Forward!

[vsw id=”QnJcnrUgTeY” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] Teaching done on the 3-cord strand conference call on January 5, 2018 When you’ve died in the New Birth, you’ve done all the dying you’re going to do. Not only that, neither sin nor the law have no further claim to you! © 2018 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

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Teaching done on the 3-cord strand conference call on January 5, 2018

When you've died in the New Birth, you've done all the dying you're going to do. Not only that, neither sin nor the law have no further claim to you!

© 2018 - Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

[vsw id=”IeFw3PaAsA8″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] One of the things that most of us love about Christmas is the food. Next to Thanksgiving, Christmas is the second greatest “foodie” holiday. Holiday favorites will abound according to tradition and a lot of non-traditional food. Today, though, I want to share a simple message with you aboutRead More

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One of the things that most of us love about Christmas is the food. Next to Thanksgiving, Christmas is the second greatest “foodie” holiday. Holiday favorites will abound according to tradition and a lot of non-traditional food.

Today, though, I want to share a simple message with you about a simple feast. And it involves just three courses: Bread, Wine, and Lamb.

Luke 2:12-16 (ESV) 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

There are many messages that focus on no room at the inn. There are others who focus on the wise men and their gifts. Still others on the star that shone in the darkness to guide the path to the messiah. And, finally, “peace on earth, good will toward men.” All of these messages are wonderful but, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, I chose to focus on the manger.

The manger, very simply, is a feeding trough. It is where the farm animals went to receive their nourishment. A manger is not very clean and it is certainly not very elegant. Now, I submit to you that this is an example of God’s will being done in spite of God’s will not being done.

Every parent here — imagine you’re wealthy beyond imagination and it’s time for your first child to be born. Surely you’d want everything to be absolutely correct, right? The best hospitals. The best doctors. The cleanest environment. You would do everything to make that possible. But things don’t line up and your baby is born in a stable. Now, this doesn’t diminish the value of the child and it doesn’t limit what you want to do for the child or your expectations for the child. In fact, this event would become part of your family folklore — to be reviewed once the child accomplishes the greatness of your expectations.

Ima let you chew on that…

Imagine the surprise of the animals, seeing their creator in their feeding trough! This had to be a little confusing and unsettling. For Mary and Joseph — and the others in attendance — they were looking at the First and Greatest Christmas meal.

Jesus said He is the Bread of life. That those who eat His flesh would never be hungry. Like the Passover bread, He is unleavened — that means He is not puffed up with religion and legalism. He is pure and requires no additives. But just like God gave the Israelites bread from heaven and they didn’t recognize it, the people of Jesus’ day didn’t recognize Him, either. And the funny thing is that people don’t recognize him, today.

I think it’s fitting that Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine. First of all, He was demonstrating that the party — the wedding feast — doesn’t end until He says it does. Jesus said He is the Living Water — that if we drink of Him, we’d never thirst. But He also is the New Wine of the New Covenant and, like the water He turned into wine, He is the Best God saved for Last! Also, wine symbolizes blood in the eucharist — so He turns His Living Water to live-giving blood - because the life of flesh is in the blood. It is also awesome that He has given us His Holy Spirit, so we can stay drunk on Him and not the intoxicants of the world!

Finally, Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Listen, I love lamb almost as much as I love bacon! Keeping it real,

[vsw id=”jCAPCPZB3cw” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, wrote: The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy! What happens when our plans go askew? Better yet, what happens when God’s plans go askew? Galatians 2:21 (KJV) 21 IRead More

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The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, wrote:

The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often askew,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!

What happens when our plans go askew? Better yet, what happens when God’s plans go askew?

Galatians 2:21 (KJV) 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

I realize that I may offend some sensibilities, here. But the truth of the matter is that because God gave man dominion — that is, delegated authority — we have the ability to upset God’s plan. Let me clear things up a bit — while God’s plans may be frustrated, His purpose never is.

God’s plan has always been to manifest his unconditional Love and unlimited Grace in the world. Mankind — by the leading of the adversary — has operated in pride and selfishness.

2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God desires that none perish but all come to repentance. He desires it — which is His plan but the unbelief of of men thwart the plan. However, His overarching purpose — creation and redemption — faithfully comes to pass.

Jesus went about healing everyone who needed healing that He came in contact with. Because He is the express image of God, we can come to the conclusion that it is always God’s will to heal. That’s His plan — but even though the plan doesn’t always come to pass, the overarching plan still continues unabated.

Here’s the point — you may have a plan. However, many of our plans depend upon others. What happens when someone misses an appointment with you. What happens when all your plans don’t line up? Does the fact of the failure of a plan thwart the truth of your purpose? Do you allow failure to be final? Do you allow setbacks to be cemented?

Contrary to popular belief, humanity has the ability to limit God. The psalmist wrote about this in Psalm 78:41. We limit God by testing God instead of trusting Him. We try to test God by showing how “good” we’re behaving or how “sacrificially” we’re giving. When we try to curry favor with God through our works, we limit God’s ability to work in our lives.

This ties back to today’s core Scripture — when we depend on works, we actually turn back to the law and frustrate (nullify the power of) Grace in our lives. Turning to the law when we claim to be saved by Grace, we become double-minded in our thoughts and actions — and double-mindedness limits God’s ability to work in our lives.

Notice, I say “God’s ability to work in our lives,” not “God’s ability.” God can do anything but lie and violate His Word.

Now, there are some people who call Jesus, “God’s plan B.” But Jesus is more than God’s plan, Jesus is the revelation of God’s purpose. Jesus is the revelation of who God really is. Jesus is the revelation of how God wants to relate to us — and how He wants us to relate to Him. Jesus is the earthly manifestation of His Love and the personification of His Grace.

Jesus didn’t simply come to redeem, restore, and reconcile us. He came to give us life — His life. Giving us His life gives us new life and a perpetual newness of life. He came to give us eternal life — a life that never grows old or stale. He came to give us the life that the law never could. He came to give us the life we could never attain. He came to give us the life that no resolution could ever produce.

Jesus came to replace our spirit with His Spirit. He came to make us one with Him and, thus, make us one with the Father.

See, plans are subject to change. Even God repented (Exodus 32:14). But your purpose should never change — because God’s doesn’t. God’s purpose has always been to reveal Himself to us in the form of Jesus — the emb...

[vsw id=”myei3f3uShc” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] There was a recently popular song that suggested, “Jesus, take the wheel.” Similarly, there were a couple of wildly popular bumper stickers back-in-the-day — one that said “God is my co-pilot;” the other said, “If God is your co-pilot, change seats.” Now, all of these are clichés intending toRead More

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There was a recently popular song that suggested, “Jesus, take the wheel.” Similarly, there were a couple of wildly popular bumper stickers back-in-the-day — one that said “God is my co-pilot;” the other said, “If God is your co-pilot, change seats.”

Now, all of these are clichés intending to assist in discipleship by making complex concepts simple. All are likely well intended but only one is correct. Let’s take a look at today’s core text:

Ephesians 3:20 (ESV) Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

Genesis 1:28 (ESV) And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

One of the most important things to understand about God is that He will never trample over your will with His. The heroes of faith in the Bible are simply people who aligned their will with God’s to achieve an objective.

Yes, He is God. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that all things are upheld by the Word of His Power. John 1:3 tells us that all things were made through Him. Romans 14:11 tells us that every knee shall bow to God and every tongue shall confess Him. He could force us into robotic worship, reducing us to nothing but drones for His pleasure but He doesn’t!

God gives us the ability to choose. You know, free will. Contrary to what you may have been told, you are, indeed, the captain of your own ship.

Life in Christ is like driving in a world champion rally race. There are highly skilled drivers who pilot the car but there is also an expert navigator who gives the driver turn by turn instructions according to time, speed, and distance. The driver is responsible for piloting the car but it is also his responsibility to trust and to follow the instructions of the navigator.

Jesus told us (John 6:38) that He came not do do his own will but the will of His Father. In the account of the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39, Luke 22:42), Jesus painfully asked if God could remove this task from Him — He had His own human will but He set that aside for the will of His Father and His divine assignment. Jesus came to earth to show us how to drive and how to listen to our navigator!

It’s very interesting to note here that what Adam lost in one garden by his free will was regained by Jesus in another garden by His free will! Jesus was trusting His navigator and, in doing so, showing us how to trust ours.

So, who is our navigator? The Holy Spirit.

John 14:26 (ESV) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit knows the race we need to run. He knows the course. He knows the turn-by-turn intricacies. He knows the terrain. He will teach you all things and then recall it from your memory. He will lead you to victory because He leads us from a position of victory.

Remember, the race you run is just a victory lap! You already won in Christ!

We all are called to preach the Gospel. We all have a ministry — a service we must render to the world. We each have people in our spheres of influence that cannot be reached by others. We are the skipper of a ship commissioned by God. However, we must remember that even though the ship is ours to command, He wants us to trust Him to help us.

When I was in the Navy, when we entered the shipping channel coming into port, a small boat would come alongside us to drop off a fellow known as the “harbor pilot.” The harbor pilot studies the harbor nearly all his ...

[vsw id=”HL8zGqcYcL0″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] The human body is a marvel of design and engineering. A variety of elements come together in chemical compounds to produce cells and tissues that make up organs and components that are manifested in human life. What’s really awesome is how some every component of the human body hasRead More

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The human body is a marvel of design and engineering. A variety of elements come together in chemical compounds to produce cells and tissues that make up organs and components that are manifested in human life.

What’s really awesome is how some every component of the human body has a different function but comes together for a common purpose — that is, to sustain life. Let’s take a look at our core text:

Ephesians 4:15-16 (ESV) 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

First of all, let me do a little housekeeping. Paul is talking about speaking the truth in love. There are folks who will abuse this passage to say things that are hurtful and and then hide behind Scripture. I taught before that there’s no such thing as “tough love” because Love ain’t tough. Just as a refresher, here are the characteristics of Love, according to Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (ESV) 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

So when we speak the truth in love, it is gentle, encouraging, and edifying. Period.

Our core text comes at the heels of Ephesians 4:11 — the gifts of Christ to the Body.

Ephesians 4:11-14 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Here we see that the gifts are to bring about unity of the faith and the knowledge of Jesus. What it doesn’t say is that it will bring about complete agreement. The fact of the matter is that diverse understandings are what is needed in order to grow.

You have to catch this — God’s knowledge and wisdom is infinite. We will never know it all. Even though we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) that we may know what the will of the Lord is, we see through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12) — that is, we don’t see the complete picture. Indeed, the vastness of God is so Great that I venture that we will be learning for all eternity!

See I know things that Jeremiah Johnson, Jake Stringer, and Henry Harris don’t know. And they know things I don’t know. So I need them. And they need me. And we need y’all! The pulpit can learn from the pews just like the pews learn from the pulpit.

But let’s get to the meat of the matter. Let’s take a look inside our own bodies. Our kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, digestive system, bones, muscle, nerves, and brain all work together to sustain life. However, they all have different functions. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that they all believe in the same thing (the wholeness of the Body) but they believe differently.

Why?

Because the kidneys believe that the key to life is the filtration of blood and eliminating the waste as a liquid. The liver also believes in the filtration of blood but in eliminating the waste as bile,