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Jesus promises those who follow and believe in him will not be alone in this world to fend for themselves. He has sent us a Helper, that being the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). The Spirit has many ministries to help us navigate this world and live a fruitful, productive Christian life.

“One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit to believers is His bestowal of spiritual gifts on Christians. While Christians may have natural abilities even before they are saved, spiritual gifts seem to be related to the special purpose of God in calling them and saving them; and, in the language of Ephesians 2:10, they are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

While spiritual gifts are of a divine nature, they aren’t intended to create a super human who can do it all alone. Paul repeatedly speaks of the BODY of Christ and how we work together as one body (Eph. 4:4). One part isn’t greater than the other. Each part is essential to keeping the body working efficiently (1 Cor. 12: 12-31).

Romans 12:1-8 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 

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Years ago when my son was very young I remember pulling into a gas station to get us some drinks. While we were inside he was viewing the candy isle not really knowing what all he was looking at. Something dawned on me; there was so much my little boy hadn’t yet experienced. I thought for a moment and told him my favorite candy bar was a butterfingers and asked if he wanted to try one. When we got in the car I gave him the candy bar and sat for a while and watched him take his very first bite ever of something I had enjoyed countless times. He loved it! The same was true for the first time I took him camping. We did just about everything expected when you camp, enjoyed marshmallows over the fire, told campfire stories, hiked, slept in a tent. I still remember our first night and watching him as we enter the tent for the night, he was so excited he couldn’t lie down.

I have found that time has a way of dissolving new experiences and as I’ve aged new experiences have become farther and fewer in-between.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 says,  That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done,

As the many years of my life have passed that harsh reality has become more and more apparent. In fact, as I’ve gotten older my view on time had changed dramatically. When I was a young man I didn’t think much about time or wasting it. These days I cherish time and my priorities as to how I spend it are better thought out.

The Apostle Paul seemed very aware of this fact too. If anyone made good use of his time it certainly seemed as though it was him. Maybe it was because he was so aware of the years spent moving in the wrong direction.

Let’s take a look at what Paul says about our time and how we should be using it.

Scripture: Ephesians 5:15-21

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Ephesians is a letter Paul wrote while in prison to the church in Ephesus. The church of Ephesus was one of 14, maybe more churches that Paul planted in his lifetime.

Ephesus was a busy city that was bordered by a river. Port cities were known as being a bit wild and this one wasn’t any different. The city was well known for a large temple dedicated to th

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We’ve all heard the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. Some of us may have taught it to our children and been taught it ourselves as a child. While its true words can’t physically harm us, we all know words can produce a great deal of emotional and even spiritual harm.

There are those who believe their brutal honesty is just their way and who they are and we should be accepting of it. There are teachers in our schools today that have lost their passion for teaching children (If they ever had it) and sling condescending words and insults that cause lifelong damage to their well being. Pastors stand in the pulpit and blame the Holy Spirit for mean spirited, legalistic sermons that strip the Good News of Jesus of all of its grace. There are parents who tear down their children word by word, day by day leaving them feeling worthless, spouses using demeaning and hurtful words leaving bitterness and scars that carry on for years usually resulting in divorce. Even within the walls of our churches we find hateful words, sometimes disguised as humor, sometimes as so called, blunt honesty.  People use passive aggressive means to wield words that hurt.

The world teaches us that we aren’t responsible for how others receive what we say. But scripture clearly states we are responsible.

Scripture: Matthew 15:1-20

15 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”— 6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth,

10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” 15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain th

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For any organization, team, business or church to be successful it needs to have a structure of unity within its members. Speaking of this country, Abraham Lincoln said, a house divided against its self cannot stand.  Many churches today limp along struggling to get by due to disunity. Some go on for years building resentments and allowing differences to prevent them from operating as God intended. Others after a tiresome struggle just close their doors. Our scripture today gives us an example of a group of Christians working together in unity to overcome an insurmountable obstacle.

Scripture: Mark 6:30-44

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

30 The apostles returned and met with Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught. 31 There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn’t even have time to eat. So he said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest a while.” 32 So they started out in a boat by themselves to a lonely place.

33 Many people, however, saw them leave and knew at once who they were; so they went from all the towns and ran ahead by land and arrived at the place ahead of Jesus and his disciples. 34 When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. 35 When it was getting late, his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. 36 Send the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat.”

37 “You yourselves give them something to eat,” Jesus answered.

They asked, “Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins[a]on bread in order to feed them?”

38 So Jesus asked them, “How much bread do you have? Go and see.”

When they found out, they told him, “Five loaves and also two fish.”

39 Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass. 40 So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty. 41 Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 Everyone ate and had enough. 43 Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left of the bread and the fish. 44 The number of men who were fed was five thousand.

As we begin to examine this scripture it’s important to note, this miracle is the only one recorded in all four Gospels. It’s always a good rule of thumb to remember anytime something is repeated we should pay spec

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 We are continuing a six week sermon series titled, Connected – My Life in the Church. I recently had someone ask me, what is life about? Why are we here? As a Christian I believe life is about connecting to and serving God. Church Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries said, “the Christian life is about serving a cause greater than yourself”.

At the core of this Christian life is relationship. In the movie Into the Wild a young man desperately wanted to get away from the world and all people and live life alone. He found an isolated spot in Alaska and was experiencing the great outdoors like never before. However, it wasn’t long before he came to this truth; “Happiness isn’t real unless it’s shared”.

The connections we make in this life are essential to not only serving God but to tapping into all that God promises such as peace, joy and love. When we isolate ourselves we are separating ourselves from all resources that cultivate that peace, joy and love.  

Scripture John 15:1-11

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 

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It’s easy to think of prayer as a private matter between you and God. We may see this only as something done by an individual. However, the way Jesus taught His disciples how to pray gives the idea of community and invites believers to come together as a family (body of believers, or community of faith) as we live and operate in God’s kingdom.

There’s a difference between supporting your church in prayer and participating in God’s kingdom here on earth. We shouldn’t just pray for our Church; we should pray with our church. As we do, we should prepare for a shift in mindset from offering support in prayer, to offering ourselves as the answer to any prayer.

In the movie Cast-Away Tom Hanks played a man stranded on an island. To save his sanity he gave life to a waterlogged volleyball to serve as a companion. While it helped him get through some rough times, Wilson had a name and a face, but had nothing to contribute to the conversation. Sometimes in your prayer life you may feel like you’re talking to Wilson. Of course there are those whose prayer life could be compared to that of Wilson’s?

The Bible teaches us that the New Testament Church is about relationships and being connected, dependent on Christ and one another. Over and over again we are directed back to the term “one another”—and Scripture instructs us to “pray for one another.” (James 5:16b). Let’s look at how Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

Scripture:  Matthew 6:9-13

9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

5 Truths we learn from this scripture

1: We must move from “My Father” to “Our Father.” (Matthew 6:9; 11-13).

2: We must move from “My Will” to “Your Will.” (Matthew 6:10).

3: We must move from “Future Storehouses” to “Present-Day Poorhouse.”

4: We must move from “I

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Being its mother’s day I thought the best gift to the mothers could be to encourage men to be Godly. Let’s be honest, today’s culture and society makes it challenging to be a man in general much less a Godly man. We are challenged with a call to be in touch with our feminine side, to stop dragging our knuckles on the ground and to be sensitive. However, we are also called to be brave, strong, and fierce. Today’s advertisers play on our weakness and attempt to influence us to continue to see women as sex objects and to put our own selfish needs ahead of others.

What does it mean to be a man of God?  In our text we’ll learn God’s expectation for men and how we can become the man our woman desperately want and need us to be.

Scripture 1 Timothy 6: 6-14

6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing,

 Author: Paul

Timothy: He is the Pastor of the Church in Ephesus and the recipient of this letter.

Purpose of Letter: To encourage Timothy in his ministry

The church in Ephesus was having issues with false doctrine, disorder in worship, and materialism to name a few. Timothy was a young man who was being mentored by Paul. He was left behind to help work out the issues in this church and provide solid leadership.

Chapter six provides instructions concerning the man of God.

Verse 6-10:

Verses 6-10 begins by pairing godliness and contentment. Paul is teaching men to be content with what they have. Not only that, but we shouldn’t be chasing the things of this world. If your needs are being met; food, shelter, clothes, be content. This isn’t to say it is wrong to buy a new car or house or to have nice possessions. However, we should be content without those things and seeking the kingdom of God first and foremost.

Verse 11

The man of God should flee selfish, worldly possessions and recognition in pursuit of five things.

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Most of us are no strangers to discouragement. Many have experienced times when discouragement has turned into despair and hopelessness. The main trouble with despair is that it’s self fulfilling. People who fear the worse tend to invite it. Elijah was a great prophet of the Old Testament. He had this amazing battle of faith against the prophets of Baal and as the story goes, called down fire from heaven to prove Yahweh is the one true God. However, as we’ll read in our text, this great moment of faith was followed by discouragement, despair and depression.

We are going to examine discouragement and its causes, process, and results. We’ll also identify the cure for discouragement.

One day, the Devil laid out his gleaming, razor-edged tools upon a worn and ancient wooden table. He announced a “fire” sale and carefully marked the price upon each tool:

ANGER: $100, RESENTMENT: $400, HATRED: $600, etc.

Each tool sold almost as quickly as it was placed upon the table. Toward the end of the day, a crooked old man in tattered rags approached. The man eyed the tools that remained, but was taken by a certain tool at the end of the table. The tool resembled the two long and bowed fangs of a viper. Its chrome-like pointy tusks caught the sun and sent flashes of blinding light everywhere. With one hand, the old man blocked his eyes from the glare and with the other, he reached for the tool. As he grabbed hold, the tool’s steely, needle tips nearly pierced his hand. This seemed to please the old man. He snatched up the tool and held it to his chest. With a glint in his eye, the man asked the Devil, “How much for this one?”

“I’m sorry, that tool isn’t for sale,” the Devil replied.

Without hesitation, the man said, “But I’ll pay double.”

The Devil narrowed his eyes and hissed, “Sir, I’ve told you, that tool is not for sale, nor will I ever sell it. It is the most useful tool I own and without it, I wouldn’t be half as effective in my work. With that tool alone, I can accomplish my every task. Now good day, sir.”

Dejected, the man looked once more at the shiny tool, then slowly placed it on the table. With almost a whisper, he said to the Devil, “If I can’t buy it, would you, at least tell me its name?”

A slow and wicked grin grew across the Devil’s face. “Of course, old man, its name is… Discouragement.”

Perplexed, the old man wondered out loud , “Why is this tool so important to you?”

The devil responded, “It’s more useful to me than any of the others. When I can’t bring down my victims with the rest of my tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize it belongs to me. Nothing paralyzes a person, nothing stops someone in their tracks like discouragement.  When overcome with discouragement the person can’t pray, they can’t worship and they become a victim of their environment. Discouragement drains their victims of courage, vision, faith, expectation and the will to make a difference in the kingdom of God. If I can get them discouraged then I have successfully neutralized them. They are left with only enough energy to feel sorry for themself.”

Elijah Escapes from Jezebel</

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1 Corinthians is a letter written by Paul to the church in Corinth. In chapter 12 we saw evidence that the Corinthians lacked love in the use of their spiritual gifts.Paul begins by explaining that no matter what great things you are capable of doing or what gifts you possess, without love, they are nothing. He then goes on to describe what love is and what love is not.

What is Love?

The Greeks have four words that represent different types of love. The two found in the Bible are;

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13

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,[a] 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.

 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that;

What Love is Not

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Scripture – Matthew 9:35-38

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 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, “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.”