Good Words from God’s Word

Rick Warren said in a sermon he called, Reigniting your Passion for God, “The creative force behind all great art, all great drama, all great music, all great architecture, all great writing is passion. Nothing great is ever accomplished in life without passion. Nothing great is ever sustained in life without passion. Passion is what energizes life. Passion makes the impossible possible. Passion gives you a reason to get up in the morning and go, "I’m going to do something with my life today." Without passion life becomes boring. It becomes monotonous. It becomes routine. It becomes dull. God created you with the emotions to have passion in your life and He wants you to live a passionate life. Passion is what mobilizes armies into action. Passion is what causes explorers to boldly go where no man’s gone before. Passion is what causes scientists to spend late night hours trying to find the cure to a dreaded disease. Passion is what takes a good athlete and turns him or her into a great athlete where they’re breaking records. You’ve got to have passion in your life.”

I am preaching from The Psalms tomorrow.  Psalms is a book of worship, and book of conviction, a book that is all about passion.  Psalms is “full speed ahead.”  It is not half-way, half-baked, or half anything.  Psalms is “All or Nothing” for God.  You cannot be a nominal believer and enjoy reading The Psalms.  Does this sound wishy-washy, or half-hearted,

                        “O God, You are my God; I
                            Shall seek You earnestly;
                           
                         My soul thirsts for You, my
                            Flesh yearns for You,
                           
                         In a dry and weary land where
                            There is no water.

                         Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
                            To see Your power and Your glory.

                         Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
                            My lips will praise You” (Psalm 63:1-3).

I do not know about you, but I want to be a person whose “…soul thirsts for God.”  Are you that way this morning?  Are you thirsty?  Are you hungry for God?  If you are so passionate you cannot be satisfied with anything less than a filling up with the great things of God.

John Piper said, “If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”

Let’s not be a church full of “nibblers” today. Be passionate, be thirsty for the things of God, the great things that He alone provides.

Good Words From God’s Word

SUNDAYS ARE GREAT A GRACE and one of the best things that happens here every Sunday is how our people talk to and love on each other.  The connections made in the Atrium around the table before the service, the fellowship time where people meet and greet, as well as the conversations between folks who hang around after the service each week bind people together in the love of Christ.  I heard a song this week by Kari Jobe that says,

                        Come all you weary and you broken
                        Come to the table of the Lord
                        Come sing the song of the forgiven
                        Come lay your burden on the word

                        Come and find peace
                        Everyone needs a little rest
                        Everyone needs a little joy
                        And a song to sing in the darkest night

                        And life when it gets you down
                        Hope will turn it all around
                        But love is the greatest of these
                        Everyone needs a little

Yes we do; we need a little of the love, encouragement and joy of God’s people.  I see it happen every time God’s people gather here at Grace.  That’s what Paul was talking about to his brother Philemon, “Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ” (Philemon 20).  The word refresh means, “to take rest,” or to “to pause” and restore one’s heart.  It is the moment of restoration that takes place after a job is completed.  That’s what our joy in the Lord, love for Christ and our conversations with each other provide.  Grace is Great on Sundays because refreshing takes place.  We take time to restore ourselves in the love of Christ by talking to and fellowshipping with each other.  Like Kari Jobe says, “EVERYONE NEEDS A LITTLE.”

Today, as you enter to worship, leave your burdens, cares and worries outside.  Let the people of God here at Grace refresh you.  Better still, be a refreshing breeze to someone you meet and care for today.  After all, everyone needs a church family that cares, sings together, and touches hearts with the love of Jesus.  Let’s go deeper with Jesus today and with one another.  People are here today who need a little from you in the name of Jesus.

Good Words from God’s Word

Grace Baptist Church last Sunday began its new 2015-16 Sunday School year with 80 in attendance. This great turn out translated into 142 folks in worship. These numbers mean that our worship attendance this past Sunday morning was 78% greater than our Sunday School attendance. Its was almost twice the normal percentage difference between Sunday School and Worship. Even though we did not reach our goals of 100 in Sunday School and 160 in Worship, our church is demonstrating its commitment to reach people and enlist new folks in the work of the Lord here. We are a growing church and God is sending people to us in amazing ways to become a part of this fellowship.

One of the amazing things God did in our church this past Sunday is the way He turned our baptism service of Mike Peyton into a service where 3 were baptized as an expression of their profession of faith in Christ. God led Vickie Parker, who became a Christian back in March, to step forward in our service Sunday to join our church by way of baptism. Our church was thrilled by her testimony, eagerly accepted her decision, and baptized her into the fellowship of our church family. Our own Caroldean, already a member of our church, recognized that she had been sprinkled into the Lutheran church as a child and wanted to be baptized into our church family by immersion. The testimony of these two ladies and Mike was an amazing expression of God’s presence and mighty work in our church. I have been in ministry for 46 years and have never experienced a more exciting and Holy Spirit anointed day than last Sunday.

To top everything off, God’s people gave more than twice what our church budget requires in weekly contributions. The generosity of our people last Sunday is a real expression of God’s grace. God not only worked in the hearts of His people to come to church, he worked to give us a heart to give over and above our normal patterns. God is good and His leadership in our lives is causing us to see real miracles happen. Last Sunday morning was without doubt a demonstration of God’s miraculous touch. We are truly blessed.

I cannot end this article without saying a word about our Youth and their trip to the Celebrate Freedom Concert, as well as their viewing of the movie "War Room" last weekend. Every member of our church should have an opportunity to watch our young people worship God at an event like Celebrate Freedom. With over 30,000 people attending the concert, I did not have to worry about the welfare of our students at all. They took care of themselves, watched out for each other, obeyed every rule and made sure they let me know where they were all day long. At the movie Sunday night, they became verbal in their expressions of agreement with what was happening on screen. I heard them say “AMEN,” and “PRAISE THE LORD.”  Their verbal expressions of praise in the theater at one point moved the entire audience to applaud. Our young people are awesome!  Thanks Robin and thanks parents for all your help, support and leadership in our Youth Ministry.

SUNDAYS ARE GREAT AT GRACE,

Pastor Mike

Good Words from God’s Word

Today’s sermon is all about the KINDNESS of God.  We live in a world that is forgetting more and more what kindness is.  We all have seen this past week examples of unkindness which have disappointed us, hurt our feelings, or maybe even damaged an important relationship we have cherished.  Unkindness happens in homes among families, at work between colleagues, in our social networks with friends.  Unkindness often takes place randomly in the community.  An abundance of unkind things happen all the time.

God is never unkind.  He is just in his judgements especially when it comes to sin, but God is never unkind.  Some people believe God is harsh and angry at them.  Some religious systems present God as judgmental and cruel.  Multitudes of people are fleeing countries today seeking asylum elsewhere because military regimes are executing innocent people in the name of a vengeful and merciless god.  This is contrary to the kind and merciful God we learn about in scripture.  The Bible says, “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!  And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings” (Psalm 36:7).  Jesus said, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men” (Luke 6:35).  Jesus made it unmistakably clear that none of us deserve God’s kindness.  We are ungrateful and evil people who are prone to be unkind, but not God.  He is kind toward us even when we don’t deserve it.

The Bible lists kindness as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).  In these spiritual qualities we see the essence of God’s character.  God places His nature unto us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.  If there is a place where kindness today should flourish, it should be at church among the people of God.  We produce acts of kindness because God is kind.

A mother asked her six-year old son what lovingkindness meant.  “Well,” he said, “When I ask you for a piece of bread with butter on it and you fix it for me, that’s kindness.”  “But, when you spread jam on it, that’s loving-kindness.” (Chicago Tribune).

Grace should be a church that spreads a lot of jam around.  Kindness goes the second-mile in our service to others.  Kindness turns the other cheek when others are unkind toward us.  Kindness says “Thank you,” and “May I.”  Kindness is not ashamed of the words, “I’m sorry,” or “Forgive me.”  Are you a kind person?  As followers of Jesus Christ, kindness should flow freely from our hearts because God’s kindness lives in us.  Would it not be great for people to say that Grace Church is a kind church?  That’s what I want people to say that about me.  Don’t you?