Jordon Gilmore

John 13:34-35
If people were to describe you or describe our church, how would they do it?  Would love be included in that description?

Joshua Boyd

The New Testament church grew exponentially, not because they had exciting speakers and large meetings, but because everyone had something to say, something to share, a story to tell, a testimony.  

If we looked at the early church with the lens of 2024, we might ask about their marketing campaign, online presence or numbers strategy.  They did not have any of that on their minds.  What they did do spread Christianity across the known world.  They shared the gospel.  

In the modern church, we think of the word testimony as a praise report we give in a service.  That’s true. What is a testimony in a court case?  It is someone who goes in front of others and gives a statement attempting to prove what their side wants.  The Greek word for testimony is martyrion and means something evidential or evidence given.  

In the law, a person could not be convicted of breaking the law unless there were at least two testimonies, or two pieces of evidence given.  

Deuteronomy 19:15

“You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Paul reiterated the enforcement of more than one witness when he said:

2 Corinthians 13:1

This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

Joshua Boyd
As we look for buildings and see the seemingly large number of churches in the area, including others like ours that have lived in different locations, I started talking to the Lord about our church.  Are we just getting lost in a crowd of church choices?  Do we have a unique voice and purpose?   Are there already enough churches in Greenville/Anderson area?   

God didn’t directly answer my questions, He gave me a picture.  Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, the world hasn’t been the same.  What God the Creator intended immediately changed and grew worse over time.  He wanted fellowship with mankind, walking with us as He did with Adam.  Where God is there is no darkness, not even shadows.  There is only complete light.   

In my mind I was seeing the number of churches as many candles on a sunny day.  That’s wrong.  The world is dark and everyone is stumbling around in spiritual darkness.  It isn’t sunny, it is pitch black.   

Psalm 82:5
They do not know, nor do they understand;
 They walk about in darkness;
 All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

Proverbs 2:13
From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;

Jordon Gilmore

Preparation helps the one preparing and those who will benefit from the preparation.  
Luke 2:8-12

Joshua Boyd

God is giving God.  He loves therefore He gives.  God’s love gives.  When we have God’s love in our hearts, we give too.  The more we love we walk in, the more we give.  The converse is true, no giving, no love.  

In what the world calls “the season of giving” let’s let our light of God’s love shine even brighter by giving.  This is one of the things that helped the early church stand out from the religions around them—they were selfless and giving.  When persecution happened, they grew.  When sickness broke out in the Roman empire, Christians ran TO the sick not from them, and the Romans took notice.  

Becoming more like Christ means becoming more of a giver.  As we discussed two weeks ago, God gave us the gift of repentance; without it we cannot receive another gift of His:  the gift of salvation – today’s topic.  

Romans 12:3 – “of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. And gifts of grace and faith lead us to the gift of salvation.”

Jordon Gilmore

As we walk through this Advent season, a season of earnest expectation, let us pray in good faith, not bad faith,  and in earnest expectation! 

Joshua Boyd

God is a giving God.  He gives because He loves.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.  God’s love, the only true type of love, gives.  What the world considers love, when it shows selfishness, isn’t love at all, but desire.  

This morning I believe the Holy Spirit has a Word concerning a gift we haven’t thought as a gift too often or at all:  the gift of repentance.   

Acts 5:31
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 11:18
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

2 Timothy 2:25
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 

When John the Baptist showed up, He preached repentance.  Prior to this, there had been no word from God to the nation of Israel for 400 years.  No prophet to be the voice of the Lord.  Looking back, we can’t imagine that and don’t consider it much.  It is the gap between the book of Malachi and Matthew – the Old and New Testament.  

The first word that Israel hears in 400 years is repent. 

Jordon Gilmore

Some key points from today's message include:

1. Gratitude is nourishment for our soul during the waiting that faith requires.
2. Gratitude tunes our spiritual ears to the frequency on which God is operating.
3. Gratitude is a tangible witness to the world that God is good!

Joshua Boyd

Abraham’s life is an example for us to follow and learn from.  He is the father of the Jewish nation and the father of all who walk in faith according to Romans 4.  So let’s learn more from our faith dad this morning.  

Last week we saw that we must live in God’s time zone.  That we, like Abraham learned, do not step out trying to jump start the promise God has given us.  Instead we should be patient and wait for the right timing to know what steps to take.  The closer we get to the promise, the more details we get.  

Abraham had to keep believing, even when everything in his physical body said the promise was impossible. 

How? How do you keep hope when there is no hope to be found?  This is the question we are going to answer today.  God is a good God and His promises never fail.  People do, we do, but He remains faithful.  

The Scriptures clearly tell us, command us really, to not take on things we aren’t meant to carry.  

Joshua Boyd

As humans, we constantly think about time. Whether it is the clock or the calendar, time drives our decisions and motivates or frustrates us with its constant movement.  This morning we set our clocks back an hour and began to hear the bi-annual comments about keeping or getting rid of daylight savings.  It is amazing how much conflict an hour of time brings but it shows how much we think about it.

The calendar is no different.  

When we look at the Scriptures, there are passages that clearly describe the timeline involved and others that leave it out.  When it comes to the events in the book of Revelation for example, God gives a very precise timeline of what will happen in the end once the events start, but He never reveals the start timing.  This is true of many prophecies in the Word:  the details of the future, including the timeline, are described but not the start date and time.  

The struggle you and I experience though is never about the future timeline, it is about the start date.  God I believe you and I believe the Word you’ve spoken that these things will happen as You’ve said, but ah, when?