VBC Maryville

The Word Became Flesh

and Lived with Us

Only Two Choices

Lu 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Your name, O Lord, endures forever;your fame, O Lord, is known to every generation.For the Lord will give justice to his people and have compassion on his servants. Psalm 135:13-14

The God’s of the Nations

Mouths/Don’t Speak Eyes/Can’t SeeEars/Don’t HearMouths/Don’t Breathe

And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them. Psalm 135:18

The God’s of the Nations

Mammon“Confidence”Dumb, Blind, Deaf, Dead

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Romans 10:10

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough….in my Temple.

Malachi 3:10

Only Two Choices

Lu 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Phil. 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

“Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.” “Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.” Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Finding Peace this Thanksgiving

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. Phil. 4:6

1. Pray About Everything

2. Tell God What You Need

3. Thank Him for What He Has Done.

His peace will guard your hearts (Emotions)and minds (Thinking)as you live in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:7

Anxious Thoughts

Persistent state of apprehension or fear.Feelings of dread without valid cause.Concentration problems.Inner tension and nervousness.Catastrophic thinking.Irritability or edginess.

Anxious Thoughts

Restlessness and sleeping problems.Hyper-vigilance towards signs of danger.Absentmindedness and mind blanks.Intense/sudden feelings of panic or doom.Fear of losing control or going crazy.Feelings of detachment and unreality.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

(Death: The Final Stage of Growth, 1975)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,but the Lord delivers him out of them all. (19)

Affliction will slay the wicked,……… (21)

Psalm 34

The difference is not in the suffering,

the difference is in the sufferer.

Thankful for Suffering as a Saint

Christian Suffering is Light

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

Christian Suffering is Limited

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

Christian Suffering is More Logical

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

Aristotle

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Romans 8:18

Grace brings into the heart an entirely foreign element. It does not improve and perpetuate; it kills and makes alive.

Unthankful for Grace

Underestimate The Sovereign

The Sheer Grace of God

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,that the mountains would tremble before you! 2As when fire sets twigs ablazeand causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemiesand cause the nations to quake before you!

- Isaiah 64

In his presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles, and its people are destroyed.

- Nahum 1:5

All living things ………….will quake in terror at my presence. Mountains will be thrown down; cliffs will crumble; walls will fall to the earth.

- Ezekiel 38:20

Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many parts of the world, as well as famines. But this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

- Mark 13:8

And here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. ……..Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory.

- luke 21

“But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears?

- Malachi 3:2

Isaiah 64:5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right,who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them,you were angry.

How then can we be saved?

6All of us have become like one who is unclean,and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf,and like the wind our sins sweep us away.7No one calls on your nameor strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from usand have given us over to our sins.

How then can we be saved?

Grace, when it comes to us, is like a firebrand dropped into the sea,

Sirs, if an heir of wrath is left to be developed, he will become more and more fit for the place prepared for the devil and his angels!

You may take the unregenerate man, and educate him to the highest; but he remains, and must forever remain, dead in sin, unless a higher power shall come in and save him from himself.

God is our refuge and strength,always ready to help in times of trouble.2So we will not fear when earthquakes comeand the mountains crumble into the sea.3Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

- Psalm 46:20

“Catch the foxes for us,The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, While our vineyards are in blossom.”

Song of Solomon 2:15

‘Listen to the word of the Lord!Thus says the Lord God, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing.

O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins.

Ezekiel 13:4

Verse 21

- Mental Illness

- Nature Worship

- False Religion

- Sexual Deviance

- Social DIsorder

- Intellectual Arrogance

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.

Romans 1:21

REAL WORSHIP IS....

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose-and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. Yes- worship in spirit and truth is the way to the solution of perplexity and to the liberation of sin.

- William Temple (Readings in St. Johns Gospel)

REAL WORSHIP

“What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?”

says the Lord. “I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of fattened cattle. I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to worship me, who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony? Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting—they are all sinful and false.

I want no more of your pious meetings. I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals. They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!

When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

[Isaiah 1: 11-15]

REAL WORSHIP

“Come now, let’s settle this,”

says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet,

I will make them as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.

If you will only obey me,

you will have plenty to eat.

But if you turn away and refuse to listen,

you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies.

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

REAL WORSHIP IS ABOUT…

1) OBEDIENCE

2) TRANSFORMATION

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:1,2]

REAL WORSHIP

What Does Man See?

What Does God See ?

Anger...

Fear...

Broken Heart...

Heavy Weights...

1 Peter 5:7

Cast it all on Him !

Meaning of Crisis

The English word is based on the Greek term “krisis” which means “to decide.”

Crises are life-changing, in part, because decisions must be made that nearly always alter the course of life.

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die , but after this the judgment :

ATTITUDE

4:1 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.

7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

Pray Love

Share Serve

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

1 Peter 4:12-13

MEANING OF CRISIS

The English word is based on the Greek term “krisis” which means “to decide.”

Crises are life-changing, in part, because decisions must be made that nearly always alter the course of life.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way.

Viktor Frankl, concentration camp survivor.

Missionaries to Ethopia

Missionaries To Japan