Author: E. DeWayne Swann

Miracles Introduction

DL Moody said, “I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible.”

So, you need to take what you hear in Church, what you hear in Sunday School, and in any other way of studying the word of God, and apply it to your life.

That’s why we do what we do. That’s why every preacher, every teacher that stands before you, pours their heart out, is trying to help you have a closer walk with our Savior Jesus Christ

Ceylon Plemons said this morning in Sunday school that preachers and teachers are held to a higher standard, and what we do and why we do it is because we have to. Because God’s put a call on our life and it’s not to be dogging you or getting onto you it’s we’ve got to warn you what God has told us to warn you if we don’t we’re going to be held accountable before God We’re the ones standing on the wall with the bell ringing out the warning and that’s what God’s called us to do Now I asked you just to apply it to your lives

If you chew your food but never swallow it, you’ll starve. The same applies to God’s word: if you read it but never apply it, you will starve spiritually.

Alistair Begg says, “Without a daily diet of the word of God, we will find ourselves living a life of immaturity.”

So, I encourage you daily to get in the word of God. I encourage you every morning to seek God’s face. Pray for this church, pray for the preachers here. And the leaders, and I can assure you God can do a mighty work here if we just truly humble ourselves and seek Him and ask Him; I believe He will do a Miraculous work here

We’re getting on the right track, I believe, with a 24-hour prayer vigil. Let’s take these burdens, these heartaches, these problems to the one that can handle them, the one that can send the right man of God to fill the pulpit.

And if anybody’s close to me, they know my heart for who I think should be the pastor of this church.

What we’re going to be looking at in the coming weeks when I fill this pulpit will be the miracles of Christ and how they apply to us.

If we present the gospel to you can apply it to your life today, what good is So that’s what we’re going to try to do in the coming weeks

mir·a·cle mir·a·cle [mírrək’l] (plural mir·a·cles) n

1. act of God: an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God
2. amazing event: an event or action that is amazing, extraordinary, or unexpected. It’ll be a miracle if we get there on time.

3. marvelous example: something admired as a marvelous creation or example of a particular type of science or skill. a miracle of modern engineering [12th century. Via French < Latin miraculum “object of wonder” < mirari “wonder at” < mirus “wonderful”]

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

We use the word miracle to a lot of things that are not miracles. What I want to look at are the miracles of God; the very existence of man is a miracle in itself

So, what we’re going to be looking at are the Godly miracles of Christ.

We have miracles from Genesis all the way through to the Revelation of John.

I believe every single word written in the Word of God from Genesis 1:1 all the way through to the end of Revelation 22:21, where it says Amen.

But not everybody believes that, and the world itself is always trying to discredit God and His Word and His miracles.

I believe in the Big Bang theory. I believe God looked and He said, “Let there be,” and BANG! There was.

I’m willing to bet that at least one point in your life someone will tell you that the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea in the book of Exodus is explainable by way of an earthquake and a heavy wind, and that it’s just a natural phenomenon.

Some even suggest that the water wasn’t that deep when Moses and the children of Israel crossed; well, then I’ve got a bigger miracle for you: how in the world did it drown Pharaoh’s army and his horses if it was shallow enough to cross?

You know, there was once a Discovery Channel special in which the authors tried to link all of the 10 plagues on Egypt to a single eruption of a volcano in the Mediterranean.

First, the ash would cause greater rainfall, which then increases the supply of algae for the frogs, which causes certain bugs to hatch, which bring foot and mouth disease, which transmits to the humans, and so on…

They even speculate that these famines would bring about a mold spore in the rooms, which, when inhaled, would kill very quickly.

If the food supply were low, only the firstborn children would get the food, which explains why only they would be opening up the food store and hence dying.

There is this tendency among modern man to understand or even force a scientific understanding of each of these miracles.

I don’t have a problem with that, per se, but we lose something if we feel that every miracle must somehow have a “rational explanation.” God is a mystery, and He can choose to work however He wishes.

I truly believe in miracles, but we don’t follow God for the miracles; for the signs and wonders, He never does anything else for us. He’s already done more than enough.

The story of going to Sweet Spirit Church.

I have worked with Sweet Spirit Ministries for years and saw God do miraculous things and how God used that ministry to have hundreds of young people make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

Years later, after Eddie Rogers left here, he called me one day and said I will be leaving. Going overseas, and He said God told me to call you, and I wanted you to come and have a time of prayer with me like we used to do. That was the Wednesday night after his church service let out; that he called.

His church was in Paulding Plaza across from the McDonald’s across from 360 and Old 278

That night I saw some miraculous things happen that only God himself could have done. As I’ve said in the past, I have a friend that calls me Baptacostal, I think sometimes the Baptists have thrown the baby out with the bath water. We miss out on a lot of things because we’re afraid that God doesn’t still do what God has always done. He says in his own word, He changes not; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and I take Him at His Word

That night Eddie wanted to anoint me with oil and pray over me, and He did, and we had a good prayer time.

At that time, this was in the 1990s, I was running a Thursday night prayer meeting here every Thursday at 7:00. Sometimes it was just me, and sometimes I’d have as many as 20 to 25 people coming down here for a time of prayer.

I was supposed to meet a man at 7:00. He was dying of cancer, and he wanted to talk to me and wanted a time of prayer. When I walked out of Sweet Spirit Fellowship Church in Paulding Plaza in Dallas, the time was 8 minutes till 7. There’s no way I’m going to make it here by 7. There’s no way I can get a hold of Him and tell him I’m running late. Without any traffic, it takes about 20 minutes to get from Paulding Plaza to this church.

So, I got in my truck, cranked it up, looked down, and then I realized I was out of gas. I know that little red S-10; I know when it’s low on gas, and I know when it’s just all but out of gas. And it was all but out of gas.

So, I placed my hand upon the dash of the truck, and I asked the Lord if he would please give me enough gas and help me to make it to Calvary Baptist Church by 7:00.

I watched the gas gauge physically go up to a little over ¼ of a tank. We will see that God will supply our needs, not my wants.

When I pulled into the parking lot of this church, it was 7:00, and he was sitting in the parking lot.

There’s no way you can make it from Paulding Plaza in Dallas, GA to 3988 Marietta Rd, Powder Springs, GA in 10 minutes can’t be done.

To this day, I have no recollection of coming through the city of Hiram.

As I have said, I believe in miracles.

This church being here is a miracle for us to move in it when we did and not owe any money on it was a miracle. God still does miracles

I have seen miracles. There’s no other way to describe the events than with the word “miracle.” The act of God

The man I talked to that night, as I stated, was dying of cancer, but he felt like God wanted him to preach. We prayed about it and talked about it. The next Sunday he announced a call to preach. He preached only one sermon, and a few months later he was gone to see the man he had preached about. They used his sermon at his funeral. He made a difference even here tonight for me to share this with you

In that Discovery Channel thing, what I heard at the end was very interesting.

The scientists were all debating the relative merits of this chain of events, but in the end, one scientist made what I think is the best observation.

He said, “Let’s assume this is all true for a minute. What does this tell us about God?
It tells us that God could set about an amazing chain of coincidence that resulted in His purpose, of His freedom for His people.

No scientific explanation can ever account for that.”

The point of all these miracles is that God chose to be the savior and to show his power here. A miracle is when God decides to temporarily alter the laws of science He established in order to remind people of that which He did.

Miracles by Newsong lyrics                                                                I never saw a man that walked on water                                                 I never heard a voice that could calm the sea                                  Raise the dead or feed five thousand,                                                 But in my heart, I do believe                                                                 I was in a desperate situation                                                   Drowning in a sea of my own sin                                                      And it would take a miracle to save me                                          That’s when I reached toward heaven                                                Felt someone touch me                                                                          I looked up, and I saw Him                                                              chorus                                                                                                 And I believe in miracles                                                                      I’m a miracle myself                                                                        And I believethe good Lord hears                                                     The ones who cry for help;                                                                     And after all that He has done for me                                                   I believe, I do believe in miracles

 I love what Brian said Wednesday night: Sometimes we just need to shout help!

Introduction:

There are some 40 separate miracles of Christ recorded in the Synopsis of Gospels, and they can be divided into four separate categories

• One is healing miracles, where Jesus healed the sick. Causing the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the Leprosy to be cleansed
• The next are miracles of nature, where Jesus said Peace be still and the storm stops; walks on water; or turns water into wine. Feeds thousands with just two pieces of fish and five little biscuits
• Next is casting out demons
• Then the last is raising the dead.

All the miracles of Christ point to the future; they point to truths that are listed in the book of Revelation.

They weren’t just given to us to show us God’s power, which it does. But it was to show us a better day coming, which will happen

• And the healing of the sick

Revelation 21:4 ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

There’s not going to be any more sickness; there’s not going to be any more cancer; there’s not going to be any more heart attacks; there’s not going to be any more dementia anymore Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s; I won’t need a cane. Or a Walker or a wheelchair.  Mary Rich will be able to outrun me without her cane.

• The next are miracles of nature,

There’ll be no more tornado sirens, no more earthquakes, no more hurricanes. The provision of food tells us that someday all hunger and suffering will be done away with.

My mother used to tell me she hated pumpkin. The only way we were allowed to bring pumpkins into the house when I was growing up was to make Jack O’lanterns at Halloween.

But we couldn’t have pumpkin-flavored stuff because she was raised on pumpkin one year. That’s all they had; she said she made pumpkin bread, she made pumpkin soup. She sounded like Bubba on Forrest Gump with the shrimp, but everything was about pumpkin. If it could be made out of pumpkin, she made it, and they ate it because they were hungry. There’s going to be no hunger there. And now she’s in glory eating whatever she wants whenever she wants it, and I promise you it ain’t pumpkin, and Knowing Her, she’s in the kitchen telling them how to do it and showing them a better way.

Revelation 19:7-10 ⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” ⁸ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. ⁹ Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” This was an Angel telling John ¹⁰ And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

• The casting out of demons signals God’s invasion of Satan and his ultimate defeat.

Revelation 20:10 ¹⁰ The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:14-15 ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Listen, hell was not designed for us. If you die before you die then when you die you won’t die.

Hell is an eternal separation from Sovereign God. That’s a worse tragedy than the fire and brimstone

Jesus Himself said this. It was designed for the devil and his angels, his demons, his followers, and it’s so simple not to end up in hell; all you have to do is accept the free gift that Christ has offered.

Jesus did all the work. All you have to do is take it!

Matthew 25:41 ⁴¹ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:

• The raising of the dead tells us that all death one day Death will be done away with,

Revelation 21:4 ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Heaven is the place that we will dwell forever. It’s not just a city; it is the very presence of Sovereign God himself. That’s what heaven is.

My small group just finished a series on heaven by Dr David Jeremiah

David Jeremiah said on July 6 in his devotional:

The Best Thing About Heaven

In 1964, singer Dionne Warwick recorded one of her hits, “A House Is Not a Home.” The lyrics say that an empty house—no matter how beautiful—is not a home if the one we love isn’t there.

I preached this text for my dad’s funeral upstairs,

John 14:1-6 ¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

The example of Tim Plemmons when he bought Stock in a bank: he said one little square foot of that bank was his; it was his place. But Jesus goes on, and he says:

³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.” ⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Think of the glories of heaven! The Bible speaks of its mansions, its streets of gold, its foundations of jewels, its luminescent glow, its river of life, its endless fellowship untouched by sorrow, death, pain, or tears. But think of this—what if Jesus were not there?

What would heaven be like without the Triune God?

Our priority after death isn’t so much heaven as it is our Lord—being with Him forever!

When we think of heaven, we should consider all the biblical descriptions of the wondrous environment. We should think about our blessed reunion with our loved ones. We should enjoy thinking about the endless riches we’ll enjoy.

But most of all—there is Jesus! As you go through your day, think most of all about Him—and pray: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Billy Graham: “The most thrilling thing about heaven is that Jesus Christ will be there. I will see Him face to face.”

In these miracles we see Jesus supplying a need. This also tells us that God will forever have power to supply our need.

Philippians 4:19-20  ¹⁹ And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. ²⁰ Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

All means all, and that all, all means.  He said all.

Not our wants but our needs.

And my story about Sweet Spirit Ministries: I wanted a full tank; He gave me what I needed. To make it here and then to a gas station

Acts 2:22-28  ²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know– ²³ Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; Our sins did that ²⁴ whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
²⁵ For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. ²⁶ Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. ²⁷ For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. ²⁸ You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

But it also speaks to us for today:

Matthew 28:18-20  ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Jesus didn’t do miracles to emulate; he did them to authenticate

But He was baptized before He started His ministry.

Representing the death, burial, and resurrection.

Buried with Him in death, raised to walk again, a new life, or as the Atlanta Christian Curcio movement calls it; “walking wet”.

The Bible does say to go and baptize, but does not say to go and do miracles.

Acts 2:38-39  ³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

He’s talking about us there, talking about the believers later on, and when we accept Christ, we are indwelt with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:40 (HCSB) And with many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!”

See, it’s about getting the word out. Paul said;

1 Corinthians 1:17-19 ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize (see, it’s not about baptism; it’s about presenting the gospel and accepting Jesus), but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

And as we’ve said before, baptism is just like a wedding band; it does not save you any more than a wedding band gets you married.

It’s just a symbol to show you are saved, just like a wedding band shows you are married.

You can have a wedding band and not be married.

You can go to church and not be saved.

I heard an example one time: a man had a cat that had kittens in an oven. Didn’t make them biscuits; just because you go to church doesn’t make you a Christian.

This is the easiest place on the planet to be a Christian.

It’s not hard to be good here inside the walls of a church.

It’s really difficult outside those doors.

The acid test of Christianity is inside your home.

Your husband, your wife, your kids, your mom, your mother-in-law, your family sees what you are.

It’s an outward appearance of obedience.

Jesus himself did not perform any miracles or public service until he was baptized. If you have been saved and you want to serve Christ and have never been baptized, I encourage you to talk with Ceylon or Brian and get that resolved.

After Jesus’s baptism, we see:

Before Jesus began his public ministry, he attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee with his mother Mary and some of his disciples.

During the wedding banquet, Jesus performed a miracle that involved changing water into wine.

Cana is in Galilee, which is a region within the Biblical land of Israel. It is near Nazareth, where Jesus spent much of his childhood. He knew the people there when he was invited, and he brought his disciples with Him.

God does not mind us having a good time.

John, the author of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible, indicates that this was the first miracle of Jesus, or at least the first that was witnessed by his disciples.

As I said, Jesus didn’t do miracles to emulate; he did them to authenticate

John 2:11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

God is real, but he will never be real in our lives until we put our faith in Him.

Our faith can be increased as we fellowship with Christ and see his mighty hand at work in our lives
NOW they saw that He was invested with almighty power, and their faith was established.

In the movie “Bruce Almighty,” I’ve never seen the movie, but I’ve seen this clip where Jim Carry blows his soup and parts. This illustration is well worth mentioning.

It has a key scene in the movie with Jim Carrey, who is Bruce, and Morgan Freeman, who plays one of the most Biblically correct Gods in Hollywood.

Morgan Freeman is trying to tell Jim Carrey about what a failure Bruce is at playing God. He says, “Parting your soup? That’s not a miracle; that’s a magic trick.

A single mother working two jobs still finds time to bring her kids to soccer practice. That’s a miracle. A teenager who says no to drugs, and yes to an education – that’s a miracle.” To that I add Jim Carrey, without a hint of sarcasm, declaring “I surrender all.” That’s a miracle.

Again, I still have a hard time thinking how close Hollywood got it. But the movie goes on to preach that we all “have the power.” And in a sense, they’re right. But do you want to know why we have the power?

It is never about looking at me look at my power. It’s always about looking at Christ and His presence!

We have the power because we are Sons of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, because of the sacrifice made on Calvary’s cross with Jesus Christ Himself.

When God has his hand on you, and people tell you you’re doing a good job or whatever, and when people applaud you give God the glory.

When lives are changed through your ministry, give God the glory.

When prayers are answered through your faithfulness, give God the glory.

When the Holy Spirit moves through you in ways you never expected, stay humble enough to remember who made it possible.

You are the vessel.

He is the power.

You are the Instrument.

He is the source.

As we’ve said in the past, you may plant, you may water, you may serve, you may speak, but 1Corinthians 3:6 says But God is the one who gives the increase

Never allow spiritual gifting to become spiritual pride.

Never let the platform become more important than the presence of God.

Never let people celebrate you so much that you forget to bow before Him.

That’s why humility matters.

Because the moment we start believing that the work is happening because of us, we forget that it was always happening because of Him.

So. Stay teachable. Stay prayerful. Stay grateful. Stay dependent.

And whenever God does something amazing through your life, don’t take the credit

Point people back to Jesus.

Let your greatest testimony never be Look at what I can do but ” Look at what God can do through a surrendered life.

Because without Him. We have no power.

Without Him, we have no purpose.

Without Him, we can do nothing.

All the glory belongs to God.

So, remember, when the Holy Spirit does amazing things through you, remain humble; never confuse being used by God with being the source of what God is doing.

God may use your gifts;

He may use your words;

He may use your testimony;

He may use your hands to serve, your voice to encourage, and your life to point people towards Jesus.

Remember the power was never yours; it was always His.

Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

 

Back to our song when we started this message by

Newsong, the song Miracle said:

So many people look for signs and wonders                                    They miss the greatest miracle of all                                                Well, it’s the miracle of sweet salvation                                                That’s when the God of heaven Comes down to live inside of someone’s heart                                                                              When it feels like my strength is almost gone                                      And my faith is weak Lord, You’re always there for me                      You make it easy to believe                                                             chorus                                                                                                And I believe in miracles                                                                I’m a miracle myself                                                                       And I believe the good Lord hears                                                         The ones who cry for help                                                              And after all that He has done for me,                                                   I believe, I do believe in miracles

I’m a miracle myself. I often wonder where I would have been during my teenage years if I was not down here helping build this church, because at that time I was running with some pretty rough people. But as a result of coming down here and helping to work on God’s house and getting to have Lifelong friends like Ceylon Plemmons, Lloyd Grizzle, Harold Dolph, Paul Carroll, Charles Sprayberry, Ben Turner, and even Snyder Turner, AB Swanson, Randy Bailey, Ken Maxwell, and many others wandering in and out of this building. I even had a closer relationship with my own dad, Elvin Swann. While we were here, I thank God that he protected me those years. That’s a miracle in itself.

We don’t know how many miracles daily that God is protecting us through our everyday walk, and as I say often, maybe we’ll find out when we get to glory, but I just don’t think, honestly, when we get there, we will really care.

If God gives me the freedom, I’ll share some other miracles I’ve seen happen on this very property and in my life.

So, a breakdown of miracles: it’s like this:

The first miracle that happened involving Jesus Christ on this earth was the conception of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit (1)

• One is healing miracles, where He healed the sick.

Healing (22)

• The next are miracles of nature, where He said Peace be still and the storm stops; walks on water; or turns water into wine. He feeds thousands.

Nature (8)

• Next is casting out demons.

Demons being cast out (4)

• Then the last is death.

Raising of the Dead plus Jesus’ Resurrection (4).

And then in Acts we have the Ascension into Heaven (1)

And one day soon, the miracle we’re all looking for is the return of our Savior. The trumpet sounded, and we will be called out here.

Let’s pray.

Calvary Baptist Church August 23^rd 2026 PM

ARE YOU WILLING TO BE IN THE WILL OF GOD?

Note: Ben Bennett’s card said: “LORD KEEP ME IN YOUR WILL, OR I’LL BE IN YOUR WAY”.

Sometimes being in His will puts you right in the middle of a disaster.

Five things to do when disaster strikes

We all know this story. We all know the outcome, but don’t get ahead of the game. Don’t miss out on the lessons that Jesus is trying to teach the disciples and us in every verse that we’re going to see.

As I’ve said in the past to my small group and other people, and I’ll probably say it again from this pulpit or the 1 downstairs if y’all keep letting me do this, not one single word of this Bible was written to me. Every single word in this Bible was written for me!

John 11:1-45

11:1 Now a certain man was sick. A certain man this is not a parable; this is a true story that John is telling. named Lazarus, of Bethany.

Bethany was a small village in Judea located about two miles east of Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives along the road to Jericho. BETHANY “house, place of unripe figs It is called also the house of misery on account of its lonely situation and the invalids who congregated there

Back to our text, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

2(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

(This has not happened yet; next chapter)

3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

NT:5368  phileo (fil-eh’-o); from NT:5384; to be a friend to (fond of [an individual or an object]), i.e. have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling); specifically, to kiss (as a mark of tenderness):

KJV – kiss, love.

First things to do when disaster strikes.

1. Prayer must be a priority. (John 11:1-3)

The first thing the sisters did was to send word to Jesus.

The one you love is sick. When a crisis hits our lives, be it a death, an accident, a diagnosis, a relationship breakdown, whatever it is. Even if it is that your church needs a pastor, the first thing we need to do is to send word to Jesus.

When a crisis brings us to our knees, we are in a perfect position to pray.

Prayer changes things.

When we communicate with the creator of the universe, things happen.

We call on the greatest power in the world.

And yet too many times we lack the faith that prayer will make a difference.

How do I know that?

Because we do not pray until we have tried everything else.

Instead of prayer being a last resort, it should be our first option.

“Why Trials Come Our Way.”

By Norma Head

It seems when times are getting hard,

And things are looking bad,

That’s when we call on the Lord the most,

When we are very sad.

But if you stop and think a while,

We need Him most of all.

When things are good, and we can smile,

But then we seldom call,

Why do trials come our way?

They help to keep Him in our hearts,

When on our knees, we stay.

 

Now the sisters could send word to Jesus because they had a close friendship or relationship with Jesus.

Had they not known Jesus, they would have been in an awful position with nowhere to turn.

4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

John 11:4 (NLT2) But when Jesus heard about it, he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”

Sometimes we have to go through things we very much do not want to go through just so we can see the hand of God when it’s all said and done for His glory

5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

NT:25 agapao (ag-ap-ah’-o); perhaps from agan (much) [or compare OT:5689]; to love (in a social or moral sense): NT:25 is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety: the two thus stand related very much as NT:2309 and NT:1014, or as NT:2372 and NT:3563 respectively; the former being chiefly of the heart and the latter of the head) KJV – (be-) love (-ed). Compare NT:5368.

(Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

6 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

*Jesus is never frantic or anxious about anything

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?

Don’t miss this, and I keep saying it over and over and over: God doesn’t get in a hurry, no matter how much we want him to. And we as a church need to slow down and wait patiently on God’s hand and His time, and for His pastor to take this pulpit or that pulpit

Second thing when disaster strikes

2. Perseverance pays off. (John 11:6)

Do you think Jesus stayed where he was two more days because he didn’t care about Lazarus?

No way.

He stayed where he was because he knew that God was in control of the situation and that, at the right time, God would take care of the crisis with Lazarus.

When a crisis invades our lives, we do not want to wait it out.

We want it to end as soon as possible.

As Christians, when a crisis comes, we often look for the “fastest exits.”

We want out of the trial or crisis just as soon as possible, and with the least amount of pain. Romans 5 tells us

Romans 5:1-5  ¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Sometimes the only way out of a storm is to ride it out.

Sometimes the only way out of a crisis is perseverance.

One day Lazarus was alive, the next day he was dead; just four days later he was alive again.

A lot can happen in a week.

A lot can happen in three days, just ask Jesus.

It’s the thing that I put on my mom’s refrigerator years ago that she really loved, and it says:

“Sometimes He calms the storms, and sometimes He calms the believer and lets the storm rage on.”

7 Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.

Jesus and his disciples had just left Judea just recently, and now they’re going to turn around and go back, and John chapter 10, verse 25 is Jesus is telling them that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, and they gather up rocks and want to kill him

8 His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?

John 10:39 ³⁹ Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.

9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

Oh yeah, that really cleared things up. You ever read a verse in the Bible and go What?

This is one of those verses at first, but He’s telling us, you only have a certain amount of time to accomplish something for the cause of Christ.

And if you walk in the light, who is the light? Jesus. You won’t stumble, but if there is no light, you’re gonna fail every single time

John 1:4-5  ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

You only have so much time. Use it wisely

11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

He’s telling them that He is bring him back from the dead

1 Kings 2:10  So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Psalm 13:3 ³  Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Acts 7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ) ⁵¹ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

And our story continues Verse #12

12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.

14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Now let’s look at this as another one of those hard things in the Bible, Jesus said in verse 15

15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

He’s not glad that Lazarus is dead He’s glad that his disciples are about to learn a very valuable lesson and that is never count Jesus out no matter what the end result looks like you’re still in the game as long as you’ve got Christ on your side

16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

We always have a doubter; we always have someone that’s griping about something

And they go on to Bethany, and the Bible says verse 17

17 Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

18 Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off: Or as we said a couple of miles

19 And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.

Always be ready to get in the presence of Jesus

21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

I heard a preacher say recently that this is not a compliment to Jesus. This is a complaint if you’d have just shown up. You let me down

How many times have we said that in our heart or even out loud?

God, if You’d just been here, You could have fixed this. I know I have.

22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

She didn’t lose her faith. Notice that! Don’t miss that!

As I’ve said in the past it’s OK to get upset it’s OK to tell God you’re upset he knows But don’t lose your faith and don’t give up

23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

She knows the word of God she has set under Jesus teachings She knows there’s gonna be a resurrection of the last day and she is confident that she will see him Lazarus again someday just not as soon as she’s fixing to

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

One of the seven I Ams of the Book of John.

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Brennan Manning says; When we get to heaven God’s gonna ask us one very important question and that question is do you truly believe that I love you

And the question to you is do you truly believe that he loves you and if you do believe that whatever happens whatever’s going on he allowed it through his love and when you accept that it makes a life living life so much easier

27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

She’s accepted the salvation but hasn’t accepted the consequences that comes with serving God sometimes as I’ve said are you willing to be in the will of God and sometimes when you’re there it comes with a heavy price

28 And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.

Jesus must have asked where is Mary

Now let me let you in on something very important Jesus never asked a question for information He is and always has been God. God never asked a question for information It’s always to expose something whenever you see a question mark at the end of something that Jesus or God says it’s to expose something He knows everything

29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.

Great reaction when you fill a call from the Lord you get up and move then

30 Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.

31 The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.

Even when you are hurting you can still lead others to Christ.

32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

Always at his feet

Luke 10:38-42 38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

John 12:3 3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Always at his feet

And the story goes on…

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

34 And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

35 Jesus wept.

is used of “any loud expression of grief,” especially in mourning for the dead
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words.

Third thing to see when disaster strikes

3. Emotion is natural. (John 11:35)

One of the worst temptations during a crisis is to try to appear strong.

I will be a rock during this storm, you might think.

But let me share a simple truth with you. When we are weak, he is strong. We live in a society that says crying is weak and for women.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus wept.

Why did Jesus weep? Mourning over Lazarus? No, that doesn’t make sense. He knew God was going to raise him from the dead.

He wept because he saw the pain in Mary and Martha, people he loved, and his heart hurt with them.

God has made us emotional people, and when a crisis hits, we need to let it out. It’s ok to be emotional. It’s ok to cry.

When we want God to fix something, we want him to fix it now

Isaiah 53:3-5  ³ He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. ⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

Listen, you’re not in it alone. Jesus hurts when we hurt.

We saw when Stevens was being stoned in the book of Acts, he looked up, and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. When we’re facing difficulties, when we are hurting, when we’re having problems, Jesus takes note, and he stands up, and He’s on our side

And I keep saying over and over if God be for us who can be against us!

1. Death is not a destination. It’s a transition.
2. Death is a reunion with friends and loved ones who are also believers
3. Death is not the end. It’s the beginning of eternal life.

Salvation begins with a decision. It’s not just a prayer prayed, one and done, and go back to living the way you want to, but it starts with a prayer. Commit your life to Jesus and enjoy the Hope and promise of heaven that is open for all who believe.

Max Lucado book Next Door Savior chapter “What Jesus Says At Funerals”

Christ’s Response to Loss In an unexpected move, Jesus weeps alongside Martha and Mary, showing that sorrow is a natural response to loss, regardless of faith. He doesn’t dismiss their pain but instead shares in it. This validates that grieving is not a sign of weak faith; rather, it’s a real, human experience. Jesus understands deep sadness, even knowing he would soon raise Lazarus

Jesus didn’t take it lightly. When he saw people he loved hurting, he hurt himself. He was there for them. He comforted them, and he cried for them

There’s been a number of occasions in funeral homes and people’s homes after someone had passed away that I’d go in and I didn’t have words to say but I’d hold them and I’d cry with them

When Margie Sprayberry passed away I went over to their house and I walked in and Chuck was just barely holding himself together and I just  took him and I pulled him to me my prayer partner my brother my friend and I held him and he started reaping and crying We didn’t say words I just stood there and cried with them sometimes you just need to be there for somebody

And the story goes on,

Read verses 21, 32. It is ok to question God. It is ok to say “God I do not understand why this is happening to me. I don’t understand what you are trying to do in my life.”

21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

Again, I don’t see this as a compliment; I see it as a complaint. Why didn’t you show up, God? And he does just try to look through his eyes and see what’s best for you in some situations

If you are going through a crisis, realize that prayer must be a priority, and that it is ok to allow your emotions to be expressed.

36 Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

And he does love and listen he loves you. you may be going through a hard time right now, this church may be going through a hard time right now, but I want to tell you God’s here with us Why because He loves us.

37 And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?

Yes, He very much could have, but He didn’t .

Which is the greater outcome?

To heal a sick Lazarus

Or to raise a dead Lazarus

That’s gotta cut deep. He can do it for others; why couldn’t he do it for his own friend? You ever questioned God like that? I have. I’ve seen God answer prayers for some people, and I’m praying, and I’m like, ‘ Why couldn’t you do that for me.

Because he knows what’s best for me, and he treats us all differently.

38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

He was hurting deep down inside. My mother said that he was hurting because of their unbelief. Quite possibly so.

39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

We (the Church are to remove the stones to get to the stinking people…we need to quit being so high and mighty and pious and go after the stinking people. We forget where we came from.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Isa 64:7  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

Fourth thing to see when disaster strikes

4. God uses disaster for his glory. (John 11:4, 40)

He can take a negative and turn it into a positive. He turned disaster into deliverance. God can use crisis in our lives to bring about his glory.

4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

In verses 4 & 40, God did not cause Lazarus to die, but he used the crisis for his glory, and it changed the lives of Mary and Martha. So how does that help us?

It helps us with the temptation to blame God.

It helps us to realize that God doesn’t bring disaster into our lives.

It helps us realize that he loves us and can take our defeats and turn them into his victories.

It also gives us hope that God is able to cure any disease, fix any marriage, mend any heart, forgive any sin.

 There is no crisis too big for God.

Emotions do not drive Jesus; He is guided by devotion to the Father

Gary Hamrick “The more you commune with God, the more you’ll be immune from the fear and anxiety of the world… “

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.

As the Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz said, talking about the Wicked Witch, “as Coroner I must claim have thoroughly examined her and she’s not only merely dead she’s really most sincerely dead,”

And that’s exactly where we see Lazarus right now; he is sure enough dead. He’s been in that tomb for 4 days, wrapped up, hadn’t had anything to eat or drink, and he has not been breathing. He’s surely dead.

No doubt that this is a great miracle

41b. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

As we said downstairs a few weeks ago on the Sermon about prayer, God hears every single prayer we pray as believers, and He will answer every single prayer yes or no, and no is an answer, and sometimes just wait

And Jesus speaking in verse 42

42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

What He is doing is for the good of everyone

43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

Rarely do you see Jesus raise his voice but I guess he’s in a grave and he’s hollering into tomb and he’s being specific about the name as we’ve heard before if he’d had just said come forth the whole graveyard would have emptied out

44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

We need to take off the grave clothes of old habits:

We need to take off the grave clothes of old attitudes:

We need to be renewed by the changing of our minds –

We need to begin to think differently – like we’ve been set free!

Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

You see the result This is because of what he did Many believed on him how we handle our circumstances is going to see how we minister to other people around us as I’ve said time and time again people are watching Let him see God in you

God’s delay is often for His display

Jesus was not late

God is never late. He does not have to operate on our timetable.

Fifth thing to see when disaster strikes

5. God changes lives through crisis. (John 11:45)

That’s the final lesson for us. Sometimes it is the life of the one going through the crisis.

Other times it is the lives of those around a suffering person.

Most of the time it is both.

Think about the lives that were changed in the Lazarus story:

Lazarus- he was never the same again. He had some wild stories to tell.

You know you can tell a story, and somebody’s always going to come along and beat it. I caught a 7-pound bass; well, they caught an 8-pounder.

I killed a nine-point buck; they killed a 10 Pointer.

There’s always somebody gonna outdo your story, I think Lazarus won that storytelling all the time

Ex: My brother Glenn had a trump card when it comes to being sick and having stories told “I did die”

Mary and Martha- Had a new love and appreciation for life, Lazarus, and Jesus.

The Jews- (verse 45) changed hearts, a new faith.

John 12:11

11 Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

It is sad that it takes a crisis, but thank God that through a crisis he can turn the lost into saved,

he can melt hardened hearts,

he can make the bitter loving,

he can turn orphans into children of the king.

We play in fair weather, but we pray in the storms.

If you are a Christian and have gone through a disaster in your life, then you know exactly what I mean.

You could say today, “I am not the same person that I was before the crisis came into my life.” God has shaped and molded you into who you are today, and has done it through crisis.

If you are a Christian and have not had any “great disasters”, I do not want to be the bearer of bad news, but at some point you probably will have a time of crisis and testing in your life.

I pray that you will keep these things close to your heart so that you will be totally prepared in a time of crisis.

One final scripture today- John 11:25-26. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Do you? Are you Christians living your lives reflecting your hope in the risen Lord?

If Jesus is not the Lord of your life, he can be. The Bible says we must:

Believe in Jesus as the Son of God.

Repent of our sins and confess Jesus as Lord.

Arise and live for him each and every day.

Salvation begins with a decision. It’s not just a prayer prayed, one and done, and go back to living the way you want to, but it starts with a prayer. Commit your life to Jesus and enjoy the Hope and promise of heaven that is open for all who believe.

August 5^th 2026 Wednesday night Calvary Baptist Church

“The Power of the Word of God.”
Word Of God (BIBLE)

 Creed by Rich Mullins

I believe in God the Father almighty
Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ
His only begotten Son, our Lord
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
He was crucified and dead and buried

I believe that He who suffered
Was crucified, buried, and dead
He descended into hell and
On the third day, rose again
He ascended into Heaven where
He sits at God’s mighty right hand
I believe that He’s returning to
Judge the quick and the dead
Of the sons of men

I believe in God the Father almighty
Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son,
Our Lord

I believe in the Holy Spirit
One Holy Church, the communion of Saints
The forgiveness of sin
I believe in the resurrection
I believe in a life that never ends

And I believe what I believe
Is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not

The invention of any man

I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, I believe I believe it, I believe it

It is what makes me what I am.

The question is what makes you what you are?

Is it the books you read other than the Bible? Is it the songs you sing outside of Christian songs? Is it Netflix or streaming TV? I promise you everything that you put into your mind goes into your heart.

It is what makes you what you are. I want to talk to you for a few moments tonight about the Word of God

You remember the Children’s song: “Be careful, little eyes, what you see; be careful, little ears, what you hear.” The Father up above He is looking down with love, so be careful, little eyes, what you see.

It applies to the older folks too. What we put in us is what the world gets out of us.

As a Christian, Christ is what makes us what we are. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit sent by our heavenly Father, God.

We need not give up. As I’ve said time and again, God’s nowhere near done here. We just trust Him and keep the battle going. He’s gonna do a miraculous work here, but He’s got to do that through His word.

Just don’t give up. Follow after God’s plan, not man’s plan. We make mistakes. God does not.

In 1889, a schoolteacher told a ten-year-old boy, “You will never amount to very much.” That boy was Albert Einstein.

In 1954, a music manager told a young singer, “You ought to go back to driving a truck.” That singer was Elvis Presley.

In 1962, a record company told a group of singers from England, “We don’t like your sound. Groups with guitars are definitely on their way out.” They said that to the Beatles.

Man is prone to make mistakes. And man will make mistakes, but hear me well: God does not.

So how do we know what God wants us to do? It’s in His word. That’s what I want to talk to you about tonight.

Those who reject the Bible should take the time to look at the evidence before they come to a verdict:

Understand it’s not about what I say or any other preacher but what God says through us!

John Vernon McGee (June 17, 1904 – December 1, 1988) was an American ordained Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister.

Thru the Bible

In 1967, he began broadcasting the Thru the Bible radio program. In a systematic study of each book of the Bible, McGee took his listeners from Genesis to Revelation in a two-and-a-half-year “Bible Bus trip”, as he called it. He had earlier preached a “Through the Bible in a Year” series of sermons, each devoted to one chapter of the Bible, at the Church of the Open Door. After retiring from the pastorate in January 1970, and realizing that two and a half years was not enough time to teach the whole Bible, McGee completed another study of the entire Bible in a five-year period. At the time of McGee’s death, the Thru the Bible program aired in 34 languages, but has since been translated into over 100 languages. It is broadcast on Trans World Radio throughout the world every weekday.

In 1965, doctors told J. Vernon McGee he had six months to live. He responded by starting the radio program that would walk the entire world through every single book of the Bible. He’s been gone since 1988. The program is still running.

In 1965, a doctor sat across from J. Vernon McGee and told him he had six months to live. Cancer.

McGee was sixty-one years old. He had spent decades studying God’s Word. He had pastored the Church of the Open Door in downtown Los Angeles — one of the most historic churches in America. He had preached the Bible his entire adult life.

And a doctor was telling him it was almost over. Most people would have stopped. McGee started a radio program. Two years after the diagnosis — two years after being told he had six months — he launched Thru the Bible. A daily radio broadcast that would walk listeners through every single book of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Chapter by chapter. Book by book. The whole thing. He called it the Bible Bus.

And for the next twenty-three years — twenty-three years he was never supposed to have — J. Vernon McGee drove that bus. 800 radio stations in North America. More than 100 languages. 160 countries.

He kept going until December 1, 1988, when he fell asleep in his chair mid-conversation — talking about making sure the ministry would continue after he was gone. And it did continue.

Because before he died, he said something that he never stopped believing — and that most Christians have heard and never truly acted on.

“In my opinion, the greatest sin in the church of Jesus Christ in this generation is ignorance of the Word of God. Many times, I have heard a church officer say, ‘Well I don’t know much about the Bible, but…’ and then he gives his opinion, which often actually contradicts the Word of God.”

The greatest sin in the church. Not immorality. Not unbelief. It’s the Ignorance of the Word of God.

And then the line that breaks me every time I read it.

“The only way you and I are going to stay close to Jesus is to stay close to His Word.”

Not close to Church. Not close to sermons about His Word. Not close to other people who know His Word.

Close to His Word itself. And in that you will be close to Christ Himself

Inside His Word. Understanding His Word. Letting His Word get into you the way it got into McGee — the way it kept him going for twenty-three years after a doctor told him he had six months.

But here’s what most Christians never figure out — and what nobody in the pew seems willing to say out loud.

Most of us are not close to His Word.

We are close to the idea of His Word.

We own it. The Bible, We carry it to Church. We set it on the seat next to us. We start reading plans in January and stop in April and feel guilty about it until December.

And we tell ourselves that counts.

McGee said it didn’t.

He said it plainly for over twenty years on the radio while the cancer that was supposed to kill him in six months kept not killing him.

“The greatest sin today in the church is the man in the pew who is ignorant of the Bible.”

And he spent every year he had — including every year he wasn’t supposed to have — trying to change it. He knew what the problem was. It wasn’t that Christians didn’t love God. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to read. It was that nobody had ever walked them through it.

The Bible is letters, poems, prophecies, and histories written for specific people in specific moments in history — without anyone telling you who wrote it, when, why, what was happening in the world at the time, or how it all connects together.

Not one word written to me every single word written For me With me on His mind.

That’s why it can feel impossible. That’s why you start in January with every intention and stop in April with a fresh set of guilt.

Not because you’re faithless. Because nobody ever got on the bus with you.

“The only way you and I are going to stay close to Jesus is to stay close to His Word.”

 I used to think that was about discipline. About making yourself sit down every morning. About willpower and intention and not quitting. But now I understand something different. You can’t stay close to someone you don’t understand. You can’t stay close to a Word you’ve been reading for decades without it ever getting inside.

We can spend a lifetime studying the Word of God and never make the smallest dent in the knowledge of what’s in God’s Word.

We need to listen to what the Bible tells us, not just hear it but hear it and apply it.

Chuck Swindoll says, and I try to practice this every time I preach, that the preacher’s job is to tell you what the Bible says, what the Bible means, and how it applies to you.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9  ⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
⁶ “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

When Moses said “Hear,” The Hebrew word is SHEMA (sh’MAH,)

In Hebrew, SHEMA (sh’MAH,) means “To Hear,” but it is never just the sound of the ear; it means listen, pay attention, and respond. Do something with it don’t just get it apply it

James 1:19-20  ¹⁹ So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; ²⁰ for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

James 1:23-25  ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

The Bible’s central prayer begins hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Deuteronomy 6:4: to SHEMA (sh’MAH,) God is to let His voice shape your life. Hearing leads to action. Listening becomes obedience. It’s not only about words; it’s about trust, love, and faithfulness

I am going to give you 5 things that make the Bible unique.

Compiled by Justin and Jordan Drake (The Evidence Bible.)

1. It is unique in its continuity. Steadiness

If just 10 people today were picked who were from the same place, born around the same time, spoke the same language, and made about the same amount of money, and were asked to write on just one controversial subject, they would have trouble agreeing with each other.

But the Bible stands alone. It was written over a period of 1,600 years by more than 40 writers from all walks of life.

Some were politicians. Others were generals or kings, shepherds or historians, tax collectors, fishermen, a Doctor, prophets, and preachers. And Paul was a tent maker and part of the Sanhedrin.

They were from three different continents, and wrote in three different languages.

They wrote on hundreds of controversial subjects, yet they wrote with agreement and harmony.

They wrote in dungeons, in temples, on beaches, and on hillsides, during peacetime and during war.

Yet their words sound like they came from the same source. And it very much did come from the same source!

So even though 10 people today couldn’t write on one controversial subject and agree, God picked 40 different people to write the Bible-and it stands the test of time.

2. It is unique in its circulation.

The invention of the printing press in 1450 made it possible to print books in large quantities.

The first book printed was the Bible.

Since then, the Bible has been read by more people and printed more times than any other book in history.

By 1930, over one billion Bibles had been distributed by Bible societies around the world.

By 1977, Bible societies alone were printing over 200 million Bibles each year, and this number does not include the many other Bible publishers.

No one knowing the truth can ignore such an important book.

3. It is unique in its translation,

It has been translated into over l,400 languages. There is no single exact count, but the entire Bible has been translated into more than 770 languages, with partial translations existing in over 4,000 languages worldwide. In English alone, there are roughly 900 different translations, paraphrases, and revisions. No other book even comes close.

Global Translation Statistics

• Full Bibles: Translated into over 770 languages.
• New Testament only: Translated into nearly 1,800 additional languages.
• Portions/Stories: Available in more than 1,400 other languages.
• Total reach: At least some Scripture exists in over 4,000 of the world’s ~7,400 languages.
• English Translations
• We have William Tyndale Bible 1526
• Matthew’s Bible 1537
• Geneva Bible 1560
• And then the King James in 1611. All these are English translations

• Total count: Estimated at 900 distinct printed versions and paraphrases since 1526.
• Major types: Range from literal word-for-word translations to loose thought-for-thought paraphrases.
• Common versions: Include the King James Version (KJV), New International Version (NIV), English Standard Version (ESV), and New Living Translation (NLT). And most theologians and Bible scholars will tell you the closest thing to an English translation that we have is the New American Standard Bible (NASB)

4. It is unique in its survival.

In ancient times, books were copied by hand onto manuscripts, which were made from parchment and would decay over time.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of roughly 900 to 1,000 ancient Jewish manuscripts. They were found between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD, they include the oldest known copies of biblical texts

Discovery and Composition

• Who found them: Bedouin shepherds looking for a stray goat. They threw a rock into a cave, and he heard pottery break. He investigated and found tall clay jars holding ancient letters and manuscripts and later, archaeologists discovered the texts in caves in the Judean Desert.

• Materials: Most texts are written on animal skin parchment or papyrus, with one famous exception—the Copper Scroll—chiseled onto metal.
• Languages: The fragments are written mostly in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

It’s amazing how the Dead Sea Scrolls survived all those years because they were in a perfectly balanced, humid cave, wrapped in linen and placed in a clay jar and the right kind of containers to preserve them. How can you say God wasn’t involved

Ancient books are available today only because someone made copies of the originals to preserve them.

For example, the original writings of Julius Caesar are no longer around. We know what he wrote only by the copies we have.

Only 10 copies still exist, and they were made 1,000 years after he died. Only 600 copies of Homer’s The Iliad exist, made 1,300 years after the originals were written.

No other book has as many copies of the ancient manuscripts as the Bible.

In fact, there are over 24,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts, some written within 35 years of the writer’s death.

5. It is unique in withstanding attack.

No other book has been so attacked throughout history as the Bible. In A.D. 300, the Roman emperor Diocletian (Dia-a-clee-tion) ordered every Bible burned because he thought that by destroying the Scriptures, he could destroy Christianity.

Anyone caught with a Bible would be executed.

But just 25 years later, the Roman emperor Constantine ordered that 50 perfect copies of the Bible be made at government expense.

The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth.

Voltaire died in 1728, but the Bible lives on.

The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.

The Bible has also survived criticism.

No book has been more attacked for its accuracy, and yet archaeologists are proving every year that the Bible’s detailed descriptions of historic events are correct.

Hebrews 4:12-13  ¹² For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

 Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick (living) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Today we come to the power of the Word of God. This section begins with “for” or “therefore,” tying what follows with what the author has previously told us about the consequences of Israel’s disobedience. The author wants us to get it through our heads that Israel’s awful tragedy can strike us as well.

Stewart Briscoe when you see therefore see what the therefore is therefore because therefore is there for a reason

Matthew Henry’s Commentary                                                                

“The word preached did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith in those that heard him, v. 2. Observe,    

1. The word is preached to us that we may profit by it, that we may gain spiritual riches by it; it is a price put into our hands to get wisdom, the rich endowment of the soul.

About Sunday School    Expound?                                                                                  

2. There have been in all ages a great many unprofitable hearers; many who seem to deal much in sermons, in hearing the word of God, but gain nothing to their souls thereby; and those who are not gainers by hearing are great losers.
3. That which is at the bottom of all our unprofitableness under the word is our unbelief.

We do not mix faith with what we hear; it is faith in the hearer that is the life of the word.

Though the preacher believes the gospel, and endeavors to mix faith with his preaching, and to speak as one who has believed and so spoken, yet, if the hearers have not faith in their souls to mix with the word, they will be never the better for it.

This faith must mingle with every word, and be in act and exercise while we are hearing; and, when we have heard the word, assenting to the truth of it, approving of it, accepting the mercy offered, applying the word to ourselves with suitable affections, then we shall find great profit and gain by the word preached.”

Now I want you to see with me four reasons why we should not disregard the Word of God!

First, it is A Living Word (v. 12a For the word of God is quick,)

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick (living) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(1.) That is quick; it is very lively and active, in all its efforts, in seizing the conscience of the sinner, in cutting him to the heart, and in comforting him and binding up the wounds of the soul. Those know not the word of God who call it a dead letter; it is quick, compared to the light, and nothing quicker than the light; it is not only quick, but quickening; it is a vital light; it is a living word, zon. Saints die, and sinners die; but the word of God lives.                               

1 Peter 1:22-25  ²² Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, ²³ having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, ²⁴ because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, ²⁵ But the word of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Zechariah 1:5-6 ⁵ “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ Yet surely My words and My statutes, Which I commanded My servants the prophets, Did they not overtake your fathers? “So they returned and said: ‘Just as the LORD of hosts determined to do to us, According to our ways and according to our deeds, So He has dealt with us.’ ” ‘ ”

“For the word of God is living…”
The Bible, the word of God, is unlike any other book you have in your home or in the library. The Library of Congress lays claims to being the largest library in the world, with more than 130 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 58 million manuscripts. Yet among all these volumes, the only ones that can lay claim to being alive and powerful are copies of the Bible. This places the Bible in a unique category all to itself.

The word “living” is placed in the definite position in the original language. The word of God is no dead letter, but as the word of the living God it cannot itself fail to be living.

As the living word it continues through each age with compelling importance. “Gipsy Smith told of a man who said he had received no inspiration from the Bible although he had “gone through it several times.” “Let it go through you once,” replied Smith, “then you will tell a different story!”
[source unknown – www.bible.org/illus/Bible (application)]
The Word of God is not only a living word but

Secondly, It is an Powerful Word (v 12b)
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The word translated “powerful” (energes) is the word from which we get energy and energetic. The word literally means “at work.”
Charles Swindoll comments, “News articles may inform us. Novels may inspire us. Poetry may enrapture us. But only the living, active Word of God can transform us.”  [Charles Swindoll, p. 73]

(2.) It is powerful. When God sets it home by his Spirit, it convinces powerfully, converts powerfully, and comforts powerfully. It is so powerful as to pull down strongholds.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

To raise the dead, to make the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. It is powerful to batter down Satan’s kingdom, and to set up the kingdom of Christ upon the ruins thereof.

Well, it is…living and active…and so when we read its words they reach out and touch the needs of our lives in an almost tangible way.

Isaiah 55:11 ¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

This describes scripture as being a living agent or messenger that God sends to touch our lives. Listen to what God says in this passage… ” …. My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” So, unlike any other book, the Bible is living and powerful and…
That’s how preachers who are doing wrong see souls saved; it is not the person but the WORD.

Jeremiah 23:29  ²⁹ “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

fire: warms and devours

Hammer a. fashions – knocks off ruff edges

1. separates
2. breaks the ties that bind
3. unites – hammer and a nails together

Third, it is a Penetrating Word (v 12c)

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick (living) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

(3.) It is sharper than any two-edged sword; it cuts both ways; it is the sword of the Spirit,

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

It is the two-edged sword that cometh out of the mouth of Christ, Rev 1:16.

Revelation 1:16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

It is sharper than any two-edged sword, for it will enter where no other sword can, and make a more critical dissection: it pierces to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, the soul and its habitual prevailing temper; it makes a soul that has been a long time of a proud spirit to be humble, of a perverse spirit to be meek and obedient. Those sinful habits that have become as it were natural to the soul, and rooted deeply in it, and become in a manner one with it, are separated and cut off by this sword. It cuts off ignorance from the understanding, rebellion from the will, and hostility from the mind, which, when carnal, is hostility itself against God. This sword divides between the joints and the marrow, the most secret, close, and intimate parts of the body; this sword can cut off the lusts of the flesh as well as the lusts of the mind, and make men willing to undergo the sharpest operation for the mortifying of sin.

In the Roman world there were two distinctly different swords. There was the large sword; it was long, heavy, and destructive. And there was a short sword (machaira), it was lightweight and double-edged and deadly because it cut both ways. This is what Peter used to cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:47).

I like weapons. I had the closest thing to being my grandchildren in my house around Christmas time last year, and they came into my study, and they saw my swords propped against the shelves. They asked if they could pick them up, and I told them the difference in the Swords and why I had them. One was a double-edged broadsword, and the other was a small hand sword like Peter had in the garden.

What the author is saying is that God’s Word can reach into the innermost recesses of our being! No heart is too tough, and no soul is too dark.

“When God wills it, his word can pierce anyone as a certain Mr. Thorpe in the 18th century Bristol found out. Thorpe was a part of a band of men who called themselves the ‘Hell Fire Club.’ Their reason for existence was to mock and ridicule the work of the famed evangelist, George Whitefield. On one occasion, the ‘Hell-Fire Club’ gathered at a pub for such mockery. Mr. Thorpe offered his brilliant imitation of Whitefield, whom he and his friends called ‘Mr. Squintum’ because of Whitefield’s eyes. He delivered his sermon with brilliant accuracy, perfectly imitating his tone and facial expressions as he quoted Scripture and Whitefield’s exposition. Suddenly, amidst the laughter, he had to sit down, for he was pierced through and was converted on the spot.
Mr. Thorpe was a thoroughly nasty man, engaged in a nasty action, yet the Word of God pierced his heart and changed him in an instant. Mr. Thorpe went on to be a prominent Christian leader in the city of Bristol” [C. H. Spurgeon. The Metropolitan Pulpit. Vol. 34. (Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Pub, 1974) p. 115]

The Word of God Is Not Only a Penetrating Word but…

Fourth, It is a Discerning Word (vv. 12d -13)

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick (living) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:13  And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

(4.) It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, even the most secret and remote thoughts and designs. It will discover to men the variety of their thoughts and purposes, the vileness of them, the bad principles they are actuated by, the sinister and sinful ends they act to. The word will turn the inside of a sinner out, and let him see all that is in his heart. Now such a word as this must needs be a great help to our faith and obedience.

James 1:22-24 ²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

What are you looking for? Some type of correction; we can’t hide from a true reflection.  No matter how hard I look in the mirror, my hair is still gone. I see a true reflection, and that’s why the Word of God exposes what we really are

Do we correct the problem or cover it up? Correct by doing what it says, doer, not hearer

Before you try to get to His presence, look at yourself

From this passage I want us to see three truths.     Time….

• God Sees Everything; There Is No Escape.
  We want God to see us when we are hurting and when we are going through difficult times.

We want Him to see and come to our aid.

But when it comes to our sin and wrongdoing, we would rather that God looked the other way. But verse twelve concludes by saying that the Word of God “… is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The word “discerner” (kritikos) is the word from which we get critic. As the Word of God penetrates into the innermost recesses of man’s being, it does so as his critic or judge.

•God Sees Everything; There Is No Hiding.
Only the Word of God is capable of exposing the thoughts and attitudes of a single human heart. There really is no use in hiding.

Why is it that when we fear that something is not quite right physically, we tend to put off going to the doctor because we fear we will hear bad news. The same is true spiritually.
Verse thirteen says that before God “all things are naked” or literally “laid bare.” The word (tetrachelismena) literally refers to bending someone’s neck backward so the face is looking upwards. As we said in Sunday school this morning in Psalms chapter three, God took David’s chin and raised his face looking upward. It is a vivid term describing either the grip of a wrestler on the neck of his opponent or the grip on the neck of a sacrificial victim prepared for sacrifice.

And sometimes it was used to describe how a man being led to execution had a knife placed beneath his chin so that he could not hang his head in shame and avoid the gaze of the onlookers. Whatever the exact nature of the picture that is being drawn here, it means that to be in the grip of an all-powerful God is to be vulnerable, helpless, and to have all our secrets known.

The Word of God possesses the diagnostic perception that picks up inconsistency even in motivation. With God we cannot smooth over with outward actions, the real intentions of our hearts. We may appear to be sincere to others, but God knows if there is an ulterior motive.

God Sees Everything; There Is No Excuse.

• The last part of verse thirteen says, all things are “… open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

This verse plainly tells us that there is a coming day of reckoning upon which we will each give an account for our lives.

The day of excuses will be over; the book of Romans tells us there is coming a time “when every mouth will be stopped” (Rom 3:19), there will be no more excuses. The Apostle Paul warns in 2 Cor. 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Let me conclude by sharing something written many years ago by Samuel Chadwick. “I have guided my life by the Bible for more than sixty years, and I tell you there is no book like it. It is a miracle of literature, a permanent spring of wisdom, a wonder of surprises, a revelation of mystery, an infallible guide of conduct, and an unspeakable source of comfort. Pay no attention to people who discredit it, for I tell you that they speak without knowledge. It is the Word of God itself. Study it according to its own direction. Live by its principles. Believe its message. Follow its precepts. No man is uneducated who knows the Bible, and no one is wise who is ignorant of its teachings.” [Samuel Chadwick from 1001 Great Stories and Quotes. R. Kent Hughes. (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1998) p. 77]

Application
The challenge for us is always at least two-fold.
First, we must ask ourselves if we are being challenged by the word of God. The Word of God has captured your attention and convicted you of your sin and convinced you that you need to do something about it, today. And do it.

Secondly, we should always think through the application of what we hear preached or read. We should pay enough attention to what the Word of God may be saying to us to write it down and think it over. Asking the question, “What action does God want me to take concerning this truth in my life?”

“The Transforming Power of the Word of God.”
The Four Reasons That We Should Not Disregard The Word of God.
First, It is A Living Word
Secondly, It is a Powerful Word
Third, It is a Penetrating Word
Fourth, It is a Discerning Word
God Sees Everything; There Is No Escape                                            God Sees Everything; There Is No Hiding                                              God Sees Everything; There Is No Excuse.

Hebrews 4:14-16 ¹⁴ Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Word of God Speak by Mercy Me

I’m finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it’s okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say

Word of God speak
Would you pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That you’re in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In your holiness
Word of God speak

I’m finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice

I’m finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it’s okay

Calvary Baptist Church August 8 2026 PM

The Purpose of The Church: Evangelism

Church people and God’s people are not the same thing.

Church people go to Church.

God’s people are “The Church!”

 That’s what I’ve been trying to get across for the last two months

Evangelism of the gospel Alistair Begg

“I’m cautioning myself about falling into a trap, and it’s this: confusing one’s ability to tell people about the benefits of receiving the gospel or warning them about the dangers of rejecting the gospel.

While at the same time never actually telling them what the gospel is.

So, I have to remind myself that the gospel is what God has done for us in Jesus to save us from sin, and from death and from hell.

And that it is that gospel that we must believe; if we were to be saved and believe in the gospel, this doesn’t simply mean making certain intellectual facts, but it means the commitment of our life, our entirety, on the strength of who Jesus is and what he has done. The gospel really is good news.”

So, this is the one thing that we are asked to do that sends shivers up most of our spines?

Evangelism is one of the most intimidating of the purposes of the Church. The command is to tell everyone about Jesus. To evangelize means to share the good news about Jesus with other people. And sometimes at an enormous cost!

That’s not just done with your words; it’s done with your actions also.

You know Peter denied Jesus three times, and then a few weeks later you hear him doing this in the very town square where they held Jesus’ trial. And it brings us to the text that we’ve been using through this whole series.

This is Peter talking to them, the Ones that crucified Christ

Acts 2:36-47 ³⁶ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, (He’s also addressed us) both Lord and Christ.” ³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” ⁴⁰ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” ⁴¹ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

And now that brings us back to our text:

⁴² And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴³ Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵ and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. ⁴⁶ So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

 

In Matthew, we are called to evangelize the world. We are called to reach out to the whole world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20 ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

 Authority = ex-oo-see’-ah. Translated it in English Words used in KJV: power 69 authority 29 right 2 liberty 1 jurisdiction 1 strength 1
?from <G1832> (exesti) (in the sense of ability); privilege, i.e. (subject) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (object) mastery (concrete magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence :- authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.?

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples Students of all the nations, everybody in the world not just the Jews baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Buried with him in death raised to walk a new life ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

 He’s not gonna leave you. He’s not gonna forsake you. He’s going to enable you to do what you’re commissioned to do, and that’s go and evangelize the world

You’re not asked to do this on your own power. You’re being told to do this under the authority of Jesus Christ himself. This is a commandment as much as the Ten are!

So, He, God, has given us the power to be able to tell people about Jesus; we must be able to attract people. This is true of the Church and of each of us individually.

And everyone needs to do it without excuse. We’re all called to evangelize the world! 

As a Church, we can have all the programs that look good, but if we do not follow the principles that Jesus used to pull people in, we will not get the opportunity to use the wonderful Gifts that God has given us.
I want to focus in on what we need to do in order to appeal to people so that we can share the gospel with them.
And that’s the bottom line; that’s what it’s all about

How do we do this? Do we compromise the message? NO!

Did Jesus compromise His message to attract people? NO!

Why do Churches struggle with growth? Is there something wrong with the message or messenger?
Too many times, Churches that do not appeal to people wear that as a badge of honor, a testament to the fact that they do not compromise the Gospel.

They say stuff like: Well, the only reason people are going to the big Church is that they tell them what they want to hear.

Until you have sat in one of those services, don’t be saying stupid stuff like that. I’ve served as a part of one of those churches for years now.

I teach a small group on Thursday nights. From Labor Day to Memorial Day, I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of souls in the last 10 or 11 years as part of that Church come to the saving knowledge of Christ.

So, when people say, well, people are not going to Church anymore, they are going. And I promise you the truth is being preached there just as much as is being preached here.

What this scenario really paints is a scene of a Church that does not care enough for people to reach out to the lost around them.
Sometimes Churches do not reach out because they do not really want to grow; they are comfortable with the way they are, and they do not want other people rocking the boat.

Sometimes fear holds us back:

fear of rejection,

fear of being made fun of,

fear of not having ALL of the answers to ALL of the questions.

Listen for God’s voice because:

God’s voice stills you; Satan’s voice rushes you.  Rush, or Peace be still.

Dr. Charles Stanley said: Now remember this:

“Romans 8:28 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

If God allowed it, God intended it to turn that pain, that hurt, that loss, that difficulty into something good in your life. Now watch this because I’m hurting at the moment. I’m not even interested in any good at all. All I want is to get rid of this, in other words, Get Me Out of this, God!

Get me out of these circumstances, but here’s what’s happening: I must be willing to trust him in the midst of it, because I know on the other side I’m to be able to look back, and I don’t mean the other side of heaven, I’m talking about now on the other side, I’m going to look back and say well God you were in that the whole time.

Why? I can see your hand in there. This is what you were doing. You made me wait, and God, Lord, forgive me for being so impatient. You know what? He doesn’t get upset when you say, God, what’s going on? God is very silent and just says You know, I’m just doing things the way I promise to do them.”

 God’s voice stills you; Satan’s voice rushes you.

God’s voice leads you; Satan’s voice pushes you.

God’s voice reassures you; Satan’s voice frightens you.

God’s voice enlightens you; Satan’s voice confuses you.

God’s voice encourages you; Satan’s voice discourages you.

God’s voice comforts you; Satan’s voice worries you.

God’s voice calms you; Satan’s voice obsesses you.

God’s voice convicts you; Satan’s voice condemns you.

If there’s condemnation in it, it ain’t of God.

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Romans 8:1-2 ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

So, whose voice are you listening to?

 

Sometimes false views of evangelism affect us.

God will do it, or we hire someone to do it, or someone else will do it.
No, it is your job; it’s my job to reach a lost and dying world

I want to examine three principles that Jesus used to entice people, allowing Him to reach the lost sheep He so sought after.

What do we need to do in order to make our evangelism, or outreach efforts, more effective?

For Evangelism to be successful, we must….

I. WE MUST HAVE LOVE FOR THE PEOPLE.
When you study the ministry of Jesus, He attracted crowds because of His love for them.
Matthew 14:13-14 ¹³ When Jesus heard it, (The death of John the Baptist) He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

That’s it, Church, you got to have compassion!

Jesus and the Rich young ruler.

Mark 10:21 ²¹ Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”

Matthew 9:36-38 ³⁶ But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, (Listen, this is it) “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

That’s us. That’s our job

When Jesus looked at the people, He loved them so much that He wanted more people to be reached with the Gospel.

As I said about the song that says, reach up with one hand to God, reach back with the other hand to the needy, those needing the gospel; bring them along with you. As I keep saying, you can’t take it with you when you go, but you can send it on ahead

1 Timothy 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Jesus did not look at the people like they were a bunch of losers, but instead He looked at them with love. He did not despise them. He pitied them.

Correct motives flow from a correct attitude.

• Compassion. This was God’s motive for sending Jesus. Compassion is the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Compassion is just man’s way of showing God’s grace. That’s compassion.

• Burdened. Feeling a heavy heart for the lost. We see non-Christians as victims of the enemy instead of seeing them as the enemy.

 Charles Spurgeon: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped around their knees. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our efforts, and let no one go unwarned or unprayed for.

We need Paul’s Burden:
Romans 9:1-5 ¹ I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, ² that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

Listen how much he cares for the people; he’s willing to give up his own salvation if he could for them.

³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, ⁴ who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; ⁵ of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

• Zeal. Enthusiasm, excited about who Jesus is.
• Love. Christians should be the most gracious, sweet witnesses the world has ever seen.

  • Love for Jesus should motivate us the most.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 ¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

• Love for the lost should motivate us.
  Appreciation that someone shared with us should motivate us also.

  Motive and attitude relate to how we will or will not act.

  • It will help us not to be obnoxious
  • It will help us not to be hostile
  • It will help us not to share out of obligation.
  • It will help us not to share to exalt self.
  • It will help us to be judgmental.
  • It will help us not to be too judgmental
  • It will help us to be fearful.
  • It will help us not to be too fearful.
  And in the movie Magnum Force, Clint Eastwood kept saying, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

• It will help us to remember our limitations. It’s not about what we do but about what Christ does through us (1 Cor 3:6)

1 Corinthians 3:5-8 ⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Remember the 4 soils.  Wayward, the rocky, the weedy, and the good soil, and in the good soil we see tares coming up when satin sows his seeds.

Evangelism is:

Sometimes He multiplies the loaves and fishes

Sometimes He lets the perfume be poured out

Both are worship

Sometimes faith looks like multiplication

Sometimes faith looks like surrender

Sometimes God fills your hands

Sometimes He asks you to empty them

Fruitfulness is God’s responsibility

Faithfulness is ours

God’s job is outcomes

Our job is obedience

God’s job is result

Our job is response

God doesn’t call us to control the Harvest

He caused us to be faithful in the sowing

Jesus never said Well done, good and successful servant

He said Well done, good and faithful servant

I don’t think efficiency is a bad thing at all

But I think God values devotion over efficiency

Efficiency is good, but it’s a terrible God

If you’re a follower of Jesus

Love is not a method

It’s a command

If love is just a strategy, we will abandon it when it doesn’t work

If love is a command, we practice it even when it costs us

Our theology is only as good as the love it produces

Good theology without love is bad theology

We plant, we water, but only God brings the growth,

1 Corinthians 3:9-11 ⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. ¹⁰ According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 Oswald Chambers said: “One of the worst traps a Christian can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration!”

Never say Look what I have done but look at what God’s done through me.

As years ago, working with the Sweet Spirit Band and seeing over 570 young people make a profession of faith in one year, God got the glory, and that was a ministry of this Church…

It’s not about who gets the credit as long as God gets the Glory.

• It will help us not to be discouraged by God’s timetable. You hear me, stop rushing God to get a pastor
• It will help us to be tactful. Jimmy at the restaurant guys at the bar.
• It will help us to be prepared.

There’s a little Bible called Share Jesus Without Fear. They use this in Truth In Nature a lot. My buddy Tim Croft is the one who got me using it. They have all these questions in the appendix that people will ask, and then it tells you the page to go to. It’s one of the best evangelistic tools I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend that if you’re gonna try to talk to people about the Lord, to get you one of these little Bibles

1 Peter 3:15-17 ¹⁵ But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; ¹⁶ having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

• It will help us not to be lazy. It takes an action on your part.

Dr. Charles Stanley says: “I don’t believe God tolerates laziness. I don’t believe he puts up with laziness. And people who are always looking for an excuse not to serve Him. And to do a poor job, if you don’t know any better, I understand, but if I do the best I can in my job and what I ought to be doing. If that’s the best I can do and it’s not good enough, somebody needs to help me, and train me, and encourage me along, but if I’m just sloppy and wanna do as little as I can to get by, as long as I can. I’m gonna tell you what people don’t realize is that you may be a Christian, you may be a believer, I’m gonna tell you, you will have to answer to God for poor Service as a Christian. I don’t care what you do.”

• It will help us not to be guilty of direct disobedience to Christ’s direct command.

  For Evangelism to be successful, we must….
  WE MUST HAVE LOVE FOR THE PEOPLE.
  II. NEEDS MUST BE MET.
  

• How many people want to hear a sermon when they are hungry or sick?

In Psychology class, it is taught a thing called Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Basically, it says that we have different levels of needs, and until one level is satisfied, we cannot get past that level.
He draws it as a pyramid.
At the bottom are the physiological needs (air, food, water, sleep, etc basic human needs)
Then you have safety and security
followed by love and belonging,

Esteem and self-esteem
Self-fulfillment
A person is concerned with the level they are on.

If your safety is threatened, you cannot worry about feeling loved, or if you are starving, you are not worried about self-esteem.
I am not promoting Maslow, but I do think there is some truth in what he says. Jesus knew this principle also.
No one cares how much you know until they see how much you care.

EX: Westridge Church sent people to Burkina Faso (Be-kee-nuh faa-sow), Africa, to first build wells, and after building the wells, they received the gospel. You have to meet a need and then present the gospel

Tim Croft Truth in Nature… Taking care of the fatherless boys and seeing an increase

Operation Christmas Child needed people to come out here once a month on Thursdays, gather stuff up and put it in a box; God supplied. And then you, as a Church, helped supply the need for the finances last Sunday night, and they still need more. And God gets the glory!

• What did Jesus do for people before He taught them? He took care of needs. He found out what their needs were and addressed them. Jesus earned the right to be heard!
• When you look at the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles, you will see that they did not try to cram a message down people’s throats without regard for their needs.

Jesus just dealt with a Gentile woman, and then he heals a bunch of people, and from there we see in Matthew:

• Matthew 15:29-32 ²⁹Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. ³⁰Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. ³¹ So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. ³² Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”
• Look what Jesus did in Luke: the ones who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured.
  Luke 6:18-19 ¹⁸ as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. ¹⁹ And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.
• John 6:2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.

Jesus did not make people feel bad because they had a need. He did not judge some needs as being more legitimate than others
Jesus often met a need to establish a beachhead for evangelism in a person’s life.
A hungry, hurting person does not want to hear a message unless you earn the right to share it with them.

Studies have shown that 70%-90% of all people who come to Church because a friend or relative invites them. We saw that this morning when the man was here because of Jeff Hodges… This happens because a friend or family member has the respect of a person because they have been there for the good times and the bad.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

James 2:14-17 (cf. Gen 22; Josh 2:1) 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.     NKJV

 My cousin Peggy was the best at taking care of people’s needs and then presenting the gospel to them…

 A young boy, on an errand for his mother, had just bought a dozen eggs. Walking out of the store, he tripped and dropped the sack. All the eggs broke, and the sidewalk was a mess. The boy tried not to cry. A few people gathered to see if he was OK and to tell him how sorry they were. In the midst of the words of pity, one man handed the boy a quarter. Then he turned to the group and said, “I care 25 cents’ worth. How much do the rest of you care?” James 2:16 points out that words don’t mean much if we have the ability to do more.

For Evangelism to be successful, we must….

WE MUST HAVE LOVE FOR THE PEOPLE.
NEEDS MUST BE MET.
III. THE PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL MUST BE PRACTICAL AND INTERESTING.

The woman at the well in John 4

The woman at the well didn’t take an evangelism course

The woman at the well had no theological degree, yet an entire town came to Jesus through her. How? When Jesus met her, she wasn’t a Bible teacher. She wasn’t a disciple. She wasn’t even living a godly life.

In fact, she had a bad reputation John 4:16-18, but after meeting Jesus, she left the water jar behind and went into the city, saying Come and see a man who told me all that I ever did John 4:28-29

She didn’t have all the answers; she simply pointed people to Jesus.

Notice what she did not say: she did not say

Come hear my theology,

come hear my testimony,

come hear my argument.

She said exactly what we all need to be saying: Come see this man Jesus. Because of her testimony, the Bible says many Samaritans came to Jesus, but then something amazing happened. They told her it is no longer because of what you said, but what we believe. John 4:42. The woman’s testimony brought people to Jesus.

Jesus’ word brought people to faith.

You don’t need all the answers; you don’t need years of training.

You simply need to point people to Christ and then let Christ do what only He can do.

Jesus attracted crowds by teaching in an interesting, practical way.

• Matthew 7:28-29 ²⁸ And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, ²⁹ for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

• Matthew 22:33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.
• Mark 11:18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.
  Mark 12:37 Therefore David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?” And the common people heard Him gladly.

Jesus preached the TRUTH.

• Today, truth is relative. Too many preachers have let themselves be sucked into this thinking. Truth is truth. We can attract people with the truth that is preached in love.

Jesus accepted people, but He did not accept their actions. Jesus always lovingly confronted their sin. Love the sinner, not the sin.

Jesus related truth to life.

• Jesus used everyday language. He was understood by the common people. He did not break into some jargon that no one could understand without a dictionary.
• Jesus used everyday situations to relay the truth to people.
Parables

• A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

That’s what I try to do in my books. Just tell modern-day stories with a heavenly meaning

• Let us be a Church that loves people, a Church that is willing to meet people’s needs, and a Church that presents the Word of God in an interesting and relevant way.

• We do not have an option when it comes to reaching out to the lost.
• If we are not making the effort to evangelize. Each one of us has a responsibility to reach out to the lost.

If we don’t reach them for Christ, the world will get them.

• I bet most everyone of us has a neighbor or a family member who does not belong to Jesus.

We can start with our neighbor. If we all did that, then at best we would make more disciples. At worst, at least when a person dies outside of Jesus, they will not be able to say that no one cared enough to share.

• Let us be a Church that loves people so much that we hurt when we know someone is lost.
• LUKE 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

You can say, well, I’m just a nobody. That’s exactly who God uses. All through the Bible is a bunch of nobodies

 “One of my favorites “minor characters” in American history is a man named Edward Kimball. There aren’t many people who could tell you the historical significance of Edward Kimball. After all, he is so unfamous that he doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page. But through his simple service to God, he has had a worldwide impact.

In 1854, Kimball was a Sunday School teacher in Detroit, and one day he went to visit a 17-year-old boy who was in his Sunday School class and had little interest in God or religion. During his visit with this young man at his job in a shoe shop, he led the boy into a relationship with Christ. That young man was D.L. Moody, who went on to become one of the greatest evangelists in the world, sharing the gospel with 100 million people, as well as founding Moody Bible Institute and The Moody Church in Chicago.

But the story doesn’t end there. Through his ministry, Moody was responsible for a London pastor named F.B. Meyer coming to faith. Meyer was responsible for J. Wilbur Chapman coming to faith, and Chapman influenced Billy Sunday, another prominent evangelist of the 20th century. Billy Sunday was essential in a man named Mordecai Ham coming to faith. And Mordecai Ham was the preacher responsible for leading a young man named Billy Graham to Christ.

Why is it important to be an evangelist and to go into the world and speak to everyone you look at? Everyone you look in the eyes is whom Christ died for.

You need to understand and know this: there is not a person you will ever see, no matter if you like them or not, that Jesus Christ didn’t die for, and it’s our job to tell them about our Savior

As I said when we started tonight, “Sometimes fear holds us back: fear of rejection, fear of being made fun of, fear of not having ALL of the answers to ALL of the questions.”

Have you ever noticed what happens when you ask someone who believes salvation can be lost, just ask them this one simple question?

How do you know you’re saved today?

Listen carefully to the answer

Many don’t point to Christ; they’ll point to themselves

I prayed

I’m faithful

I repented

I studied the Bible

I obey

I’m baptized

I practiced the sacraments

I’ve surrendered

I’m staying committed

I’m producing fruit

The conversation gently shows from what Jesus did to what they are doing

Isn’t that ironic? Don’t you think?

The very people warning others not to trust in easy believism often reveal that their assurance is resting in the hardest thing imaginable: their own performance.

Paul warned about this in Romans

Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Notice the issue isn’t that they love holiness too much. The issue is that they are trying to establish a righteousness of their own instead of submitting to the righteousness God provides.

The gospel never tells you to inspect your obedience to discover eternal life

It tells you to look at Christ

My obedience varies

My discipline varies

My emotions vary

My consistency varies

But Jesus Christ does not

The one who perfectly obeyed; the Father did so on behalf of sinners; the one who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Did you get that? It’s not what I do; it’s what he did!

If my standing before God depends even one percent on my ability to keep myself saved, then my assurance will always rise and fall with my performance, and the worst part is that salvation becomes impossible

But if standing depends entirely on Christ finishing the work on Calvary’s cross, then my assurance rests where it belongs: on the faithfulness of the Savior, not in the stability of the sinner.

This is a call to stop carrying a burden Christ already carried.

Stop trying to maintain what Jesus promised to give freely

Stop looking inward for proof that you deserve heaven. Because we don’t.

Look to the cross

The warning is this: be careful that in trying to prove your righteousness you don’t miss the righteousness God offers

Rest in the one who obeys where you fail

Rest in the one who became your righteousness

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have received a gift He purchased not by your discipline, but by his obedience

Evangelism or discipleship

Most people think being a witness for Jesus means having all the answers. The Apostle Paul seems to think otherwise.

Paul assumes three things.

1. Christians will have meaningful proximity to people who don’t follow Jesus.
2. Their lives will be interesting enough to raise questions.
3. Their speech will be gracious enough to keep the door open.

In Colossians 4, he doesn’t tell believers to simply win arguments, dominate conversations, or become expert apologists. Instead, he tells them to be wise, to make the most of every opportunity, to let their speech be gracious. That’s a different posture entirely.

Wisdom means paying attention, discerning what this particular person needs in this particular moment. Sometimes that’s an answer. But sometimes it’s a question or encouragement.
Sometimes it’s just a little listening ear.

And then Paul adds this beautiful phrase: let your conversation be “seasoned with salt.”

Salt does so many things. It preserves, and it enhances. Salt brings out what is already there.

In Rabbinic literature, ‘salt’ is often used to refer to ‘wisdom.’ In fact, some scholars assert that the language Paul uses here implies something that is “not dull or flat but is interesting and well-chosen.” It’s not about being witty, but the flavor of our conversations.

Do our lives evoke thirst?

Followers of Jesus should be the kind of people whose words bring life. Our conversations should make people curious. They should reflect both truth and grace, conviction and kindness.

And the reality is that every day presents dozens of opportunities to represent Jesus, at work, around the table, in a text message, at the ball field, in the checkout line, over coffee with a friend.

I buy six Donuts every time I order from Walmart just so I can give them to the delivery person along with a tip, just to show kindness, and then I give them one of those little Jesuses and tell them about the Lord

It’s OK to leave a track with your tip, but make sure you leave a decent tip. You are representing Jesus Christ. So be careful about how you look

Most of those moments won’t feel dramatic. But they are significant Kingdom moments.

The Kingdom often advances through ordinary conversations with ordinary people who are paying attention to the Spirit.

You don’t need a microphone, a platform, or all the answers to every obscure objection.

You simply need to be present, attentive, and willing.

Make the most of every moment and every encounter.

Someone’s experience of Jesus may be shaped by the way you speak today.

Evangelism is just sharing that good news, and I encourage you to do that very thing

Pray

Calvary Baptist Church August 2^nd 2026 PM

 

 

 

Christmas in July

Operation Christmas Child

Matthew 2:1-7  ¹ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
⁶ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
⁷ Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.

They saw the star because they were diligently looking for it. I don’t think it was a big bright shiny star up in the sky for everybody, or a lot of people would have gone there. Even King Herod would have sent his people there to kill Jesus.

I recently saw a thing about an ancient script in China that said the astronomers saw a star different than they had ever seen before, and they went in search of it to the Middle East to Bethlehem, and they came through Jerusalem. This is outside the word of God; it’s recorded in Chinese records. In the time frame, according to their writing was around the time Jesus was born.

Matthew 2:8-12  ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.” ⁹ When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. (Not what you see in the nativity scene; He’s not a baby; He is a little child) ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. ¹¹ And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. (Watch how they showed their worship by giving) And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

What we’re asking you to do tonight is exactly what they did: bring some gifts. Make a sacrifice. Dig deep and help out, but look at the gifts that they brought.

Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh. That’s cool; bring gold, we’ll take it
These three gifts were given to a child.
Yet each one pointed to His future.
👑 Gold revealed a King.

🔥 Frankincense revealed a Priest.

⚰️ Myrrh revealed a Sacrifice.

His mission was being revealed.
The wise men Magi brought gifts.

God revealed His Son.

Why did the wise men Magi bring Jesus these three gifts?

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

Because they revealed who He is!

Gold, a gift fit for royalty; gold points to Jesus as King

Frankincense used in worship and priestly Service

Frankincense points to Jesus as a High Priest.

Myrrh use this perfume, medicine, and burial spice

Points to Jesus, suffering, death, and sacrifice.

Before Jesus preached a sermon,

Before he healed the sick or performed a single miracle,

Before he went to the cross,

These guests declared Jesus as the King who reigns, the Priest who intercedes, and the Lamb who saves.

It’s about bringing gifts; it’s about making a sacrifice; it’s about giving. That’s what we are asking y’all to do tonight, for us to do tonight: dig deep and help this ministry.

And great will be your reward!

It’s not about who gets the credit as long as God gets the Glory.

Dr. Charles Stanley says give:

“Remember this, the Bible says: We seem to forget this. Jesus says give, and it should be given to you! What if I bend over and pick up something so you don’t have to? I’ve given my energy. If I show you how to do something that I think is gonna help you save your job, I’ve given my understanding and my knowledge. If I see someone who falls and I pick them up, I’ve given them my love and my help, my energy, whatever skill I have to help them. That was one of the thousands of ways to serve God; what he’s looking for are servant people who are willing to see themselves and have a mentality not to say I follow some schedule event and I only do what the schedule says, but I’m looking for ways to pour out my life to someone else who desperately needs the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I’ve seen how on Thursdays here in this church, when the people are down here working and putting together the stuff to get ready to put in these boxes, they’re giving of their time. We’re asking you to help out by giving of money and resources to help send these boxes

The Bible says over 170 times to Receive, but it says over 860 times to Give.

That’s 5 times more.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

If you give a certain amount of money, that amount and more will be coming back to you? No!

You give to help the expenses of this Ministry. Look at the return – The Gospel is sent. And the Word of God is shared throughout the world.

As John F Kennedy said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” Why don’t we turn it around and say the same thing here?

Don’t ask what the church can do for you, but what can you do for the Church

God supplied the need for the resources to make up to 400 boxes.

Now He’s going to supply the money to send those boxes, and how’s he going to do that?

It’s not going to rain down like manna from heaven. It’s going to come out of your pockets, and it’s gonna come out of my pockets.

Well, I don’t have it to give, give it anyway, because I promise you, you will not, at any time ever, outgive God!

As a return, souls will be saved, lives will be changed, and great is your reward.

You’ll have a part of that.

You may not know about it until you get to the other side, until we get into glory. But when we get there, you may have Somebody come up and say Hey when I was a little kid, I got this box of stuff from a little Church in Powder Springs, GA and they may just well come up to you and say, “thank you,” and “Without you I never would have known the love of Jesus.” So, it’s up to you. And it’s not about the amount; it’s about what God can do with what you have. Give what you can, even if it hurts.

When we were building this Church, there wasn’t a whole lot of money here, but God used what little we had, and when we moved in here, they burned the note on the property, and we paid for this place as we went, and God got the glory.

Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So, He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

That’s what I’m saying: you may have to sacrifice to give, but I’m asking you to do that very thing because these kids are worth it and their soul is worth it!

Understand this: if you give to get, you got.

But if you give because of Love you get. Get it?

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Remember “You can’t take it with you when you go, but you can send it on ahead.”

“You can give without love, but you can’t “Love,” without giving.”

John 3:16-18 (NKJV) ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

He Gave, and you Got. Ponder on the cost of that Gift.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

A young boy, on an errand for his mother, had just bought a dozen eggs. With the last bit of money they had. Walking out of the store, he tripped and dropped the sack. All the eggs broke, and the sidewalk was a mess. The boy tried not to cry. A few people gathered to see if he was OK and to tell him how sorry they were. In the midst of the words of pity, one man handed the boy a quarter. Then he turned to the group and said, “I care 25 cents’ worth. How much do the rest of you care?”

Do you care enough to miss a cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks that’s way overpriced anyway? Come by the house; I’ll make you a cup of coffee, and it won’t cost you 6 bucks; put the six bucks in the bucket.

James points out that words don’t mean much if we can do more.

James 2:15-17  If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

This ministry definitely needs your prayers, but it also needs your help financially. We enjoyed the meal tonight. You enjoyed the singing. I hope you got something out of this, but I hope more than that, that you put something into this ministry. And if you understand, please still do pray, and when you can, send a few dollars to us. Love you all. Thank you

PRAY

Calvary Baptist Church July 26, 2026 PM Operation Christmas Child Fundraiser.

If you want to contribute to the Operation Christmas Child fundraiser, send payments to:

Calvary Baptist Church

3988 Powder Springs Rd

Powder Springs, GA 30127

Please note on the check that proceeds go to Operation Christmas Child.

The Purpose of The Church: Service

Worship, Prayer, Fellowship, Discipleship

5) The Purpose of The Church- Service

 6) The Purpose of The Church- Evangelism

 David Jeremiah said: “I’m sure it would surprise you that many times I don’t feel like preaching to you on Sunday. I’m tired. Maybe I’ve had a busy week, or I’m not feeling good physically, but you know what, one of the most wonderful things in the world about being a preacher is to stand up here and feel weak and know that the Holy Spirit has filled you with his power. How many of you know that if you only ever do the things you think you can do, you will never do the things God called you to do?”

So, listen: “It’s not about what you think you can do; it’s what God’s called you to do, and everyone has a calling on their life. God did not call you to be a bench warmer, he called you to get in the game, and I promise you this Church really needs you in the game right now.”

You might say I can’t do this and you’re correct you can’t but God can through you with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

Another post by Dr David Jeremiah said, “When your strength Falls short God does not. The Holy Spirit is our helper, providing the strength we need for every challenge and every season. Lean on him today!

The Holy Spirit was sent to us as a helper he comes to strengthen us when you feel weak ask the Lord to impart His strength.”

Romans 12:1-8 (NKJV) ¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

As we said last week with the analogy of the baseball team, we need to get people to go from 1st base (saved) to 2nd base (separation) to 3rd base (commitment to service)

We need to intentionally do things that help Christians become more Christ-like.

So how do you do that? He goes on in Romans 12, verse 2

² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
³ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, clear-minded as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. ⁶ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; ⁷ or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; ⁸ he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

 We have seen Fellowship and Discipleship that tell us we’re all in some form of ship and in God’s Navy

Max Lucado “The Grip of Grace.”

Rocking the Boat

God has enlisted us in his navy and placed us on his ship. The boat has one purpose—to carry us safely to the other shore.

This is no cruise ship; it’s a battleship. We are not called to a life of leisure; we are called to a life of service. Each of us has a different task. Some, concerned with those who are drowning, are snatching people from the water. Others are occupied with the enemy, so they man the cannons of prayer and worship. Still others devote themselves to the crew, feeding and training the crew members.

Though different, we are the same. Each can tell of a personal encounter with the captain, for each has received a personal call. He found us among the shanties of the seaport and invited us to follow him. Our faith was born at the sight of his fondness, and so we went.

We each followed him across the gangplank of his grace onto the same boat. There is one captain and one destination. Though the battle is aggressive, the boat is safe, for our captain is God. The ship will not sink. For that, there is no concern.

There is concern, however, regarding the disharmony of the crew. When we first boarded, we assumed the crew was made up of others like us. But as we’ve wandered these decks, we’ve encountered curious converts with curious appearances. Some wear uniforms we’ve never seen, sporting styles we’ve never witnessed. “Why do you look the way you do?” we ask them.

“Funny,” they reply. “We were about to ask the same of you.”

The variety of dress is not nearly as disturbing as the plethora of opinions. There is a group, for example, who clusters every morning for serious study. They promote rigid discipline and somber expressions. “Serving the captain is serious business,” they explain. It’s no coincidence that they tend to congregate around the stern.

There is another regiment deeply devoted to prayer. Not only do they believe in prayer, but they also believe in prayer by kneeling. For that reason, you always know where to locate them; they are at the bow of the ship.

And then there are a few who staunchly believe real wine should be used in the Lord’s Supper. You’ll find them on the port side.

Still another group has positioned themselves near the engine. They spend hours examining the nuts and bolts of the boat. They’ve been known to go below deck and not come up for days. They are occasionally criticized by those who linger on the top deck, feeling the wind in their hair and the sun on their face. “It’s not what you learn,” those topsiders argue. “It’s what you feel that matters.”

And, oh, how we tend to cluster.

Some think once you’re on the boat, you can’t get off. Others say you’d be foolish to go overboard, but the choice is yours.

Some believe you volunteer for service; others believe you were destined for the service before the ship was even built.

Some predict a storm of great tribulation will strike before we dock; others say it won’t hit until we are safely ashore.

There are those who speak to the captain in a personal language. There are those who think such languages are extinct.

There are those who think the officers should wear robes, there are those who think there should be no officers at all, and there are those who think we are all officers and should all wear robes.

And, oh, how we tend to cluster.

And then there is the issue of the weekly meeting at which the captain is thanked, and his words are read. All agree on its importance, but few agree on its nature. Some want it loud; others quiet. Some want ritual, others impulsiveness. Some want to celebrate so they can meditate; others meditate so they can celebrate. Some want a meeting for those who’ve gone overboard. Others want to reach those overboard but without going overboard and neglecting those on board.

And, oh, how we tend to cluster.

The consequence is a rocky boat. There is trouble on deck. Fights have broken out. Sailors have refused to speak to each other. There have even been times when one group refused to acknowledge the presence of others on the ship. Most tragically, some adrift at sea have chosen not to board the boat because of the quarreling of the sailors.

“What do we do?” we’d like to ask the captain. “How can there be harmony on the ship?” We don’t have to go far to find the answer.

On the last night of his life, Jesus prayed a prayer that stands as a citadel for all Christians:

I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who will believe in me because of their teaching. Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. (John 17:20)

How precious are these words. Jesus, knowing the end is near, prays one final time for his followers. Striking, isn’t it, that he prayed not for their success, their safety, or their happiness? He prayed for their unity. He prayed that they would love each other.

As he prayed for them, he also prayed for “those who will believe because of their teaching.” That means us! In his last prayer, Jesus prayed that you and I be one.

INTRODUCTION
As we have looked at the question “What is the Purpose of the Church, we can identify these areas that should be included in the purpose of the church: worship, prayer, fellowship, discipleship.

I want to look at an area that a lot of churches struggle with. It is an area that, if neglected it will make the church and those who are a part of it become self-centered.  That is SERVICE.

One of the purposes of the church is to serve, to minister. We sometimes call specific areas of service ministries. The church is called to minister to people. It is called to serve people.

Oswald Chambers said:

“One of the worst traps a Christian can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration”.

 

Our service is not about us it’s about helping others Do we benefit from it very much so!
When we forget we are called to service, we then change our focus from “What does God want us to do in order to carry out His mission?” to “I want what I want.”

Listen, Chuck Swindoll says: “The godly life is never easy. Rewarding? Yes! Worthwhile? A thousand times yes!”

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU OR ME!

Service is an area that many times we excuse ourselves from because we think that someone else will do it.

This is a story about four people named Everybody.

Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when

Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

When we were building Calvary Baptist of Powder Springs, we had 1 real big rule Ben Turner put in place, and that was if you don’t like the way someone is doing something, then you do it. If you can do it better, and if not, take advice from the librarian and be quiet and know, sometimes you’re the only Bible some people will ever read.

Chuck Swindoll said: “Never stop reading never stop studying never stop learning Your mind needs to keep growing to stay healthy for the service of others!”

It doesn’t matter how old you are, King Solomon said:

Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment.

In other words, Solomon is saying in your youth, enjoy your life and have fun, bring joy to others, but make the kind of choices that in the end you won’t regret or be sorry for. Have fun, but don’t forget what’s ahead…

I messed up so many times and I did stupid stuff and I had to pay for it and I’m begging be careful with what you do with your life today’cause it’s gonna make a difference tomorrow

EVERY CHRISTIAN IS A SERVANT (MINISTER) Verses 1-2
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, (to call near, i.e. invite, invoke (by beseech, call for, (be of good) comfort, desire, (give) exhort (-ation), entreat, pray.) brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  service 4 divine service 1 [Total Count: 5] from <G3000> (latreuo); aid of God, i.e. worship :- (divine) service.

David Jeremiah said, “Someone once told me that the hardest thing about being a Christian is that it’s so daily. Isn’t that the truth? It’s so daily; every day you gotta get up and do it over again. But here’s the good news: it’s daily, but the eternal spirit of God lives within your heart, and he enables you to do what you couldn’t do. We preach the gospel with our lips, but we picture the gospel with our lives. People need to see Jesus Christ in us.”

 

 

He then says, “brethren” = Christians, ’cause He’s talking to the church of Rome. He’s talking to the world, not just the Jews.  John 3:16 says the world, not just the Jews.

 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Holy = blameless

“which is your reasonable service.”  What is required

 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Matthew 20:26-28 ²⁶ Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. ²⁷ And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave– ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Jesus came to serve
What is a “minister”?
A minister is a servant.
The word that is translated “minister” is also the same word that is translated “deacon”. NT:1249 diakonos (dee-ak’-on-os); probably from an obsolete diako (to run on errands; compare NT:1377); an attendant, i.e. (genitive case) a waiter (at table or in other menial duties); specially, a Christian teacher and pastor (technically, a deacon or deaconess):KJV – deacon, minister, NKJV servant.

We are called to serve God in some way because of what He has done for us.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,

By the renewing of your mind By changing what’s in your head, and with that your heart will follow
1 Peter 2:9-10 ⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

We are all called to serve God in some way.
Ephesians 4:11-13 ¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, (As we’ve said Pastor is a sheepherder or shepherd. This is the first time the word was ever used and translated to pastor.) ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

Acts 2:1  When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Church, you need to be united.

Acts 2:46-47 ) ⁴⁶ So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Philippians 2:1-5 (NLT2) ¹ Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? ² Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. ³ Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. ⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Philippians 2:1-5 ¹ Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

Aaron and Hur.

Ex 17:10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

I’m a better Aaron or Hur than I am a Moses

The church leadership, ministers, and teachers are the ones who help prepare people for ministry.
This work of service can be translated as work of ministry.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

In what ways are you serving Jesus?    

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was interviewed near the close of his life. This is what he said: “God had all there was of me. There have been others who had greater plans, greater opportunities than I; but from the day I got a vision of what God could do, I made up my mind God would have all there was of William Booth.”
Does He (God) have all of you?

Ministry is using whatever God has given me to serve Him and the needs of others.

You see a prime example of that with David Henderson building handicap ramps and other such things. I see the ladies of this church helping and supporting and lifting each other, picking up Claudia or going to get Cassie and doing things like that. Man, it just touches my heart

EVERY MINISTRY IS IMPORTANT
1 Corinthians 12:15-22 ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? ¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be? ²⁰ But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

If God placed you here, then he has something for you to do. Each member as He wants. If God placed you, then you are important.
All parts of the body are important
If one quits working, then the others have to work hard to compensate.
The size of the ministry is not important.

What is the most important light in the house?

The little night light that keeps you from killing yourself in the middle of the night when you head for the refrigerator.

That takes me to something that I want to share again from my book, which is about my friend and prayer partner, Tim Croft. About what he shared that his Dad said to one of the guys who works for him: “If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.” Mr. Croft took a moment of his time to minister to this man walking in that office, with an effort to lead him to the Lord

That reminded me of the late Rich Mullins being interviewed by Shelia Walsh; he said, “God loves me very much; as a matter of fact, God is crazy about me, and I don’t understand why”. He then said, “you go to your friends that have kids in their home, and they have those really horrible scribblings on their refrigerators that their kids do, and they are really proud of them and you look at them and you say what, how would you possibly put that up in front of people for them to see?”  Then Shelia Walsh said laughing “you can tell that you don’t have children”, and then Rich Mullins said something that I really loved he said, “right you can, you can tell I don’t but you can also tell that God does,” he goes on to explain that some people think that they are going to be the next Van Gogh, with their Christian walk, for God to put their work up on His refrigerator, They are doing what they do just for the recognition but God accepts even our scribbling, as long as it’s our best as long as we try to please Him. You put this stuff up for all to see because you love your children and their efforts. It doesn’t have to be great; it just has to be done by someone whom we love and who loves us.

Pastors are not so much your gift or prize, as much as you are their prize.

Or we would be ministering to pews. And empty seats. A preacher, a true preacher, has to do this. You are giving us an opportunity to do what God’s called us to do. You owe us nothing, and we owe you everything.

I believe, not all but some preachers out there are the ones that think they are the great artist such as Van Gogh, they think they are because it seems that every sermon needs to be up on God’s refrigerator, I can tell when they have to be posted on Facebook and other social media sights Bragging about what they’ve done they need to understand it’s not what they’ve done but it’s what Christ has done through them. I don’t mean the websites that put the sermon notes up for small group discussion or the Facebook link that takes you to the sermon of the day; I’m talking about the proud, pompous preacher. Did you see what I did there? It all started with the same letter, “P”? I am not a fan of sermons where all points have to start with the same letter. Even if they don’t make sense, I was told after I announced my call to preach that I need to buy a thesaurus. I’m not going to do that. My mentor, Reverend Ben Turner, told me that if they come naturally, then fine, but if you have to make up a point or use a word that no one knows, then don’t do it. (It’s called Alliteration; just thought I would let you know I know what it was called.) So, let’s get back on point.

I believe that Rich Mullins is correct: God wants our efforts. He at least wants you to try.

The one who volunteers to help in the parking lot, helping to get people in from the parking lot. Or picking people up and bringing them to church

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The one opening the door on Sunday mornings, greeting people as they come in. Or sitting out there and passing out bulletins

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The one that helps people find a seat in the church. Sit with them and make them comfortable. Again, I go back to saying: invite people to come sit with you. Don’t invite them just to come to church; invite them to come and sit with you, and then you sit with them. Make them feel at home

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The one that takes up the offering.

The people in the sound room or running a camera and screens.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The people in the choir or praise band.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The one who helps set up the pulpit area or get the stool for the preacher who can’t stand long.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The Pastor, Preacher, Sunday School teacher. Small group teacher. The youth Pastor or Teacher. They spend their time selflessly for you without an ounce of pay

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The office workers who make sure the power bill is paid. Or bulletins are printed.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

Everyone behind the scenes, who sweeps the floor, cleans the bathrooms, vacuums the floor, or dusts, cleans the glass windows and doors, and makes sure the grass is cut and the lawn looks good.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

Last week, I looked at the man who’s leading this church right now and watched him take out the garbage. If I were physically able he would not have had to do that. He’s not too big to do the small things.

That one goes up on the refrigerator

Ben Turner cleaning up after a wedding…

The person who drops a card in the mail to encourage someone.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The one who fixed that snack for the small group or Sunday Night Fellowship. Sent that meal to someone in need, handed that one in need some money, or mailed it to them.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The one who is not able to be at church but prays for the services, weeps over the prayer request, and calls out the Preachers name in prayer at 4 in the morning.

That one goes up on God’s refrigerator!

I hope that you are getting this. Your efforts for the service of God go up on God’s refrigerator! He cares for you that much. Show him you care to. That Is Service.

I once was asked what did I think God would say to me when I get to heaven, and I told of an interview with Billy Graham, and that very question was asked of him, and he said, “I know what I want to hear but, I know I won’t hear it, and that is “Well done my good and faithful servant”, but I know I won’t hear that because I have let Him down so many times.” Then I thought if Billy Graham is not going to hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant”, then the rest of us don’t have a chance of hearing it,

I think there’s gonna be a lot of preachers that are gonna be sorely disappointed when they get there, and they’re not up on the high rankings that they think what they do is higher Ranking because they’re the pastor or the preacher or the teacher. We are held to a higher standard and should be

I believe there will be people like my mom, who served for 28 years as just a lowly cook for kids in a children’s home, was a Sunday school teacher for oh so many years, and led a small group in a home study for years. People like that.

People like Miss Lucille, who served so faithfully, people like Miss Catherine, who served in that children’s home and played the church organ and running the business end of this place. Listen, that goes up on God’s refrigerator!

The people who never try to take a bow or say Look at me those are gonna be the ones at the front of the line those are gonna be the one that God notices Those are the ones whose pictures go up on Gods refrigerator.

So, I said, “I want God to say good try; at least you tried.” And I do try to please God and do what He wants, but again, as Billy Graham said, I have failed him so many times, and I thank Him for his forgiveness, His mercy, and His grace, which I don’t understand.

So, I wrote this just before Easter 2019.

I just got out of the hospital a week before, and they had me in a Hospice room because they honestly didn’t expect me to make it. They don’t know my God.

So, I wrote this:

I Don’t Understand

by E. DeWayne Swann

Written on Maundy Thursday 4/18/19

 The preacher talked of mercy and how it was freely given,

The preacher talked of Grace and how Jesus took my place,

The preacher told of forgiveness and said all we had to do was ask,

A love that’s everlasting, A love that will forever last,

So, I bowed my head, and I asked Jesus into my heart,

He promised He would never leave me, and we would never part.

But,

I don’t understand that Mercy, And I don’t understand that Grace

I don’t understand why He died on that cross, and why that He took my place,

 The number of times I’ve fallen, the number of times I’ve sinned

The number of times I’ve told him I’ll never do that again

And before the day is out,

I’ll do the same old thing,

And then I’ll ask for His forgiveness,

And He’ll gladly forgive me of my sin.

So,

I really don’t understand that Mercy, And I really don’t understand that Grace

I don’t understand why He died on that cross, and why He took my place,

 I know His mercy is shared by each and every one,

I know His Grace is freely given to any who will ask,

God gave us the final sacrifice when He gave us His Son

He forgave us for all our sins, now and in the future, and any we have done,

It was freely given to all people like me and you,

The day that Jesus said Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

But,

I may never understand that Mercy, And I may never understand that Grace

I may never understand why He died on that cross, and why He took my place

 One day I’ll surely see Him, and maybe I’ll understand.

When He put His arms around me with His nail-pierced hands,

When we walk the streets of glory,

And He tells that old, old story,

Of how that blood was shed for me,

Then maybe on that day I will see.

And then,

 I might understand His Mercy, And I might understand His Grace

I might understand why He died on His cross, and why He had to take my place.

 I truly thank him for His Mercy, And I truly thank him for His Grace

And I truly thank Him that He died on His cross, and that He took my place.

As we look at the purpose of service. I want to look at what we are to do to fulfill this purpose.

Romans 12:2 ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

That the world can see what God is doing through you.

[That good …] This part of the verse might be rendered, that ye may investigate the will of God, or find out the Will of God, what is good, and perfect, and acceptable. The will of God relates to his commands in regard to our conduct, his doctrines in regard to our belief, and His providential dealings in relation to our external circumstances.

It means what God demands of us, in whatever way it may be made known. They do not go astray from his ways who seek his guidance, and who, not confiding in their own wisdom, but in God, commit their way to him.

 “The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way,” Ps 25:9.

The word “good” here is not an adjective agreeing with “will,” but a noun. “That ye may find the will of God, It’s a thing, what is good and acceptable.” It implies that the thing which is good is his will, or that we may find his will by finding what is good and perfect. That is good, which promotes the honor of God and the interests of his universe.

[Acceptable] That which will be pleasing to God. or which he will approve. There is scarcely a more difficult text in the Bible than this, or one that is more full of meaning. It involves the main duty of religion to be separated from the world; and expresses the way in which that duty may be performed, and in which we may live so as to ascertain and do the will of God. If all Christians would obey this, religion would be everywhere honored. If all would separate from the vices and follies, the amusements and funs of the world, Christ would be glorified. If all were truly renewed in their minds, they would lose their relish for such things, and seeking only to do the will of God, they would not be slow to find it.

[Perfect] Free from defect, stain, or injury. That which has all its parts complete, or which is not disproportionate. Applied to religion, it means what is consistent, which is carried out; which is revealed in all the circumstances in life.

It’s not three different wills of God; it’s the progression of the will of God.

I was told one time that somebody was doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

They said, “Well, I am in God’s permissive will.”

And my reply to that was, so was Hitler. That doesn’t make it right.

We don’t want to be in his permissive will. Everything’s in his permissive will; He permits things that happen that shouldn’t, but it’s not what He wants. The Bible’s clear that no man should ever go to hell, but we know that hell is going to be full. That’s not God’s will.

Romans 12:3 ³ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Mother: “Buy you for what you are worth and sell you for what you think you are worth.”

Proverbs 16:18-19  ¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. ¹⁹ Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Romans 11:20-21 ²⁰ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty (high-minded), but fear. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

VERSE 6! This passage shows us that it is important for each of us to use our gifts in service to Jesus.
SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Special gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon Christians for the purpose of building up the church. The list of spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12:8-10 includes wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Similar lists appear in Eph 4:7-13 and Rom 12:3-8.

The apostle Paul indicated that these gifts are equally valid but not equally valuable. Their value is determined by their worth to the church. In dealing with this matter, he used the analogy of the human body. All members of the body have functions, Paul declared, but some are more important than others. The service of each Christian should be in proportion to the gifts which he possesses (1 Cor 12-14).

Since these gifts are gifts of grace, according to Paul, their use must be controlled by the principle of love-the greatest of all spiritual gifts (1 Cor 13). With Love.

The Greatest Gift

1 Corinthians 13

13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  

Love each other… well You don’t know what they did.   I DON’T CARE!!!

Your job is to Love one another… I’ve got a guy who’s put it in writing that he’s going to hate me till the day that I die. I don’t hate him. As a matter of fact, I love him, and I miss him, and if I didn’t love him, I couldn’t be here tonight doing this.

People sitting in the same church building won’t even talk to each other.

John 13:34-35   Jesus talking.

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is how we tell if you are of God.

John 15:11-14 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

These were my mother’s favorite verses:

1 John 4:7-11 ⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

You show the world God by the way you love one another.

EACH MINISTRY IS DEPENDENT ON THE OTHERS
our text:

Romans 12:4-5 ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

1 Corinthians 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
What if those who are gifted in evangelism bring in a lot of people, but then we do not have people who are gifted in teaching or hospitality? After a while, we will either lose the new people or they will not grow in Christ.
1 Peter 4:10-11 ¹⁰ As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers (service), let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

When one part does not function, the rest of the body is affected.

OUR “SHAPE” SHOULD DETERMINE OUR MINISTRY. Verses 6-8

Do you wonder why God did not make us all the same? Why didn’t God give us all the same abilities? VERSE 6

Romans 12:6-8 ⁶ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; ⁷ or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; ⁸ he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Psalm 139:13-16 ¹³ For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. RSV and NAS says hast covered = knit
¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.     He’s still working on me!

Wonderfully Made by Louise Rickman

I have a sweater I never wear. It’s too small. Some of the buttons are missing, and the thread is frazzled. I should throw it away. I’ll never wear it again. Logic says to clear out the space, get rid of the sweater. But love won’t let me.
What’s unusual about it? It wasn’t produced on an assembly line. It’s the creation of a devoted mother expressing her love. That sweater is unique. It’s one of a kind. It can’t be replaced. And although the sweater has lost all of its use, it’s lost none of its value.
That must have been what the psalmist had in mind when he wrote, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). You were knitted together. You aren’t an accident. You weren’t mass-produced. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this earth by the Master Craftsman.

God knows that each one of us is unique. There are also many different jobs that need to be done in order for the work of the kingdom to get done.
One of the greatest frustrations a person can have in trying to serve God is to be pushed into an area of service that we feel that we cannot do. Now, I do not want people to use this as an excuse for not reaching out to people or trying to stretch themselves. We are all to witness to people, although we will all do it a little differently.
As you look around us, you will notice that each of us has a different shape. Did you know that your ministry or area of service should be

determined by your SHAPE.

•    Spiritual Gifts (How God has gifted me)
  • Heart (passion): What do I love to do?
  • Abilities (What natural talents do I have?)
  • Personality (Where does my personality best suit me to serve?)
  • Experience (What experiences have I had?) What has God brought you through? He didn’t bring you through it to do nothing with it.

Experience = 1) Education, 2) Vocational, 3) Spiritual, 4) Ministry. (how you have served in the past), 5) Painful (What problems, hurts, and trials have you learned from)

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

As Randy sings, I thank God that He didn’t throw the clay away!

We are all different because God made us that way.
Your personality will affect how you use your spiritual gifts; your passion will affect what you place as important.
Too many times we go about things backwards. We feel that since we do not know what we are gifted in, we do nothing. We think that we can take a test to find out what our SHAPE really is. There are good Spiritual Gift tests out there, and every one I have taken comes back the same.
The best way to find out where your gifts, talents, and heart are is to serve in many different areas, and from that, you will settle into what you are good at.

I know my spiritual gift is not singing and if you hear me you will know my spiritual gift is not singing The only instrument that I can play is those drums upstairs now I don’t know that I can do that anymore So what are our gifts for God blessed us with our talents Use what God has given you That’s your reasonable service When I got knocked down on my back for a while I couldn’t teach my small group God opened a door for me to write and that’s when I wrote my first book I’m fixing to publish a second one and I have enough resources probably to put a 3^rd one out and as a result of that first book I’ve seen a soul saved and it made it all well worth the effort
Ask those close to you. Those who see you in action. …People who take food to people will never get up and teach a lesson. There are people who pray daily for the church and the pastor, but you could never get to stand and testify to their faith. Does it mean they don’t love God? No, we all fit in different places.
CONCLUSION
If the church is not a church that focuses on serving others, what will happen is that you will become friendly to yourselves, you will take care of yourselves, and you will focus your resources on yourselves.
If, as a collective body of believers, we are not each focused on serving in some area of ministry, the whole body will be hurt.
If I have areas of ability that I will not use for the body of Christ, then I am hurting the body of Christ. For this body to function, we need each and every part of it to be functioning.
If you can sing, then get your end in the choir. If you can cook, bring good food on Sunday nights. How does my phone ring
God did not call us to sit on the bench, but He called us to find a position on the field and play the game.
What happens on a team when part of the team decides not to do its job?
It is my prayer that each and every member of the Church is an active part of the body, that each one of us is serving the body of Christ in some way.
Too many times, we sit back and want to be served, and then we complain about the service. Too many times, we feel sorry for ourselves. The best way to get out of that is to serve others. Remember that we are to be like Jesus. Jesus came to serve. He came to seek and save those who are lost.

1 Peter 4:7-11 ⁷ But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. ⁸ And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” ⁹ Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

If you want to show God how much you love Him and if you want to show Him how much you appreciate Him for all that he’s done for you. I don’t think God will mind if you serve the Lord. Serving the Lord is not to get saved, but because you are saved and you are His child. It is in the Word of God that we love Him. He says that man loves me, honors me, serves me, and keeps my word. So, if the word of God tells all of us to serve, yes, but you don’t do it to get to heaven. Because you’re going there. I believe that Christ died on that cross, and I believe he died for me, and I’m gonna trust him as my only hope of going to heaven, and God said if you’ll believe it, he’ll save you. It is so simple. Salvation is not cheap. God sent his son to pay for our sins; it wasn’t cheap. very expensive; He just made it free, and when you and I try to add one word to it, we cheapen it. That’s when you’re cheap in it: when you think that it wasn’t enough I better add something to it.

At the end of World War I, Herbert Hoover, later to become President of the United States, led the Allied relief efforts in Europe. He kept hundreds of thousands from starving, and a new word entered the Finnish language. In Finland, “Hoover” means to be kind, to help.

If someone coined a word from your name, what would it be? Would it signify character? Helpfulness? Cheerfulness? Or would it be some mean and ugly word?
What word most describes you and your service for God and this church, which is your reasonable service?

Pray

Calvary Baptist Church, July 19, 2026, PM

The Purpose of the Church: Discipleship

We have seen The Purpose of the Church: Worship, Prayer, Fellowship

And now, The Purpose of the Church- Discipleship

Paul told his son in the faith, Timothy:

Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:13

 So, the Bible is commanding us to get into the word of God and learn about it, to be students.

Much of Western Christianity has taught us to view Jesus ‘ return as an evacuation plan or exit strategy. Jesus never commanded his church to wait for an escape.

He commanded his church to make disciples.

 Matthew 28:18-20 ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

When Jesus wanted to explain His return, He pointed to Noah.

Matthew 24:37-39 ³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Noah wasn’t preparing to leave. He was preparing to remain faithful through God’s judgment.

Genesis 6:13-22 ¹³ And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. ¹⁵ And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark–you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. ²⁰ Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” ²² Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

God never told Noah to watch the sky. He told him to build an ark.

Biblical readiness has never been about escape. It’s always been about obedience. Luke 12:35-43 ³⁵ “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; ³⁶ and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. ³⁷ Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. ³⁸ And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. ³⁹ But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁰ Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” ⁴¹ Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” ⁴² And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? ⁴³ Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

The question isn’t whether you’ll recognize Jesus when He returns.

It’s whether Jesus will find you faithful when he does.

Luke 18:8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

The KING is coming! We need to make people aware of that and to teach them what the word of God says.

Discipleship

1 Corinthians 1:1-3 ¹ Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes  our brother, ² To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: ³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

You are either a Saint or you Ain’t! 
Paul writes to those sanctified in Christ. Jesus called them saints; the word saints it’s Hagios (hag’-ee-os).

 INTRODUCTION

If we were in a baseball game, your job would not be just to get on base but to score.

We need to finish the course, not just start it, more than just leading them to the Lord, but teaching them to stay the course even in bad times

2 Timothy 4:7-8 ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

It’s like a race, not how we start, but how we finish that matters

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV) ²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. ²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. ²⁶ Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV) ¹ Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Over the last couple of times I preached, we have looked at the purposes of the Church. Worship, Prayer, and Fellowship. This week, we are going to look at Discipleship.

Before going into the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed this prayer for you and me.

John 17:20-26 (NKJV) ²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

And then: Victory is Declared

After the Lord Jesus arose from the dead, He called a meeting. It was no ordinary meeting; in fact, it included hundreds of people assembled on a Galilean mountainside.

Among those he addressed were three groups of people.

According to Matthew 28:16, Christ’s eleven surviving disciples were there.

From 1 Corinthians 15:6, we learn that 500 other believers attended the meeting too.

But there was also another group of people invited to the meeting, a group that grows bigger every day.

And as of Friday night, there are 14 more who got IN at the Truth in Nature retreat this weekend…!

He’s addressing those who accepted Christ.

And that assembly includes you and me. According to Matthew 28, at the close of this gathering, Jesus said these words,

Matthew 28:19-20 ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The age of which He was speaking hasn’t ended yet, and since you and I are living in that age, the agenda of that last meeting is intended to apply to us.

disciple, = matheteuo (math-ayt-yoo’-o); from NT:3101; to become a pupil; transitively, to disciple, i.e. enroll as scholar: KJV – be a disciple, instruct, teach.

Paul tells the women to teach the younger women how to love their husbands. Parents are to teach their children how to live and how to love God. The pastor, preacher, teacher, shepherd is to lead and teach the flock, and you are to teach the world about Christ

With one hand, reach out to Jesus; with the other hand, grab a friend and bring them along. That’s in a song by Love Song Band

That’s not only discipleship; that is also evangelism and service, and we will be getting into those in the next few weeks

So, how do you teach the world?

In your lifestyle?’ because I promise you, people are watching you; the world is watching you, and as the saying goes, sometimes, you’re the only Bible some people will ever read. What are they reading? Not what are you here in this building not what are you around other church people what are you out there in the world that’s what they’re reading that person Let them see Jesus in everything you do

JC Ryle: Says let the Bible and not the church or any church upon earth or any minister upon earth be your rule of faith.

We are commanded to make disciples.

This is a two-part process.

This is the first part of making a disciple to evangelize (go and teach). And we’ll get into more of that in a moment

The second instruction for disciple-making is to baptize new believers “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Tim told me that, out of the 14 Young men who were saved this weekend at the Truth in Nature retreat, all 14 were baptized. He said Not too bad for a bunch of men with beards and shorts on out in the woods, and then baptizing them in a horse trough or a big galvanized washtub. They’re doing what God commanded them to do, and I love that!

Why was Jesus baptized?

To fulfill all righteousness, to begin his ministry, to identify with humanity, all that is true, but there’s so much more hidden beneath the surface and in the Old Testament before a lamb could be sacrificed. It had to pass four requirements:

One publicly presented out in the open, before witnesses

Two were examined by a priest

Three were found without blemish

Four acceptances before the Lord, divine approval, God has to say yes!

Requirement one fulfilled

John publicly identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29

Requirement two fulfilled

John was from the Priestley line. He had the bloodline and the authority to examine the lamb.

Luke 1:5 tells us that his father, Zachariah, was a priest

Requirement three fulfilled

The lamb was found without blemish, not a single accusation, not a shadow of sin, not one flaw in 30 years of life Coming up to the start of his ministry and even after

Requirement four fulfilled

God himself came down and approved the offering

This is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased with Matthew 3:17

We all understand the word baptism, but we need to examine it to learn what it means in this context.

One possibility is that it means to immerse in water.

Water baptism is like a wedding ring—an external reminder of an internal reality.

A man can be married without a ring, but wearing it tells others that he’s married and not available anymore, and it also reminds him that he is committed to another.

So, although a gold band worn on the third finger of the left hand is a symbol of marriage, it doesn’t make the wearer married.

Walking, wet, death, burial, and the resurrection.

I love what West Ridge says when they baptize somebody, buried with him in death, raised to walk a new life

Charles Spurgeon says, “Baptism is not essential to your salvation. It is essential to your obedience to Christ. Nothing is more plainly taught in the New Testament than that. It is the duty of every believer in Christ to be baptized.

I don’t believe Jesus is talking about the external reminder only when He commands the disciples to baptize believers.

The Greek word baptizo literally means to immerse; however, its theological usage throughout the New Testament is “to identify with someone or something.”

This sense of the word is working in 1 Corinthians 10:2, where the writer says that Israel was baptized into Moses, that is, accepted his leadership, as they crossed the Red Sea.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4 ¹ Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, ² all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

From that day until his death, the Israelites identified with him as their leader. In Romans 6:3, we see the same usage where Paul teaches that “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.”

Romans 6:1-6 ¹ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? ³ Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

This means that by placing faith in Christ we are identified with Him—identified with His death on the cross and identified through His resurrection into newness of life.

Then, if baptism is used to mean “identification,” we can substitute identify for the commandment to baptize. The verse would then read:

“Identify them with the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

A group can be identified with a name, as the Israelites were with Moses in the Scripture verse considered earlier.

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

They have been identified as one of Jesus’ believers

My prayer partner, Ben Bennett, says that wherever he goes, he hopes that when people see him, they don’t see Ben Bennett but that they see Jesus. That’s a great prayer.

That’s all that matters if you’ve been with Jesus.

Can the world and even other Christians tell or perceive that you are, or are trying to be identified with Jesus?

We are going to look at what we are to do once we have added a person to the kingdom of God.

 We are called to disciple them.

What happens in a typical church when we win a person to Jesus?

We usually leave it at that.

We are happy, we got them to first base!

When a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior, our job does not stop there.

That is like getting a person to 1st base and saying that our job is finished. But there is so much more.

Our goal is to help bring that person around the bases to score!

Too many times, we get a person to first base and then forget about them; we leave them stranded.

Part of making a disciple is teaching them all that Jesus commanded.

The Great Commission tells us this, and the early church was committed to the apostles’ teachings.

Acts 2:41-47 ⁴¹ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. ⁴² And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴³ Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵ and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. ⁴⁶ So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

What we believe is then taught to other believers. This is our Creed, 1.creed [krēd] NOUN a system of Christian or other religious belief; a faith:

I saw something from a Christian school teacher who said that he did some research. It said 68% of the people who graduated from their Christian school claimed to be atheists. Now, they were taught the words; they weren’t taught what they meant. What is your creed?

This is the Apostles’ Creed

Rich Mullins

I believe in God the Father almighty

Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth

And in Jesus Christ

His only begotten Son, our Lord

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit

Born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

He was crucified and dead and buried

I believe that He who suffered

Was crucified, buried, and dead

He descended into hell and

On the third day, rose again

He ascended into Heaven, where

He sits at God’s mighty right hand

I believe that He’s returning to

Judge the quick and the dead

Of the sons of men

I believe in God the Father almighty

Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth

And in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son,

Our Lord

I believe in the Holy Spirit

One Holy Church, the communion of Saints

The forgiveness of sin

I believe in the resurrection

I believe in a life that never ends

And I believe what I believe

Is what makes me what I am

I did not make it, no, it is making me

It is the very truth of God and not

The invention of any man

I believe it, I believe

 

What is a disciple?

A disciple is a student, learner, or pupil. In the Bible, the word is used most often to refer to a follower of Jesus.

You never grow out of it.

You never stop trying to learn more, and you can’t learn it all.

Whenever you think you’ve achieved everything you think you can achieve, you learn that you truly know nothing about this word and then you want to learn more.

The Apostle Paul, just hours possibly before his execution, sends a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy.

2 Timothy 4:6-13 ⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
⁹ Be diligent to come to me quickly; ¹⁰ for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica–Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. ¹¹ Only Luke is with me. Get Mark (If you recall, back in the first missionary journey, Paul kicked Mark out of his group and didn’t seem to trust Mark. But now he has fixed things; that’s what we’ve got to do: you’ve got to make things right with other believers, now look what he says about ol Mark,) and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. ¹² And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. (He’s lonely. I’m quite possibly afraid not of its destination but of what is going to happen to him, and even in the end he says this)

Note winter is coming: 2 Timothy 4:21 (NKJV) Do your utmost to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren.

¹³ Bring the cloak (a coat or a mantle) that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come–and the books, especially the parchments.

 Charles Spurgeon said: He is inspired and yet he wants his books, He’s been preaching at least for 30 years and yet he wants his books, he had seen the Lord and yet he wants his books, He had a wider experience than most men and yet he wants books, He had been caught up in the 3rd heaven and had heard things which was unlawful for men to utter, yet he wanted books, He had written the major part of the New Testament and yet he wants books, the Apostle says to Timothy And so he says to every preacher And I believe every believer needs to give yourself unto reading, you never stop studying and Never stop learning and reading about our Savior.

And then sharing, making disciples, teaching. And if the Apostle Paul still wanted to learn, who are we not to?

As a disciple, as a student, as a learner, you never, never, no matter how old or how young, what kind of physical shape you’re in, however smart you think you are, never stop learning what the Word of God is trying to tell you!

The word disciple is rarely used in the Old Testament. Isaiah used the term disciples to refer to those who are taught or instructed.

Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples.

The word disciple is sometimes used in a more specific way to indicate the twelve apostles of Jesus (Matt 10:1; 11:1; 20:17; Luke 9:1; the Twelve, NIV, NEB, NASB, RSV).

In general, apostles refer to a small, inner group of Jesus’ followers; disciples refer to a larger group of Jesus’ followers, such as the women who stood at Jesus’ cross and discovered the empty tomb.

(from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

Quite simply, a disciple is a learner or a pupil of someone.

In the context of the Bible, a Christian is supposed to be a disciple. Whom are we to be a disciple of?   Jesus?

The word disciple is used over 250 times in the New Testament and is only found in the Gospels and Acts.

Discipleship is simply spending time with Jesus.

So, I encourage you to spend time with Jesus. Get in the Gospels every month, just read through them, and then read the book of Acts of the Apostles, which are the acts of Jesus through the Apostles

 Everyone, when fully trained, will be like their teacher

 If you can’t find time to read the four gospels every month, then can you really call yourself a disciple? Because the disciples spend time with their rabbi.

 Acts 11 is where we find that Christians and disciples are called the same thing.

Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

The name “Christian” was given to the disciples by Paul and Barnabas through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The English translations of Acts 11:26 make it sound like the people called the disciples Christians, but the grammar of the original will not allow that. The original says that Paul and Barnabas called them Christians. Or to be Christ-like. The word “called” has a prophetic meaning to it.

Discipleship is the development of Christians.

The Characteristics of a Disciple

Love for the brethren.

Jesus is speaking:

John 13:34-35 ³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Mark 12:30-31 ³⁰ And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. ³¹ And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

As I have said: It’s not what kind of neighbor I have, but what kind of neighbor my neighbor has. Me, what kind of person am I?

Commitment to Jesus.

Luke 14:27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

You have to have a Love for Jesus. Tony Evans says:

What is a disciple? A disciple is one who has decided that following Christ takes priority over everything else in life. Jesus didn’t say being a disciple would be easy. He told His followers that they would have to deny themselves and take up their own crosses to follow Him.

He emphasized the fact that He would have to be first in their lives when He said, Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate (In comparison to the love you have for Christ) his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

The way the word hate is used here is the same way you look a beautiful woman in the eye and say You are the only person in this world I see Are they really the only person in the world you see? No, but compared to the rest of the world, they’re the only ones you want to see.

Remember, Jesus wasn’t speaking just to the people who saw Him in Galilee or heard Him in the Temple in Jerusalem. He wasn’t talking just to the twelve disciples.

He was talking to you and to me and to everyone who will ever be born again on this earth.

 Did everyone who heard Jesus preach become His disciple? No.

Does everyone who walks through the doors of this church or comes to the meetings here become a disciple, a Christian, or a believer?

No, I’m afraid not

Whenever Jesus drew a large crowd to hear Him teach, He would eliminate most of them by telling them about denying themselves, carrying their crosses, and putting Him first in their lives.

If Jesus had been interested in boosting His Nielsen rating or His position in the Gallup Poll, He would have kept quiet about the cost of discipleship.

But Jesus wasn’t playing the numbers game.

He was making disciples—exactly what He has commanded us to do.

Unfortunately, most of the Jews who heard Him weren’t interested in absolute commitment to the authority of Christ;

Religion and “getting by” were enough for them. Sadly, that is also the case in far too many churches today.

Make Him a part of you. As I said about Pop the Top, you have to make it a part of you. Not every disciple stayed a disciple.

John 6:53-58 ⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven–not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

 Listen, everybody’s gonna spend eternity somewhere. It’s either gonna be in heaven or in hell, which is eternal death.

If you die before you die, then when you die, you won’t die. If you die to yourself before you die the physical death, when you die the physical death, you won’t die the second death that’s in Revelation, which is hell, eternal damnation

 Revelation 2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” ‘

Revelation 20:6  Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Revelation 20:14-15 ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

So if you die before you die then when you die you won’t die

John 6:59-69 ⁵⁹ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. ⁶⁰ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
⁶¹ When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. ⁶⁵ And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” ⁶⁶ From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Don’t miss this; this was so freeing for me as a minister. People will walk away. People will stop listening to you. People will turn their back on you and hurt you worse than you ever imagined, but at no time did Jesus chase them down. He never told them, ” Oh, wait, guys, I meant this; don’t be offended He let them leave.

 ⁶⁷ Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” ⁶⁸ But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

When the going gets hard, most walk away…

 Signs of being a Disciple:

Be like Jesus.

Matthew 10:25 It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!

Benevolent.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

As Brian was pointing out this morning you will not you cannot outgive God

Abide in Jesus.

John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

The objective of discipleship is to smooth the progress of the spiritual growth of Christians.

When we are immersed in Christ (when we become Christians), we are born again.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Do you see Jesus in your life?

Jesus gives us a principle in Matthew 12:

Matthew 12:43-45 ⁴³ “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. ⁴⁴ Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

This is another one of the things pinned in the back of my Bible:

Separate crowds

Fear knocked at my door tonight, silently begging for a preferred chair

I opened the door of my heart a bit and thought I’d make room for him there

But when reluctantly I turned to seat the guest, I thought must stay.

I saw the room was much too full; he saw it too, and went his way.

For in that moment, Christ had placed a special guest in every chair.

And how could fear be comfortable with faith and peace already there?

Carole Rapp Stone

 

Discipleship fills our house with tools and encouragement for growth.

Myths about spiritual growth.

• Spiritual growth is automatic once you are born. BABY?
• Spiritual growth is mystical, and maturity is attainable by only a few
• Spiritual maturity can occur instantly if you find the right key. You didn’t start in kindergarten and all of a sudden get a doctorate from college. It takes learning for spiritual growth
• Spiritual maturity is measured by what you know
• Spiritual growth is a personal and private matter
• All you need is the Bible to grow.

If we fall for these myths, then we will not work on helping people grow.

If we fall for these myths, we will not do what we need to do to grow.

If we fall for these myths, we will become discouraged if we are not growing.

If we fall for these myths, we will become lazy.

We need to get people to go from 1st base (saved) to 2nd base (commitment to maturity or separation) to 3rd base (commitment to service) to home plate.

We need to intentionally do things that help Christians become more Christ-like.

One definition of discipleship is MAKE ONE TO MAKE ONE.

You got saved to save others.

Frank Halcomb, the 3^rd pastor here, used to have a saying, and it was: If everyone won one, and that one, won one. And those won one. Pretty soon, there would be no one left to win

WAYS TO HELP A DISCIPLE GROW.

Church programs

• Bible studies. The early church was devoted to the scriptures.
• Sunday school. This cannot be the only food we eat.
• Preaching. This cannot be the only food we get.
• Service opportunities.
• Providing fellowship opportunities for people.
• Mentoring programs.

Individual

• Personal devotion time.
• Prayer time.
• Serving others
• Bible reading
• Mentoring
• Giving
• Fellowship with other Christians
• Have a person that you are accountable to.

Back to Ben Bennett saying Are you clean? Have someone hold you accountable.

Roscoe Stevens at New Brooklyn, I told him if I crossed a line, if I did something that he didn’t agree with, if I said something that was not according to the Word and the will of God, he had my permission to get in my face about it.

He then leaned over into my truck and said, ” Son, I don’t need your permission; I’m gonna do that anyway. That’s the kind of people you need in your life, someone who would get in your face and tell you if you do wrong

The key to growth is commitment to the truth of the word of God.

Notice that part of the Great Commission is teaching, and the early church was committed to the word.

If we are not putting the word in people’s lives, then we have to ask ourselves: what are we winning people over to?

What we need to understand about discipleship is that I cannot be a disciple without being disciplined. The more disciplined I become, the more God can use me.

The mark of a disciple is continual growth. As we saw with Paul in the book, a second Timothy continuing to study, continuing to want his books, and continuing to want to grow in Christ

I believe the main keys to being able to make someone more Christ-like are the desire to grow, discipline, and time spent with both God and His people.

THE BENEFITS OF DISCIPLESHIP

The Church grows deeper through discipleship.

Discipleship gives us principles to live by. A foundation to build our lives on. Word of God.

It gives us stability. The world is in turmoil because it lacks a foundation.

As we become more Christ-like, we will experience more blessings than we can imagine!

CONCLUSION

When the church stops making and developing disciples, it is not a church.

For the church to be able to develop disciples, there has to be a great deal of involvement in each other’s lives.

Our worship is an extension of the way that we live our lives. In turn, we feel a strong sense of community and desire to strive with others in our walk in Fellowship.

Our worship helps us to see how much we need to grow more Christ-like because we are in awe of God, and we want to be more like Him.

Through our fellowship, a great love for other brethren is strengthened; we then seek to help others grow and develop (discipleship).

When we get a person to 1st base, our job is just beginning. It takes time, effort, and resources to develop disciples.

As a Church we must make sure that we are fulfilling this purpose.

As individual members of the body, we must make sure that we are committed to growth.

Are you willing to invest your time to help others grow closer to Jesus?

Victory Guaranteed

Matthew 28:18-20 ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The last phrase is amazing: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Because it is such an impressive promise, people often quote it out of context.

For example, when someone gets sick or loses their job, a fellow believer will remind the sufferer that the Lord is with them always. But this verse isn’t about being sick or losing a job.

It’s primarily talking about making disciples.

What Jesus is saying is that when we make disciples, He will be with us.

In other words, if we want to know where to find Jesus, we need to look where disciples are being made.

Do you want to know which church Jesus is attending on Sunday?

Look for Him in a church where disciples are being made, not one where contacts are being made, or religion is being practiced.

“Lo, I am with you always.” When God sees a disciple-making church, He gets involved there.

When He looks out and sees disciples going out to make new disciples, then baptizing and teaching them, He gets excited and gets involved.

According to:

Romans 8:28-31 ²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

But look at the flip side of that: if God is against you, who can be for you?

God wants Christ to be the first of many brethren; that is, He wants disciples to be conformed to Christ’s image and is willing to help us make disciples to accomplish that goal.

There’s a war on in our cities, in this church, in our families, and the very souls of those who live there are at stake.

We want the victory, and it’s ours in Christ if we claim it through active discipleship.

I encourage you to fight the good fight in Christ’s army by being His true disciple.

The people of our church are depending on you.

Calvary Baptist Church, July 12 2026, PM

The Purpose of The Church: Fellowship

INTRODUCTION
Paul Washer said, “Don’t look for the church closest to your house. look for the church closest to the Bible.”

The Church needs to define its purpose; this must start from God’s word.

The Purpose of the church that we looked at the last few weeks was Worship. Prayer

Worship Him before you work for Him

Seek His face before you serve Him

Prov 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he. KJV

Wanna be happy, keep the word of God, is what he’s saying.

Where there is no vision, the people perish:

The verse emphasizes that a lack of divine revelation or spiritual direction but if you don’t, it leads to a lack of restraint, as the necessity of God’s word for purpose.

The word vision in context refers to a divine revelation or prophecy, or the revealed word of God, not just a personal goal or dream.

It means where God wants us to go.

The word perish means, in the original, to loosen, cast off restraints, or run wild, suggesting a collapse of a moral order rather than just physical death

Another way of saying the Original Hebrew is;

Proverbs 29:18 (NLT2) When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.

So, the Bible says when people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild not when they don’t have a pastor but when they don’t accept the divine guidance you have that divine guidance here and the ministers and the people that are leading this church right now

What is one thing that people look for in a church?

What do you think draws people to a church? To the Ecclesia, the assembly, the group of people.

According to a study done by the Barna Research Group,

Southern Baptist Church said 88% of those over 18 will get out of church and, most likely, stay out.

Young adult dropouts. Approximately 66% of young adults who regularly attended a church as a teen dropped out for at least a year between 18 and 22

Long term retention among those who take a break only about 31% return to a regular attendance while 29% stop attending entirely

Childhood upbringing, while 67% of older Americans attended church weekly growing up, only 31% of the current parents with children under 18 reports attending at that rate

Roughly 31% of Millennials and 33% of Gen Z adults hold no religious preference.

Those with no religious affiliation rose from nine per cent in 2000 to 2003 to 21 per cent from 2021 to 2023, so general attendance has dropped. Weekly or near-weekly attendance fell from 42% two decades ago to 30% today. We seem to be losing this battle

At least 50% of the unchurched audience found meeting other people to be a good reason to attend a worship service.

The next purpose of the Church that we are going to study is Fellowship.

Surveys show that the number one thing people look for in a church is fellowship.

The number 2 reason a person attends a church service is “how much people seem to care for one another.

There is a saying, “No one cares how much you know until they see how much you care.” 

But what most modern Westerners seek is a far cry from what the Bible describes and what the early church practiced.

No term in the Christian lexicon is more abused than the word fellowship.

What we think fellowship is.

Walking into this room, we call it the Fellowship Hall. So, God blesses you; you’ve been to a fellowship hall. You’ve had the coffee and the doughnut or the cookie or snack, and you’ve made the small talk. You’ve also driven home feeling more alone than when you walked in.

You showed up, you smiled, you say, ” Hey, good to see ya and mean it like 12% of the time. You think fellowship was a room that you walked into, but it turns out we have had the entire “word” wrong.

1 John 1:1-10 ¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life– ² the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us– ³ that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

You are forgiven already; all your sins are nailed to Calvary’s cross. You don’t have to ask for forgiveness to accept Christ. You acknowledge and confess that you are a Sinner and that Christ died for you, and accept that forgiveness, and that is salvation.

The Greek word in 1 John 1 is KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah), but it appears about 20 times in the New Testament. In English, it translates to fellowship, but the translation has been losing weight for centuries cause the original word is much heavier than anything that we do on a Sunday.

KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah), it comes from the root word KOINOS (Coy-nose), which means common, shared, or held together.

In the first century, fellowship KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah) was a business term like a partnership, a joint ownership, or a shared investment.

Philippians 1:3-7 ³ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, ⁵ for your fellowship investment in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; ⁷ just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

When Paul used fellowship in Philippians 1:5, he wasn’t saying thanks for hanging out with me; what he was saying was you are my co-owner of this mission, and when John writes we have fellowship KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah) with one another, he’s not describing a potluck.

He is describing people who have pooled their time and their resources- everything- the money they’re paying to Paul’s Ministry.

Listen, He was saying you don’t have to keep showing up and pretending that proximity is connection.

You get to have something deeper to be invested in someone.

And let someone else be invested in you; that’s what the words are actually trying to say- not a room that you enter but a life that you share.

You were never meant to just be in the same room; you were meant to be invested.

As I’ve said in the past, Atlanta Christian Cursillo Movement has a saying: ” Make a friend, be a friend, bring that friend to Christ

Friends for Friends  

Four characteristics of a godly friend

1 They pray for you: They pray for your struggles, your growth, and for God’s will in your life

2 They cheer for you: They aren’t threatened by your success. They aren’t jealous of your calling. They don’t compete with your gifts.

3 They tell you the truth, even when it stings a bit: They don’t tell you only what you wanna hear because they care about you and who you are becoming. We need friends who will be honest with us

4 They forgive you: A godly friend doesn’t hold grudges, but chooses grace because they don’t take for granted the grace they’ve been gifted

But maybe you haven’t found that friend.

While you wait, become that friend.

When the Bible teaches about being a good neighbor, it’s not talking about the person next door to you being good; it’s talking about what kind of neighbor does your neighbor have, namely you. Are you a good neighbor or person? A good friend?

LET US READ ACTS 2:42-47, 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah) in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. They are invested

46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

I have this penned in the back of my Bible

“If I just do my thing and you do yours, we stand in danger of losing each other and ourselves; we are fully ourselves only in relation to each other, and the “I” detached from the “You” is disintegrating. I do not find you by chance, I find you by an active life of reaching out” by Walter Tubbs

The word friend is found some 58 times in the Bible; 22 of those are in the New Testament. Jesus used the word 14 of those 22 times.

Why does one need a friend? Solomon said in Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, 9 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. 11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

 And we need to make sure the one with our one is the one that God desires for us to have in our lives.

Fellowship is being there for each other, being there for this church, being there for the leaders right now; that’s true fellowship. Even in the hard times, you show up and have KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah) fellowship

I saw this and was compelled to add it to this Sermon or Lesson. I’m now preaching from the writers, A.A. Milne (Mill-na), E.H. Shepard from:

The Book of Winnie the Pooh.

“It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn’t heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore’s stick house.

Inside the house was Eeyore.

“Hello, Eeyore,” said Pooh.

“Hello, Pooh. Hello Piglet,” said Eeyore, in a glum-sounding voice.

“We just thought we’d check in on you,” said Piglet, “because we hadn’t heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay.”

Eeyore was silent for a moment.

“Am I okay?” he asked, eventually. “Well, I don’t know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay?

All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun to Be Around at all.

Which is why I haven’t bothered you. Because you wouldn’t want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun to Be Around at All, would you now?”

Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.

Eeyore looked at them in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“We’re sitting here with you,” said Pooh, “because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun to Be Around at all.

True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.”

“Oh,” said Eeyore. “Oh.”

And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all, somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.

Because Pooh and Piglet were There.

No more; no less.”

 

It’s not what kind of friend you have; it’s what kind of friend your friend has in you.

While sitting with my Mom in Hospice, the doorbell rang, and a dear friend came in. He sat with me most of the day, just sitting there, and we reminisced about some fun times we had; we talked about some of the problems he’d gone through and told me how God had brought him through and that God would bring me through. We had a great visit, but most importantly, he was there, and I miss Deon terribly because the next day, after sitting with me all day, he went to the hospital and never came home. Two weeks after losing my Mother, I lost a precious dear friend. And he was a great friend.

I remember him calling me up one day, and he said How are you, my friend And I said You really don’t want to know, buddy. He said, if I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked. How are you, my friend? So, I told him, and I mean I just rattled off every ailment, every problem, every pain I could think of just messing with them, and when I got through, he said You were right. I didn’t wanna know.

 We have a friend in Jesus

1. What a friend we have in Jesus,
   All our sins and griefs to bear!
   What a privilege to carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
   Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
   Oh, what needless pain we bear,
   All because we do not carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations?
   Is there trouble anywhere?
   We should never be discouraged—
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
   Can we find a friend so faithful,
   Who will all our sorrows share?
   Jesus knows our every weakness;
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy-laden,
   Cumbered with a load of care?
   Precious Savior, still our refuge—
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
   Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
   Take it to the Lord in prayer!
   In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
   Thou wilt find solace there.
4. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
   Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
   May we ever, Lord, be bringing
   All to Thee in earnest prayer.
   Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
   There will be no need for prayer—
   Rapture, praise, and endless worship
   Will be our sweet portion there.

SERMON on FELLOWSHIP

Sharing things in common with others.

In the New Testament, fellowship has a distinctly spiritual meaning. Fellowship can be either positive or negative.

Positively, believers have fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (John 17:21-26; Phil 2:1; 1 John 1:3),

Jesus Prays for All Believers

John 17:20-26  ²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

 Philippians 2:1-2 ¹ Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

There’s unity again. Keep showing up, doesn’t it?

As well as with other believers (Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3,7).

Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

The only reason why we dare to have fellowship with God, in the sense of sharing things in common with Him, is that He has raised our status through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-10 ⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, lest anyone should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

What believers share in common with God is a relationship as well as God’s own holy character (1 Peter 1:15).

 1 Peter 1:15 But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Those who have fellowship with Christ should enjoy fellowship with other believers.

This fellowship ought to illustrate the very nature of God Himself (John 13:35; Eph 5:1-2; 1 John 1:5-10).

John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 ¹ Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ² And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Negatively, believers should not have fellowship with unbelievers.

This means they should not share in unbelievers’ sinful lifestyles (2 Cor 6:14-18).

You don’t hitch your wagon to the things they’re doing wrong.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 ¹⁴ Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? ¹⁵ And what accord has Christ with Belial? (ba-lee-oh or Satan) Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” ¹⁷ Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” ¹⁸ “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”

 This does not mean, however, that believers should have anything to do with unbelievers. It means that you do not get into their lifestyle

 The Bible plainly teaches that believers are obligated to share the gospel with unbelievers (Matt 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-16; 1 Cor 9:16-17).

The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20 ¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. ¹⁷ When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Mark 16:14-18 ¹⁴ Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. ¹⁶ He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

 Luke 24:36-49 ³⁶ Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” ³⁷ But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. ³⁸ And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” ⁴⁰ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹ But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” ⁴² So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. ⁴³ And He took it and ate in their presence.

⁴⁴ Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” ⁴⁵ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. ⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ And you are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

John 20:19-23 ¹⁹ Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹ So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

1 Corinthians 9:16-17 ¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

We need fellowship in the Church today, as we said; The word in the New Testament literally means “a communion”, a participation of people together in God’s grace. It means to have something in common. Common involvement in something, either by giving what you have to the other person or receiving what he or she has.

• It describes a community in which individuals willingly pledge to share in common, to be in submission to each other, to support one another and bear one another’s burdens, to build each other up in their relationship with Jesus.

Romans 12:15-16 ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Remember: Prayer = communion with God, with adoration and praise; Supplication = bringing our needs to God or making an appeal to God.

SINGLE PURPOSE
Philippians 2:3-4 ³ Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

PUT OTHERS FIRST
As we said in the very first lesson, we all have a different job to do. We are all part of the body of Christ

Romans 12:4-5 ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

As we’ve been saying over and over in this study, use the gifts that God has given you to help others.

Acts 4:32-37 ³² Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

And that’s how this church got built. There wasn’t a lot of money; there wasn’t a lot of skill as far as what we were doing but we did it and we did our best and we built this place and when we moved in it we didn’t owe a dime on it because God did it. As I’ve told you before, Charles Sprayberry got in trouble because this grass was so high, but so did everybody else. But then men sacrificed not only their money but their time, their energy, they came out here and had blisters in bloody hands. I bout Lost my own life twice out here trying to build this church. Why do I have such a heart for this place?

³³ And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. ³⁴ Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, ³⁵ and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need. ³⁶ And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, ³⁷ having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet

SHARING

Fellowship is a oneness of purpose and cause, a setting aside of personal agendas. It is a focused purpose.
If we have fellowship, it is based on the fact that we live for and serve Jesus.

COMMON BELIEF
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

COMMON CAUSE

Notice that if we do not accept what the Bible says about Jesus, we cannot have fellowship.

Listen, if we are not walking in the light, as believers and are saved by the grace of God, we cannot have fellowship.

A person who claims Christ yet lives an immoral life is not in fellowship with other Christians.

Ephesians 5:5-7 ⁵ For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.

When you see that fellowship is a oneness of purpose, mind, and life, do you feel that you have fellowship at this church?

If you do not feel that you do, what are YOU going to do to fix it?????

WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF FELLOWSHIP?

The reason that we have fellowship is to help each one of us to grow in Christ. We are to encourage each other to live for Jesus.
Ephesians 2:19-20 (AMP) ¹⁹ Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God’s own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself); and you belong to God’s [own] household. ²⁰ You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone.

We are called to belong, not just believe; we are not meant to live on an island.  Simon and Garfunkel song I Am a Rock…. A rock feels no pain, and an island never cries
What is the purpose of a healthy family?

To build up, to encourage, to equip.

If you are doing your job as parents, you are raising your children in such a way that they have the tools to make it in life.

We do the same with the Church.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Hebrews 3:12-13 ¹² Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³ but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

But encouraging one another

We have fellowship so that we can grow together in Christ.

We have fellowship with one another so that we can be there for one another.
We cannot help each other if we do not know each other.

We cannot have true fellowship if we do not spend time together.

We cannot help each other if we are afraid to open up to one another.

I imagine that if you asked those who have been willing to let others get to know them, most of them would say they have been helped by this.
Sympathy vs. Empathy

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF FELLOWSHIP?

A basic human need. People to live with.

Just think how hard it would be if you thought you were the only one.

I have felt that way before. It makes it tough. We need that sense of community to help us along the way.

Not only do we need people to live with, but the church provides us with a family to live with.

Most of us need the encouragement of a family.

We receive an emotional benefit. Support.

Colossians 3:12-15 ¹² Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
¹⁴ But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. •

We need the support of others.

Ronald J. Sider says: What happens when God grants the gift of genuine Christian fellowship? Deep, joyful sharing replaces the polite nonsense typically exchanged by Christians on Sunday morning. Sisters and brothers begin to discuss the things that really matter to them. They disclose their inner fears, their areas of peculiar temptation, their deepest joys.

CONCLUSION
• KOINONIA (Coy-no-knee-ah) (fellowship) was Paul’s favorite word to describe a believer’s relationship with the risen Lord and the benefits of salvation that come through Him. Based on faith, believers have fellowship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9).

1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We share fellowship in the gospel:

1 Corinthians 9:23 Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

Philippians 1:3-6 ³ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, ⁵ for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Paul probably meant that all believers participate together in the saving power and message of the good news.

Believers also share together a fellowship with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14),

2 Corinthians 13:14 ¹⁴ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Which the apostle understood as a most important bond for unity in the life of the church (Phil. 2:1-4).

 Unity Through Humility

Philippians 2:1-4 ¹ Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

I ask you again: do we have fellowship here?
Our fellowship has to be based on our relationship with Jesus.

Fellowship is an important purpose of the church. It is one of the things that people will be attracted to.

If the world doesn’t see a church that is one in heart and one in purpose, it will not take us very seriously.
I want to challenge you, as we look at the purpose of the church, to not just hear the messages, but to think about how you can make these purposes your purposes.

PRAY!

July 5 2026, PM Calvary Baptist Church

The Purpose of the Church, Prayer Part 2

  I want to talk about how God hears and answers prayers, all prayers. And the priority of the prayers.

 Charles Spurgeon said, “I would rather teach one man to pray than 10 men to preach!”

Chuck Swindoll said, “prayer remains the most potent weapon in the church’s arsenal.” Did you get that the most potent powerful weapon in the church today Is prayer!

Tony Evans said, “you don’t have to pray perfectly to pray powerfully.”

So, prayer is an Important purpose of a believer and the church

I saw this story years ago and had to share it.

A missionary family in Africa years ago had 2 small children. The second being born after they arrived on the mission field. The youngest was sickly and needed much care.

It had to be wrapped in blankets most of the time to ensure that it stayed warm enough. The mother was heard to say, over and over, “I wish we had a hot water bottle.” Her thinking was that with a hot water bottle, she could place it next to the child and provide it with some heat. After a few weeks, a package arrived from England.

In that package were several items that were sent to the family anonymously to help them in their new location. Among the items, there was a hot water bottle. The mother thanked God, but couldn’t recall having prayed for it.

As the last of the items was taken out of the box, the oldest child came to her mother and said, “Where’s my new baby doll?” Her mother responded, “There isn’t a doll in here.” The little girl asked them to look again, and when they did, under all the packing material was a little, new baby doll.

The mother asked the girl how she knew there was a doll in there. She said, “Well, when I asked God to send a hot water bottle for the baby, I asked Him to send me a dolly.”

This story becomes even more remarkable when we consider that this package had to travel to Africa first by ship, then by pack animals, before it reached the family. It began its journey some 6 months before the baby was born and before the little girl had ever begun to pray for those things!

What a Mighty God we serve! God’s got this church under control. He knows what needs to be done. We need to quit rushing God, and we’ll get to that in a little bit

But why hadn’t he answered me? Maybe he has. And then again, maybe you stopped asking and believing He would!

Keep Asking

Matthew 7:7-12 (NKJV) ⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

The word translated as “ask” is the Greek word aiteō “I-ta-oh” which does not describe a single request. It describes a continuous action that never stops.

Not just ask, but keep asking over and over without ceasing.

Pray without ceasing- heard that before, hadn’t you?

The way a child pulls on a parent’s sleeve and does not let go.

Jesus was not making a promise attached to a single prayer.

It was commanding a posture, a lifestyle of relentless, persistent asking that does not quit when the answer does not come immediately.

It is not just the word. Ask it is all three: The verb tense is a continuous action in ask, seek, and knock.

Every single one of them carries the same type of meaning in Greek: keep doing this continuously without stopping, and look at how they escalate,

Asking is verbal,

Seeking is active,

And Knocking is urgent.

Jesus was not giving three different options. He was describing one person who refuses to stop, who starts by asking, then gets up and seeks, then stands at the door and knocks until it opens

And then look at the door itself, and the door shall be opened!

In Greek, the word opened as passive; you do not open it.

It is opened for you from the other side by someone already standing there.

You cannot force it. You cannot knock hard enough or long enough to break it down yourself.

All you can do is keep knocking and trust that the one on the other side hears every knock.

Look at the prayers that you gave up on, the requests you made once and walked away from when nothing happened.

The door you knocked on one time and assumed was closed.

Jesus did not say to ask; He said to keep asking.

Unanswered prayer is not a closed door.

It is an invitation to keep knocking because someone is already on the other side.

Then he gives an example that we can understand in earthly form

⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! ¹² Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

The illustration Jesus used is that of a father giving what is good, not just what his children ask for.

The Greek word translated “ask” in verse seven is aiteō “I-ta-oh”

It doesn’t mean petition; it means to request a position of dependency. I can’t do this; I can’t accomplish this, but you can.

It’s not a customer replacing an order. It’s a child approaching a father with open hands.

The posture of aiteō “I-ta-oh” is: I don’t know what I need. You do give me what is good.

We’ve been reading ask, and it would be given to you as a formula for acquisition

But the father in the parable doesn’t give the child everything the child requests; He’s given the child what is good

Which means the promise of Matthew seven verse seven isn’t name it and claim it or receive it

It’s coming to God paying attention, and He will give you what a perfect Father gives, not everything you want, but everything you need

The ask is not an order. It’s an act of surrender.

When you pray, Lord, give me this with open hands. You’re not demanding an outcome. You’re trusting a Father.

The outcome belongs to Him

The asking belongs to you

That’s the promise

Not that you’ll always get what you asked for

But you’ll never be ignored when you come

This reframes every prayer that felt unanswered

The bread you asked for, he looked at your hands, and decided that something better than bread was what you needed

The door you knocked on, He saw the hallway on the other side and let it stay closed until the right one opened

It will be given to you doesn’t mean your vision of what that is. It means His vision.

Which is always been better

 

Come to him

Not with a list, not with a demand, not with a condition

Come with open hands and a posture of aiteō “I-ta-oh”

Father, I need you I don’t know exactly what I need you do.

That’s the prayer Matthew seven verse seven is actually describing

And it never goes unanswered

No prayer ever, not one, not a single prayer ever goes unanswered

We’ll get to those answers in a little bit.

When it doesn’t happen, we sometimes question God. And it’s OK to question God.

I used to think questioning God meant you had weak faith.
But when you read Genesis 15, where Abraham finally stops pretending everything is fine and tells God directly that the promise that God himself had made years ago still has not shown up.

And God does not rebuke him. He does not tell Abraham he is doubting too much. Genesis 15:5-6 (NKJV) ⁵ Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” ⁶ And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

nd then the Bible says God called Abraham righteous right there in that moment.

Not after Isaac was born.

Not after anything was proven.

Right there, while Abraham was still confused and still waiting and still asking hard questions.
And Abraham is not alone in this.

Moses questioned God.

David questioned God.

Job questioned God.

Mary questioned God.

The Bible is honestly full of people bringing their hardest questions straight to God.

Listen, I question God
The problem was never the question. The problem is when you stop bringing it to God at all.

That’s exactly what we do with prayer.

We bring our burdens, our heartaches, and even our questions to the Creator of the universe. And even at times I’m sorry to say even our anger at God you bring it to Him because He knows…

E.M. Bounds’ book, Power Through Prayer,

Chapter Men of Prayer Are Needed

WE are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the person or to sink the person in the plan or organization.

God’s plan is to make much of the person, far more of them than of anything else. People are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better people. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use-men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but people. People of prayer.

With all that said, now I want to tell you why you should pray and why a prayer should be a priority for you and this church!

 

1. PRAYER SHOULD BE A PRIORITY FOR THE CHURCH BECAUSE…
   1. Jesus was devoted to prayer.

   a. Jesus put a priority on prayer.
   • Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

• But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. When He was busy and tired.

Luke 5:16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

• Matt 14:23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
• During His darkest hour, when He was about to be crucified, during His time of deepest need, Jesus made time to pray.

Luke 22:39-46 (NKJV) ³⁹ Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. ⁴⁰ When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Sound familiar Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one ⁴¹ And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” ⁴³ Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. ⁴⁴ And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. (Even in agony, he prayed even harder. Don’t miss that when you’re going through something rough, get really serious with your prayers) Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. ⁴⁵ When He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. ⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

Whenever Jesus did something, or before He did something, He prayed to God. Raising of Lazarus.

John 11:41-44 (NKJV) ⁴¹ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” ⁴⁴ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

 

D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, No. 5
How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only his regular habit, but is His recourse in every emergency, however slight or serious.

When perplexed, He prayed.

When hard-pressed by work, He prayed.

When hungry for fellowship, He found it in prayer.

He chose His associates and received His messages upon his knees.

When tempted, He prayed.

If criticized, He prayed.

If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had remedy to His one unfailing habit of prayer.

Prayer brought him unmeasured power at the beginning and kept the flow unbroken and undiminished.

There was no emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield to prayer. –

PRAYER SHOULD BE A PRIORITY FOR THE CHURCH BECAUSE…

The early church was devoted to prayer.

• Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Back to our text:

• Acts 2:42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
• The Leadership of the church was devoted to prayer also!

Acts 6:3-4 (NKJV) ³ Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; ⁴ but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Romans 12:10-16 (NKJV)
¹⁰ Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; ¹¹ not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly (persistent) in prayer; ¹³ distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

1Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing; (Never stop!)

NT:89adialeiptos (ad-ee-al-ipe’-toce); adverb from NT:88; uninterruptedly, i.e., without omission Keep asking keep seeking Keep knocking

Prayer should be a priority because God hears us.
We said last time in Revelation how our prayers and how our loved ones who have gone on before us prayers are still in God’s ears. I love that.

 

Romans 8:26-28 (NKJV) ²⁶ Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ²⁷ Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. ²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

PRAYER SHOULD BE A PRIORITY FOR THE CHURCH BECAUSE…
Prayer is the channel from which blessings flow.

 Mark 11:24 (NKJV) Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Matthew 21:22 (NKJV) And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

John 16:24 (NKJV) Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

You want joy. Seek God’s face, get to know God, get to know what He wants you to do when he wants His church to do. And the Bible is clear; it says that your joy may be full

Again, that goes back to God’s desire in our lives: are we praying for what God wants according to his will?

W.A. Torrey says, “Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is and all that God has are at the disposal of prayer.”

PRAYER SHOULD BE A PRIORITY FOR THE CHURCH BECAUSE…
Prayer is a way to express thanksgiving to God.
• It is probable that in most of us the spiritual life is needy and stunted because we give so little place to gratitude.

William Temple, from 3000 Quotations on Christian Themes. Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 17.
It is more important to thank God for blessings received than to pray for them beforehand.

For that forward-looking prayer, though right as an expression of dependence upon God, is still self-centered in part, at least, of its interest; there is something we hope to gain by our prayer.

But the backward-looking act of thanksgiving is quite free from this. In itself, it is quite selfless.

Thus, it is akin to love. All our love to God is in response to his love for us; it never starts on our side. “We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

 Phil 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

1 Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

Prayer with Thanksgiving

Why do you think the Bible only commands two things every single day?

Two things that’s every single day every single hour every single minute on repeat in the Bible actually promises that you will receive a gift from this, that surpasses anything you can imagine it tells you all the scriptures from the Old Testament from Psalm 94 to Jesus, most famous sermon On the mountain in Matthew chapter 6 to Philippians 4 it tells you the two things that the scriptures want you do.

What Jesus wants you to do is: number one, pray without stopping, and Number two, give thanks in all circumstances. Then, Jesus doubles down in Philippians 4, it says, have no anxiety about anything, but in everything through prayer with gratitude, and what happens?

Neuroscience now proves that when you pray, you are lifting the weight off of your brain.

And when you operate in gratitude, you are shifting your brain from the anxiety part of your brain to the gratitude part of your brain.

It is proven in the Bible that you can’t be anxious and grateful at the same time.

So, it’s like Jesus is giving you a promise.

He’s like I built your brain.

I know that if you want to live in peace.

Then there are two things you do: you lift all that junk off of you cause you’re not strong enough.

And you need to give it to Me (God).

I will trade it for peace that surpasses understanding; that’s the gift, but when you do it with gratitude because you’re not shifting your brain and lifting the weight, giving it to Jesus and operating in the peace of God, that’s your understanding.

If you wanna live in peace, just live in gratitude. It’s very simple.

I have watched a lot of videos on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook talking about all the Europeans, and even Australians, and the Oriental people from all over the world who came to America for the soccer stuff, and they say we are so overly blessed and unthankful.

PRAYER SHOULD BE A PRIORITY FOR THE CHURCH BECAUSE…
We can have inner peace from prayer. HOPE

Notice that when things go bad, most people respond with prayer.
We said last time, is it your steering wheel or is it your spare tire? You just call on God in times of need, then you’re missing such blessings

Phil 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Phil 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:15-17 (NKJV) ¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

PRAYER SHOULD BE A PRIORITY BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE NEED PRAYER.

People with whom we do not get along need our prayers.
You cannot hate those you pray for. EXPOUND

The video that Brian showed a few weeks ago with Lester Roloff, attorney, he said, ask God to reveal in you what needs to be changed, and I promise you He will.

 As I said before, Ben Bennett, when he calls, the first thing he says to me is Big fish, are you clean If you’re not clean, don’t worry about it, but if you’re clean, pray, and then he’ll tell me what he wants prayed for

Matthew 5:44-45 (NKJV) ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Luke 6:28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

The sick need our prayers.
JAMES 5: Spiritual and physical sickness.
James 5:13-18 (NKJV) ¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Government and church leaders need our prayers.
• When Edward Everett Hale in 1903, he was appointed Chaplain to the United States Senate in Washington. While he was the chaplain, someone asked him, “Do you pray for the senators, Dr. Hale?” He replied, “No, I look at the senators and pray for the country.”

Acts 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

And we know the result. The gates opened, the chains fell off. The angel said be quiet, grab your shoes, and let’s get out of here And God hears and answers prayers

Heb 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

PRAY FOR THEM.
1 Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Other churches need our prayers.

2 Corinthians 9:12-15 (NKJV) ¹²For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, ¹³while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, ¹⁴ and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Sometimes the spirit of jealousy and rivalry keeps us from praying for the other churches.
Daily, I pray for this church. And for New Brooklyn Baptist Church in Temple. And, I pray for the Praise Tabernacle over in Hiram, and I pray for West Ridge Church in Dallas. Daily, and then I pray for Cross Point City Church in Cartersville; we are not in a competition; we’re in this war together. We need to fight it together. Here is your word again, united! 

One of my mentors and dear friends is Tommy Chapman, pastor of Praise Tabernacle Congregational Methodist Church. I doubt I’d ever have started preaching or stood in a pulpit if it weren’t for Tommy Chapman.

My mother said in Alabama, where she was raised they had a Methodist church on one side of the road and a Baptist church on the other side and you could stand in the road and listen on Sunday mornings and the Methodist Church would be singing Will there be Any stars in my Crown And on the other side of the street in the Baptist church they were singing no not one no not one 

We have to be united as a church body as a whole with other church bodies. I keep telling you we need to be united in this church with each other and with the leaders who are leading right now. Back them up, support them, even when people on the outside are saying other things, you support the people here who are in the war. Right now and the ones that are staying faithful in this fight. They’re the ones that matter, not the outside voices.

The lost need our prayers. This should be the main priority

Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJV) ¹ Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, ² for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. ³ For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I believe that if we pray for those who are lost, we will make an even greater effort to reach them.

Prayer is an important function of the church. I do not know how many times I would tell a person who did not think they could do much that they could have a prayer ministry, but usually, the response is not very enthusiastic.

Claudia Darby has a prayer ministry. She can’t get out; she can’t do a whole lot; she can’t go help people. She’s even having a hard time seeing her visions gone, but she can pray and call out to God and seek his face and trust that God hears her for you!

“Martin Luther–The Early Years,” Christian History, no. 34.
“No man should be alone when he opposes Satan. The church and the ministry of the Word were instituted for this purpose, that hands may be joined together and one may help another. If the prayer of one doesn’t help, the prayer of another will.”

That’s what it means when the Bible says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, and that’s what we’re supposed to do: help each other pick each other up, be there for each other, and pray for each other, and God will hear and answer your prayer.

Sometimes it’s not the way you want it. But God answers all prayers.

Some are yes. Like we’ve heard, and they’re just answered right away, even before we ask, God answers. I’ll be honest with you: that’s always my favorite.

Are all my prayers answered? They most certainly are because, as much as I hate to break it to you, no is an answer.

We don’t normally care for hearing the word “NO!”

A missionary at the end of the 1800s, wrote this poem:

Isn’t “No” an Answer?

Just a tiny little child, three years old,

And a mother with a heart all of gold.

Often did that mother say,

Jesus hears us when we pray,

For He’s never far away
And He always answers.

Now, that tiny little child had brown eyes,

And she wanted blue instead, like blue skies.

For her mother’s eyes were blue

Like forget-me-nots. She knew

All her mother said was true,

Jesus always answered.

So, she prayed for two blue eyes, Said “Good night,”

Went to sleep in deep content and delight.

Woke up early, climbed a chair

By a mirror. Where, O where

Could the blue eyes be? They are not there;

Jesus hadn’t answered.

Hadn’t answered her at all; Never more

Could she pray; her eyes were brown as before.

Did a little soft wind blow?

Came a whisper soft and low,

“Jesus answered. He said, No;

Isn’t No an answer?”

I’m like y’all. I’m just like a little kid. I don’t like the answer no, but sometimes it has to be the answer, and we have to trust His hand

That poem, written by Amy Carmichael, an Irish Christian missionary, was based on an incident that actually did occur in her life when she was three.

It turned out to be in the providence of God for her to have brown eyes.

She became a missionary to India in the late 1890s. At first, her ministry was primarily evangelistic.

But along the way, she became aware that some parents in India sold their daughters to the temple, where they were used for immoral purposes.

God led one such child to her, and through a series of events and a sense of the Lord’s leading, Amy took the child in.

Then more stories of other girls (and later, boys) surfaced, and more opportunities to rescue and provide homes for these children arose.

Amy had to struggle with this because the Lord had seemed to be blessing her evangelistic work.

Was it right to turn from that ministry to give herself to housing and raising children?

She concluded that it was indeed God’s will for her life.

The ministry grew exponentially and eventually became a whole compound, with housing for children of all ages, the workers who took care of them, and even had their own hospital.

As Amy went “undercover” to find details of these children, she would stain her arms with coffee and wear an Indian dress so that she could pass as an Indian woman and move freely in Indian society, where she never could have as an Irish missionary.

This she could not have done with blue eyes — her eyes would have given her away immediately.

Neither she nor her mother could have ever known, all those years ago, the Lord’s purpose for her brown eyes, but the lesson of faith stayed with her all her life.

We are where we are for a reason

Charles Stanley said, “Unanswered prayer isn’t always a no; sometimes it’s God closing a door long enough to say there’s something over here we need to deal with first.”

So, then sometimes the answer is to wait.

Wait on His timing, because sometimes He, God, may have something better, or He is getting some hindrance out of the way.

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

I read this recently. Still waiting

What if waiting for God has nothing to do with staying still

For years, I thought waiting for God meant putting my life on pause

I treated God’s timing like a waiting room where I was passive and unproductive

Maybe that’s why so many seasons feel frustrating

You pray, you trust, you try to be patient

But after a while, it can feel like life is happening somewhere else while you’re stuck standing still

I’ve spent seasons waiting for clarity, direction, and doors to open

Looking back, I realize I was so focused on what God might do next that I completely overlooked what he was doing right in front of me. Calvary, He is doing a work right here in front of you right now. Let Him.

The people who waited on God in scripture didn’t stop living while they waited

Ruth was gathering grain in a field

Nehemiah was rebuilding a wall

The disciples were following Jesus long before they understood where the journey would end

That’s when I started wondering if I misunderstood what biblical waiting actually means

In the middle of Lamentations, a book written during one of Israel’s darkest seasons, we are told that God is good to those who wait for Him

The Hebrew word for wait here is QAVAH

It’s a word that carries an idea of hopeful expectation and staying connected, like strands woven together into a single cord

Waiting on God doesn’t mean putting your life on hold until he gives you an answer

You must stay connected to him while taking the next step of faith

We aren’t meant to spend our lives waiting for God to do something

We are meant to walk with Him while He does it

I wonder how many seasons we’ve called waiting for God.

That God called preparation

How much of God’s work have we overlooked because we were so focused on the answer that we missed what He was doing before the Answer arrived

When we stop waiting for God and start waiting with God, everything can change

Where can you be faithful today, even if the answer you’re waiting for doesn’t arrive this week?

Lamentations 3:25-26 (NKJV) ²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. ²⁶ It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

Alistair Begg. Said: Wait

Has the Church Forgotten How to Wait?

That grace comes to those “who wait for the LORD.”

Waiting here means resting in the assurance that the promises that God has made, He will fulfill.

How do we explain the apparent weakness of the church in much of the Western world today? One answer is the absence of waiting.

When a young man writes (or, these days, more likely texts) a young woman in the hope of winning and keeping her affection, he is hoping, yes—but he is also waiting. He is waiting in the expectation that the current undesirable circumstance of separation and singleness will come to a triumphant end.

In a similar way, it is often the expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises that is meant to keep us going. So again.

Our churches today need to understand that God is worth the wait.

We can wait upon Him, trust Him, rest on Him, and say in sincerity and conviction, “You can have the totality of me. I’ll go wherever You want me to go. I’ll stay there for as long as You tell me to stay. I’ll do whatever You want me to do. And as I do so, I forsake every idol that I have raised that stands between You and me.”

Today, we ought to remember that the awesome God has stepped down into time in the person of Jesus Christ and given Himself for us—so

Romans 8:32 (NKJV) He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

If we will wait, God will keep us all the way to the end and through the end—because He’s promised to do so. And God keeps the promises He makes. We can trust Him.

This article was adapted from the sermon “‘Behold Your God!’ — Part Two” by Alistair Begg.

“Wait”
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pleaded, and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said,
“Child, you must wait.”

“Wait? You say, wait!” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is Your hand so shortened?
Or have You not heard?
By Faith, I have asked, and am claiming Your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and
YOU tell me to WAIT?

I’m needing a ’yes’, A go-ahead sign,
Or even a ’no’ to which I can resign.
And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
“I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!”
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate.

As my Master replied once again,
“You must wait.”

So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, and grumbled to God,
“So, I’m waiting… for what?”
He seemed, then, to kneel, And His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, And Cause mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want –
But you would never know Me.

You would not know the depth of My love for a Saint;
You’d not know the power that I give to the Faint;
You’d not learn to see through the clouds of Despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m There;
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could See.

You’d never experience that fullness of Love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a Dove;
You’d know that I give and I save… for a Start
But You’d not know the depth of the beat of My Heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the Night,
The faith that I give when you walk without Sight,
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.

You’d never know should your pain quickly Flee,
What it means that ’My Grace is sufficient for Thee.’

Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come True,
But, Oh the loss! If I lost what I’m doing in You!

So, be silent, My Child, and in time you will see
The greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly Late,
My most precious answer of all is still, ’Wait.”

As I’ve said in the past, you’re where you are for a reason:

God’s preparing you for something big, and I believe that goes for this Church.

James 4:8(NKJV) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Pray

The Purpose of the Church, Prayer

                 

Last week, we looked at: Worship Him before you work for Him

This week, we are going to be looking at: Seek His face before you serve Him.

 Having a great prayer life.

My brother used to say there were two men in his life who, if they ever prayed for him to die, he’d just go ahead and lay down. That was Ben Turner and George Lauderdale.

Isn’t it great to have that kind of relationship and closeness with God that people see it?

How do you pray to the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and to the Father all at the same time?

We pray by the Spirit

We pray through Jesus

We pray to the Father

The spirit gives us the word when we don’t have it

Jesus is the way, I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father but by me

The Father is the one we run to

INTRODUCTION

Prayer is an activity that every person, regardless of their physical limitations or age, can do.  Eva???

• E.M. Bounds.

He will never talk well and with real success to men for God, who has not learned well how to talk to God for men.

Talking to men for God is a Great thing, but talking to God for men is Greater still.

 This activity is a channel of blessings for all who will use it.

 Somebody Prayed for Me

This is a song our choir used to sing

“Somebody prayed for me

They had me on their mind

They sacrificed their time

They fell down on their knees and prayed for me

They had no doubt that God would bring me out

That he could change my life and set me free

I’m so glad that someone prayed for me”

Chuck Swindoll

There is nothing God cannot do. Job finally came to realize that his Lord and master was capable of doing anything anyway, He pleased with anyone who wished for as long as He desired and in any way for any reasons not only to Him because God is able to do anything with him. So grab hold of this thought: they give it a word that you may have heard, but maybe you’ve not known what it meant. The word they give. It is simply omnipotence. Unpack it: omni, the first part of it means all or everywhere; potent means powerful, effective. God is all-powerful, with absolute and unlimited might, strength, and power. He is able to create from nothing; we invent with things already in existence. God creates, we invent, and He maintains the vast universe. We can’t change a thing in the universe. We can only observe and enjoy it.

Job 40:1-5 Then the LORD said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the LORD, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”

God ends up scolding Job’s friends for the counsel that they gave Job, and then God lifts Job up, and the whole reason is that Job never stopped praying and calling out to God.

Even if they were bad prayers, they were still prayers. He was still calling out to God: Don’t stop trusting and calling out to God.

Doesn’t matter if you’re doing it well or not. What matters is that you acknowledge that you have to go to God for help.

My mother said that after she lost her first husband, he was a motorcycle police officer for the city of Atlanta. He was killed in the line of duty, she said she got mad at God. She said she would holler and scream at God, and she was telling God You don’t exist; you’re not real. And then she said she stopped and thought, she said, “Well, then who in the world am I talking to?”

She said such a peace came over her, and God held her and took care of her. She said up to her dying days that God sent her my Dad, and it was the best thing that ever happened to her outside of accepting Christ. I always told her that She was the best thing that ever happened to him.

When it’s all said and done, you can see what Job said

Job 42:5-6 ⁵ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. ⁶ Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.”

 Sometimes we have to go through a lot to see who God is and recognize Him, but now my eyes see you, now I know you, and He’s well worth knowing.

Nothing happened to Job that was God’s idea. But He allowed it. Sometimes we are put in a storm for God to teach us to trust Him. Walking on water.

• This purpose is prayer. Everything that we do as individual Christians and as a Church should be bathed in prayer.
• We feel that we just don’t have time to pray.
• If prayer does not drive sin out of your life, sin will drive prayer out.
  If you don’t feel like praying, force it because something is also forcing you not to pray.

 James 4:7-10 (NKJV) ⁷ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That’s the reason we have the Lord’s Prayer: lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one ⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and look what happens He will lift you up.

Keep Praying Until God Answers

When He Seems Not to Hear, Trust Him Still

There are three answers to prayer. There’s yes. There is no and no is an answer, and then there is, And sometimes this is the hardest one; sometimes the answer is just wait. We’ll get into those next time.

Waiting means resting in the assurance that the promises that God has made He will fulfill.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

 Charles Spurgeon:

God is too good to be unkind, too wise to be mistaken, and when you can’t trace His hand, trust his heart

 Most of the time, we use prayer only in an emergency.

• A young soldier who was fighting in Italy during World War II jumped into a foxhole just ahead of some bullets. He immediately tried to deepen the hole for more protection and was frantically scraping away the dirt with his hands. He unearthed something metal and brought up a silver crucifix, left by a former resident of the foxhole. A moment later, another leaping figure landed beside him as the shells screamed overhead. When the soldier got a chance to look, he saw that his new companion was an army chaplain. Holding out the crucifix, the soldier gasped, “Am I glad to see you! How do you work this thing?”
• Prayer is important. Someone asks the question, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
• Too many times, prayer is used as a spare tire instead of the steering wheel in our and the church’s lives.
  What can we do to change this?

Why should prayer be an important part of our lives?

In the Bible, Nehemiah is often known as a great leader who led a great effort, but…

When he got the news that Jerusalem’s walls were in ruins, before he led any charge, he prayed

In fact, he prayed for 4 months

In contrast, rebuilding the walls took only 52 days

Think about that: A 52-day project had a four-month foundation of prayer

Not only did he repent

He confessed

Before Nehemiah built a wall, God built a wall of dependence

Before God did something through Nehemiah, he did something in Nehemiah

God shapes us in the quiet before he sends us into the noise

My favorite place to pray is up in front of the drum riser.

I used to go over to Praise Tabernacle and pray around that building because I sensed God’s presence there.

I was going through a lot back then, but I learned a lot. I learned God was more interested in changing me and my heart than he was in changing my circumstances.

Did He answer my prayer? He did. He said no. She had free will, and I learned this: God’s not going to make someone love you because He doesn’t even make anyone love Him!

I go down to the graveyard every single day, and I have my devotion in prayer time beside my mom and dad’s graves. I don’t talk to them; I know they’re not there, but I feel God’s presence there, and I go there to get into His throne room of grace.

This church used to have a 24-hour prayer vigil and cottage prayer meetings for Jubilee, which were amazing. That was the whole reason we had amazing Jubilees and meetings. They were submerged in prayer

Ex: Chuck and I were praying for the Jubilee, about three o’clock in the morning during one of the 24-hour prayer vigils, and I said in my prayer Lord shake the very foundation of this building and a storm came up just as I said that. The thunder rolled, and this whole building shook.

Chuck said, ” Brother, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it because you are in the throne room. God is hearing you, listen; he hears me every time.

I was doubting, and sometimes we do, but don’t stop even in the doubt!

Praise Tabernacle 7 passes around the Church 7 times. I asked him, Lord, if you hear me, give me a soul, and they had 7 souls saved in the service.  

I don’t know about you, but I need that reminder and to keep in mind that;

“Ugh” Can be a prayer

“Thank you” should be a prayer

“I’m sorry” can be a prayer

“Help” can be a prayer, and is that not what Peter cried out when he started sinking after he stepped out of the boat

“Tears” Thank God, Tears can be a prayer

In fact, it might be the best one

Psalm 56:8 (NKJV) You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? He has my tears cataloged in a book. He has 55-gallon drums for me

Some walls are rebuilt with tears before they are rebuilt with tools

Matthew 5:4 (NKJV) Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

Blessed Are the Tears

Bryan Duncan

Blessed Are the Tears Lyrics

Think of all the times you’ve fallen victim

All the restless nights you’ve wrestled through

The closest of your friends abandoned, helpless

They’re reaching, but they’re just not reaching you

You hold no valid thoughts of consolation

The future holds no interest, no concern

The world you love is closing in around you

Clearly, now there’s nowhere left to turn

The time has come to share your well-kept secrets

The hatred and guilt degrading you

I’m sure you blame yourself for all that’s happened

This time, there’s just no way that it’s true

You need to know you’ve got a friend in Jesus

You need to know he felt rejected, too

Humiliating pain and unjust treatment

He’s been there, so he knows what you’ve been through

And God will send a Merciful Peacemaker

Comforter of all of those who mourn

We’ll become the pure in heart, the earthly meek

Enduring misdirected scorn

Blessed are the tears that fall

Clean the windows of the soul

And usher in a change of heart

And bring a joy that angels know

Blessed are the tears that fall

Wash the stains of life away

Forgiven and forgotten now

A new creation’s here to stay

Blessed are the tears that fall

Worry less about having the right words. Just bring your whole heart and Honest self before Christ.

I saw a thing that said; I think God cares a lot more about our sincerity than our stage presence

God would rather have our honesty than our eloquence

God needs us where we are, not where we pretend to be

Honesty is the doorway to intimacy with God

As John Ortberg says:

“It’s better to be an honest mess before God than a dishonest saint.”

You don’t need to clean up to show up; that’s how we clean up.

And even when we don’t have words at all, God still steps in to help us

Romans 8:26-27 (NKJV) ²⁶ Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ²⁷ Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

That’s really good news

Last week in the Praise time, I thanked God for the rain because I sowed some grass seed at my mom and dad’s grave, and the weather app said 5% chance of rain, so I prayed for rain and it rained.

Greek word for prayer;

It means something more beautiful than we might realize

The most common New Testament word for prayer is PROSEUCHE (Praws-yoo-khay) used more than 120 times.

It’s made up of two parts PROS plus EUCHE/ euchomai

And together it’s an incredible picture of prayer.

pray earnestly  from <G4336> (proseuchomai); prayer (worship); by implication an oratory (chapel) :- × pray earnestly, prayer.

Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.

Praws (PROS) means to have closeness to someone, not a place, but a person.

Did you get that? You’re not praying to heaven; you are praying to Our personal God! Our Heavenly Father, Abba, the creator of the universe.

It carries the meaning of being with someone face-to-face, intimately.

yoo-khay EUCHE/ euchomai means wish, desire, or longing.

So, you’re face-to-face intimately with a longing and a desire, and you’re sharing it with the creator of the whole universe.

Isn’t that the coolest thing in the world that you have the power and you have permission to do that?

Then why don’t we do it more?

Why don’t we trust him more?

Why don’t we call on him and see a miracle happen here?

And it can! It’s up to you. It’s up to me.

• R. A. Torrey “We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.”

Truth in nature had one of its camps this week. It’s a ministry that I help and I love. My buddy Tim Croft, who was here a couple of weeks ago, is one of the mentors. He was a campus director there for a good while. We’re prayer partners, and when it was over, He sent me a text yesterday that simply said 12 salvations, 4 rededications and 13 baptisms. Not too shabby for a Christian camp of a bunch of unfathered boys

Chuck and I used to get together at least once a week. He was my accountability partner and Prayer partner.

We were at Shoney’s and talking about how God was using other Churches and other people and preachers.

Chuck asked why we don’t have that power.

Without thinking, I said because we don’t want it bad enough.

I heard Chuck’s fork hit his plate, I looked at him and sat mine down, we got the check and came here and got on our faces asking God to use us.

That’s where the desire to start an Awanas program here came to Chuck that night. And look at how God used that.

• In the Book “The Meaning of Prayer,”
  “Our failure to think of prayer as a privilege may be partly due to the fact that we can pray any time. The door to prayer is open so continuously that we fail to avail ourselves of an opportunity which is always there.”
• If we tell someone to do something that seems hard or spectacular, we are more apt to do it than to do something as simple as praying.
• Joni Eareckson Tada: “Like art, like music, like so many other disciplines, prayer can only be appreciated when you actually spend time in it.

Spending time with the Master will elevate your thinking. The more you pray, the more will be revealed. You will understand. You will smile and nod your head as you identify with others who fight long battles and find great joy on their knees. “

• When we don’t pray, it’s primarily because we don’t sense our need for God.
  This word tells us that prayer is bringing our deepest hopes to God.

But the Bible gives us another word related to prayer.

The word THELEMA in Greek refers to the desire and will, and is often used to describe God’s purpose and His heart.

So, as we move closer to God in prayer, it becomes more than just sharing our desires.

You grow to get everybody else out of the way. Just put God first.

Prayer becomes an exchange for our desire to be His desire.

Psalm 37:1-7 (NKJV) ¹ Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. ² For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. ³ Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

And here it is:
⁴ Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Delight = OT:6026 `anag (aw-nag’); a primitive root; to be soft or pliable, i.e. (figuratively) effeminate or luxurious:

KJV – delicate (-ness), (have) delight (self), sportself.

(Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

Desires = request. As long as your desires are His desires, because the next verse tells us exactly that;

The text goes on;
⁵ Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.
⁷ Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Just as Jesus showed us with “Not my will (THELEMA) but yours will be done Luke 22:42 (NKJV), saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

If God had answered the prayers that I was praying some 37 years ago the way I wanted it, would I be in a pulpit today?

Would I have written the books that I have written?

Would I have preached the sermons that I preach?

I’ve seen Hundreds of souls saved as part of ministries that I’ve been in.

But the Greek word for prayer reminds us that this exchange is transactional, like a child resting in the heart and arms of their father. It means an interaction relationship or process based on mutual exchange.

Andy Stanley says it will make your life better and make you better at life.

Even if you’re not a believer, if you do what the Word of God says, your life will be better.

Mr Townsend told me this morning about how he used to look at his brother Glenn Townsend, who was a pastor and a preacher and a great man of God, and he said I looked at him and he saw how much better his life was before I was a believer, and I wanted what he had.

Well, Amen and Hallelujah

 If you want to read some good books on prayer, read anything that Edward M Bounds has written.

Purpose in Prayer By E.M. Bounds Prayer Is a Keynote

THE more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere. Prayer, in one phase of its operation, is a disinfectant and a preventive. It purifies the air; it destroys the contagion of evil. Prayer is no fitful, short-lived thing.

There is no voice crying unheard and unheeded in the silence. It is a voice which goes into God’s ear, and it lives as long as God’s ear is open to holy pleas, as long as God’s heart is alive to holy things.

God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed in death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them, and prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world.

You want to see how prayer works

A prime example of that is the property behind us. I remember growing up and coming out here as a little kid. We had prayer meetings on Wednesday night, and they were prayer meetings; the men would go out in the back field, and the women would stay in the sanctuary. If you’ve ever been around those kinds of praying people, it sounds like a competition they’re all hollering out to God all at once. As a child, I wondered how in the world God understands what’s going on. But they were praying and calling out to God and asking God for that property behind us. Years went by, and Chuck Sprayberry and I came out here, and we walked around that property. We were going to walk around it 7 times, but after the first time around, we met on the other side, and we both knew in our hearts that God was going to give us that property. We claimed that property and prayed for it, and within just a few months, I got a picture at home of me signing the papers for it. The ones in the 60’s that prayed for the property were gone, but those prayers were still in God’s ear.

Revelation 5:8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

You are either a saint or ain’t.

Back to EM Bounds:

That man who is the most immortal is the one who has done the most and the best praying. They are God’s heroes, God’s saints, God’s servants, God’s deputies. A man can pray better because of the prayers of the past; a man can live holier because of the prayers of the past. The man of many and acceptable prayers has done the truest and greatest service to the incoming generation.

The prayers of God’s saints strengthen the unborn generation against the destructive waves of sin and evil.

Woe to the generation of sons who find their golden bowls empty of the rich incense of prayer; whose fathers have been too busy or too unbelieving to pray, and perils inexpressible and consequences untold are their unhappy heritage.

Fortunate are they whose fathers and mothers have left them a wealthy storehouse of prayer.

My Parents were praying people, my Mother called out my name to God every day, I miss her and her prayers. But God still has her prayers in His ears.

So, let’s sit closer with our Father today and bring our deepest desires to the Lord.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV) ⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer (PROSEUCHE) (face-to-face intimately with a longing and a desire) and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Back to our texts from last week

Acts 2:42-47

42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV) ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

God didn’t say He would give you anything; He said, SHOW you.

God can do a work here. God is doing a work here!

Prayer’s just talking and communicating with God. I love talking to people that I love; that’s not hard.

I miss my Mom because I used to share with her every chapter when I got through my books, and she’d always say How do you do that? Where do you get that from? I tell her it comes straight from God and I don’t do it; He does.

Always love getting out on the lake with my Dad.

The whole reason I started hunting was to spend time with my dad. And my brother.

Before Alzheimer’s got too bad in him, he would call me every single morning and tell me to wake up. He knew I had alarms, but he still called cause he just wanted to hear his boy.

He just wanted to hear his son’s voice. I think God’s that way somewhat.

I loved just coming by his house and sitting and just visiting with him.

I think that’s what God wants: He wants us just to come by and sit and visit. He and my mom would talk about when they were children or even when this Church was first started.

I love spending time with people I love, and so do you.

I love coming into this house and spending time with a God that I love. And talking to Him, that’s Prayer.

Tina Turner had a song said what does love have to do with it and my replies everything.

For God, so loved …

So how do you do that in prayer, by getting in the Word of God, spending time with God

Nothing’s too hard for God

Praying to the sovereign Lord

Alistair Begg

If He is sovereign, and He is sovereign therefore, He is sovereign over the good, the bad, and the ugly.

In His sovereignty, he is in charge of all through His grace

Jesus is in charge.

Jesus, actually, if he walks with me, if he talks with me, if he tells me I am his own and I am here with you, then he’s here with me too; therefore, in the presence of Jesus, and there’s more than that: Jesus is what leads us to God. Jesus is the one who leads us in our praise. Jesus is actually the preacher (or Pastor); he brings forth the truth that he chooses to use some mechanism that involves you or me, which is a mystery of grace.

I serve a mighty God; it’s up to you what God you’re a servant to.

Snyder had a prayer meeting one Sunday night. He wanted Alan Clayton, Alan Young, and me to do the sermon. He broke it down this way

3 Prayers

Prayer of penance, supplications, or acceptance. One of the Alans

Prayer of petition or intercession. The other Alan And then he gave me:

Prayer of Praise or thanksgiving.     With  Adoration and Thanksgiving

          Adoration   = thanking for who He is.

          Thanksgiving   = for what He does.

 

You don’t know what to pray. Start praising God for who he is, and you’ll be here a while. Start thanking God for what he’s done, and you’ll be here a while longer

 Charles Stanley said When you ask God for something, do you close your prayer with a sense of expectation of God answering your request?

Or do you do as most people do, that is, they pray and talk to God, they ask for this or that, then say in Jesus’ name, amen.

You get up and walk away.

First of all. We must listen to Him.

Secondly, we must trust Him.

 

I recently saw this on Instagram. This is how I am going to close

Then you end it with Amen.

The Hebrew word that changed how I think about prayer

We spent years saying amen without thinking about it

When I discovered what the word actually means

For most of my life, amen felt like a punctuation

A spiritual period. Our way of saying the prayer is finished.

That’s not what amen means

The Hebrew word amen comes from the root word, which means faithful, trustworthy, reliable, and firm

In the Bible, amen wasn’t just a word people said at the end of a prayer

It was a response of trust

A way of saying, yes, that’s true. I believe it.

That completely changes how we hear our own prayers

Because every time I say amen, I’m not just ending a conversation with God; I’m saying I trust him

Think about the prayers you’ve said amen to. prayers for healing, peace, or forgiveness

I wonder how often I’ve said amen. What I really meant was God please do this my way.

I think that’s what changed for me

Amen, has to stop being the last word of my prayer, and become the first response of my trust

The next time you say, amen, don’t rush past it

Pause for a moment and ask yourself

Do I trust the God I just prayed to?

Revelation 22:20-21 (NKJV)
²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! ²¹ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

PRAY!