Jesus, Friend of Sinners

Luke 7:31–50

Write out at least 5 Sins from the past 30 days

How many things have you asked God to forgive you for in the past 7 days? 90 days? 365 days?

Desperation of the Woman

Public Sinner

Public Embarrassment

Disdain of the Pharisee

Could not see his own Sin

Could not hide his Self-RIghteousness

Description of Her Devotion

She washed his feet

She dried his feet

She kissed his feet

She anointed his feet

Take Home Truths

Person forgiven much loves much.

Extravagant forgiveness produces extravagant worship.

Faith lays hold on Forgiveness which produces Love and brings Peace.

Clear Thinking in a Confused World of Politics

Romans 13:1–5; Proverbs 14:34 

2020 - Election decided by less than 50k Votes

30 Million Christians did not vote

What is the Role of Government?

1. God designed government to restrain evil.

Fear and Terror

2. God desires government to encourage good.

Officials are the servants of God. Same word we translate as Deacons.

This is why they are worthy of honor.

3. God designated government to punish evil.

We should Pray for our elected officials

We should Honor our elected officials.

We should remember that government is not the answer to our problems.

What a Vote is Not

Vote not a Valentine

Vote not a Mailbox

Vote Not a Sacrament

FOF Video Resource/Howerton

Why Should We Care?

Religious Freedom

Borders and Security

Biological Sex

Biblical Family

Sanctity of Life

Sin Problem Requires a Savior

Neither party is “righteous,” but the Democratic Party has publicly and forcefully denied biblical values.

There is no question that the Republican Party has recently weakened its positions in order to attract a broader coalition (a decision that I believe is tragic and will ultimately prove unhelpful). However, of the two parties, I think it is still easy to see which party welcomes biblical Christians and which requires them to check Bible-based beliefs at the door.

Perhaps you have seen the video from last week of a Harris-Walz rally in which two students shouted “Jesus is Lord” and “Christ is King.” Kamala Harris immediately responded, “I think you’re at the wrong rally.”[1]

This is not an isolated incident. The Democratic Party has made it abundantly known that they are against what God is for (the sanctity of life, created genders, biblical family) and are for what God is against (taking the lives of the unborn, mutilating children’s bodies, pushing an aggressive LGBTQ agenda).

The reality of these sad statements has been repeatedly proven by the Democratic Party and specifically by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in recent months. For instance, consider the following: • Planned Parenthood vans were welcomed to provide abortions outside the Democratic National Convention.[2]

• Harris is opposed to any restrictions on abortion, and recently stated that when Congress passes a bill to federally legalize abortion, “as president of the United States, I will proudly, proudly sign it into law.”[3]

As a senator, she voted against a bill that would ban abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy.[4]

• Walz supported a bill in Minnesota that legalizes denying life-saving medical care to infants born alive after botched abortions.[5]

• Harris has publicly stated support for taxpayer-funded “gender transition” surgeries for prisoners and illegal immigrants (a position she is trying to distance herself from during this election cycle).[6]

• Harris supports sex-change surgeries for minors, seen, for example, when the Biden-Harris Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court to take up the case of a Tennessee law that bans gender transition for minors.[7]

• Harris supports biological men playing against biological women in athletics.[8]

https://paulchappell.com/2024/10/25/thoughts-for-american-christians-in-this-election/

More Than A Conqueror 

Romans 8:15-39

Romans 8 is the chapter on the Holy Spirit

The believers relationship to the Word of God and the Spirit of God is vital to understand if you are to live the victorious Christian life.

1. We are more than conquerors because He choose us.

2. We are more than conquerors because suffering matters and is not pointless

3. We are more than conquerors because He is transforming us to be like Christ.

4. We are more than conquerors because nothing can defeat God or alter His plans.

5. We are more than conquerors because God loves us and nothing can come between that.

Downfall of a Disciple | Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:10

Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:10

Dangers of Spiritual Drift

1. Successful Start

Fellow Worker

2. Subtle Temptation

1 John 2:15-17

Lust of the Eyes

Lust of the Flesh

Pride of Life

Path Away from God

Dryness

Discouragement

Disillusioned

Desertion

3. Shocking Betrayal

“forsaken” to desert, abandon

Moral

Doctrinal

2 Timothy 4:10

Internal Apathy before Apostasy Turns External Temptation into Catastrophe

4. Simple Hope

Not everyone becomes a deserter

Diagnosis of a Demas Heart

It is not that it can happen that it will happen

Long before there is a desertion publicly, there is a desert privately.

Am I a Christian? / I am a Christian | 1 John 2:3-5

How Can I Know?

1 John 2:3-5

1. Faithful Confession of the Biblical View of Jesus Christ (1:1-4) / 2:23

Virgin Born

Sinless

Son of God

2. Affirmation of the reality of sin (1:5-2:2)

3. Obedience to God’s commands (2:3-6; 5:2)

Obedience is external visible proof of salvation

4. Love for others and especially family of God (2:7-11; 4:11)

5. Growing in Holiness (2:28-3:3)

6. Ethical Integrity (3:16) / Practices Righteousness (3:7)

7. Growing love for God (4:8)

8. Presence and activity of the Holy Spirit (4:13)

9. Receives the Scriptures as the testimony of God (5:6-12)

How to Experience Spiritual Renewal

The Need for Spiritual Renewal

2 Chronicles 29:1–31

100% of those who responded to our survey said they believe God CAN use them to bring someone to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Signs of a desolate church:

Few Conversions

Inadequate finances

Low percentage of attendance at worship

Half-hearted worship

Few outsiders brought to church outreach activities by members

Dwindling support to missions.

We are to bring All People to Jesus

We are to bring All People by All Means to Jesus

We ALL are to bring ALL People by All Means to Jesus

We ALL are to bring ALL People by All Means to Jesus at All Costs (Adrian Rogers)

How Do We Experience Spiritual Renewal and Not Become a Desolate Church?

Great Case Study

Culture was Rotten

Judgment was everywhere

People of God negligent

1. We must Repent and become Clean (vs. 5)

Purity

2. We must Restart Worship (vs.20)

3. We must Renew Service (vs. 31)

Win the Lost at Any Cost | Mark 2:1–12

Mark 2:1–12

2 Great Questions

Can I be forgiven of my sins?

Who can forgive me of my sins?

Cast of Characters

Curious Crowd

Compassionate Friends

Crippled Young Man

Concerned Savior - Jesus Christ

Jesus Placed Priority on Preaching the Word

People Need to Hear the Word

They Cared for their Friend

They believed Jesus could help their friend.

They were relentless to get their friend to Jesus

Creative

Sacrificial

Jesus has the power to heal and to forgive sins.

---

We are to bring All People to Jesus

We are to bring All People by All Means to Jesus

We ALL are to bring ALL People by All Means to Jesus

We ALL are to bring ALL People by All Means to Jesus at All Costs (Rogers)

We Do Not Well

2 Kings 7:1–20

The Great Problem

1. A Time of Hunger

2. A Time of Helplessness

3. A Time of Hellishness (Rogers)

Inflation

Isolation

Starvation

Desparation

The Great Promise

The Great Provision

The Great Proclamation

We Do Not Well

Keep the Good News to Ourselves – Hope from God

Your life can be changed by the power and provision of God

People Need to Know the Word of God – True and Trustworthy

Silence is Sin

The False Prophet and the Mark of The Beast

The Lamb Who Talks Like a Dragon

Revelation 13:11–18

The False Prophet - His Person (vs. 11)

He is a false prophet He looks like Jesus and talks like Satan

He Craftily questions God’s Word

He lies

He lies to kill

He may arise from within the church

So how can we tell the difference?

This beast speaks like Satan, and Satan speaks against God’s word, blasphemes Jesus, and tells lies meant to result in the death of Jesus and his people.

Christians do not reject or speak against the Bible.

Christians do not blaspheme Jesus.

Christians do not tell lies to get other people killed.

The False Prophet - His Power (vs. 12-14)

He does signs that look like the work of God;

He uses the signs to deceive people into idolatry

He enforces the idolatry with the death penalty

There are four Christian purposes:

(1) to exalt Jesus,

(2) to impress on people their great need to believe in him and be saved by his death and resurrection because they are sinful and God is holy,

(3) to encourage people to read the Bible and heed its message, and

(4) to encourage people to love others and serve them so they can know the love of God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. (Hamilton)

The False Prophet - His Program (vs. 15-18)

Lead people to worship the Antichrist and Satan

Greer summarizes

The False Prophet Will Be a Deceiver (13:11).

The False Prophet Will Speak the Words of Satan (13:11).

The False Prophet Will Promote False Worship of Antichrist (13:12).

The False Prophet Will Use Miracles to Deceive the World (13:13–14).

The False Prophet Will Persecute Those Who Follow the Lamb (13:15).

The False Prophet Will Mark Those Who Worship Antichrist (13:16–17).

The False Prophet Will Lead the World to Worship a Mere Man (13:18).

The Rise of the Antichrist

Revelation 13:1-10; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

45% Americans believe in the Antichrist 20% Americans believe he is alive today

Over 20 different names in Scripture

• the little horn (Dan 7:8)

• the prince (ruler) who is to come (Dan 9:26)

• the lawless one or man of sin (2 Thess 2:3–8)

• the antichrist (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7)

(see below)

Anti – opposed to or in the place of

You will receive Jesus Christ or you will choose the Antichrist

The Rise of the Antichrist

Ancestry (13:1)

Authority (13:2)

Fame (13:3)

Worship (13:4)

Blasphemy (13:5-6)

Slaughter (13:7)

Admirers & Adversaries (13:8-10)

The End of the Antichrist

Revelation 19:20; 20:10

He is “the god of this world” who blinds men’s minds (2 Co. 4:4).

He is “the prince of this world” (Jn. 12:31; 14:20; 16:11) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ep. 2:2; 6:12).

He is Satan, which means the adversary (1 Chr. 21:1; Jb. 1:6; 2:1–6; Zec. 3:1; Mt. 4:10; Mk. 1:13; Lu. 4:8; Jn. 13:27; Ac. 5:3; 26:18; Ro. 16:20).

He is the devil, which means the slanderer (Mt. 4:1, 5, 8, 11; Lu. 4:2–6, 13; 1 Pe. 5:8; Re. 20:2).

He is the deceiver of the whole world (2 Co. 11:3; Re. 12:9).

He is the tempter (Mt. 4:3; 1 Th. 3:5).

He is the evil one (Mt. 6:13; 13:19, 38).

He is the father of lies (Jn. 8:44).

He is the accuser of the brethren (Re. 12:10).

He is a murderer (Jn. 8:44).

He is called Beelzebub (Mt. 12:24; Mk. 3:22; Lu. 11:15).

He is called Belial (2 Co. 6:15).

He is called Abaddon (Re. 9:11).

He is called the angel of the bottomless pit (Re. 9:11).

He is called Apollyon (Re. 9:11).

He is called the enemy (Mt. 13:39).

He is called the gates of hell (Mt. 16:18).

He is called the great red dragon (Re. 12:3).

He is called a lying spirit (1 K. 22:22).

He is called that old serpent (Re. 12:9; 20:2; see Ge. 3:4, 14; 2 Co. 11:3).

He is called the power of darkness (Col. 1:13).

He is called the prince of devils (Mt. 12:24).

He is called the ruler of the darkness of this world (Ep. 6:12).

He is called the spirit that works in the children of disobedience (Ep. 2:2).

He is called the unclean spirit (Mt. 12:43).

He is called the wicked one (Mt. 13:19, 38).