The parable of the mustard seed. God uses the little things for His glory.

04/29/2018

Today we are going to read the parable and the explanation, and it is found in the Gospel of Matthew 13:24-29; Matthew 13:36-43

Do you realize how special you are in God’s grand plan? Do you realize that you have been intentionally sown in the situations of your life that you find yourself in? If you don’t, I want to challenge you to change your thinking! You may not realize the purpose God has for your life! Can I tell you that God can use you! He wants to use you! You have a purpose! God has you exactly where you are supposed to be! God has sown you into your workplaces, into your schools, into your neighborhoods, into your communities!

Jesus is the farmer and He is planting good seeds.

and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. Who are the people of the Kingdom? You are! You are the good seed! He is planting us in the places that we belong.

Satan is planting his own crop! But God knows this! He is not worried about it! God’s Got This!

It is not our place to be farmers and we might tear out some wheat instead of the weeds.

Look at the wisdom of Gamaliel found in Acts 5:33-39. What a terrible mistake that would be, to find yourself fighting against God. Let Jesus take care of the harvest! Jesus has got this!!! He is watching His field!

He is patient and just. 2 Peter 2:4; 2 Peter 3:8-9 We need to let God be God. I don’t know about you, but it is comforting to know that God is in control!

You have purpose! I want to encourage you today, to see your situations in life as something that has been ordained by God. He knows all the evil that is going on around you! I want to encourage you today, to know that God has planted you… a good seed… in the place where He wants you! So that you can be a light to those around you! Ephesians 2:10 You have a place in God’s plan! He has sown YOU, His Kingdom people, the good seed where He needs you!! All you need to do is grow and produce fruit! God’s God This!

Prepare Your Heart, Break Up The Soil

04/22/2018

We are looking at today is the condition of our own hearts. I want to remind you that you need to keep the soil of your heart ready to receive the seed, the word of God, that will bring about change in your life. Examine your hearts because here is the deal… God does. Jeremiah 17:10; 2 Corinthians 13:5 Luke 6:45; Matthew 6:21

What is taking root in the soil of your heart? Mark 4:13-20

The first soil, the foot path. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. This is the heart of someone who either doesn’t know any better, doesn’t care or has preconceived ideas about “religion” and they don’t want to hear about Jesus. Satan has robbed these individuals of the truth, in that moment.

Second is the heart of rocky soil. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The rocky soil is the heart of an immature Christian. This person needs mentors, accountability partners, friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord in their lives. Someone that will share wisdom, strengthen faith when they don’t seem to have it. Their roots are too shallow, and they cannot stand up against the persecution.

The third soil, the thorny soil. The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19 but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. This person, unlike the rocky soil, lets their own desires, their own concerns that get in the way of producing a lasting harvest. Can I encourage you today to get into your gardens and clean them up? Remove the rocks! Remove the weeds and thorns.

The fourth soil – the good soil. And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted! The good soil speaks for itself. The good soil produces results. The good soil shows maturity. It puts the things of God before the things of the world or better yet, before one’s own desires. These people are not just hearers of the word but doers of the word. These people live out Psalm 119:18

It is human nature to think more highly of ourselves than we ought isn’t it? Romans 12:3 Can I encourage you to examine your hearts?

Do You See and Hear the Hidden Message?

Matthew 13:10-17

So why did Jesus teach in parables? The short answer is because not everyone was supposed to or rather could not pick up on the messages that He was sharing. How many of you know that sometimes people just don’t get things, or they don’t understand things and that there are barriers that develop because of that? As a result, they need an explanation.

So, when asked why parables, Jesus told the disciples that there are Kingdom secrets that are to be found in them, but that only a few were granted access to the code. Matthew 13:11-12

Jesus grants them and us permission to know the Secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. 1 Corinthians 2:10; Ephesians 3:3-5

Look at those who don’t have permission. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. Those who choose to not listen, to not pay attention… they will miss out! Can I say to you, you do not want to be in this camp! You don’t ever want to get to a place where you stop seeing and hearing God in your life!

If you can’t seem to crack the codes of life, you need to ask yourselves, “Have I given my life to the One who makes the codes? Am I in relationship with the One who grants permission to understand them?” You have a special access to the Father, because of the Son. You have special access to the insight of God because you are given permission to have it!!!

Matthew 13:16-17 We have permission to witness things that the prophets of old desired to know! We have permission to see things they only wished they could see. We have permission to hear things that they longed to hear. When we become born-again, Jesus says: You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. What an honor… amen? Hebrew 3:7-8 Stop rebelling and receive!

Amen?

Sowers Need To Be Sowing

04/08/2018

We are going to read today from the Gospel of Matthew. But this is also written about in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Matthew 13:3-9 If you are a believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior… you have been recruited by the All Mighty to be a “sower.” You are a “Great Commissioner” if you will.

The passage we just read is the explanation of the “HOW” in the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19-20 G.O.! And SOW!

Here are 3 points that I want to cover today. I believe if we would own these points, our lives would change, and our world would change. You cannot operate in a kingdom principle without change taking place, Amen?

You have to have some seed, before you can sow some seed!

You have to be committed to the job!

You have to trust God with the outcomes!

#1 You have to have some seed, before you can sow some seed! What is the point of carrying around your seed bag if you got no seed in it? Why would you go out to “sow” if you have no seed? Can I suggest that there are too many sowers walking around with empty bags because we did not pack enough seed.

#2 - You have to be committed to the job! The sower got up to “GO, SOW!” They were committed to throw seeds regardless of where they landed. We are called to cast seed.

#3 You have to trust God with the outcomes! We tend to over think things at times and sometimes… that paralyzes us. You see, God knows the birds will come. God knows that the soil is shallow. God knows that the thorns will come along. But God also knows that there is good soil and there will be a plentiful harvest.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Listen up! Sowers need to be sowing! We need to do our part! We need to have seed, we need to be committed to sowing, and then we need to be trusting God for the harvest!

Join Pastor Chuck Keller from Cornerstone Church of Lolo, MT as he talks about how we describe Jesus our Savior.

We Are Family

As we enter what is known as the Holy Week or the Passion Week, we need to take time to reflect on WHO Jesus Christ is to us. We need to know WHO WE are in Christ. Because when we realized WHO we are in Christ, we will understand WHY He did what He did and also the magnitude of what He did. He literally loved us to death.

“WHO IS JESUS?” John 7:3-5; Acts 1:14; John 20:29

Let’s look at today’s passage. Matthew 12:46-50

I have heard it said that Jesus is disrespecting His mom and family here! Is He? Or was Jesus establishing the foundation of a “spiritual family”? Was Jesus being rude or was He commending those who followed Him and as such were now a part of a “spiritual family” through faith? One commentator said that Jesus was not dishonoring Mary, but rather honoring His Father. Mary was secure in her belief in God. She had no reason to take offense.

But Jesus was honoring those who did not let anything come between them and Jesus not even blood relationships. Matthew 10:37

We are family… spiritually! We become family by faith, when we repent and believe in Jesus and do the will of the Father. Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:23-4:7 The crazy part is this was the plan from the beginning of time! Ephesians 1:4-6 God had already planned out a way to receive us and make us heirs with Christ!

Do you realize the amount of love God has for you and for me… that it pleased Him to bruise and crush His own child so that we could be brought into relationship with Him? Colossians 1:19-22

God the Father allowed Jesus His Son to go through the pain of the cross, and He did it knowing there would be rejection but there would also be those who believed! It “pleased” God to do that so that His creation could be made one in Him. That we would all be one family! Bound by blood, not our own, but Jesus’ blood! We would be a spiritual family! “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” … “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Good Friday marks the day that Jesus made the sacrifice. It marks the day that He said, “It is finished!” So we need to ask ourselves the question… WHO IS JESUS?

He is faithful and just to forgive.

When the Unclean Spirit Returns

03/18/2018

Today’s passages can be found in both the Gospels of Matthew 12 and Luke 11.

This is indeed a sad state of affairs! Jesus is spelling out just how bad off these people are. We need to replace the void with the Holy Spirit. If space is created and not filled, the enemy will come back. The void that was created from casting out the demon needs to be filled by something, and there are only 2 sources to fill from: God or Satan. You are fooling yourself if you think that you can overcome sin without replacing it with something: and that something is the Holy Spirit. You see, unless you fill the void… those demons will come back; they will circle back around! And when the demon comes back and sees that the space has only been put in order, it has been swept clean, the fridge is full but no one has taken up residence… the demon leaves again and finds 7 demons more wicked than itself and it comes back. and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

Matthew 12:29 See when we turn from our wickedness and repent and confess Jesus as Lord, His Holy Spirit is the one cleaning house! He is the one who takes up residence!

But if we don’t… we are destined to be afflicted and in an even worse way than before. Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Why go through the process of deliverance only to stay in, or return to that sad state? We who believe understand this and yet we have been told to armor up for the battle. Ephesians 6:11-12 See there is a battle going on daily over me and over you that we can’t even see. Let the “Stronger Man” clean house! Fill the void with the Holy Spirit. But those who don’t believe… those who reject the work of God… those who explain away miracles and then say, “prove that God exists” those are the ones that need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and he finds none. And when it can’t find a suitable place… it will come back around to see what has changed.

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible – The Jews ancient belief was “that evil spirits had their abodes in those desolate, uninhabited regions.” This is related to a prophesy found in Isaiah 13:21 and echoed in Revelation 18:2. The Pharisees would have known exactly what Jesus was talking about when He mentioned the prophecy in Isaiah.

Jesus describes a terrible state of the soul. He describes a state of utter ruin. Romans 1:22

Jesus has already given us the sign. He already came and conquered sin and death. He already came to deliver those who will call on His name and repent.

We need a revival to take place in our churches. We need Christians to get serious about sharing the truth, sharing the Bible. We need Christians to be bold in their faith! We need Christians that have cleaned the house and have the “Stronger Man” leading them.

Elder Mark Krause takes us through the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:38-42.

Jesus continues to be challenge by the Pharisees, but he return with an incredible message about the one miracle or "sign" that everyone needed to pay attention to in order to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

We are closing out this three-part series, if you will, covering the event that has taken place in Matthew 12:22-37. And today we will conclude the whole thing by talking about: What Is Your Heart Telling People? The heart is the core of who an individual is… what is your heart saying to people around you? Matthew 12:33-37 We saw a similar passage regarding fruit in Matthew 7:15-23. This passage however, speaks about them and ultimately us making our trees good or bad. Matthew 12:33 If the tree represents the heart, one commentator said that the reason Jesus said this like this is because the heart starts out bad from original sin. Jeremiah 17:9 We have to cultivate or take the steps to make the tree good. Jesus, called the Pharisees evil, because they had not transplanted their tree. Matthew 12:34a Just like we have to choose to make our trees good, they had chosen to make their trees bad. Matthew 12:34b What Is Your Heart Telling People? Satan has people fooled! Because out of the mouth of Jesus, He says, For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Each one of us needs to look at the core of our hearts and honestly examine what is overflowing in our lives. And the source of both, the tree of both, produces the fruit that is stored up in that tree. Matthew 12:35 Satan has people walking around deceived that they will never spill. While Satan has people creating messes all over, Jesus has people that are graciously cleaning things up. What Is Your Heart Telling People? Because in the end… there will be a reckoning. Matthew 12:36-37

Consider these passages regarding your mouth and your heart. James 1:26; Proverbs 26:18-19; Proverbs 18:21; Proverbs 15:4; Proverbs 12:13-14; Proverbs 12:18-19 What Is Your Heart Telling People?

If we are all ambassadors like God’s Word says we are how are we doing?2 Corinthians 5:20 What is the world seeing in us? What are they hearing from us? What is the overflow in us that is coming out from us?

Will you pursue God like the Psalmist wrote? Psalm 119:171-175 Will we ask for what the Psalmist asked for? Psalm 141:3 Will we take the words of Jesus that we just read and practice what Paul wrote to the Ephesians? Ephesians 4:29

We are living in a world that is in desperate need of those who can lift up the spirits of men, women and children! We are living in a world that needs mouth pieces that are full of hope, mouth pieces that overflowing with love and mouth pieces that have answers of a better way! Will you do your part to share the love of Christ? Will you empty your heart today and ask God to come and fill you up?

Will you take the step to make your tree good?