Thu, Jan 30th - 2:20PM

Acts 13:38-41

Acts 13:38 Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. 40Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

41“ ‘Look, you scoffers,

wonder and perish,

for I am going to do something in your days

that you would never believe,

even if someone told you.’ (NIV)

It is through Jesus that we have the forgiveness of our sins and through no else. As Jesus declared in John 14:6 He is the One and Only Way to the Father. All other ways are only false ways that lead to hell instead of heaven. You can never be good enough on your own to earn your way to Heaven. It is only by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that you will ever see heaven. 

The Jews thought they were justified by following the Old Testament Law but no one was able to follow the Law perfectly except Christ and that is why only He could die on the cross as a sinless sacrifice for our sins. 

The Bible says we are all sinners worthy of death but Christ died on the cross as a sin sacrifice for our sins so that whosoever believes in Him and accepts Him as Lord and Savior can have their sins forgiven and eternal life through Him.

This message was originally brought to the Jews who claimed to be the children of God and was waiting for the Messiah but when He did come they rejected Him and His message. The religious leaders made a big show of being religious but in reality their hearts were far from God. The worship of God was nothing more than empty rituals and traditions. God isn’t interested in a show of empty worship. God wants heartfelt true worship of Him. As the Bible says those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Just like the Jews in the time of Christ for many Christians our worship of God is nothing but empty rituals and routines completely void of the Holy Spirit. You aint fooling God. God knows the heart of man. God knows the heart of each and every one of us and knows who are truly fooling Him and He knows those who are just making a show of following Christ. 

Each and every one of us is going to stand before God someday to give an account of our lives. If you have truly given your life to Christ you have nothing to fear because your sins are forgiven but if you never truly given your life to Christ or outright rejected Christ as your Lord and Savior than you have everything to fear because you will be judged by God and spend eternity in hell. 

Tue, Jan 28th - 11:47PM

Acts 13:4-12

Acts 13:4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.

6They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10“You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”

Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. (NIV)

Bar-Jesus set himself up as an enemy of God when he tried to prevent the proconsul from hearing the Word of God and he suffered the consequences. Many people today are setting themselves up as enemies of God by trying to prevent the Word of God from being preached. I say trying because ultimately they are going to fail. Matthew 24:14 says that the Gospel will be preached in all the world and then the end will come. Since the Bible is the written Word of God and true we know the Word will be preached throughout the world and no one can stop it from being so because this is the will of God and no one can stop the will of God. Many are going to try and are trying now but just like Bar-Jesus they are setting themselves up as the enemies of God and will suffer the consequences for their actions. 

Many today are perverting the Word of God to promote their own world views or to promote certain social agendas but God won’t be mocked and they will suffer the consequences of their actions. Matthew 18 gives a warning to those who would cause others to stumble:

Matthew 18:6 If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! (NIV)

And Hebrews 10:31 warns us of the dangers of facing God’s judgment.

Hebrews 10:31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (NIV)

There are a lot of people who are openly mocking God today and they don’t even know how foolish they are. God is a loving and patient God but God has set a day to judge the world and woe to them who have mocked God openly and thought they have gotten away with it. They will stand before the Almighty God they declared didn’t exist and mocked openly and God will have His justice. 

Sun, Jan 26th - 8:55AM

Acts 12:20-24

Acts 12:Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. 20He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.

21On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” 23Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

24But the word of God continued to spread and flourish (NIV)

There is only one God and that is the God of the Bible, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the Great I Am. Not matter what New Age theology might teach you are not your own god, no matter what your selfish nature might tell you, you are not your own god but we will all stand before the true God someday to be judged for our lives. Kanye West might get up and sing that he is a god as he is cheered by fans but Kanye and his fans will stand before the true God someday to be judged for their blasphemy. Jamie Foxx might declare Barack Obama as his lord and savior but there is only one true Savior and that is Jesus Christ. Barbara Walters might call Barack Obama the Messiah but there is only one true Messiah and that is Jesus Christ. 

In the Ten Commandments we are told to have no other gods before God and not to worship idols but in truth for many people their biggest sin is just like Herod they refuse to give God the glory He deserves. As a minister I know I serve God and whatever success I have in ministry it is through the Holy Spirit working through me. It is not anything I have done on my own. When a preacher stands up says I have done this and I have done that he is failing to give God the glory He deserves. There is one famous preacher who has written several books and I have read his books but all through his books it is all about him. How he was successful in raising this church up and if you follow his path you can have a successful church too but not once in his book does he give God any time of glory for his successful ministry. That is idolatry. You are failing to give God the glory he deserves. As a Christian I know everything I have is a gift from God and every success I have had in my life that God deserves the glory because I would be nothing without Him. Man was created to live in fellowship with God, to worship Him, praise Him, and to bring glory to Him. That is the purpose of life but it is through sin that we have failed to do this. As Christians our first priorities in life should be to praise God and bring God the glory He deserves. 

Mon, Jan 20th - 6:59PM

Acts 10:42

Acts 10:42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (NIV)

It is through Christ that we receive the forgiveness of our sins. It was Christ who died on the cross as a sin sacrifice for all of mankind so that whosoever believes in Him and receives Him as Lord and Savior can have their sins forgiven and eternal life through Him. The Bible says we are all sinners worthy of death but Christ died for our sins so that whosoever would believe in Him and accept Him as Savior can escape the just penalty of our sins and the Bible is clear that we will all stand before God someday to give an account of our lives. If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior you have nothing to fear because your sins have been forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross but if you have not given your life to Christ then you have plenty to fear because you are still guilty before God and will spend an eternity in hell for rejecting Christ as your Savior. 

This was the point of the verses preceding these. Christ died for all of mankind so all who accept Christ as Savior can be the children of God. The Jews considered themselves the children of God but they failed to live up to the mission God had given them to lead the Gentiles to God and they rejected the Messiah they claimed they had been waiting for. So the message of salvation was taken to the Gentiles first with Peter and then through Paul. No longer were the Jews the children of God but all who accepted Christ were the children of God because there is no other name given under heaven that we can receive salvation. (Acts 4:12) All other ways are false ways and only lead to hell. Christ is the one and only Way to the Father and heaven. (John 14:6) You can never be good enough on your own to earn your way to heaven. It is the blood of Christ that washes away our sins and makes us clean before God. I know this is hard for many people to swallow but it is the truth as the Bible teaches. Without accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior you are a sinner heading to hell. 

Sat, Jan 11th - 6:50PM

Acts 9:20-22

Acts 9 Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah. (NIV)

The man that had tried to destroy Christianity was now one of its biggest champions. Saul the zealot Pharisee who tried to destroy Christianity would become Paul the great evangelists to the Gentiles and the author of the majority of the books in the New Testament. So why did God choose Saul? Saul no doubt had the blood of Christians on his hands. When we read the story in Acts it sounds kind of vanilla to hear that Saul had Christians arrested but you must remember jail in those times wasn’t the jail we think of today and it is no doubt that those Christians who were arrested were heavily persecuted and no doubt many of them lost their lives. So why did God choose Saul to be His vessel to take the Gospel to the Gentiles? God knew Saul’s heart. God knew the kind of man Saul would be once he learned the truth of the Gospel.

We can say the same about many of the characters of the Bible. Why did Jesus choose the 12 Disciples? There wasn’t anything special about them from an outward appearance. They were common men, nothing really special about them to make them stand out. But God knew their hearts. God knew these were the men that could take the Gospel message to the ends of the earth and suffer fearlessly for His name.

If you look throughout the Bible you see that God had a habit of taking ordinary men and doing amazing things through them. Moses had fled to desert after killing a man but God used him to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. David was just a shepherd boy when God choose him to be the king of Israel. God choose men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David because He knew their hearts. These men had their flaws and they made many mistakes and the Bible is very open about this but the Bible also shows these men were men of great faith and obedience to God. The same would be true of the Disciples and Paul. They made many mistakes and had their flaws but once they were committed to Christ they were men of great faith who willing suffered many hardships for the Gospel. 

The same is true of Christians throughout history. Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dwight Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and others were just average men that God used in a mighty way because God knew their hearts and knew He could do amazing things through them. And the same is true of you. God knows your past but once you have committed yourself to Christ your past is forgiven and you are a new man in Christ and God can do amazing things through those who surrender completely to Him and follow Him with great faith and commitment. 

“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.” Dwight Moody

Tue, Jan 7th - 6:22PM

Acts 8:18-25

Acts 8:18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, 19Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. 20But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 21Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 22Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. 23For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. 24Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.

25And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

The gifts and blessings of God are not for sale. God blesses His children because He is a God of love and because we are His children and He blesses us when we faithfully serve Him and commit to Him. These blessings are not for sale and no one can sale them. They are a free gift from God. I say that because there are some preachers who are trying to sell the blessings of God. When you turn on a so called Christian TV channel and you have a TV preacher telling people if they give his ministry a so called seed offering and that God is going to bless it tenfold we have a problem. First, did he work out this deal with God? Second, how is this Biblical? Where does it say in the Bible if I give a minister money God is going to bless it tenfold. Third, where is this money going? Is it being used to spread the Gospel or feed the hungry, or to help the poor or is it going into this minister’s pocket?

Prosperity preaching is one of the biggest false teachings we have going on in the church right now. When are people going to wake up and realize the only person who is prospering under this preaching is the preacher who is living off of the offerings of his followers? Yes we should give to the church but that is so the church can have funds to operate but when we have preachers living like movie stars we have a problem. When we have preachers living in mansions or own several mansions, driving luxury cars, flying around in private jets , wearing expensive suits when we have believers going hungry in other countries we have a problem. If that man was a true child of God that money would be spent on spreading the Gospel of Christ and helping the poor. Prosperity preaching is a doctrine of greed and selfishness and God will judge this people for their false teaching. Christ never promised His believers a good life here on earth. He promised them a better life in heaven. Just look at how many times Christ preached against pursuing wealth. 

The purpose of any minister or church ministry should be to glorify God and proclaim the message of salvation in Christ. If they aint preaching that than you need to watch out. I am not a big fan of Joel Osteen. It is not so much what he says as what he doesn’t say. I have never heard him preach a sermon on salvation or lead anyone to Christ. All of his sermons are feel good ear tickling messages that make people feel good but they are all fluff and no substance. If we as ministers are not preaching salvation in Christ and leading others to Christ than we are not fulfilling our mission given to us by Christ to lead the lost to Him.

Sat, Jan 4th - 10:54PM

Acts 8:4

Acts 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. (NIV)

After the death of Stephen the Jewish leaders began a general persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem and drove most of the Christians out of Jerusalem but what the Jews intended for evil God used for good to do His will. The Jews thought they were in control but God is always in control. When the Jews drove the Christians out of Jerusalem they took the Gospel message with them and instead of destroying Christianity the Jews actually helped spread the Gospel by forcing the Christians to flee throughout the Roman Empire. It is just like a virus. If the virus is contained in one area it can’t spread but once the virus carriers begin to move about they take the virus with them and spread it to other people. These early Christians took the Gospel with them and it began to spread throughout the Roman Empire. 

God is always in control. When the Jews crucified Christ they thought they were getting rid of a trouble maker but in reality they were helping Christ fulfill His mission. God used their evil plans to fulfill His will. That doesn’t mean God approved of what they did and it doesn’t mean the Jews were justified in what they did. It means God used them to fulfill His will. 

The early church was heavily persecuted by the Roman Empire but God used the Roman Empire to spread the Gospel. The Roman Empire had conquered large parts of Europe and the area around the Mediterranean Sea and united all of these different groups of people under one government and created roads to connect all of the different provinces together and united all of these people under one language. The first missionaries including Paul used this to their advantage. They were able to travel throughout the Roman Empire on the roads created by the Romans, they were able to move freely to different areas united under the Romans and since there was a common language thanks to the Romans it made their mission even easier. It speaks volumes that the Romans tried to destroy Christianity but in the end Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and the message of the Gospel was able to spread throughout the Empire freely. Yes the church became corrupt once it aligned itself with the state but God had a plan for that to. It is called the Protestant Reformation and out of the Protestant Reformation came our modern Evangelical Church. 

God is always in control. When things look their darkest and we have hard time understanding why things happen we need to remember God is always in control.

Fri, Jan 3rd - 11:45PM

1 Samuel 17:45-47

1 Samuel 17:45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (NIV)

Of course these verses are part of the story of David and Goliath. Many people read these verses and think wow how amazing. Brave, little David kills the giant with nothing but a sling and they miss the real meaning behind the story which David reveals in these verses here. It ultimately wasn’t David that killed the giant it was God working through David because David was faithful and had faith in God and allowed God to work through Him. David put his faith into action knowing that God was with him.

As verse 47 says the battle is the Lord’s. In Ephesians 6:12 Paul tells us our battle is spiritual not physical. There is a battle that has been going on between God and Satan since the beginning and this is a spiritual battle between God and the forces of evil and this is a battle with no neutrals. You are either a child of God and a Soldier of God or you are a servant of Satan. This is a battle fought through spiritual means not physical means all though it reveals itself in the physical world around us. So it amazes me when so many Christians rely on the physical instead of the spiritual. We know our society is in a state of moral decay and we know there is a major cultural battle going on between those who hold to a secular liberal mindset and those who hold to a conservative and religious mindset but the answer to this country’s problems is not political but spiritual. This country needs God. This country needs the Gospel. We have turned our back on God and we are suffering the consequences for our actions but the answer is in Christ not the politician or any political party because they are in a lot of ways the problem. If you want to change the world you have to change hearts with the Gospel because Christ is the only true agent of change. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying as Christians we shouldn’t vote. I am saying Christ is the ultimate answer not politics. 

The answer is also not in yourself or the gun either. I am a gun owner and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family but it makes me laugh to see people prepare for some kind of showdown with the government. Do we not trust God? Do we not believe He will deliver us in our time of trouble? I believe there may be tough times ahead for Christians but as verse 47 says the Lord doesn’t save through sword or spear. The Lord saves through His own power. God says the battle is His. Do we believe this or not or are going to try to fight the battle through our own means?