do, Livingstone became a seed that fell to the ground and died, bearing much fruit in opening the mission door to Africa. Multitudes were saved because of the seeds that he sowed.

Life can be a crescendo of glory. We can be shining ever brighter until the full light of day. Maybe you have been struggling a bit. Maybe this morning God is speaking to your heart about your own journey. We can change courses. We can set our hearts with the Spirit leading to journey the rest of the way as the LORD wants us to.

 

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Forgetting or Being Rescued

Forgetting or Being Rescued
Genesis 41.41-51; Acts 7.9-10

Genesis 41.51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” 52 The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Acts 7.9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

Forget=
to deprive, to cause to forget

Rescue=
to pluck out, draw out, i.e. root out
to choose out, select, one person from many
to rescue, deliver

to take for oneself, to prefer, choose
to choose by vote, elect to office
 plus
out of, from, by, away from

For Joseph, in the beginning his sufferings had to do with him. He was 17.
Looking back over the centuries, God had much greater plans, greater than Joseph's time, all the way into our time and beyond. Joseph in his adult life came to understand the plans of God. In Genesis 50.20 he lets us know he understood.

It is amazing that Joseph did not become bitter and angry with his brothers for what they did to him. It was a horrible ordeal and after he got to Egypt it got worse.

Joseph had put a period when it came to his troubles and his family, calling them his father's household. The door was shut or so Joseph thought. But God puts commas where we out periods and He loves to write last chapters. 

As far Joseph knew from the time his brothers sold him into slavery until he met up with them when they came to Egypt his relationship with them was over. 

Each time he would think about how he got to Potipher's house or how he ended up in prison for a crime he did not commit his mind would go back to that day when they threw him in the pit and then pulled him out and sold him into slavery.

He had no idea he would see them again. When he was released and promoted he felt that sealed the deal. He looked at his new family and his new position and forgot his brothers. But God had other plans. God always does.


1. It is Natural to want to forget our bitter times.
For Joseph it was 
Being hated by his brothers
Psalm 105.17b Joseph, sold as a slave.
18They bruised his feet with shackles,
his neck was put in irons

Sold as a slave to go down to Egypt by his brothers.
The Ishmaelites were their cousins!
Their grandfather Isaac and Ishmael were both sons of their great grandfather Abraham.  

His dreams were gone (or so he thought).
He ended up serving well and then being falsely accused.
He ended up in prison. 

Genesis 39.20b But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Joseph handled the injustices in his life very well. He made the best of a horrible situation. We do not hear him complaining. There is no resistance. He doesn't even proclaim his innocence when he is falsely accused. He submits to the whole process. Quite an amazing man.

When we react in that way, we leave the door open for God to work...

2. It is Supernatural for God to use the bitter times for His Glory.
David and Joseph were teenagers when they got the "Word" they would be leaders of the nation and rule supremely. 

David by anointing by Samuel
Joseph by dreams 

Both experienced suffering which resulted in separation from family. God called them aside. He worked inside their hearts. He allowed their hearts to be broken.

I firmly believe that David and Joseph being separated from their families at such a young age caused them to depend upon the LORD more, to lean on Him and taught them to learn how to stand alone. 

God always has higher purposes in our sufferings.

Let's go with the Supernatural. That does not mean being taken out of suffering but rather God working through it producing His fruit in us, making us what He wants us to be.


3. It is God's Way to Rescue us, but not always immediately.

"LORD, don't You care if we are going to drown?" Mark 4.38

Joseph had given up on his dreams. His family bowing down to him.
He had given up on his family.
"all my father's household."

God had not given up on them.
God had not given up on Joseph. 
God has not given up on you.
God has not given up on this church. Next week our DS will be here. It will be a very unique service. Let's hear what God is saying.

4. God is the God of the Ultimate.

In loving us. He has lavished His love upon us.
In maximizing His purposes in our suffering.
In using us for His glory.

It wasn't just about Joseph and David. It was about God's people... and they grew to love the people of God, to forgive, to be an example.

And not just for their generation but for generations to come...
Psalm 71.18 Even when I am old and gray,
    do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
    your mighty acts to all who are to come.

God takes those who are broken and places them in positions and places where He can work His will and wonders out for His glory.