This morning, we’re continuing our message series, “Align.”  Throughout this series, we’re learning how to position ourselves to get back into alignment with God.  This enables us to live our lives to their fullest potential and not to miss out on anything that God has for us. 

So far, we learned about the first step required, which is humility.  Humility: it’s all God, not me.  We begin by positioning ourselves in surrender to God wholly and fully.

We then must allow Jesus, the Great Physician, to replace our calloused, hardened heart with a new, soft one and position it into alignment with His.  After all, our hearts are the source from which our attitudes, thoughts, and actions flow.

These two foundational steps allow God to begin doing the miraculous work to transform our lives from the inside out.  We begin to become a brand new creation!

Today is where the adventure begins.

All of us need humility and a soft, shapable heart so that our lives are like clay in the hands of the Potter.  However, not all of us share the same purpose.  God’s plans for each of us are just as unique as our voices or fingerprints are from one another.

Though we must do our best to maintain a softened heart, we learned last week of how God hardened pharaoh’s heart.  That doesn’t seem fair, does it?  Well, the apostle Paul wrote about this.

Romans 9:17-21

17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

God has a purpose for us all.  We were created on purpose and for a purpose.  The sooner that we begin to align our lives for that purpose, the more fulfilled and joyful and meaningful our lives will become.  Paul also reminded Timothy that:

2 Timothy 2:20-22

20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

What made a pan used by an Israelite living out in the camp different than the pan used in the tabernacle at the altar by the priests?  Only the purpose for which it was set aside for.  It was sprinkled with blood to cleanse and purify it and set it apart.  That’s what made one pan holy and another pan common; because one was set aside to be used for the Lord and another was not.

So it is with us when we are saved.  We are the same and yet different.  Outwardly, we still look the same.  Inwardly, we have been transformed.  Inwardly, the Spirit of the Living God has taken up His dwelling!  We have been cleansed of our sins by faith in the shed blood of sinless Jesus.  We still live in the same circumstances, but our attitudes and perspectives toward them have changed. 

We now live for a greater purpose.  We still live in this world, but we’re no longer of the world.  Jesus prayed for us to the Heavenly Father and said:

John 17:13-19

13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Sanctify means to set apart for a sacred purpose.  Just like that pan.  We the same, yet different all because of our new purpose in life that we have found in Christ.  The same, yet different.

Although every day, the same sun rises and sets, the sky painted by the sunrise and sunset are different daily.  The same and yet different.

Jesus is our healer.  However, the way in which He healed was different nearly every time that is recorded.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  However, His love and mercy are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). 

There are some things that are the same for all of us as disciples of Jesus.  We all are to tell the truth, which sets us free.  We all are to reach out to the lost with the good news about Jesus.  How we each do that varies.  We all are called to serve the needs of those around us.  How we each do that varies.  We are all called to disciple others.  How we each do that varies.

How do we find and fulfill our unique purpose that God created us for?

Of course, humility and our heart condition are the start.  Then, we can learn from the only person who ever lived in the flesh like you and I, but did it perfectly and sinlessly; Jesus!  He discerned and fulfilled His life purpose fully and perfectly; the only One to ever do so!

The key to this perfect alignment?  Obedience.

Of course, we will never want to obey God if we think that our will and our ways and our thoughts might be better than His; hence the need for humility.

We also will never desire to obey God if our heart is hardened against Him and can’t understand or trust Him.

It is only through humility and with a transformed heart that obedience becomes an option for us.  It is only when we truly see and understand that God is our Creator and how perfect His love is and how faithful and trustworthy He is and that His plans for us are ultimately always best that we will desire obedience.

He has done so much for us and loved us so completely even while we were pretty unlovable.

We obey God not to earn anything from God.

We obey God because we have already freely received everything from Him.

We obey God because we love Him and trust Him.

Jesus said to His disciples:

John 14:23-26 (TPT)

23, “Loving me empowers you to obey my word.  And my Father will love you so deeply that we will come to you and make you our dwelling place. 24 But those who don’t love me will not obey my words. The Father did not send me to speak my own revelation, but the words of my Father. 25 I am telling you this while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like me who sets you free,  he will teach you all things in my name. And he will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.

John then went on to later write:

1 John 2:3-6

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

How do we follow Jesus’ example in obedience?

First, Jesus lived a life of prayer.

Luke 5:16

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Sure, Jesus prayed publicly.  However, it was alone in prayer that He re-aligned His positioning with the Heavenly Father and with Holy Spirit in order to find and fulfill His purpose.  It was in those isolated, private places that He was empowered and equipped to minister in such power and perform such miracles.

All that we receive from God, we receive in God’s Presence from Him directly through relationship.  Prayer is simply talking with God.  Not sending up requests to God, but conversing with Him.  It’s sharing with Him what is on our heart and mind and also listening to what is on His.

After all, how can we obey if we cannot hear?

How can we hear if we are not listening?

1 Thessalonians 5:17

TPT – Make your life a prayer.

NIV – Pray continually.

KJV – Pray without ceasing.

NLT – Never stop praying.

AMP – Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly].

Jesus lived a life of prayer – in constant communication with the Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit.  We would be wise to follow His example.  If God in the flesh needed this type of prayer life to find and fulfill His purpose, then how much more do we need to be in constant prayer?

In fact, the goal of Jesus’ ministry throughout His earthly existence was do simply to cooperate with the Heavenly Father and to physically do whatever He saw the Father spiritually doing.

John 5:16-20

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

That doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t ever struggle to do what the Father was leading Him to do, either.  He was tempted and tried and wrapped in the weakness of flesh just as you and I are.

Knowing that that the torture of the cross was soon in His future, Jesus prayed.

Matthew 26:36-44

36 Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Jesus struggled as we often do with trusting that pain and suffering is a part of God’s plans and purpose for our lives.  Jesus’ flesh didn’t want to go through it.  He knew what awaited Him on the other side of it, but He still did not want to endure it.  However, He laid down His will and His life in surrender to the Father’s will.

First, we live a life of prayer in constant communication with God.  Second, we simply do what He leads us to do.

Obedience!

Jesus was perfectly obedient in surrendering His life both throughout His earthly existence serving those around Him as well as when He chose to give it away in death.  As a result, the Father promoted Him!

Philippians 2:3-14

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death –

        even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

    and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing

Obedience.  As we do our part, God faithfully does His part acting in order to fulfill His good purpose.  As we lay down our lives, it enables God to lift them up and truly give us life and life to its full!

1 Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

1 Peter 5:6 (TPT)

If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, he will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in his hands.

As we live a life of obedience, in constant prayer and doing whatever He leads us to do, we must remember to be patient.

A huge part of positioning our lives to be in alignment with God’s will is trusting His timing.

As the angel told Zechariah as he revealed the coming birth of John the Baptist:

Luke 1:20

And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.

And then he later told Mary about the coming birth of Jesus:

Luke 1:37

For no word from God will ever fail.

Discerning times and seasons is important and requires patience on our part.  Jesus didn’t begin His ministry until He was about 30 years old although He was in the temple learning and being trained and even at 12 years of age was amazing the teachers and being about His Father’s business.

His mother was growing impatient and at a wedding feast tried to get Him to perform His first miracle turning water into wine.  He honored His mother, but not before first saying:

John 2:4

“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

His brothers tried to get Him to push His timing as well.

John 7:2-8

2 When the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”

As we follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, it is important to remember that a fruit of following the Holy Spirit is patience.  Wait patiently on the Lord and trust His perfect timing.  There may be seasons of opposition and struggle and pain and suffering, but it is only a season!  It will end in the goodness of God flowing in and through our lives!

Follow the example of Jesus and don’t be surprised when opposition comes your way; even from those closest to you!  If Jesus’ own mother and brothers pressed and pushed Him to conform to their timing and their will, we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens to us as well. 

Look to the Heavenly Father and place your trust fully in Him.  Obediently follow His guidance.

A soft, humble heart gives us a desire for obedience to God which aligns us into a positional correct life ready to receive all that God promises us and to become all that He has purposed us to be!

The post Align: Obedience appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

This morning, we’re continuing our message series, “Align.”  Throughout this series, we’re learning how to position ourselves to get back into alignment with God.  This enables us to live our lives to their fullest potential and not to miss out on anything that God has for us. 

Last week, we learned about the first step required, which is humility.  Humility: it’s all God, not me.  We begin by positioning ourselves in surrender to God wholly and fully.

We were cautioned with a reminder that all that we receive is from God and not from His word alone.  It is in God’s Presence that we receive anything from Him.  His word is simply a reminder of who God is, who we are, and what is available to us.  It serves as a sign pointing and directing and instructing us to go TO the Lord.

We’re not interested in God’s word alone, which leads us to a spirit of religion.  We read and study and memorize and meditate on God’s word in pursuit of the Living word of God, Jesus, and a desire for a greater infilling of the author of the word; the Holy Spirit as they bring us straight into the throne room of the Father.  This requires relationship.

Humility is the first requirement to position us into correct alignment with God.  Next:

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

We must position our hearts into alignment with His.

Most of us are familiar with the account of when Samuel went along with the Lord searching out the second king over Israel.  The Lord spoke to Samuel and taught him to:

1 Samuel 16:7

“Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Jesus was being challenged about He and His disciples not following some of the Hebrew traditions.  Jesus quoted Isaiah 29 and said:

Matthew 15:7-9

7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

9 They worship me in vain;

    their teachings are merely human rules.’”

How were the people misaligned?  Their hearts were not in the right place.

How often do we make this statement and probably lie while saying it?  Somebody says something really rude and offensive and we excuse it away saying, “I’m sure that they didn’t mean it that way.  Their heart is in the right place.”?  After all, Jesus said that:

Luke 6:45

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

What comes out of our mouths when emotions are running high might surprise everyone around us.  It might even surprise ourselves.  However, it is not the emotions or circumstances that were at fault when this happens to us.  They simply revealed what was already hiding within our hearts.

Oh, and do we ever need some work done in our hearts!?!?

We need more than just some work on our hearts; we need new ones!

God has promised:

Ezekiel 11:19

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 18:31

Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit.

Ezekiel 36:26

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

In fact, Ezekiel also provides us insight into the fall of Satan and guess where his downfall began?

Ezekiel 28:17

Your heart became proud

    on account of your beauty,

and you corrupted your wisdom

    because of your splendor.

So I threw you to the earth;

    I made a spectacle of you before kings.

Pride instead of humility and a heart hardened; no longer positioned as clay in the hands of the Potter.

Our hearts are the source of our lives which impacts our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions.  If our hearts aren’t positioned correctly before God, they will lead us astray!

The world tells us to follow our hearts, but the Bible teaches us that:

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Our hearts are the source of our lives.  When we pray in the Spirit, what is it that the Holy Spirit looks to in order to intercede on our behalf?  Our hearts!

Romans 8:26-27

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27 (TPT)

26 And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede  on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs  too deep for words.

27 God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings,  yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny.

Jeremiah 17:10

“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Revelation 2:23

…Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

1 Chronicles 28:9

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.”

What is it that the Lord hardened so that Pharoah, king of Egypt, would not allow God’s people to go and worship Him?  His heart!

Having a hardened heart makes us do some pretty crazy things!  It clouds our minds with our emotions.  It darkens our perspectives.  It causes us to reinterpret our reality.

A hardened heart rises us up against God in rebellion.

A softened heart positions us to receive from God.

Jesus explained why He spoke in parables by quoting Isaiah 6:

Matthew 13:13-15

13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;

    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;

    they hardly hear with their ears,

    and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

    hear with their ears,

    understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’

A calloused heart.  Callouses do not just show up one day.  No, they form over time and by having pressure applied to areas.  Typically, they show up on our hands and feet.  The skin thickens and hardens as a way to protect us.  They cause us to lose sensitivity and feeling in those areas as a result.

That hardened, calloused skin isn’t flexible or elastic.  When it inevitably cracks open, it is extremely painful and dangerous because they are very prone to become infected.  That hardened skin must be removed and softened before healing can take place. 

So it is with our hearts.  As we face difficult situations or deal with abrasive people, our hearts begin to become calloused as a way to protect ourselves.  That temporary protection becomes our downfall preventing our hurts from healing.  That hardness separates us not only from those who hurt us relationally, but also separates us from receiving healing from the Lord because that can also only happen relationally.

There is no healing for a hardened heart, it must be replaced.  Thankfully, the transplant list is very short in the Kingdom of God.  He already has our new hearts ready and waiting for us to turn to Him, the Great Physician, to perform the replacement.

The symptom that Jesus calls out a few times of having a hardened heart is the lack of understanding.  This lack of understanding also causes us not to receive from God what is ours.  We miss out on miracles because we are too narrow-minded and narrow-focused on our immediate needs and task lists.  This is nothing new for a disciple of Jesus, unfortunately!

Mark 8:14-21

14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”

“Twelve,” they replied.

20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”

They answered, “Seven.”

21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

Yeah, they still didn’t understand…  Their hearts were still hardened…

They were still worrying that the one loaf of bread that they had wasn’t going to be enough for the twelve-ish people to eat.  Even though 5 loaves fed 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over.  Even though 7 loaves fed 4,000 people with 7 baskets left over.  Somehow they were still worried that 1 loaf was not going to be enough for twelve-ish people.

Jesus was trying to provide warning about spiritual things, but His disciple’s minds were still set on earthly things.  Their hearts were hardened.  This caused them to have eyes that didn’t see and ears that didn’t hear and minds that were very forgetful.  They completely missed Jesus’ warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod.

They were not positioned to receive from Jesus; they were missing it.  They just didn’t get it; they weren’t understanding.  They remembered the facts, but forgot the truth.

Their hardened hearts were causing things to be out of alignment for them.  They were physically there with Jesus.  They were active parts of a miracle flowing from Heaven to people.  The same miraculous provision of bread happened twice through their very own hands.  They literally were physically handing out bread to thousands of people from just a few loaves of bread because the true source of bread is Jesus, the Living Bread of Life.

Then, just days later, their thoughts are consumed with concern because they set sail on a boat with Jesus and only grabbed one loaf of bread for the trip.  Seriously?!?!  Oh, what madness can come from a hardened heart!

How often do we miss the miracles happening in our lives or quickly forget them because of the hardness of our hearts?  How often does Jesus pour out revelation and warnings and wisdom and it never makes it into our lives because of the hardness of our hearts? 

It’s like water being poured out onto a river rock.  It just washes over it and never even comes close to penetrating it.  The rock gets wet for a few moments, but remains unchanged.  So it is with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and us if our hearts remain hardened.

Proverbs 28:14

Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.

Proverbs 28:14  (MSG)

A tenderhearted person lives a blessed life; a hardhearted person lives a hard life.

The choice is up to us.  Will we surrender our hearts fully to the Lord?  Will we invite Him to be Lord of all we are? 

Will we allow the Great Physician to perform our heart transplant; replacing our hardened heart with the new, soft one that He has prepared for us?

A soft, humble heart aligns us into a positional correct life ready to receive all that God promises us and to become all that He has purposed us to be!

The post Align: Heart appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

This morning, we’re beginning a new message series entitled, “Align.”

A lot of our lives are impacted by positional alignment.

Perhaps your back or hips were out of alignment.  Headaches, migraines, or other persistent body aches and pains have a hugely negative impact on life.  It can pinch nerves causing pain or numbness.  You have to compensate for this misalignment in the way that you move, sit, or lay.  You are constantly thinking about it even when you don’t realize it.  Eventually, you begin to stop doing things that you love because you just can’t physically do it any longer.

Positional Alignment.

Perhaps your vehicle’s suspension has fallen out of alignment thanks to the wonderfully pot-hole filled roads that we drive on here in rural PA?  Your car pulls to one side or the other, the steering wheel jerks and shakes, your tires start to quickly wear down in odd ways all putting your safety at risk.  All because one or more tires decided to try and go a very slightly different direction than the others.

Positional Alignment.

Perhaps you have a door that is no longer aligned with its frame.  Maybe it jams and you have to shove it open or closed.  Maybe it won’t close and stay closed and you have to get creative with ways to force it closed.

How about having that one step or sidewalk block that is just a little bit taller or shorter than the rest?  How many times do you trip on that?

Positional Alignment.

Maybe it’s more personal with a relationship or career or just your own personal life goals.  You feel like you are getting dragged in a different direction than you want to head.   You find yourself wore out spending time and money and emotional energy and thoughts on things that just aren’t going the right way.  Something just isn’t fitting into place.

Sometimes we just float through our days letting life happen to us like some type of Jenga game as the pieces of our life are moved around until it finally gets so out of alignment that it all comes crashing down.

Positional Alignment.

Throughout this series, we’re going to learn how to position ourselves to get back into alignment with God.  This enables us to live our lives to their fullest potential and not to miss out on anything that God has for us.  We will learn how to position ourselves to receive from God, to grow in our faith, and to become more effective at ministering to others.

Positioning ourselves back into alignment with God will also save us from so much hurt and pain and suffering that we experience when we try to live our lives misaligned with His plans and purposes and design for our us.

Now bear with me for a minute because this is going to sound heretical for a minute.

Consider the fruits of the Spirit.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

The Bible cannot give me peace.

Living out the principles that it teaches can help us to live more at peace with others.

However, the Bible, itself cannot give me peace.

Knowledge and wisdom? Sure, but not peace.

The Bible is a collection of books written by people under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, it is God-breathed and the true author of all of the books is God, Himself.

It is incredibly important for us to read and study and memorize God’s word.  His word reveals information about who God is, who we are, what God’s Kingdom is like, how to practically live these lives that He has given us, and so much more. 

However, the Bible, like signs, wonders, and miracles, are given to guide and direct and lead us to God.

The fruits of the Spirit, salvation, and everything else that the Bible promises us, can come only from God.

I can know all about something without ever having it, myself.  I know that mansions exist, but I’ve never received one.  I can become really knowledgeable about mansions and be able to win arguments and debates with people about them.  My passion for them would lead people to assume that I live in one and yet never actually possess one, myself.

That is not where we want to be as Christians.

We don’t want to just know about God and His word.

We want to receive everything that He desires us to have!

We want to possess every one of His promises!

We want to become all that we were created to be!

We want to do all that God has prepared for us to do!

We don’t want to just be passionate about God.

We want to be passionate toward God; together with Him!

The Bible and miracles and signs and wonders are given to us so that we hunger and thirst for God.  They are to lead us and guide us to Him and into His Presence.  This is where we receive anything and everything from God!

One of the keys to position ourselves correctly to receive from God is: humility.

In fact, the primary Hebrew word for Worship (šāḥâ) means to bow down.

Life transformation that results from us positioning ourselves into alignment with God begins when we surrender.  Surrender to God means that I am wrong and God is right.  Period.

Romans 3:4

Let God be true, and every human being a liar.

I surrender my opinions, my will, my thoughts, my entire life to God.

Unless we humble ourselves in surrender, change is impossible, learning will not take place, revelation cannot be received.

Proverbs 15:33 (TPT)

The source of revelation-knowledge is found as you fall down in surrender before the Lord. Don’t expect to see Shekinah glory until the Lord sees your sincere humility.

Proverbs 15:33 (KJV)

The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.

The word for honor is the Hebrew word kāḇôḏ.  The Passion Translation correctly interpreted this verse as this word is used 200 times to describe specifically the glory of the Lord; the Shekinah glory.  The same cloud of glory that filled the tabernacle of Moses and lead God’s people through the desert.  The same glory cloud that filled the temple so that the priests could not stand and were unable to continue ministering before the Lord.

Humility positions us to be filled.

Humility empties ourselves of our pride and arrogance and rebellion toward God.

Less of us and much more of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God!

2 Corinthians 3:7-18

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Freedom, boldness, ministry, revelation, glory, transformation; all resulting from simple surrender in humility.

Humbling ourselves in surrender to the Lord enables Him to remove the veil over our perspectives that prevents us from seeing and perceiving and understanding correctly.  Only by the Holy Spirit can our eyes be opened to see from God’s point of view, hearts softened to understand from His perspective, and to lives transformed to become more like Him in an ever-increasing measure!

It is up to us to replace pride with humility.  The Bible warns us many times to avoid pride and arrogance.  These puff us up to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.  Unfortunately, they always lead us to think so highly of ourselves that we begin to separate ourselves from God unknowingly and unintentionally.  Haughtiness always lead to rebellion against God whilst thinking that we are right and doing no wrong.

The biggest challenge with pride is that we rarely ever see it in ourselves.  When we are prideful, we are wise in our own eyes.  We think we are right.  We have blinded ourselves from our own fall.  The cliff is nearing, but we’re arrogantly going our own way thinking that it is right.

If you find yourself more often correcting others than receiving correction from the Lord for your own self, then there is no doubt that you have become full of pride.  If things should always go your way, there is pride.  If you despise anyone, there is pride.  If you are easily offended, there is pride.  If you can’t receive criticism from others, there is pride.  If you rarely celebrate the good or the victories in other people’s lives, there is pride.  And I could go on…

Whether being full of it or just having a little of pride, it’s critically important that we empty ourselves of it, which can ONLY be done through humility.

Most all of us have a verse memorized, though we may not realize it.  Pride comes before a great fall or destruction.  This is Proverbs 16:18.  However, this only provides the problem and not the solution.  There is another proverb that does.

Proverbs 18:12

Before a downfall the heart is haughty,

    but humility comes before honor.

Humility is the solution to pride.

They cannot coexist.

We cannot simultaneously lower ourselves and exalt ourselves.

God is looking for something; searching the earth for it; wanting to pour out His manifest glory and Presence and honor in the place of it!  Humility.

Humility is the first step in positioning ourselves to receive anything from God.

James 4:5-7;10

5 Do you think Scripture says without reason that He jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

    but shows favor to the humble.”

7a Submit yourselves, then, to God. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

God is looking for the humble.

Proverbs 15:33 (TPT)

The source of revelation-knowledge is found as you fall down in surrender before the Lord.

Don’t expect to see Shekinah glory until the Lord sees your sincere humility.

If we don’t become sincerely humble, things will not go well for us.  It may for a season, but that season will have a limit.

Proverbs 11:2 (TPT)

When you act with presumption, convinced that you’re right, don’t be surprised if you fall flat on your face! But humility leads to wisdom.

For King Nebuchadnezzar, it was a period of seven times from the time that God humbled him until he chose to humble himself.  He lost his sanity, was driven away from people and living with wild animals, eating grass like an ox, growing out his hair like eagle’s feathers and nails like talons.  Seven times passed until finally, he admitted that Heaven rules; until he admitted that he was only king and richly blessed because of God and not himself.

King Nebuchadnezzar’s final statement in that season was, “those who walk in pride, God is able to humble.”

We absolutely do not want to position ourselves in a place where God has to humble us!

Instead, we want to position ourselves in humility so that we can live a life able to be blessed that glorifies God at all times!

We want to have a positionally correct life in alignment with God’s perfect will.

It is there that we truly live and are blessed and our souls at rest and peace no matter what is happening all around us.

It is there that we are positioned to receive all that God has promised to give us!

Psalms 37:7-11 (TPT)

7 Quiet your heart in His presence and wait patiently for Yahweh.

And don’t think for a moment that the wicked, in their prosperity, are better off than you.

8 Stay away from anger and revenge. Keep envy far from you, for it only leads you into lies.

9 For one day the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will inherit the land.

10 Just a little while longer and the ungodly will vanish; you will look for them in vain.

11 But the humble of heart will inherit every promise and enjoy abundant peace.

What is sincere humility? 

How do we possess it? 

What must we do to remain in it?

I believe that the key to humility is a simple truth.

All God, not me.

All God, not me.

Anything good in my life is a result of God.

It is a result of God’s mercy and grace and goodness and provision and Presence.

Every decision that I make is made in agreement with God’s word and guided by God’s wisdom and directed by God’s Holy Spirit within.

I am but clay in the Potter’s hands.

Who I become is who He envisions and purposes and creates me to be.

What I have is whatever He decides to entrust into my stewardship.

Clay in the hands of the Potter.

Isaiah 29:13-16

13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

    and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

14 Therefore once more I will astound these people

    with wonder upon wonder;

the wisdom of the wise will perish,

    the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

15 Woe to those who go to great depths

    to hide their plans from the Lord,

who do their work in darkness and think,

    “Who sees us? Who will know?”

16 You turn things upside down,

    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,

    “You did not make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,

    “You know nothing”?

Romans 9:20-21

20 Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

Isaiah 64:8

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.

    We are the clay, you are the potter;

    we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 45:11-12;18

11 “This is what the Lord says—

    the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:

Concerning things to come,

    do you question me about my children,

    or give me orders about the work of my hands?

12 It is I who made the earth

    and created mankind on it.

My own hands stretched out the heavens;

    I marshaled their starry hosts.

18 He who created the heavens,

    He is God;

He who fashioned and made the earth,

    He founded it;

He did not create it to be empty,

    but formed it to be inhabited

Jeremiah 18:1-6

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand.”

Humility is us throwing off our pride and arrogance and opinions and self-righteousness and surrendering into the hands of the Potter.  All God, not me.  It is positioning ourselves to allow God to realign our lives in every aspect to conform to His will and not ours; His design and not ours; His purposes and not ours.

In the end, however, we will have no regrets!  We will be richly blessed!  We will live our lives to their fullest!  We will have all that we need and more in an overflowing abundance!  And the best part is that it will all give glory in an undeniable way to God.

All God, not me!

As we begin to live a positionally correct life, God can perfectly align us!

The post Align: Humility appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

Last week, we learned about what church truly is from the author and designer of it; Jesus.  It was a challenging one and a convicting one until it is viewed from the perspective of this week’s message.

Many churches call their services not church services, but worship services.

Every aspect of church, God’s people gathering together, is an act of worship.

Worship is not music.  Music is only one of the many ways that we can express our worship to God. 

It is undoubtedly given to us by God for this purpose.  The first and greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  Music is a powerful way to love the Lord with our souls!

True and proper worship, however is all about bowing down and surrendering our lives to God.

If we choose to attend a church service, the gathering of believers, and are only looking to learn more about God, then we’re missing out! 

Think about this truth.  Think about God’s own chosen people on the face of the earth, the nation of Israel, Jacob and His twelve kids and their descendants.

Israel knew about the acts of God.  Some of them experienced first-hand the miracles of God.  All of them had heard about, and were often reminded about, those miraculous acts.  However, their hearts kept on turning away from God.  Their worship of God was just with words and man-made rules.

Isaiah 29:13;16

13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

    and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

16 You turn things upside down,

    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,

    “You did not make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,

    “You know nothing”?

Israel knew about the acts of God.  However, Moses and Joshua and Caleb knew the ways of God.  Their worship of God went beyond words to the transforming of their hearts.  They didn’t just know about God and talk about God, they personally knew God!  They had a relationship with Him to learn His ways, His nature, His character, His power, and more.  They had personal encounters with God through their worship.

Knowing the acts of God isn’t enough to keep us from going astray.  Knowing God leads us deeper into His plans and purposes and keeps us walking faithfully with Him.

The nation of Israel, God’s own people, kept turning astray from God.

Moses, Joshua, and Caleb kept pressing into God.

Moses, Joshua, and Caleb realized and received and embraced their identity given to them by God like a clay does from the potter.

The other Israelites formed their identity in their own eyes and created their own gods.

Moses, Joshua, and Caleb were humble.

The other Israelites were arrogant and prideful.

Knowing.

Do we worship the God we know?

OR

Do we worship the God we know?

Right, let me clarify this…

Do we worship the acts of a god whom we have heard about; head knowledge?

OR

Do we worship the God whom our hearts long to know better; heart relationship?

Isaiah 29:13

The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

    and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Under the Old Covenant, no one would ever come to the temple to worship God without first presenting an offering.  These offerings were sacrifices given to God in various forms.  Some of them were prescribed for a purpose such as to pay the penalty for specific sins.  Others were free will offerings given from a heart of generosity.

Remember, Jesus did some table flipping of those who were taking advantage of those who were coming to worship God by selling them animals and objects to use for these sacrifices and offerings.

Under the New Covenant, we are the sacrifice and our bodies are the temple.  We worship God with our whole selves.

Romans 12:1-2

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

None of this sounds appealing by any means UNTIL you’ve seen the mercy of God.

No one would want to become a Christian and to love and worship God in this way UNTIL they have seen how much God first loved us and what He has sacrificed for us.

This is why we are called to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34:8

When we get even a glimpse of God’s goodness, when we realize all that He has sacrificed for us, when we become aware of the faithful love that God has always been pouring out onto our lives and how unworthy we are of it, there is no cost that we would count in surrender back to Him.

Everything that we are and all that we have is all God’s anyways!

God is simply trusting everything to us as stewards.

Whatever we give back to God is simply acknowledging that it was, it is, and it always will be His anyways.

Whether it be a song using the breath in our lungs and the voice that He has given us, talents and abilities used to serve others, money or material things given away to meet the needs of others, whatever it might be, it is all God’s.

Deuteronomy 10:14

To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

We can never outgive God because anything and everything that we can give to Him was His in the first place.

Worshipping the Lord reminds us of this fact.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

We are a living sacrifice, willingly laying down our entire self, our whole lives into God’s hands – this is true and proper worship.  Worship is not about the acts of God, but because of who God is.  Worship is unconditional and always appropriate because it is our response to who God is, which never changes.

Even after Job lost everything that he worked so hard to build and everyone that he loved and held dear, his response was worship!

Job 1:20-22

20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

    and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

God permitted the devil to steal everything from Job and he certainly did.  Yet Job didn’t blame God, he worshipped God.

Worship is not based on our circumstances.

Worship is not based on whether or not we can see God’s goodness.

Worship is not based on whether or not we can sense God’s Presence.

Worship isn’t based on anything except the person of who God is.

Sometimes, worship is the key to our breakthrough!  Job waited for many years before the Lord restored double what the devil had stolen from Job, but others received an immediate response!

From inside the belly of the great fish in the middle of his rebellion, Jonah prayed and cried out:

Jonah 2:8-10

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols

    turn away from God’s love for them.

9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

    will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.

    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

After delivering a slave girl from a demon who helped her to predict the future, her owners realized that her deliverance cost them the money that they made from her predictions, they were outraged!  Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten with rods.  After their flogging, they were thrown into prison.

What was their response?

Worship!

Acts 16:25-26

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

Some of us have been trying so hard to do all that we can to get free from things when all that we need to do is to worship.  Instead of focusing on the problem, focus on the solver of all problems for whom nothing is too hard for!

Worship isn’t dependent on our circumstances, but it can sure change them!

Worship enthrones God and invites His Presence into our circumstances.

Worship humbles us and exalts God.

Worship declares that we can’t, but God can.

Worship focuses us on the character and nature and attributes of God.

Worship produces within our lives the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control!

When we invite people to join New Hope’s 10:30 worship service, that’s what we should all be anticipating and expecting!  We should come anticipating and expecting and requiring an encounter with the One, True, Living God!  We should expect to leave this place transformed by God’s glory with testimonies about what God did this week and equipped to go out and reach people with the good news and hope found in Christ’s salvation!

Jesus said:

Matthew 18:18-20

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Are there two or three gathered together here in Jesus’ name?

THEN HE IS HERE!!!

God’s Presence is HERE!!!

God’s Glory is HERE!!!

Let’s raise our expectations of Him!

Let’s have some fun and enjoy this new life that He has freely given us!

Worship is more than a song; it is a lifestyle where we express our gratitude and appreciation to God for all that His is, all that He has done, and all that He has yet to do! 

Worship is risky business; it really is! 

The devil got kicked out of Heaven for thinking that he was like God; deserving to be worshipped.  When we choose to give worship to God, it catches his attention.  He doesn’t care what we are worshipping as long as it isn’t God!  He doesn’t care if we talk about God or sing songs about Him or even to Him.  Oh, but when we truly worship, he can’t stand it!

He’ll make us self-conscious of everyone around us.

He’ll remind us of all of our sin.

He’ll shift our mind to thinking about anything or anyone else.

He’ll distract us in absolutely any way that he can.

Don’t let the devil do it!  Drag him right into God’s Presence with your worship and remind him of all that he walked away from and what his destiny is.

True and proper worship also reveals the heart condition of those around us.

People are fine with singing a few hymns together and hearing a few scriptures preached and then heading home by lunchtime. 

When people start shouting and running around and dancing and singing in the Spirit and laying hands on the sick and lifting their hands and kneeling or laying down, well, people get uncomfortable.  Extravagant worship doesn’t even begin to touch the worship that God is worthy of, though!

Worship reveals the heart condition of those around us.  Here are just a few examples.

2 Samuel 6:16-23

16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

21 David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

Michal wasn’t the only one who despised extravagant worship and to suffer a hardened heart as a result!  There isn’t a worse example that I can think of than what the extravagant worship of Mary toward Jesus did to the heart of Judas. 

What is perhaps worse is that this same thing happens during worship today.  Hearts harden against the same Jesus that their lips claim to worship.  Hearts trade in Jesus for lesser, created things!  For Judas, it was 30 pieces of silver.  What is it for us?

John 12:1-11/Mark 14:1-10

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume in an alabaster jar. She poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Some of the others present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them any time you want, but you will not always have me.  She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Then Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.

We can’t have the gospel without worship.

This expression of worship was so significant that Jesus wanted it to be shared along with the gospel to the whole world!

How can we minimize the importance of worship when Jesus valued it so highly?

His life on the cross was an act and expression of worship!

His intercession for the forgiveness of those hurling insults toward Him on the cross was an expression of worship!

His entire life and death and existence is an expression of worship pointing people to the Heavenly Father!

There are times throughout our world history where the worship was unbelievable and I wish I could go back and be a part of it.  The top two times that come to mind are when the first and second temples were being dedicated and how God responded to the worship of His people.

Then, there was the worship within the temple that was happening unceasingly day and night.  4,000 men set aside for the purpose of praising the Lord with musical instruments (1 Chronicles 23).  24 worship team leaders consisting of 12 men each exempt from all other priestly duties, living at the temple, so that they could nothing but prophecy and play the harps, lyres, and cymbals, and minister to the Lord in worship day and night! (1 Chronicles 25)

Then there was the worship happening at the dedication of Nehemiah’s rebuilt wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12).  Choirs and trumpets and lyres and cymbals and harps and the shouts of rejoicing of all of God’s people!  The Bible simply says that it could be heard from very far away.

Then there was the worship that was happening as Jesus rode into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover on the foul of a donkey!  Oh and how it sadly revealed the hardened hearts toward Jesus…

Matthew 21:14-16

14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants

    you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” (Psalm 8:2)

Psalms 8:2  (TPT)

You have built a stronghold by the songs of children.

Strength rises up with the chorus of infants.

This kind of praise has power to shut Satan’s mouth.

Childlike worship will silence the madness of those who oppose you.

It’s time for our worship to be a bit more than just lip service!

It’s time for our worship to be true and proper and loud and sincere and undignified and all that God is so worthy of!

The post Worship appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

In today’s connected and data-driven and information saturated world, many are questioning the need for the church.

Why attend a church service when you can just catch the live stream from the comfort of your couch or watch it on-demand whenever it is convenient for you?

For that matter, why attend a local church when you can watch a mega-church service that provides some of the highest quality music and preaching using cutting edge technology and well-polished and rehearsed programs found in the world?

Why attend a small group study when there are countless apps and books written by some of the most educated and talented teachers and scholars and communicators in the world right here on my phone?

Why reach out to a leader in the church when I can just ask Google or Alexa or Siri or ChatGPT whatever questions I have?

Why join together to worship with people who sing off key and don’t play the best whenever I can put my AirPods in and listen to some of the most anointed and talented worshippers on the planet anytime I want?

It isn’t that there is anything wrong with any of these necessarily, but are they replacements for a local church?

Is the concept of church as we know it outdated and irrelevant?

Has church become optional and even unnecessary?

Can someone be a Christian without church?

From the actions of the average United States Christian, maybe not their words, but by their actions, the answers to these questions would be, “Yes.”

Since there are so many concepts and ideas of church out there, let’s turn to the One whom created church and allow Him to define it.

Jesus created the church.  It was His idea, His passion, His purpose.  Jesus said:

Matthew 16:18

…I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.

Church is the Greek word ekklēsia meaning an assembly of Christians, or in a general sense, the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth.  This is far, far more than a statement or a catch phrase to state that “The church is not a building, it is the people who choose to gather there.”  This is a truthful fact.

The understanding of what church is and why it exists has been slowly drifting away from what Jesus defined it as.  There has been a drift where consumerism has replaced servanthood.  We literally “shop” for churches and find one that is exactly what we want.  We consume a church’s services and content.

We shop around for a church that supplies the music that we prefer, messages that entertain and inspire us, people that we fit in well with, and programs to meet all of our needs.  We look for ones that fit our schedules and lifestyles.  We shop for a church that provides ways to serve that are convenient for us or whom are large enough to have paid staff so that we don’t have to serve at all if we don’t want to.

If we get bored or offended or simply find something better, we’re quick to leave and head to the next best thing.

Even attending a 90 minute service once per week is a stretch for most people.  There are 10,080 minutes in a week.  If we sleep 8 hours, that is 6,720 minutes of activity a week.  A tithe, 10%, of even just our active minutes would be 672 minutes or 11 hours per week. 

Jesus gave us His everything!  Every day, He provides everything that we need and more!  Doesn’t He deserve at least 1% of our week?  To be clear, 1% of just the active parts of our week would be a little more than 1 hour; the average church service length. 

It’s kind of convicting to think that we can barely give Jesus 1% of our week and find a way to do everything else in life during the other 99% of the time that we are awake!  Just let the Holy Spirit pierce your heart in the right way with that thought.

Also, we are an incredibly blessed people who have access to information like never before.  It’s good to consume the Biblical content and knowledge that is available to us.

However, it was never intended to replace church.  Nor can it replace what church truly is!

Most people that you ask on the street would say that they are a Christian and that they are going to Heaven when the die.  According to Pew Research, 62% of US adults in 2024 identify as Christians.  However, of that percentage, only 25% of them attend services weekly and 49% of them seldom or never attend.

That statement isn’t even logical!  I never step foot in a church building, but expect to just waltz into Heaven when I die.  Why would you even want to?

Hebrews 10:23-25

23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

These statistics might ring true in the United States where we have complete freedom to live out our faith and express it publicly.  We live in a nation where “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” and most do not take advantage of that freedom.

What does church look like right now, in today’s world, in a nation that does not provide this freedom?

Iran Church Video

More and more, I’m believing that Christians in nations such as China and Iran have it right.  It looks far more like the Christianity of the New Testament than most churches in the United States do.

Whereas we find just about any excuse for not gathering together with our brothers and sisters in Christ to worship and learn and grow, others are willing to die to do so.  Whereas we rarely ever tell anyone the good news about Jesus and invite them to receive His salvation, others risk it all and consider their salvation worth it.

Jesus designed and purposed for the church to be His body; His physical presence here across the earth continuing His ministry.  He designed and purposed for all of us to be an active part of it.  He said that where two or three are gathered in His name, that He is there with them.  He values gathering together that much!

It doesn’t matter if it is in a home, in a cave, in a cathedral, in a one-room church with a steeple, or in a church that looks more like a shopping mall, we cannot be a part of the body of Christ without gathering together with other believers. 

If we take any one part of our physical bodies and remove it from the other parts, it will immediately begin to die.  It is no different with our faith and our role as a part of the body of Christ!

When we assemble together, we should all come expecting to have something from God to share with each other.  We should come ready both to give and receive.  The church in Corinth had this, but they needed some wisdom on how to put all of the different gifts of the Spirit into practice in a church setting.

1 Corinthians 14:26-33

26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two – or at the most three – should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.

29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace – as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

I pray that every church has this problem that the church in Corinth had!  When they assembled together, everybody had something to share!  It wasn’t just one person talking at everyone else and then going back home.  It was a church – lots of different parts and functions, but all working together to build up the other people of the body.

This goes beyond just spiritual-specific gifts as well.  God has given each of us spiritual gifts as well as natural skills and abilities.  He then purposefully brought us together because there are other people here who need them.

Jesus also intended that each one of us would follow His example in laying down our own lives in order to meet each other’s needs creating a community where there is no need.  Christians.

Acts 11:26

26 …The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

The title, “Christian”, was first a way of scorning and making fun of followers of Jesus.  Later, including now, it is accepted as a title of honor.  It means that we are Christ-like; one of His disciples.

Is it possible to be saved and to never gather together with another believer?

Sure, I think that it is.

However, that should be an extremely short period of time!

Even if Jesus personally visits and saves someone in some remote village who had never otherwise heard the gospel or receive a translation of the Bible, that person should be sharing it with the rest of the village and gathering together with the others who also receive the gospel.

That is how a church is began.

I do not believe that you can be a Christian and not gather together with other believers; attend church.  Now that might be at a typical church building or it may be in someone’s home or a corn field or in a cave.  However, we must be connected with other believers.

We cannot fulfill our purpose or experience the fullness of salvation alone.  We need each other!  That’s simply how God designed it!

Watching a church service on a screen might bless us and may even meet a few of our needs in regard to learning and growing.  However, Christianity can only be fully experienced in community through relationships with one another.  I need you and you need me.

Jesus has entrusted each one of us with gifts and talents and abilities that He purposefully gave to us in order to continue His work.  Jesus said:

John 14:12

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

He sends us out as He sent His first disciples telling them:

Matthew 10:8

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

After Jesus had risen from the grave, He met with His disciples and told them:

Matthew 28:18-20

18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Mark 16:15-18

15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

He intends for us to gather together regularly; to pray, to worship, to read and understand and apply His word.  He then intends us to go out into the world!  He intends that as we go, that we would evangelize others and freely share the good news about Him.

The church is supposed to gather together not to be entertained, but equipped.

The church is supposed to gather together not to be served, but to serve.

The church is supposed to gather together not to consume, but to be consumed by the Spirit of the One, True, Living God!

The church is supposed to gather together to then be sent back out and then to reach the lost people around us with the good news about Jesus.

How are we doing, church?

Would we still gather together even if it meant risking our lives to do so?

Would we still gather together if we had to leave our SIM cards at home as to not have our location tracked and service spied upon?

Would we wake up in the middle of the night to go and pray and praise?

Would we be willing to put our family’s safety at risk by inviting people to be saved?

Is Jesus worth the sacrifice?

How are we doing, church?

I think we have some room for growth here.

There are still lost people here in this 25 mile radius that God is wanting to GATHER into His Kingdom.

There are still believers here in this 25 mile radius that God wants to GROW in their faith.

There are still needs here in this 25 mile radius that God wants us to GO and serve.

There are still bound people that need set free.

There are still sick people that need healed.

There are overwhelmed people who need hope.

There are poor people who need food and drink and clothes.

There are lonely people who need community.

There are lots of people who could benefit from the wisdom and guidance that God freely gives.

There are lots of people who desperately need an encounter with the life-transforming and awe-inspiring Presence of God.

Let’s be the church!

The post Church appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

Today, we’re learning about the nature of God’s promises.  A promise is a declaration that someone makes that they will either do something or not do something.  For the recipient of the promise, it’s a reason to have expectation; a reason for hope!

Romans 8:24

Hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what they already have?

The unique thing about God’s promises compared to a promise that you or I would make is that God exists outside of time and space in eternity.  From God’s perspective, everything simultaneously has happened already, is happening now, and has yet to happen.

We get a unique peek at this reality when Jesus is transfigured in front of Peter, James and John and they see and recognize Elijah and Moses.  It is possible, not for certain, but possible that this is simultaneously when Moses is hidden in a cleft at Mount Horeb in Exodus 33 and Elijah is hidden in a cave in Mount Horeb in 1 Kings 19 where they both see the Lord.  IF this was the case, these three events were separated by centuries, yet occurring at the same time to Jesus.

Either way, we do get a peek into what eternity will be like in that we’ll know everyone; even those we’ve never met before.  Peter, James, and John somehow recognized and knew Moses and Elijah though it was impossible for them to have met before. 

As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13, now we know in part, but then we will know fully.  In Jesus is fullness of truth and revelation of all things.  Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed!

We also know that Jesus fulfilled all of the law, represented by Moses, and the prophets, represented by Elijah, as during the transfiguration, the Father tells Peter, James, and John to listen to Jesus.  Anyways, now back to God’s promises!

Also, unlike us, God’s names are literally Faithful and True.  God cannot lie.  When He makes a promise, it will not be broken like so many promises that we have both made and received have been broken.  As the prophet Balaam told Balak, the king of Moab:

Numbers 23:19

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

Also, as the angel Gabriel told Mary:

Luke 1:37

No word from God will ever fail.

And as God, Himself, told Isaiah:

Isaiah 55:10-11

10 As the rain and the snow

    come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

    without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

    It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

We can be assured that:

2 Corinthians 1:20-22

20 No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

The really awesome thing is that since God is constant, the same yesterday, today, and forever, His promises are constant as well.  What He promised thousands of years ago to someone else, we can grab hold of and see it fulfilled in our own lives as well.  God’s word and His promises are eternal and prophetic in nature.

Jesus and the early church would frequently quote the Old Testament and apply it to what they were experiencing in the present time.  Holy Spirit, whom inspired the writers of the scriptures, authored the Bible as a living book.  God’s word is alive and active able to bring forth life just as it did in the very beginning.

Not only the prophetic words and prophetic books, but also the songs and prayers and wisdom books and even the historical records are prophetic testimony of what God has done.  What God has done before, He will do again.  It will not likely be in exactly the same way, but He will do it again.

God’s word reveals His nature, His character, His Kingdom, and more.  John even described the birth of Jesus as the word wrapping Himself in flesh and dwelling among us.  God’s word is God’s promise and of it, we can be certain!  We can place our hope firmly within it and it will serve as an anchor for us as we navigate through this life full of so many uncertainties!

Hope in God’s promises serve as a placeholder in our lives until they are fulfilled.  This hope placeholder keeps doubt and worry and anxiety and addiction and anything else that the devil sends to steal, kill, and destroy us out of that place.  When we choose to intentionally walk by faith and not by sight, we are blessed in so many ways for it!

One such example of a person who walked by faith in God’s promise and what resulted from it is Caleb.

Joshua 14:6-13

6 Caleb said to Joshua, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’

10 “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.

Caleb saw the promise with his own eyes, but then had to wait 45 years and watch everyone else in his generation literally pass away before receiving it.  This didn’t discourage or dishearten him!  Rather, he was just as strong and vigorous and faith-filled as he was when the promise was made to him decades before.  Because of His whole-hearted commitment to follow the Lord, Caleb received the promise!

Speaking of Joshua, he is a great example of a leader whom also trusted in God and His promises beyond what he saw and the natural world.  He was with Caleb in spying out the promised land and was the only other one to agree with him.  Joshua would remain in God’s Presence long after Moses would leave the tent of meeting.  He lead God’s people into their literal promised land after succeeding Moses. 

He was now about to pass away.  Knowing that his death was nearing, he called all of the leaders and overseers of Israel together and told them:

Joshua 23:14-16

14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”

Covenant.

A covenant is different from a contract.  In a contract between two parties, there are areas of agreement and responsibilities and conditions and penalties if either side fails to uphold their responsibilities and conditions as well as ways to terminate the contract.  Contracts also are typically for a set period of time and the goal is that both parties mutually benefit from the contract in some way.

In a Biblical covenant, there is a promise made and the only way out of fulfilling that promise is death.  A covenant is sacrificial and permanent in nature and very one-sided.  One party makes a promise and the other party chooses to enter into that covenant and receive that promise.

So long as God’s people remained within God’s covenant, all that He promised was theirs.  If they were to choose to walk away from that covenant, they would also have removed from them all that was promised.

Covenants are not created with the intent of ending it at any point.  In fact, the ancient practice was for the two parties to walk between sacrificed animals cut in half to symbolize their entry into the covenant together such as we see in Genesis 15.  Covenants were sealed by blood and sacrifice.

God has made a covenant we call salvation and invites everyone to enter into it.  He will save us from all of our sin if we put our faith in Jesus and live by that faith.  The covenant is everlasting sealed by the blood shed by Jesus.  God will always uphold it and it will never end.  The only conditional part is us and whether we choose to remain covered by that covenant.

God has also made a covenant with us and every living thing.  This covenant, unlike the covenant of salvation, gives us absolutely no choice whether or not to enter into it.  It is an unconditional covenant.

Genesis 9:8-17

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Although the rainbow exists as a sign and as a reminder of this specific covenant to never destroy all life on earth with a flood again, it also serves as a good reminder of God’s promises in general.

God’s covenants bring His promises.  They are certain on His part.  He always upholds and fulfills His word.  I have to admit that it usually isn’t when and how we want them to be fulfilled, but they will be fulfilled.  The conditional part is always on our part.  We are always the variable in the equation with God.

As long as there is light, there is evidence and a reminder of God’s promises!  As long as the light of God exists, which is forever, God’s promises exist as well.  They are always present, although we don’t always perceive them or see them.  However, His promises are always right there waiting to be revealed!

* Rainbow illustration *

The timing of the fulfillment of God’s promises is typically what we struggle with the most.  We believe and trust God and His word.  We have fullness of faith that God can and will do what He promised.  We praise Him while we’re waiting. 

However, as time goes on, the eager expectation can begin to fade.  Doubt can erode away at our hope.

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for God’s promise to be fulfilled. 

Romans 4:18-24

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Time spent in waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled can erode our hope.

When it becomes impossible by our own means, it can eradicate our hope.

OR

It can build and strengthen our hope as it did for Abraham!

It can harden our resolve that God absolutely has the power to do what He promised!

It means that it will be God alone who fulfills His promise and nothing that we do on our own other than believing that He will do it!

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for God’s promise to be fulfilled.  David had to pass along God’s promise to his son.

1 Chronicles 22:6-10

6 David called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. 7 David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God. 8 But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. 9 But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. 10 He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’

God later told Solomon:

1 Kings 6:12

As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.

How did David respond to hope deferred?  He gathered together all of the supplies and workers that would be needed to build the temple.  Even though God’s promise would not be fulfilled through David, David did everything that he could to see that the promise was fulfilled through Solomon.  God’s promise was fulfilled, but an entire generation later. 

After being torn away from our homes and friends and family, we would want God’s promise for deliverance to happen as soon as possible.  It would be terrible being forced to live in a foreign land among people who live contradictory to God’s ways.  This is what God said to His own people when this happened, though:

Jeremiah 29:4-14

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

We all love verse 11 and quote it often.  “For I know the plans I have for you…”  Verse 10?  Waiting for seventy years?  No exactly what we want to hear…

However, even in the waiting season, even while enduring the consequences for our own sin, we can grow and prosper and live a full life!  God’s people can blossom wherever they are planted.  Yes, there certainly was coming a time when they would be transplanted and moved back home.  However, God did not want them to stop living while they awaited the fulfillment of His promise.

Even when God exiled them and allowed their enemies to overtake them because of their sin, it was God’s will and desire to bless His people.  All that He wanted was their hearts!  All that He wanted was for them to seek Him with all their hearts – to ignore the lies and believe His truth and His promises.

Elizabeth told Mary:

Luke 1:45

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!

Even as Mary was blessed, so we will also be blessed if we simply believe that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us!  It doesn’t matter how much time has passed between when He made the promise and now.  It doesn’t matter how impossible it is to happen now.  God is able!  He who promised is faithful!  There is nothing too hard for our God!  Let’s dare to hope and believe and trust again!

The post Promise appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

In this message series, we are challenged to question the things which we crave.

We were reminded that God created us with cravings, but that we often settle for lesser things than God created them for. 

We turn to created things rather than the Creator to satisfy those cravings and are left empty.  God has promised to satisfy our desires with good things.

It isn’t that the things of the world which we crave are necessarily bad.  It is when they entice us and drag us away from God that they become issues.  It is when we value and desire and pursue them as much or more than God that they become issues.

God has given us a tool which we can use to both test our cravings and dependencies as well as to express to God our craving and desire for Him.  It is known as fasting.

To fast is simply to give something up.  Perhaps you’ve had lab work done or had surgery performed that required you to abstain from food for a certain period of time.  Spiritually, we choose to fast so that we can shift our focus onto God.

It may be fasting from food altogether like Jesus did for 40 days or Paul did for 3 days after his Damascus road encounter or Esther had all of the Jews do for 3 days.  It may be fasting from certain foods like Daniel did choosing to eat only vegetables and drink only water.  It may be from certain activities like Paul wrote about spouses mutually deciding to abstain from “marital duties” to spend time in prayer.

In today’s culture, it seems that there are far more things that distract us and consume our time and attention.  Fasts today often include social media or streaming TV or certain apps such as games.

If you want to see just how much something has a hold on your life, try fasting it.

Romans 6:16 (NLT)

Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

There is a principle here that applies to anything in life.  We usually do not realize what we are enslaved by.  We usually do not realize what we are offering ourselves to as obedient slaves.  That is until we tell it, “No!” 

That is what we do by fasting it.  We deny it a place in our lives.  We tell it, “No.”

We don’t realize that we are enslaved by something because we just always obey it and don’t give it much thought.  We get thirsty for a beer, we go to the fridge and get it.  We get hungry for a Little Debbie, we go to the cupboard and grab one.  Out of sheer habit, we put a cigarette in our mouth and light up.  We stop moving for 10 seconds, so we pull out our phone and check our notifications or scroll through social media.

We do things out of habit and don’t even think about it.  Like floating in a lazy river, we always just go-with-the-flow, so we don’t realize that we are being forced and enslaved to do them.  It isn’t until we hop off of our floatie and try to go the other direction that we realize how forceful and controlling that “lazy river” is.

Fasting brings revelation of our dependency on created things that we may not realize is there otherwise.

Matthew 4:1-4

1 Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. 3 The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Fasting fixes our focus on this reality.  We don’t ultimately live by anything other than God’s word and His will and for His purposes. 

We may work hard to earn a living, but it is God who gives us the health and strength and skills and opportunities to do so.  A humbling reality is that it is up to God alone for our heart to take its next beat or for our lungs to take their next breath.  We live because God has chosen to give us life and to continue sustaining our lives.  Fasting reminds us of this reality.

Although fasting was a common practice both under the old and new covenants, the only time that I could find where God required a fast of His people was on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23).  Fasting is completely voluntary on our part.

Fasting is all about re-focusing and re-adjusting our heart condition.  It is not a protest for all to see.  It does not twist God’s arm to bend to our will.  It is not a way to grab God’s attention.

Fasting is about us purposefully and intentionally setting apart time to abstain from something in order to replace it with the pursuit of God.  It is to seek His Presence and His will.  As we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.  It is more about our internal spiritual condition than it is about anything external. 

Even in Nineveh when the king called a nation-wide fast of all food and drink for all people and animals, it was to seek after God and to turn away from their evil ways.  It wasn’t just an outward display that the nation was putting on for God, it was for a far greater purpose of true repentance from the inside out. 

Jesus said:

Matthew 6:16-18

16 When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

A fast that honors God isn’t just about what we give up, but the Godly things which we replace it with.  God gives us a blueprint for what His desire for fasting looks like.  He also calls out how we can actually be in sin while fasting and seeking Him.

Isaiah 58

True Fasting

1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.

    Raise your voice like a trumpet.

Declare to my people their rebellion

    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek me out;

    they seem eager to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that does what is right

    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions

    and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,

    ‘and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please

    and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,

    and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today

    and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

    only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed

    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

    a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

    and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

    and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry

    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

    and your healing will quickly appear;

then the righteousness One will go before you,

    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

    and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The Lord will guide you always;

    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

    and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins

    and will raise up the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,

    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

    and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,

    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

When we fast, it’s not only what we are giving up that is important, but also what we are replacing it with.

Are we helping lift the burdens of those around us?

Are we feeding those who are hungry?

Are we helping clothe those in need?

Here’s probably the toughest one of all!

How are we treating our own flesh and blood; our family?

IF, IF, IF we do these things while fasting, God has promised amazing things!

He will go ahead of us to guide us and have our backs as well.  He will satisfy our needs even if the earth is scorched.  He will strengthen our frames.  We will bear good fruit and find joy.  IF, IF, IF we do our part, God will faithfully do His.

Fasting is also not something to be done just out of habit or routine.

God’s people asked the prophet Zechariah if they should fast in the fifth month like they always did.  God’s reply was very similar to what He spoke through Isaiah about true and proper fasting.  God said:

Zechariah 7:5-13

5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh (day of atonement) months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

8 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty.

God is calling out to us today.  Will we listen?

Do we fast?

Do we take time to intentionally abstain from created things to pursue the Creator?

When we choose to fast, is it the type of fast that honors God?

The type of fast that He desires?

If it seems like God is just not listening; not answering our prayers, these questions are a great starting place.  Like the Ninevites, let’s truly fast.  Let’s repent of our hardened hearts and listen to the written word of God and the words spoken through the prophets as they are led by the Holy Spirit.

The post Crave: Fast appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

Last week, we were challenged to question the things which we crave.

We were reminded that God created us with cravings, but that we often settle for lesser things than God created them for.  We turn to created things rather than the Creator to satisfy those cravings and are left empty.  God has promised to satisfy our desires with good things.

It isn’t that the things of the world which we crave are necessarily bad.  It is when they entice us and drag us away from God that they become issues.  It is when we value and desire and pursue them as much or more than God that they become what the Bible calls idols.

The first commandment teaches us not to put anything at all before or equal to the Lord.  Jesus then re-affirms this issue of priorities by teaching us not to worry about what we are going to eat or drink or wear.  He then says:

Matthew 6:32-33

32 …Your heavenly Father knows that you need these things. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Again, it’s not that earthly things are bad or evil.  It’s not that God doesn’t want us to have them.  It’s when we get our priorities misaligned and replace the Creator with created things that there is an issue.

Let’s dig a little deeper into this and cut right to the heart of the matter.

Is it perhaps that we don’t trust God?

We live in an extremely consumer-driven culture.  The customer is always right.  We expect what we want, exactly how we want it, and receiving it right now.  Even in our rural area, we can place an order on our phone and have it dropped off at our door within hours.  In some areas, drones are delivering items even faster.

Not only do we want things quickly, but we want to be able to fully customize it as well.  We’re even studying and experimenting with being able to customize features of our babies such as their gender or eye and hair color.

Surrendering control of our cravings isn’t a very popular concept.

Nobody goes to a restaurant that brings to your table whatever food and drinks the staff decides that they want you to eat.  Nobody goes to a clothing store and tells the cashier to just grab whatever they want for you to wear.  Nobody goes to a realtor and tells them to buy them a house.  You know, wherever the realtor decides, however much they decide to spend, however many bedrooms and bathrooms they decide, and so on.

Do we trust God?

Do we trust His promise to satisfy our desires with good things?

Will what He provides us be sufficient?

Will we be content with it?

Will it fully satisfy and bless us?

If we believe God’s word to be true, then we should actually expect God to provide us with something far better than we could ever obtain on our own!

James 1:17

Every good and perfect (teleios – lacking nothing necessary to completeness) gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows

We can’t really do any better than perfect, right?  If it is good and perfect, then it could have only come from God!

There is another scripture that comes to mind with this that we often quote.  I’m going to back up several verses for the full context of this prayer that Paul wrote for the church in Ephesus:

Ephesians 3:16-21

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine – that has to be better than anything that we could ever come up with, right? 

The Passion Translation

He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.

Amplified Bible

Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us.

This is what we call hope.  It’s way more than just a fuzzy feeling or emotion!  It’s fullness of trust that God not only can, but that He WILL provide perfection for us.  It will be best.  It will be far more than we need and we will receive it at exactly the right time.

Do we trust God?

We turn to an acrostic poem written by a guy who we can well relate to.  Well, in terms of waiting on God to fulfill His promise, at least. 

God made him some awesome promises.  God gave him a powerful anointing.  With his bare hands, at a young age, he fought and won against bears and lions.  Through worship by simply playing his lyre, he drove off evil spirits.  In the Israeli military, he killed tens of thousands of God’s enemies.

God also permitted him to endure some harsh opposition and many years of painful waiting and wanting and trusting.  He spent years running away from a single man who was determined to kill him.  In the midst of it all, David wrote:

Psalm 34:1-14

Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.

1 I will extol the Lord at all times;

    his praise will always be on my lips.

2 I will glory in the Lord;

    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

3 Glorify the Lord with me;

    let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;

    he delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant;

    their faces are never covered with shame.

6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;

    he saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,

    and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;

    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,

    for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,

    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

11 Come, my children, listen to me;

    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12 Whoever of you loves life

    and desires to see many good days,

13 keep your tongue from evil

    and your lips from telling lies.

14 Turn from evil and do good;

    seek peace and pursue it.

If we want to love life, if we desire to see many good days, then we should be cautious with what we speak, do good, and seek and pursue peace.

Most of us crave righteousness, but not God’s righteousness.  We crave being right by proving others wrong.  We crave defending ourselves and justifying ourselves.  We crave being better than others.  However, this is self-righteousness and not true, Godly righteousness.

Our flesh proudly craves to boast in our own righteousness, but our souls crave peace.  Our flesh craves comparison, but our souls crave identity.  When we stand before Jesus, there will be no doubt that absolutely nothing about us is good or righteous.  Our righteousness can come from Him, alone, because only He is righteous.

Jesus will not compare us to others and judge our righteousness based on theirs.  He will compare us to the person whom He created us to be.  We will be judged by His standard alone to His will alone and to His purposes alone.

Our trust and our confidence must remain in Christ alone!

What is it that steals away our peace?

James 4:1-10

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Our peace is stolen away when the cravings within us are not satisfied.  We try to satisfy those cravings with things of the world which we cannot have and so we quarrel and fight since we aren’t getting what we want. 

Why are those cravings not satisfied?  Because we don’t ask God to satisfy them.  AND, if we do ask God to satisfy them, we ask with the wrong motive of our own personal pleasure.  God likens this to adultery.  We were created for the Creator, yet crave the creation.  We want more of the world and less of God.

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

    but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

In the KJV and original Greek, verse 4 is written to say, “You adulterers and adulteresses.”, “moichos and moichalis.”  Translated, this does mean adulterous as well as faithless.  Adultery occurs when we, who were created and purposed to give our bodies exclusively to our spouse, and even entered into a covenant called marriage that this would be the case, choose instead to give them to someone other than our spouse.

Adultery with God is when we, His bride, choose to live our lives for anything else.  We, who have vowed to be faithful to God choose to be faithless and not to trust Him to satisfy our desires with good things like He promised to do.

Do we trust God?

Do we live by faith in Him?

God jealously longs to dwell with us and to fill us up to overflowing with His Holy Spirit.  God wants to satisfy our desires!  However, we often resist Him, grow impatient with Him, and instead turn to lesser things.

The Message translation states it this way:

James 4:4-6 (MSG)

You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find.

When we truly look to Jesus, we will find that He is more than enough than we will ever need!  Whatever He provides is worth the wait!  If we are left in waiting, there is a purpose for it and only He can reveal that purpose to us.  We must turn to Him!

As the hymn implores us:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

We are also reminded to consider those who have gone before us.  We are warned to learn from their mistakes so that we don’t repeat them!  Adultery is one word used to describe what we do when we turn to anything but God to satisfy our cravings.  Another word is idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10

Warnings From Israel’s History

1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Most of the people just kept looking back.  They craved the things of Egypt, even though it came along with their enslavement.  They saw the miraculous hand of God, but their hearts continued to long for lesser things.  As a result, they missed out on God’s best for them – His promised land.  They could not enter in because of their divided hearts.

What do our hearts long for?

What do we crave?

6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Idol Feasts and the Lord’s Supper

14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

The Believer’s Freedom

23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say – but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” – but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. 29 I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God – 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

The old adage rings true that “we are what we eat.”  What do we choose to consume?  What do we spend ourselves on?  Are we divided between the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons?  Do we grab some things from the table of God and some things from the table of demons?  Do we cry out with our lips for more of God, but then crave in our hearts more of the world?

In other words, are we lukewarm?

God is calling out:

Isaiah 55:1-2

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty,

    come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

    come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

    without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,

    and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

    and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Let us wholeheartedly turn to the Lord!

Let us surrender our whole lives to His Lordship!

Let’s repent of adultery and idolatry!

Let’s trust Him and place all of our faith in Him!

He will satisfy our desires with good things!

At just the right time, He will fulfill every one of His promises!

The post Crave: Trust appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

What do we crave?

God has created some amazing things for us to enjoy!

God has also created us with desires and cravings.

God wants to satisfy those desires with good things.

Psalm 103:2-5

2 Praise the Lord, my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits –

3 who forgives all your sins

    and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit

    and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things

    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Where things start to go wrong is when we misinterpret our cravings.

All of us were born into sin.  We were born with this sinful human nature and flesh that entices us to satisfy our cravings with things that harm and destroy us.  Our cravings are not bad, but what we choose to satisfy them with can be.

Romans 1:24-25

24 God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts… 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.

When we turn to created things rather than the Creator, our cravings are misunderstood.  We exchange truth for lies and worship and serve lesser things; created things instead of the Creator.

Lesser things.

If we were created to need 8 oz of water every day, but every day turn only to a 6 oz bottle of water to get filled up, we will never be satisfied.  Oh, we will temporarily sense relief and happiness.  However, it will provide just enough to keep us coming back to it even though it can never truly provide what it promises.  We will end every day thirsty, needy, and longing for more.

It is a lie.  In the end, we will be left dry and parched and slowly die.  It promises, but only in part.  It fulfills, but only a little.  It will never be enough although it gives a false sense of hope that it will be.  The temporary satisfaction is just enough to keep us coming back.

It’s like drinking salt water to quench our thirst.

It seems to quench it, but is actually only worsening the craving and slowly killing us.

We were created for something more.

We were designed with these cravings, but every earthly thing falls short of truly satisfying them.

Those are the types of things that the devil tempts us with in order to satisfy our cravings. 

James 1:13-17

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Tempted, enticed, dragged away from God into sin because we choose to settle for lesser things to satisfy our cravings.  Even in our weakness and temptation, God still remains faithful.  He is still with us and for us!

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

God never tempts us and He will make sure that we are never tempted beyond what we can bear.  There is always a way out!  Even in our temptation, God is still calling out to us and drawing us to Him; THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE!

Romans 1:25

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…

It’s not even necessarily that the earthly things which we crave are bad. 

It’s when they become equal to or greater than our desire for God that they become evil.

It’s when they become replacements for what God provides us that they become evil.

Jesus was tempted in every way that you and I are tempted and yet never sinned.

In Matthew 4, we read about when Jesus was taken out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Yeah, I know, let that one stir up your theological inquisitiveness for a moment.

Not tempted by the Holy Spirit; tempted by the devil.

Yet still lead by the Holy Spirit out to be tempted.

The devil tempted Jesus, but Jesus resisted and overcame and then began His earthly ministry.  He chose to live in full surrender to His Heavenly Father trusting that His plans and purposes and provisions were best.

1 John 2:16-17

16 For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

What do we turn to when cravings stir up within us?

Remember God.

Remember all of His benefits!

God forgives ALL your sins.

God heals ALL your diseases.

God redeems your life from the pit.

God crowns you with love and compassion.

God satisfies your desires with good things.

What do we crave?

What do we hunger and thirst for?

What do we feed our souls?

What do they really need?

What truly satisfies us?

What are these good things that God provides which satisfies?

Well, this is where truth comes into play.

This is where freedom begins!

This is where we repent – returning that exchange that we made!

We turn away from created things and begin to pursue the Creator!

The only way to receive good things that satisfy our cravings is to turn to the One whom created us with these cravings.  He alone knows what our cravings truly are and what they were purposed for.  He alone can provide the good things to bring satisfaction to our cravings in a way that releases life and blessing.

Joel 2 provides these promises to us if we just choose to turn to the Lord with our cravings:

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,

    “return to me with all your heart,

    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart

    and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God,

    for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

    and he relents from sending calamity.

14 Who knows? He may turn and relent

    and leave behind a blessing—

grain offerings and drink offerings

    for the Lord your God.

19 The Lord replied to them:

“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,

    enough to satisfy you fully;”

Surely he has done great things!

21     Do not be afraid, land of Judah;

    be glad and rejoice.

Surely the Lord has done great things!

22     Do not be afraid, you wild animals,

    for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.

The trees are bearing their fruit;

    the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.

23 Be glad, people of Zion,

    rejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given you the autumn rains

    because he is faithful.

He sends you abundant showers,

    both autumn and spring rains, as before.

24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

    the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,

    who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

28 “And afterward,

    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

    your old men will dream dreams,

    your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women,

    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

John 7:37-39

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival of the tabernacles, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

When we turn to God, He gives us His Holy Spirit who is the source of living water.  Not only are we satisfied, but this living water overflows our lives and pours out into the lives of those around us!  Why would we ever turn anywhere else to satisfy our cravings?

What do we crave?

Can we echo and agree with these cravings?

Psalm 84:1-4;10-11

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,

    Lord Almighty!

2 My soul yearns, even faints,

    for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh cry out

    for the living God.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home,

    and the swallow a nest for herself,

    where she may have her young –

a place near your altar,

    Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

    they are ever praising you.

10 Better is one day in your courts

    than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

    the Lord bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

    from those whose walk is blameless.

Isaiah 26:8-9

8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,

    we wait for you;

your name and renown

    are the desire of our hearts.

9 My soul yearns for you in the night;

    in the morning my spirit longs for you.

When your judgments come upon the earth,

    the people of the world learn righteousness.

Psalms‬ ‭143‬:‭6‬ ‭

I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.

Psalm 42:1-2

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

    so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

    When can I go and meet with God?

Psalm 63:1-5

1 You, God, are my God,

    earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you,

    my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land

    where there is no water.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary

    and beheld your power and your glory.

3 Because your love is better than life,

    my lips will glorify you.

4 I will praise you as long as I live,

    and in your name I will lift up my hands.

5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;

    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

Give God a try!

Psalm 34:4-8

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;

    he delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant;

    their faces are never covered with shame.

6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;

    he saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,

    and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;

    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

What do we crave?

What do our souls long for?

Do we hunger and thirst for the Spirit of the Living God?

Do our whole beings long for Him?

They do!

We just may not recognize it.

We have spent our entire lives chasing after lesser things.

We have turned to created things instead of the Creator in our cravings.

Let’s try something different.

When those desires rise within us, let’s lift up our hands to God and to cry out to Him.

Let’s position ourselves to receive from God.

He PROMISED, PROMISED to satisfy our desires with good things.

Let’s not forget that!

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Today, we celebrate fatherhood.  Happy Father’s Day!

Here at New Hope, we have been blessed with all kinds of awesome dads.  Biological dads, adoptive dads, step-dads, spiritual dads, and father-figures. 

In the Bible, we find all of these kinds of dads and more.  The Bible even records some really bad dads.  Like truly terrible dads.  Some were even in lead ministry positions like Eli!  We don’t have to read past the first few chapters of the first book to find the first father, Adam, whose son Cain killed his other son Abel.  Not exactly the picture-perfect family right from the start…

I really hate to start off this Father’s Day message on a negative note, but unfortunately, that trend hasn’t really changed.  There seems to continue to be far more bad examples of dads than there are guys who choose to rise up and to become great fathers.

Almost 2,000 years ago, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 4:14-16 (KJV)

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.  For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.  Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

Though, I prefer how The Message translation states this.

1 Corinthians 4:14-16 (MSG)

I’m not writing all this as a neighborhood scold to shame you. I’m writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled. There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God’s Message to you that I became your father. I’m not asking you to do anything I’m not already doing myself.

Paul later makes the similar bold call to:

1 Corinthians 11:1

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

There is a lot that can be understood about fatherhood from just these four verses!  Although here, Paul is writing within the context of spiritual fatherhood, the principles apply to successful fatherhood in any context.

First, we have to be present.  The biggest part of being a good dad is to simply be there. According to the US Census Bureau 2024 data, 17.4 million children live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home.  That’s nearly 1 in every 4 children in America!  Along with this statistical trend comes an increase in just about everything bad in life including poverty, behavior issues, substance abuse, crime, dropping out of school, suicide, and more.

All of the good things that result from fatherhood begin by the simplicity of just being there.  That’s the start.  However, being present requires more than just physically being there. 

We’ve all observed times when the father of a family is sitting around the table with his family, but focused on his phone with no idea what is happening around him.  Or I’m sure that none of us have ever experienced a time when he is sitting there in his favorite chair and just “resting his eyes” and not sleeping, right? 

Though physically there, he isn’t really present.  Here are some more examples of what this looks like on a larger scale in life.  Please don’t be like one of these guys.

These dads are physically there, but they have no idea what is happening in the lives of their kids.  That’s not being present.  In fact, in today’s world, it is possible to be present and accessible even while not physically being able to be there for our kids.

It’s important that our children know exactly how and when to approach us to get our undivided attention.  It’s up to us as dads to intentionally make that way and honor it.  Even if it is a quick facetime or phone call, it is important for us to be accessible.

Unlike God, we aren’t omnipresent.  We cannot give everyone our full attention at all times.  However, there should be a way for our children to call on us and to receive our presence when they need to.  They need to know that they are a priority to us and not a burden. 

We should also be intentional about setting apart one-on-one time with each of our kids to provide them that time even when they haven’t requested it.  Being present this way in their lives builds relationships so that they trust us and are more likely to come to us when things get tough and they need help in life.

The first step in successful fatherhood is to be present.

Next, we need to coach them.  Paul said that there are plenty of people out there who want to be teachers, but not fathers.  What is meant by this is that there are plenty of people out there who will tell you how to live your life and to call you out and criticize you when you don’t live up to their expectations.

However, there aren’t many people out there who will lay down their own lives to come alongside of you.  There aren’t many people who will help you to discern God’s purpose for your life and to fulfill that.  That’s what a good father does; coach us through life.

In sports terms, many of us have watched our kids endure both good and bad coaching.  Say that your kid is playing baseball and they are up to bat and they strikeout causing their team to lose the game. 

A bad coach will scream at them and belittle them with each miss and especially after the third strike.  Throughout the game, with every error, they shout out a bunch of “‘Cmon’s!” and “You’ve gotta be kidding me’s!” and “What is happening out there’s?”  They express their disappointment and anger through blame alone.

At practice, they call out every error and make them run for making mistakes, but never take the time to show them how to play any better.

A good coach will see what went wrong after the first miss and call out what your kid can do to correct it.  A little correction like “Keep your eye on it!”, “Swing through!”, “Lock that back leg!”, “Elbow in!”, “Under!”, “Over”, “Early!”, “Late!”, etc. both communicates what the error was and also how to correct it.

With each error, they call out useful instructions on how to better next time.  Also, throughout the game, they shout out praise for every successful play.  At practice, they get on the field and show the players how to improve their game.  That’s what a good coach does.

Paul wrote: “There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up.”

A father coaches their children well.  Sure, discipline is a part of this process.  However, even discipline is used as a tool with the ultimate goal of correction to keep them on God’s path for their lives and off of the road to destruction.  Again, Paul wrote:

Hebrews 12:5-11

5 Have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Successful fathers coach their children well.  They discipline their children, but only as a tool to train them to stay on God’s life path that leads to righteousness and peace and blessing.

Finally, successful fathers live the example. 

Paul wrote:

“I’m not asking you to do anything I’m not already doing myself. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Could we say that to our children?  “Follow my example as I follow Christ?”

The reality is that whether we want to think about it or not, we are setting the example for our children to follow.  I’m convinced that more in life is caught than taught.  What that means is that more is being taught through the unspoken words of our life choices and actions than in what we teach with our words.

More in life is caught than taught.

Setting the example doesn’t mean that we live life perfectly.  Not by any means!  What it means is that when we sin and screw up, we man up and admit it, ask forgiveness for it, and do what we can to right our wrongs.  Paul, himself, wrote:

Romans 7:15-25

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The best example that we can set for our children is that we surrender our lives to Jesus.  We admit and show our weaknesses and reveal God as our source and strength.  We show that we fully rely on Jesus for any good thing about us. 

On our own, we can’t be good nor do good.  God alone is good.

On our own, we keep on doing things that we don’t want to do.  We need Jesus!

We might be a father, but we also need a father, ourselves.

We were created and designed to need a father at any age!  The concept of fatherhood is so important that it exists eternally!  God, Himself, exists as three persons in One; FATHER, SON, and SPIRIT.  We all need God, our Father!

Psalm 68:5

A father to the fatherless is God in His holy dwelling.

In fact, we will turn to a spiritual father whether we ever take the time to stop and think about it or not.  It is simply a reality.  We will either turn to God as our Heavenly Father or we will continue to reject Him and accept the devil as our father and do his will.

Jesus didn’t sugar-coat this reality when He was speaking to people!  In fact, this is what we were singing about earlier this morning.  We’re no longer slaves, we are children of God!  When we put our faith in Jesus, we are adopted into His family and God becomes our father.

Well, then, who was our father before we were saved?

John 8:31-59

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

Things are escalating pretty quickly here!  This group of people, Jewish people, that Jesus is speaking to believes that just because they were born as descendants of Abraham that they are children of God.  Their literal bloodline goes back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel).

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Whew!  So Jesus is asking each of us this morning a very unexpected question, “Who’s your daddy?”  Is God our father or is the devil?  It’s one or the other.  Do we love Jesus and desire to fulfill God’s will for our lives?  We may not want to hear it or think about it, but it is critically essential for each of us to decide this for ourselves.

Is God our father or is the devil?

Let’s take time right now to surrender our lives to the Heavenly Father through faith in Jesus!

* Salvation Prayer *

Now, I’ll end on a positive note.  The last step in being a successful father is to enjoy life.

Work hard and play hard!  Teach your children how to have fun and actually enjoy the life that God has given them.

Why did God say that we should obey all of His commands and decrees?  So that things go well for us and so that we can ENJOY THE LIFE HE HAS GIVEN US (Deut. 6:2)!  Why should children obey their parents?  So that they may ENJOY LONG LIFE ON THE EARTH (Eph. 6:3)!

I leave you with the greatest gift God ever gave us: salvation.

I also leave you with the greatest gift God ever gave us through fathers: dad jokes!

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