Cornerstone Truth

Today we will work through the second point of last weeks sermon titled, “The Power to Choose the Direction of Your Momentum During Times of Affliction and Suffering!” As you might recall, I desire to begin to change a common paradigm regarding the response to suffering and affliction!  In the human experience suffering and struggles are seemingly ever-present in everyone’s life.  People often respond and cope with these painful experiences with anger, frustration, discouragement, depression, or apathy, with a sense of hopelessness.  This morning I desire to offer a mindset for growth and maturity when experiencing suffering, affliction, and trauma in life.  Our attitudes towards trials and afflictions are often negative, but what if we become more responsible in how we use God’s Scriptural standard for our responses?  The word responsible is actually two words.  If we say we are responsible we are actually saying we have the power of choice and the ability to respond to any life situation or circumstance in a proper and Christ-like manner.  During the sermon today we will define the terms I am using for this year’s theme.  Next, I we will examine the importance of our mindset and attitudes that have shaped our responses in the past and how to now view suffering, affliction, and trauma, from a Christ-like perspective or paradigm.

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This morning I desire to begin to change a common paradigm regarding the response to suffering and affliction!  In the human experience suffering and struggles are seemingly every present in everyone’s life.  People often respond and cope with these painful experience with anger, frustration, discouragement, depression, or apathy, with a sense of hopelessness.  This morning I desire to offer a mindset for growth and maturity when experiencing suffering, affliction, and trauma in life.  Our attitudes towards trials and afflictions are often negative, but what if we become more responsible in how we use God’s Scriptural standard for our responses?  The word responsible is actually two words.  If we say we are responsible we are actually saying we have the power of choice and the ability to respond to any life situation or circumstance in a proper and Christ-like manner.  During the sermon today we will define the terms I am using for this year’s theme.  Next, I we will examine the importance of our mindset and attitudes that have shaped our responses in the past and how to now view suffering, affliction, and trauma, from a Christ-like perspective or paradigm.

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We are starting a New Year with a New Theme and focus for our sermons, Oregon Family Camp, and the G4 Summit Men’s Camp!  The theme this year is “The 8th Law of Momentum – The Power of Suffering!”  As most of you know I have decided to present the Scriptural standard for important timely biblical concepts that are critical for the saints to know, embrace, and apply in our lives.

It seems to me the concept of suffering is seldom preached from the pulpits in our country.  It also seems our present culture disdains and turns away from any conversation or discussion about death or suffering.  Both experiences are painfully inevitable and common in all of our lives.  Should we not then take measures to be mentally prepared for what is sure to come?  There are several types and many causes of suffering in our lives.  The potential impact in our individual life can either be powerful and positive or it could be debilitating and destructive.  We must recognize these potentialities and prepare to work through life’s sufferings and afflictions so that they will help us rather than hurt us in our ability to continue to serve the LORD Jesus Christ effectively.  We need to prepare our minds and our attitudes for the afflictions which will surely come in our lives.  As Christians we are called to be responsible in how we work through each experience of suffering.  We are called by the LORD to look to Jesus and the writings of the authors of both the New and Old Testaments for how best to deal with each type of suffering or affliction we may experience.  Finally, it will be of great benefit to learn of the outcomes of our mindset and attitudes towards affliction and its impact in our service in growing, building, and strengthening of Christ’s Kingdom.  This morning we will take… “A Quick Peek Into the Year Ahead of Us!” as we share a broad brush view of the topics and concepts related to suffering and affliction to be discovered and examined in the weeks to come!

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Today’s sermon is titled,“The Sure and Steadfast Anchor of Our Soul”.  This morning we will be focused on verses seventeen through twenty from Hebrews chapter six.  In examining this passage of Scripture we will first answer many important questions regarding the “Anchor of Our Soul!  What is the purpose of an anchor, where is our soul anchored, what is the anchor of our soul, and what would life be like without this anchor? In the second point I will describe what, or should I say Who, makes our anchor sure and steadfast!  Again, we will answer some very important questions about the security of our hope.  What does sure and steadfast mean, what are the two unchangeable things we need to know about our LORD, and what life filled with hope in God and His provision produces in our lives right now!

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Today’s sermon is titled,“Real Hope Needs Real Security – God’s Promise!”.  This morning we will be focused on verses thirteen through seventeen from Hebrews chapter six.  In examining this passage of Scripture we will first look at three passages of Scripture from Genesis in which God promises Abraham that He would grant him a child from his own body who will bring blessings to all the families who will believe in Him!  In my first point I will also describe what it means to swear an oath and how this secures and confirms that a promise will be fulfilled.  The second point in the lesson we will actually see how Abraham, through faith and patient hope, did in fact receive the promise.  This sermon is an important pre-requisite for understanding the promise made to us by God, that we would inherit His abundant eternal life, is also fulfilled, secured through our faith and hope in Him! 

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I will be concluding this year’s annual theme, The 7th Law of Momentum –“The Power of HOPE!”, with a three sermon series titled “We Have an Anchor that Keeps the Soul!” based on the passage of Scripture found in Hebrews 6:9-20.

The first sermon in our final series is titled,“We are Called to Realize the Full Assurance of Hope”.  The morning word of instruction will be focused on verses nine through twelve from Hebrews chapter six.  In dissecting this passage of Scripture we will first address the meaning of the statement, “so as to realized the full assurance of hope.”  I have chosen to focus on this statement first as we have come to learn that true biblical “Hope” is defined as the confidence of our redemption on the last day when we are called into heaven with a new transformed glorious body!  The second point in the lesson is to answer the question, how is it that we can have total confidence and assurance of our redemption on the last day?  We must realize in our relationship with  Jesus Christ, He did the heavy lifting to secure our salvation when He ransomed us from death and secured our life eternal in Himself through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension in to heaven!  In this relationship we too have an important role in making sure that His sacrifice was not in vain.  Finally, we must faithfully serve Him by loving one another in sacrificial service, fulfilling our God-given ministry of service.  To conclude the lesson we will find that we are called to be diligent and intentional about fulfilling our part in this amazing covenant relationship with Christ.  We are warned by the author of Hebrews to not be sluggish but imitators or those who through faith and patience inherit the promise of eternal life. 

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Morning Assembly 12_08_24 Kirk Parks

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I wonder what it would be like for a child longing to have his or her adoptive parents come to pick them up from the sad life situation that they were living in.  In working with orphan children in Belarus, they long for parents to love them.  Sadly, that country does not allow their children to be adopted by people from other countries because of the ugliness of human trafficking.  They are hopeless in this hopeless situation.  We, as Christians, have been adopted out of this messed up world because the love of our heavenly Father, through the redemptive work of His Son, and now we eagerly await for His Son to come and take us home.  This morning I will finish the sermon titled, “We Eagerly Await Our Adoption Day by the LORD!”  Yes, as the apostle Paul has written, we have been redeemed, we are being redeemed, and we will experience the full glory of our redemption on the day when Jesus returns for us!  He will take us home, our eternal home, to be with Him and our heavenly Father!

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I wonder what it would be like for a child longing to have his or her adoptive parents come to pick them up from the sad life situation that they were living in.  In working with orphan children in Belarus, they long for parents to love them.  Sadly, that country does not allow their children to be adopted by people from other countries because of the ugliness of human trafficking.  They are hopeless in this hopeless situation.  We, as Christians, have been adopted out of this messed up world because the love of our heavenly Father, through the redemptive work of His Son, and now we eagerly await for His Son to come and take us home.  My sermon this morning is titled, “We Eagerly Await Our Adoption Day by the LORD!”  Yes, as the apostle Paul has written, we have been redeemed, we are being redeemed, and we will experience the full glory of our redemption on the day when Jesus returns for us!  He will take us home, our eternal home, with He and His Father!

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We continue in our mini series based on the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, “What is the Hope of His Calling?”    Today’s third  sermon in a series of five will be focused on the hope that the Riches of Christ’s Glory secures for us. We will begin by reviewing what the inheritance in the saints is.  Then we will examine once again both the glory of God and the riches of His glory which is in us through the indwelling presence of Christ’s Spirit.   In the second point we will examine the “Hope of Glory” for both our present life and then in the future at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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