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Seek First The Kingdom

 

 


"And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who cry now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and exclude you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For their fathers were doing the same things to the prophets."


Good Morning my beloved,
 
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
I'm thankful for each one of you who have remained with me on this wonderful journey. I'd also like to take a moment to express my deep gratitude to each and every one of you, and for your steadfast prayers and unwavering commitment to sharing the Word of God through our website and social media outlets does not go unnoticed. I couldn't do what I do with your love and support.

Before we get started, I just want to share with you a little bit from my heart, I hope that you'll indulge me, because it's been kind of heavy lately. I suppose you could say that the Truth of God is laying very heavy upon my heart. Of course, I'm often told when you get to be as old as I am, you can kind of do whatever you want without permission, but I believe it's still respectful to ask, that's how my parents taught me, love and respect go hand-in-hand, I guess that kind of upbringing is rare today, now people just demand whatever it is they want and throw a fit until they get it. As I have often said, truth is the most important reality we have in this world, I love the truth, don't you? We're saved by the truth, sanctified by the truth, we serve the God Who is the source of truth, the truth sets us free in a world of lies and deception, right? We could even say that the world is divided into two groups of people, those who live in the truth and those who live in lies with the illusion of truth. People treat the truth so flippantly today, live your truth, you've got your truth and I've got mine, as if there can be more than one truth. Two opposing views cannot both be the truth, there can be only one truth, God's Truth. Any pastor who chooses to alter God's Truth does so at his own risk. A true man of God doesn’t tear the truth down, that's antichrist.

In an age dominated by political and social correctness, the last thing most churches and pastors want to do is create conflict, by saying or doing anything that will cause offense or challenge the widely accepted current cultural beliefs with the conventional wisdom of God or His commands. In the midst of what often feels like a tempestuous storm, it threatens to challenge the very foundations of our Christian faith, in our desire to foster an environment of tolerance and inclusivity, therefore, I feel compelled to address what I believe is a very critical issue: the church's role and responsibility in upholding God's truth in a morally corrupt and perverse societyall while maintaining the integrity of the Gospel that we are called to share. If there is any place in the world where integrity is absolutely crucial, I believe that it is in the church, the pastor must maintain integrity in order to have credibility to set the example for all to follow. Further, any lack of integrity in the life of a pastor is a very serious issue and yet, there are a significant number of religious leaders who lack integrity, in fact, many of them have no integrity at all.

I believe that as Christians, we must be willing to ask ourselves; Are we willing to stand firm in our beliefs, to faithfully proclaim the Truth in love, even if it means facing adversity, persecution or even death for our convictions? I hasten to say, that integrity must begin with each one of us, by personally committing ourselves to live our lives in a manner that is in alignment with God’s Word and in accordance with Christ's teachings. True discipleship is not taking the easy road, paved with complacency, comprise or cowardice; it requires courage, conviction, and a commitment. Sometimes, that entails being ready to take risks for your convictions, to defend what you stand for, and to accomplish the divine mission that we've been called to fulfill. Integrity is a very evident characteristic or quality for ministry, nothing is as devastating, more threatening to a pastor, as an attack on his integrity, because integrity is the point at which any servant of God is most potentially vulnerable, a breech of integrity will destroy everything. 

If an attacker can destroy a pastor's integrity, they can destroy his believability. Because if people begin to think that if everything he preached, everything he claimed to live is a lie, then his influence is lost, and they don’t know what’s true and what’s not, you see? A pastor that does not have integrity, who does not live the truth that they proclaim to uphold, will lose everything. In contrast, you can literally take everything that a man of God has, but if never let's go of his integrity, if he's stuck to his guns and lived the faith that he's believed, not matter what has been said about him or no matter what has been done to ruin his reputation, he's not lost the most important, the more valuable thing, the integrity of his heart. If you will remember, when David had the opportunity to kill king Saul, he refrained, because he believed that Saul's life was in God’s hands, not his own. That's why despite of David failures as a king, God could still say "he was a man after His own heart." For all the mistakes, all the failures in my own life, God knows my integrity, that the greatest desire of my heart is honor the Lord and live a life that is pleasing to Him. I believe that no matter what man's life might look like on the surface, if a man lacks integrity, the structure of his life, that foundation on which he stands will ultimately collapse at the slightest shaking. That's why in Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus compared those who hear His words and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and those who hear His words and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 

I suppose when you've lived as long as I have, as you look back at all of those spiritual battles in your life that you've won and more tragically, the spiritual battles that you've lost with tears in your eyes, you understand how difficult it is to guard your tongue, and not say unkind, hurtful things, to maintain pure thoughts, to live a God-honoring, Christ exalting holy life. I understand what it is to bear the sadness of your own soul of disappointing those who are the closest to you, those you love and cherish; your parents, your sibling, your spouse, your children and even more tragically, I understand what it is to disappoint the Lord. I've lived long enough to have lived the spiritual battle of Romans 7, I understand what it is to sin by not doing the thing that you ought to have done and what it is to sin by doing the very thing you do not want to do. I hope and pray that I’ve lived long enough to have accumulated enough experience to be able to try to help other people fight the good fight as well, because God never intended us to live this Christian life alone. Those of you who know me, know that I'm concerned about the spiritual battle in my children’s life, I'm concerned about the spiritual battle in my grandchildren's life, I'm concerned about the spiritual battle in the lives of those around me and closest to me, that I dearly love and as I am beginning to think about this present and future generations, I'm more concerned than I've ever been about the state of the church. I’m very concerned about those who are supposed to shepherding the church, that think they’re there to entertain people by telling jokes, or that they are a social worker or therapist, who is supposed to make people feel better about their sin. There are many ways by which to measure a man's ministry, everything from the size of the congregation to how large his salary is, but I believe the only real measure the effectiveness of a man’s ministry by how Christlike his people live,  holy transformed lives, lived out in the world, that's an effective ministry.

Titus 1:16, "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed."

I've lived long enough to understand that there are those in the church who refuse to accept the teaching of Scripture, because of their sinful blindness. I've lived long enough to understand that true grace is not the liberty to live as we choose, but cultivates a desire to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. Grace does not grant us permission to live according to the flesh but frees us from the bondage of sin to live in the Spirit. It’s a joyous experience to walk with Christ, it’s beyond thrilling to see His hand on your life. I've lived long enough to understand that it’s a long difficult struggle, because there remains the reality of the ever-present war against our own sinful nature, fighting against the flesh, a constant battle against the remaining sin in our lives and resisting the persistent ever-present nagging temptations of Satan and the sinful influence of the world around us. I’m so thankful for the exemplary servants of Christ that God has placed in my life, and I am grateful for the profound and lasting spiritual impact they have had on my life over the years, preaching damning messages that changed the way I viewed my life, changed the way I viewed the Lord, and reshaping my perspective on the way I viewed my own sin. I thank God that I have been gifted with a conscience that convicts me, and by the Holy Spirit Who holds me accountable. It's easy to understand the reason why so many today run from godly leaders who hold them accountable, because an individual is not free to do whatever he wants in that kind of environment, so they flock to pastors who answer to nobody, telling them whatever they want to hear. 

Oh my fellow preachers and teachers, I urge you to be cautious in the way you handle Scripture, I beseech you to take God’s Word to heart, because my Bible assures me in Hebrews 13, that we will all be held accountable before the Lord for how we chose to care for the souls of His sheep, the flock that He purchased with His own blood, which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers and guard them as you would guard your own life, because that is what you haven been called to do. Protecting the flock from ravenous wolves, those who come in from the outside that seek to gain a foothold, with the intention of corrupting the congregation, but we must also beware of those who will rise up from the inside, among your own people, to whom they are exposed, along with feeding the flock, it's all part of the job. The church has to be protected from deception, not only by who it allows to preach in the pulpit, that's why there's church discipline, you can't allow corrupting influences that threaten the purity of the church. I believe God created sheep to make a spiritual point, they cannot distinguish between a toxic deadly plant and a suitable one to graze on. They have absolutely no defense mechanisms to defend themselves against predators. If allowed to wander, they will surely die. The key to sustaining their life is a Shepherd would love and protects them.

I believe that we all need to examine ours lives more closely, we need to look at our motivation of our hearts and stop caring so much who other people think we are and be more concerned about who God knows we are, after all, when it's all said and done it's Him we must please. It’s bad enough if we sin alone, but to cause others to stumble because of inerrant teaching, we'll all answer for that. I don't ever want to be the reason someone stumbles. When our time comes to leave this world, will we be able to say as Jesus did in John 17:12, "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished..." Ministry, if done well, is hard work, it's not for the faint-hearted, with half of all ministers beginning their pastorate not surviving five years, many either self-destruct or are chewed up and spit out in less than three years, that's before the ink is even dry on their seminary degree. You must be faithful, of course it takes time to cultivate faithfulness and humility in ministry, it's not about  finishing quick my friends, but finishing well. There's something to be said for longevity, though I've been at this a number of years now, and in some ways, I still feel like I'm just getting started. I pray, that if it is the Lords will, there will be many more sermons to preach, more sheep to feed and protect and more young men to train. 

Let's face it, it’s really difficult in the world in which we live to press toward that Christlike obedience, with all the filth and garbage that’s being pumped out through every media outlet, the sad reality is, it is becoming more and more powerful and faithful expositors that actually care deeply about the sanctification of God's people are in kind of short supply these days, so I plan on sticking around a while, that is as far as it depends on me, until the Lord decides to take me to be with Him in eternity. So, I solemnly charge you now in the presence of God and before Christ, hold fast to sound teaching and preach the Word to the church, so that they are moving toward Christ-likeness through their continued exposure to the Truth. Don't compromise the Truth that the people of God need in order to to make unbelievers content with coming to church. Many pastors today have done a great disservice to the church, by compromising with the world, they have substantially failed to preach the Word of God, neglecting to proclaim the passages necessary for sanctification just because some consider them offensive or outdated. 

The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, that "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." I’ve been preaching for years, believe me, I've seen the Gospel in action, it's pretty amazing. And, I lived long enough to see people who have been in the ministry for thirty or forty years fall into massive sins and iniquities due to ever-present persistent reality of remaining sin, sin they were sure was dealt with, until a rears it's ugly head in a way that is new and different, catching them off-guard. A stark reminder that no matter how far we've come, there is still part of that fallenness that remains very active in all of us, the battle against sin never ends, you just become more weary you the longer you live, but you continue to fight the battle, not only for your own sake, but for the sake of everybody else, trying to move people toward Christlikeness, while still having to deal with all the weaknesses and struggles in your own heart.

Day after day, year after year, you keep fighting, because being a true Christian results in a life that is dramatically different from the life formerly lived. You cannot live a life of indifference and be a Christian, if you are a true Christian, your life will be marked by a profound transformation; you're going to live a much different life than you did before, you're going to think different because you have the mind of Christ. If your life has remained pretty much unchanged, if you're living the same life as you were before Christ, there's a very good chance you're only pretending to be a Christian. 

In 1 Corinthians 2:14-16, Paul writes to the church at Corinth , "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." Scripture is the single greatest source of Truth we have on this planet, however, it must be received, believed and applied. The attack on the Truth is not academic, it's not political, any attack on the Truth of God is spiritual, directly linked to Satan himself. Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Every pastor who steps into the pulpit has a responsibility to preach the Word, to faithfully declare the Word of God with authority, to lead and protect the church, warning them of error and false teaching that is not consistent with the Word of God, calling them to commit to following Christ in all areas of life no matter how much resistance there might be and the congregation has every right to hold the pastor to that God given standard. And if he falls short of that high standard, failing to fulfill his responsibility, he is rightly to be disqualified from ministry.

I am reminded of the profound words found in Acts 20:24, "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God." 

I've lived long enough to learn that being in the ministry is not about me, it’s about Christ, and finding people into whom I can pour my entire life until Christ is formed in them, living to be an example to the flock so they can follow your faith, I pray that's been both an encouragement and challenge to some you.

Let's pray together, 

Heavenly Father,

Father, thank You for Your magnificent Word, how rich, how consistent Your Truth is, it never returns void, without accomplishing what You desire; it strengthens the weak, humbles the proud, convicts the guilty and comforts the weary. Lord, I pray that You would continue to use this ministry to reach a lost world through Your Word, the Word that has the power to transform lives, so that You would be glorified in Your church. Father, my heart grieves deeply for those who have lost their integrity, those who have compromised Your Word, dishonoring You, Lord, I pray that You would be gracious and grant them the gift of repentance, and restore their faithfulness to You, the faithfulness that You are worthy of and rightly deserve. Lord, as a recipient of Your truth, I pray that You would keep me faithful by whatever means deemed necessary, that I might never lose sight of the message that is the Gospel, unfolding usefulness to those who hear it to and confirm by Your Spirit alone that which pleases You. Father, I pray that You would continue to make that be the desire of my heart, for Your glory. We ask and pray these things in Christ's Name.
Amen

Today's Message: Seek First The Kingdom 

For those of you who have been with us week after week, we’ve been exploring the Gospel of Luke together, it's been an amazing journey so far, and I pray that you have been having a tremendous time studying it as I have. Since the beginning of my call to the ministry, I have had this insatiable hunger to know and understand the Gospel, and I believe that God has graciously blessed me for that in so many ways. If you are just joining and missed the first messages, I encourage you to go back through the messages that I’ve already preached to catch up to where we are, so you can get a running start and I believe that God will richly bless you for it.

Now, we come to Luke chapter 6 in verses 20-23, which is Luke's version of the Beatitudes, often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, though it's a shorter version, it's the same sermon, following the same pattern and progress that Matthew recorded in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, there are variations between the two, so that they might highlight the same sermon, precise statements Jesus said in a different way, though no less impactful. 

This is by far the most definitive famous sermon that Jesus ever preached, which He actually preached in Aramaic, though both Matthew and Luke record it in Greek. It's a sermon about sin, the most deadly virus on the planet and it's about salvation, the cure for the deadly virus; it’s about who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. It's not about religiosity or ethics, as some claim, it's about who is actually saved.  Just as a footnote, neither Matthew nor Luke give us the full sermon that Jesus preached, I believe that Jesus would have preached a sermon of this magnitude for hours, not the 5 or 10 minutes it would take us to read through the verses in either Matthew or Luke's account, I believe it’s reasonable to imagine that Jesus would have preached a far more extensive message, captivating His audience for many hours, as was often His pattern for preaching. 

If you will recall, in feeding the five thousand, He preached all day, until the hour was late and people were getting hungry so the disciples wanted to send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. So, it is safe to believe that Jesus preached these profound, very important Truths from the perspective of the kingdom of God for hours rather than minutes, calling people to a higher standard, in fact, the highest ethic ever set in the history of man. A standard that so high, apart from Christ, it's impossible for anybody to ever lived up to it, which is the point, stripping bare of the phoniness of the Pharisees and unmasking the hypocrisy of those who followed their own self-righteous religion of human achievement. That's why in Matthew 5:20, He said "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven," calling out the substandard righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who were believed to be the most righteous people of the planet, severely indicting their whole substandard religious system by comparing them to tax collectors and sinners and they were absolutely stunned, so shocked they found it offensive because it was the opposite everything they thought, convincing themselves He was speaking from Satan, rather than God.

Open you Bibles with me, if you would and turn them to the Gospel of Luke chapter 6 and let's get started. I pray that you will follow along with me as I read these verses, to set the text in our minds, and then let's open up our hearts and listen carefully for what the Spirit of God has to say to each of us today. Luke 6:20-23.

"And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who cry now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and exclude you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For their fathers were doing the same things to the prophets." 

Let's look at verse 20, "And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." This is a tremendous verse because of its depth and its richness, this is God setting the standard by which anybody can discern their spiritual condition, and by the time you get to verse 49, you will be able to determine in no uncertain terms if you're saved or if you're lost, whether you are going to heaven or going to Hell. This sermon can determine the answer to life's most pressing question, the single most crucial question one can ever have the answer to, the question running through the mind of nearly every person on the planet at one time or another: "What awaits me beyond this life?" Jesus is directing this sermon to His disciples, who are at all points believing in Him and have already come to true salvation. 

Let's be honest, telling someone poverty is a blessing sounds insane to the average person, especially when everybody in our materialistic society wants to escape it, by turning their poverty into riches, because being poor in our world is often viewed as a curse, people live in fear over whether they’re going to have enough to eat, and drink. And, so the pursuit of wealth is not only the common expectation, it is the goal to be achieved with unwavering determination. The problem is being rich has its own set of troubles, the temptation is to trust in one's wealth, the focus is on money and possessions rather than God and trusting in His provision. I can tell you whether a person is a Christian or not by how they handle their money beyond the necessities of life. We all have differing amounts of money, but what I'm talking about is what we do with what we have, that is a test of one's true spirituality. If you want to know if someone's really a Christian, ask to see the checkbook, it's the great revealer of the heart. God doesn't want you going into massive credit card debt to pursue a heavenly investment.

Listen, becoming a Christian doesn't add anything to human wisdom, it completely replaces it. Isn't that’s why the apostle Paul wrote, in 1 Corinthians 1:20, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" We're not running around this life grasping and clinging to our money and possessions, because our focus is on God not on what we have. Greed and power is the emphasis in America, it is really a major issue, we are living in a state of affluence that’s unheard of in any other part of the world. Not that there isn't tremendous wealth in other parts of the world, but they don't manage it the way we do, nobody in the world has as much stuff as we have. We tend to acquire so much stuff that we have to rent some place to store it because our houses aren't big enough, so we buy bigger houses and most of it we never even use, the stuff or the house. I've known people who've owned houses with rooms they've never even been in. Thanks to technology and the internet, spending money we don't have on things we don't need has become a pastime for most people. It creates a very dangerous environment, if you turn man loose, and he will destroy himself. Greed is just an expression of our own human sinfulness. Did you know that in the Bible, there are over 2,000 references to money and possessions and in the 4 gospels, 1 out of every 10 verses deal with money or possessions; that's 288 verses. The depravity of a man's heart becomes the ultimate end to his own self-destruction. 

Remember the parable of the land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.' But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." We are maniacal about whatever we desire. And we're being egged on by the media, television, magazines and billboards are telling us "Go ahead and buy "it" because everybody else has "it," you can’t survive without it. And if you can't afford "it," go in debt for "it." So, what do we do? We get out our credit cards and we buy as many as we can possibly get. It's unbelievable. If you're a Christian, it's not only foolish, it's sinful. We are called to set our affections on above, seeking first the kingdom of God and laying up our treasure in heaven, not the things of this earth. The rich worry about money, that's why they amass so much of it, to hedge against the future. The poor  worry about money in a little different way, because they don't have enough, many times they know where their next meal is going to come from and there's nothing they can do to alleviate the problem. Christians are not to worry about the necessities of life, we trust that God will provide the things that we need. If you're worrying, the problem is not financial, it's spiritual. 

Being poor in and of itself is not necessarily a blessing, that's not the kind of poor He’s not talking about, He's not saying poor people are blessed, by just being poor, He’s talking about spiritually poverty. "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God," He's saying spiritually poor people who understand the bankrupt condition of their soul will inherit the kingdom of God. They understand that when all is said and done, it doesn't matter how much money they have, they're bankrupt, you can't buy salvation. The Good News is, you don't have to purchase it, it's a gift, you need only to receive it. Self-righteous people don't want to see themselves as poor, spiritually bankrupt, so they attempt to enter the kingdom by human achievement. In Luke 16, He said "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it." They convince themselves God is pleased, they've earned their way in with their self-righteous works. Jesus made it clear in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

When Jesus went to the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth, the town where He grew up, they weren't just offended they were so enraged they tried to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff because He said quoting Isaiah 61, they were poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed spiritually. We're going to move through these next few verse a little more quickly.

In verse 21 comes the second Beatitude, "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied." Let's stop there. We all understand what hunger means, some of you are probably looking at your watches now, thinking it's lunch time, right? He's not talking about that kind of hunger, He's talking about spiritual food, not physical food. Again, He's saying salvation is only for the beggar, if you don’t hunger for forgiveness, if you don’t hunger for righteousness, then you’re not spiritually deprived enough to come to Christ begging for salvation. Then, He says "Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh." Those who weep now or mourn as Matthew records it, those who are sad about their spiritual condition now, your weeping, your sadness that produces repentance without regret will be turned into joy. You’ll not only be comforted, your sadness will be turned into laughter. That's the ultimate joy that eternal life that produces.

Verse 22, "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man." What in the world is this about? He's saying now that you've been blessed, your life has changed, the evidence of your salvation is obvious to the world, your spiritual poverty has turned to riches, your hunger to satisfaction, weeping to laughter. in other words, you live differently now and so has the way the world sees you because of your salvation, they're going to treat you differently, they're going to hate you, they're going to ostracize, reject you and insult you.

That brings us to verse 23, "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets." All sinners measured against God’s perfect standard fall short, therefore, every sinner is headed for divine judgment unless they repent, and believe that was the message from the prophets of old, that was the message from John the Baptist, and that is the message Jesus came preaching repentance in no uncertain terms in Matthew 3:2, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  It's the same message every man of God is called to proclaim today. I am always amazed by the number of people who profess to believe in God, while continuing to live like Hell, they've convinced themselves that they're good enough to get into heaven on their own, they don't need a Savior. Much like the self-righteous religious leaders in Jesus' day, in fact, they built an entire religious system on their superficial morality and ceremonial activities, which He repeatedly indicted them for and they killed Him for it. It's still not a popular message today, particularly among the devout religious community, who refuse to recognize that they are not in the Kingdom of God. People are going to hate you because of your association with Jesus. That's how it's always been and that’s how it’s going to be, even today.

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name

Amen



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" 35  Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place. And He was praying there. 36  Simon and his companions went searching for Him. 37  They found Him and said, “Everyone’s looking for You!” 38  And He said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.” 39  So He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. 40  Then a man with a serious skin disease came to Him and, on his knees, begged Him: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 41  Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched him. “I am willing,” He told him. “Be made clean.” 42  Immediately the disease left him, and he was healed. 43  Then He sternly warned him and sent him away at once, 44  telling him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go and show yourself to the priest, and o...

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    " The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2  who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3  Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near." Revelation 1:1-3 Good Morning my beloved,   We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord. Thank you for joining us today, we're glad to have you here. We are especially grateful for those of you who have been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends. Your faithfulness to share God's Word with others continues to bring about tremendous results. We are grateful to each of you. And through your sharing, God has brought a number of people to Christ. Praise God! May He continue to use you and this ...

Nothing Has Changed If You Haven’t Changed

Good Morning beloved family, I'm so glad to have all of you joining us today! Let's give a shout of praise to the Lord! Amen! Heavenly Father, As we gather here today, enlighten our understanding, purify our hearts every desire, quicken our wills, and strengthen every right purpose. Grant us wisdom and discernment, that we may better know Your Word and understand. Direct us, in clarity, during this time of worship, guide us to the magnifying and exalting of Your name, and to the e nduring good of us Your children and servants, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen " To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:   A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A ti...

Ministry With A Mission

    " Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, 2  To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord." I Timothy 1:1-2     Good Morning my beloved,   We welcome to all of our beloved brothers and sisters, from all around the world, who have been lead to join us today. We are glad to have you here!   I know that I mentioned this to you in our last message, however, Scripture calls us to pray with and for our brothers and sister in Christ. I again, would like to encourage all of you to visit our Prayer Wall, there are a number of them who are in great need of some faithful prayer warriors. I pray that you will join us in praying for them in their time of need. I would greatly appreciate it, and I know that they would as well!   I Timothy 2:1 tells us " First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and pray...

The Power Of A Humble Prayer

      " Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2  and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith. 3  But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one . 4  We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. 5  May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ." II Thessalonians 3:1-5     Good Morning my beloved,   Welcome to all of our beloved brothers and sisters, from all around the world, who have been prompted to join us today. We are glad to have you here!   I believe that peace, encouragement and good hope are present realities for any true believer. It stands in stark contrast to what the world offers. In the face of life's challenges, discouragements persecution, and shattere...