FEEL THE WEIGHT COME OFF

            It does not spoil your happiness to confess your sin. The unhappiness is in not making the confession. -Spurgeon

Hebrews 12:1-2, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

            So, I don’t know if you have ever been on a diet or not but when you begin to lose weight, if feels really good. It feels good to hear someone say, “Have you lost weight?” It feels good to put on a pair of pants and they don’t fit because they are too big. It feels good to know with the Lord’s help, you can do it!

            Hey friend, just like it takes help to get the weight off, we cannot put sin off by ourselves! It takes the Holy Ghost living in us to live the Christian life. It takes the Holy Ghost in us for us to chose to do right. It takes the Holy Ghost in us to feel the weight come off and for us to live a life of victory!

            Do you have Him? Do you know how it feels for the weight of sin to come off? If you have been saved, you do! Yield your will over to His will and watch the Lord work in and through your life!

STILL COMPLAINING

Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy. –Franklin  

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 1 Corinthians 10:10

            After the Children of Israel had fled the grips of Pharaoh in Egypt they started complaining about everything. They got to the Red Sea and said, “Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.?” Despite all the complaining the Lord provided safe dry passage across the Red Sea.

            Did they stay faithful to Him and follow His Word? Fast forward to when Moses sent the 12 spies to check out the Land God had given them. Ten of them came back complaining, they said “Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.” When we get our eyes off of the God of the circumstances and on the circumstances themselves that is when we moan and complain. Not thanking the Lord for what He has done and what He is doing in our lives.

            I was wondering this morning, if God was to write a summary of my life would it be like that of the Children of Israel? Would it be a lot of complaining and not enough praising? Would it be a life of disobedience or obedience?

            Are we still complaining about things God has brought us to? Instead of complaining, shouldn’t we praise Him a little more today and a whole lot more tomorrow?

COMMITTED

            Be dogmatically true, obstinately holy, immovably honest, desperately kind, fixedly upright. -Spurgeon

Hebrews 13:5, Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

            We never have to worry about the Lord being unfaithful to us because He has promised in His Word to never leave us nor forsake us. He will always be there in every turn we make in life. Even in the bad turns we make the Lord is there to help us clean up the mess we make.

            On this Sunday morning, are you planning on going to church? Have you made up your mind nothing will keep you from attending the service, whether online, drive up, or in person? Or have you not decided yet? Here let me help… BE COMMITTED! GET UP, GET READY, and GO TO CHURCH!

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

            People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.-Goldsmith

Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”

1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”

           Our greatest model of this Christian life is Jesus Himself. If we try our best to live our lives as He lived His, though we will fail at times, our lives will improve! What I have found is that I must be consistently reading His Word, meditating on it, praying over it, and doing it to be getting the mind of Jesus in me.

            I don’t know about you friend but my life needs improvement! Let’s dig a little in God’s Word today so tomorrow we will be a little bit more like Jesus!

LET’S SING

            Our singing should be such that God hears it with pleasure-singing in which there is not so much art as heart, not so much of musical sound as of spiritual emotion. –Spurgeon

Psalm 100:2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

            In Exodus 15, Moses sang a song of Spiritual victory. The victory God had given was victory over Moses’ enemy, Pharaoh and his army! Do you have a song of victory? Is there a song that comes to your mind when God does something special in your life? If not, find one! Do not go another day without finding that special song of victory for your life!

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,

I will sing, I will sing,

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.

With my mouth will I make known

Thy faithfulness,i Thy faithfulness,

With my mouth will I make known

Thy faithfulness to all generations,

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever,

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.

WHO HATES YOU?

In no one else in all history do you find an abiding hatred, an immortal hatred except against our Lord... The hatred against Christ has never weakened even after twenty-centuries... because he is still an obstacle-an obstacle to sin, to selfishness, to godlessness, and to the spirit of the world. --Fulton J. Sheen

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. John 15:18

Christian, while you’re standing for righteousness remember it’s not you the world hates—it’s the God you serve! It’s the Lord Jesus! No matter what, lift high the message of Christ and go on for the glory of God. Never mind those who don’t like you. Ignore those that speak evil of you. And if someone tells you they hate you, lower that plow a little deeper and press on for the glory of God! He will draw men unto Himself, He will save them that bow, and He will take care of those that reject Him.

LISTEN UP

            The Lord has given us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason.

Proverbs 8:33, Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

            Hey, are you listening to me? Wake up boy, I’m talking to you! I’m not going to tell you again! I heard my Dad say that and more, more then I would like to admit. While, He is in Heaven, if you were to ask my wife, she would probably tell you I still have issues hearing people, especially hearing her. 😊

            Hey friend, the Lord has said a lot to us. Let’s use our two eyes and read His Word to glean instruction from His Word. Let’s use the two ears to hear His Word preached to have the instruction in His Word. And while we are doing both, let’s keep our mouths shut so we can have the Word minister in our lives!       

IN CHRIST

       Being found in Christ is more than having Christ in you, its you being found in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

            At the point of our salvation we are filled with the Spirit of God. The Lord doesn’t give part of Himself; He gave us His all. We have the God of Heaven, the Creator of the Universe, The Saviour- Jesus Christ living in us. We got all of Him!

            So, what does the Scripture mean when it says for us to, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit?” Being filled with the Spirit has to do with us yielding our life over to God. It is surrendering our will to His will. It is us being in His Word, in His Work, in His Way, in His Will. It’s us, dying to self-daily in order for Him to get the honor and glory from our lives.

            Child of God, why do we yield back parts of our life from God? I know the answer, sin. We want our will to be done. We want our way. We are holding onto the “old things” as if they are some great treasure but hindering our walk with Christ. Get rid of those “old things” and watch Jesus work in your life! Before you know it you will be working through Him!  

CHARACTER

            Strength of character may be acquired at work, but beauty of character is learned at home. --Henry Drummond

Matthew 5:16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

            Character has been said to be who you are when no one else is around. What websites do you visit when by yourself? What channels do you watch on TV when the kids have gone to bed for the evening? Where do you spend your money? Where do you share your talents God has given you?

            Where you spend your time, spend or invest your money, and share your talents reveal a lot about you. If you shared your checkbook or account summary, what would it reveal about your lifestyle? If we were to look at the history on your computer or the back button on your TV, what would it reveal? Those talents God has given you, what are you using them for?

            Child of God, be careful, your character is showing every time you go out in public because what’s done in the darkness when no one else is around is revealed in the light.

PREPARED

            True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God's love. -Taylor

2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

            GETTING UP and GETTING, READY to go to church involves a lot more than taking a shower and getting dressed. It involves more than shaving, putting makeup on, and doing your hair. It involves more than dusting your Bible off from where you laid it last Sunday after the service. It involves more than getting your best smile on or your best language geared up.

            Child of God, getting ready for church starts in the heart. It begins by understanding that we are unfit to come in God’s presence without repenting. God told Moses, “put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” Moses could not come before God with an old dirty pair of sandals on, we surely must come to Him prepared to worship Him in Spirit and truth!

            Will you be prepared to worship Him this morning?

I SMELL SOMETHING GOOD

            A life with Jesus smells better than a life without Him.

2 Corinthians 2:14, Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

            Preparing a good pot of beans takes time. Sure, you can open a can of Pintos, throw them in a pot, warm them up, and it will satisfy an empty stomach. But you get a bag of dried Pintos, separate the rocks and trash from the beans, soak them in water over night, add a ham hock and let them cook all day while you are at work. Add side of cornbread and if that don’t make your tongue want to slap your brain, I don’t know what will.

            Just like those pot of home cooked beans many want a “successful” Christian life but they want to wake up one morning and BAM they are one. It doesn’t work that way. You have to be willing to work at it. It takes sacrifice! Paul said it this way, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

            You have to take time to read your Bible and pray every day. Don’t make excuses on why not to go to church, just get up and go—there are hypocrites at the place you work at and you still go. Get involved in the church—sing in the choir, mow the yard or volunteer for the nursery. Before you know it, your life will begin to smell a lot better!!!

Walking Alone Blind

            Blindly walking leads to destruction

Proverbs 7:6-7, For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

            Solomon is standing at his window looking out across the town below. He sees a man who is blindly looking and lusting at a prostitute. What he needs to be doing is running for his life. Instead, he is trapped by the woman’s dress or lack thereof, her smooth talk, and lying tongue ending up in her bed.

            There are a few things he could have done to prepare for this temptation. He could have looked into the Word instead of looking at her. He could have learned the Word instead of listening to her. He could have longed after the Word instead of lusting after her.

            Child of God, you do not have to blindly walk into destruction. The choices you make today will either guide you in God’s holiness or they will leave you looking for the next new thing. That does not have to be you. You could just follow God’s Will in faith and flee. Or you can continue in that sin letting it drag you into destruction! The choice is yours.  

ABIDING

Many days, we are too busy to let Him have His way.

John 15:4, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

            One of the ladies at our church trimmed our rose bushes back this week. She put all of the clippings in a bag and I took them off to dispose of them. While I was tying the bag up, I notice that the trimmings were already shriveling up. Yet, it had only been a few hours.

            Child of God, when you don’t abide in the Word, work, and way of God, you too will shrivel up and fade away. It won’t take long either. Just a few days and you’ll be out of church struggling to get back where you use to be. Thankfully, you will not lose your salvation but you will lose your effectiveness in this sin riddled world.  

            So, slow down and abide in Jesus for a little while. It will not only do you good but those around you will benefit as well.

TRUE HAPPINESS

Happiness is neither within us only, or without us; it is the union of ourselves with God. -Pascal

Romans 14:17, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

            Have you ever gone to the kitchen looking for something to eat but could not find what you wanted? You grab a snack and nope. You fix a sandwich and nope. You keep going and going and the next thing you know is you feel like an old man sitting in a recliner but still haven’t found what you want!

            I believe some people go about through this life doing the same thing when it comes to their happiness. They buy this pair of shoes and nope. They buy this tool and nope. They take this job and nope. They move to this neighborhood and nope. They buy this car and nope. They marry this woman and nope. They marry that guy and nope. They keep going and going until they are old sitting in a recliner wondering, “where did life go?” but never found the true happiness they were looking for.

            Hey friend, Be still and know He is God. True happiness is not found in things, places, or people. True happiness is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “missing piece” to the puzzle of your life. Jesus will satisfy every thing you have been looking for! Confess Him as Lord and Saviour and He will be that happiness you are looking for!

ROBBING GOD DOESN’T PAY

            One said to a minister who preached a sermon, after which there was to be a collection, "You should preach to our hearts, and then you would get some money."  The minister replied, "Yes, I think that is very likely, for that is where you keep your money." -Spurgeon

Malachi 3:8, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

            When this topic of tithes and offerings comes up, we must approach it in a way that is honoring and glorifying to our Saviour. You see the Lord wants us to be cheerful givers. He doesn’t want us to be thinking about the new fishing rod or pair of shoes we could have bought with the money we just put into the offering plate. He wants us to, by faith, give unto the Lord. He wants us to be glad to give to the cause of Christ. He wants us to trust Him and give, not out of abundance but what He asks for.

            Child of God, at the minimum, the Lord asks for ten percent of our gross income. Income is anything that increases your financial wealth. Stimulus checks, a bonus at work, a tip for helping someone change a flat tire, are just some of the ways our financial wealth increases. He then may move upon you to give more. If He does, obey Him. Whatever the Lord has asked of you, trust Him with what He has impressed upon your heart to give. You will be blessed and be a blessing to others in your life when you follow His will. If you don’t, you are robbing God and it will not pay!

A BIT OF ENCOURAGEMENT

           Would Christ have made a child the standard of faith if He had known that it was not capable of understanding His words? - D.L. Moody

Matthew 18:3, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

            Oh, the faith of a child. I know a little about that. When my oldest daughter was young, a friend of mine and I would chunk her back and forth like a sack of potatoes. She would run back and say, again, again. I miss those days of not only her but my other two “kids” being true kids. Oh, I am thankful for who they have become and wouldn’t want them to go back for anything. But I learned so much about the Lord and myself during those days.

            Take a moment this morning and think about your kids. Think about how much faith they have in you. Think about the faith they have in people. Think about the faith they have in society. We learn a lot when we consider the faith of a child. Do you have that kind of faith, the faith as a child?

GOT FRUIT

            The Holy Ghost brings fruit in the life of the believer.

Galatians 5:22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

            I remember once, when I was growing up, our truck broke down. A fella stopped and asked if we needed any help. My Dad asked him, “Do you know anything about a Chevy?” The guy said, “I know a little.” Dad said, “Sure” and the guy went back to his truck to get some tools. While he was gone, Dad said, “Watch this.” In no time at all the guy had that old Chevy running and we were on our way.

            You may ask what does that have to do with the fruit of the Spirit? Technically, nothing but you now know why I don’t like Chevys. Actually, there is a point to the story. You see, I asked Dad when we got back into the truck, “Dad, how did you know he knew how to fix the truck.” Dad said, “In his answer to my question. He didn’t brag about how much he knew. He just said, “I know a little.” His fruit proceeded his knowledge.

            Friend, if you want your fruit to proceed your knowledge, spend some time with the Lord today. Someone once said that Spurgeon spent at least 3 hours every day with the Lord. How much time will you invest with Him today? GET UP and GET READY to listen to the message God has for you today!      

THE HOLY GHOST SEALS

            Being sealed by the Spirit is as sure as the indwelling of the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

            The very day a wretched sinner trust Jesus Christ to save them, they are not only indwelt by the Spirit of God but they are eternally secured by Him as well. It is not a sealing based on anything within the believer. It is totally based in the finished Work of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.

            Friend, if you are saved, not only does the Holy Ghost of God live inside you to guide, convict, instruct, grow and much more but He also seals you until the day of redemption.

What comfort that brings to the child of God when rough times in this life come!

THE COMFORTER IS HERE

            The Spirit of God first imparts love; he next inspires hope and then gives liberty; and that is about the last thing we have in many of our churches. -Moody

John 16:7, that “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

            Many believers live as if there is no hope. They grasp at straws every time something bad happens in this world. Crying at the daily events in such as way that any lost man wouldn’t want to have the Jesus they say they’ve got.

            Child of God, either you have victory over this world or you don’t! The old hymn writer said, “Faith is the Victory that overcomes the world.” Do you have this type of faith? Do you have this type of victory? If you do, then the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in your life in such a way that some will come to know Him because of you!

            The comforter is here folks. Live in such a way that He will bring comfort to the lost, dying, and hurting world through your life.

WHY ME

            Often a question is asked wrong. Ask it a different way and you have your answer.

Matthew 5:45, That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

            You have heard the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Well, first off, the Bible says, there are none that doeth good, no not one. So, actually there isn’t anyone that is good or does good within themselves. It is only when we are in Christ and do things through Christ that they can be classified as good.

            Secondly, instead of asking, “Why me?”, ask “Why not me?” For when you think of your situation as if God allowed you to come to this point, it takes on a whole new perspective. By faith, you can face what you’re up against with the help of Jesus!

            Have you been wondering around asking, Why did I get the diagnosis of cancer? Why did my mom die, Lord? Why can’t I get a better paying job? Why doesn’t anyone love me? Why, why, why???”

            Friend, stop asking, “Why Me?” Ask “why not you” and it won’t be long before you find your answer! God may be leading you into this valley in order for your spouse, child, Mom, or Dad to be saved. You may be the help your Christian brother or sister needs. God is bringing you through this trial for His honor and glory and your good.