Sermon Notes from August 30

Here are the sermon notes from my message Sunday "Godly Persecution of Saints." This was the last in the series on "God's GPS to Navigate Through Suffering." You can view all the sermons here.

Watchmen Nee

Yesterday I finished my portion of the series on suffering dealing with the promised persecution of believers.

Due to time, I did not share this aspect of the message. I think it is worth putting here:

On July 30, 2009; Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey spoke from the House floor to pay tribute to Christian martyr Watchman Nee. This worldwide known believer was imprisoned for his faith in 1952, died twenty years later in a labor camp and whose books are still banned in China today.

In his speech, Smith said, “...it is estimated that China has more than 100 million Christians, and millions of them consider themselves spiritual heirs of Watchmen Nee. Millions more are rightly proud of the contribution Watchman Nee made to global Christianity - he was the first Chinese Christian to exercise an influence on Western Christians - and indeed of his contribution to world spiritual culture. It is sad that the works of Nee are officially banned in China - even as they are being discovered afresh by a new generation of western Christians.”

Real Freedom

This is the exchange of John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) and the empress Eudoxia when Chrysostom was brought before her and threatened with banishment if he insisted on his Christian independence as a preacher.


“You cannot banish me, for this world is my Father’s house.”




“But I will kill you,” said the empress.


“No, you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ in God,” said John.




“I will take away your treasures.”


“No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”




“But I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left.”


“No, you cannot, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”




Chrysostom knew the utter freedom of knowing and believing that Christ plus nothing equals everything!

Persecution as believers

This Sunday, I am sharing in the last of the series of messages on suffering by talking about persecution. Here is a ten-minute clip about persecution in China.

The secrets to the early church

This past Sunday night I shared with our church the biggest change of teaching direction that I have ever proposed in my thirty years of being a pastor. It is mainly connected with these Biblical commands:

I Peter 3:15-17 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."

As I was preparing for this, my friend Barry Clingan shared with me these thoughts from J.P. Moreland in his book Kingdom Triangle.

Moreland summaries what he calls the "single most authoritative treatment of the spread of the gospel in the first four centuries” by Michael Green in his book Evangelism in the Early Church. Green highlights three factors central to the church's explosive success in her first four centuries:

1. The church's ability to engage in persuasive apologetics and out-think her critics;

2. The transformed character and biblical compassion of believers;

3. The manifest power of the Kingdom of God by the Spirit through healings, demonic deliverance, and prophetic ability clearly from another realm.

Reflect on those statements for a while. They are powerful and right on target.

Pastors must be filled with visions and dreams

Through the years, as a pastor, I have often let the enemy whisper in my ear, "You don't need to keep casting new ideas to the people. Let them rest. They get tired of your new ideas and directions."

Last night as I was driving to preach, I was meditating on what God had laid on my heart for the one-night revival and he reminded me of Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. Peter quoted Joel 2:28-32 "...I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants..."

I got to thinking. You know that your pastor is either a young man or an old man. Right? And you pray to God that He is filled with the Spirit. Right? Then YOU SHOULD EXPECT HIM TO BEING HAVING VISIONS AND DREAMS AS THE ORDINARY!!!!

Glory. So, if the pastor is not having dreams and visions birthed by the Spirit of God for the church, then something is wrong.

By the way, if every member of the church (men and women) is not having the same, then something is wrong. Ephesians 5:18 is not a suggestion. It is a command - "Keep on being filled with the Spirit."

The Spirit-filled life is not reserved for the elite, the "really serious" or the pastor. And if I was a "layman" (I hate that term) and just read that - I would just shout GLORY. My pastor, or Billy Graham, or anyone else doesn't have something more than I can have. We all are equally endowed because of the cross, the empty tomb and Pentecost.

God is truly an equal opportunity employer. He does not discriminate due to race, gender, previous sins or denomination. I'll say it again, Well Glory!

Sermon Notes August 23, 2009

Here are the sermon notes from yesterday on "God's Perspective on Suffering" from II Corinthians 4:16-18. Click here

Gold City At CrossRoads Next Sunday Night

Gold City will be in Concert next Sunday night, August 30 at 6:00 pm at CrossRoads Baptist Church. A love offering will be received.

Dr. Al Mohler on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention

As the members of my church know from my reports to them, I believe some major changes are ahead for the Southern Baptist Convention. That is strictly my opinion and subject to wrong.

Dr. Al Mohler, President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave an address Thursday "The Future of the Southern Baptist Convention," at a Presidential Forum on the campus in Louisville. The video is linked here. It is about 65 minutes long, but if you have time and/or interest, it is interesting to hear a major player in the chess game of SBC politics speak about the past, present and future.

See it here.

If you wish, you may read the Baptist Press' article on the speech here.

In All Thy Ways Acknowledge Him

One of the favorite selections of Scripture for many (including me) is Proverbs 3:5-7: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil." (ESV)

Charles Bridges (1794-1869), pastor, wrote in A Commentary on Proverbs these words on these verses:

Let our confidence be uniform. In all thy ways acknowledge him (Proverbs 3:6). Take one step at a time, every step under divine warrant and direction. Ever plan for yourself in simple dependence on God. It is nothing less than self-idolatry to conceive that we can carry on even the ordinary matters of the day without his counsel.

He loves to be consulted. Therefore take all thy difficulties to be resolved by him. Be in the habit of going to him in the first place - before self-will, self-pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, convenience, expediency. Before any of these have been consulted go to God at once. Consider no circumstances too clear to need his direction.

In all thy ways, small as well as great; in all thy concerns, personal or relative, temporal or eternal, let him be supreme.

Sunday Sermon Notes 8-16-09

Here are the sermon notes from Sunday, August 16, 2009. The message was "God's Provision for Suffering." Click here.

My web site is updated.

My personal web site is updated and has all the sermon notes updated. Check it out at www.energizingword.org

Clay Crosse on his decline and renewal Part II

I started yesterday this post with several quotes from the book I Surrender All by Clay and Renee Crosse. The author is Clay Crosse, a Christian artist, who writes on his struggles with pornography.

Here are more quotes from the book.

"Our problems had stemmed from the deadly combination of casual Christianity and self-centeredness." (Page 159)


"I never read my Bible during those years." (Page 88) And Crosse is describing the years when he was attending church but living life as if he was in control.


"Pornography wasn't our biggest problem." (Page 105)


"We had to stop living for ourselves and instead live for the Savior we both professed to love and to follow." (Page 105)


"I also carried around this idea that it didn't really matter what I did because Jesus would forgive me. My self-centered, casual approach to God used the Cross as my carte blanche to keep on sinning so that grace could increase. Everything changed when I saw how my sin had nailed Jesus to the cross. I was personally responsible for His death." (Page 106)


"However, after I rededicated my life to Christ, I found that God gave me an insatiable appetite for more of Him. I wanted to know Him better. My appetite for God led me to His Word." (Page 120)

Clay Crosse on his decline and renewal Part I

Recently I saw on a discount table the book I Surrender All by Clay and Renee Crosse. I recognized the authors as Clay Crosse is a Christian artist and I recognized the book due to having heard of his struggles with pornography.

The book is the story of "rebuilding a marriage broken by pornography." As I read the book, I am going to give you several quotes from the book today and tomorrow that shows how Clay had a shallow walk with God and what happened after confession.

"I had built my life on the philosophy that said, It's not about you because it's about me!" (page 81)

"I never thought about what it really meant to follow Jesus, other than by attending church and avoiding certain vices." (Page 83)

"Using the church as a hiding place from the world wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but I had allowed church to take God's place in my life. Church, not God and His Word, became my place of refuge, and consequently, my faith never grew up." (Page 84)

"We were committed to attending church, but we weren't very commited to God." (Page 86)

"We went to church most Sundays. We tithed. We did almost everything a Christian is supposed to do. But our focus was always on ourselves. God was always a means to an end." (Page 136)

"Our spiritual problems resulted from a failure to keep the first and greatest commandment. Neither of us loved the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Instead we loved the world and everything in it, all the while clutching a ticket to heaven purchased by Jesus with His blood on the cross." (Page 141)

I will continue this tomorrow.

The Ultimate Masquerade Party

“Sin lives in a costume; that's why it's so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom. Evil simply doesn't present itself as evil, which is part of its draw. You'll never understand sin's sleight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now, what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. … We're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good.”

—Paul David Tripp, Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy (Crossway 2008), p. 32.

Movie Review Web sites

If you are looking for web sites where you can get movie reviews with detailed content descriptions that can help you make an informed decision, then check these sites:

http://www.screenit.com/

http://www.pluggedinonline.com/

Kevin and Tammy Cofield's wedding pictures

I have the pictures of our son and his wife's weddding. This is Kevin and Tammy Cofield married on May 9, 2009 at CrossPointe Community Church, Gadsden, AL.

Do this for Your Family

I read Ron Ethridge's blog regularly. Ron lives in Muscle Shoals and is currently Interim Pastor at Moulton Baptist Church. He made a list of suggestions to do for your family in the wake of his father's death "DO This For Your Family." It is a great blog with many practical helps. Read it here.

Great article about David Platt

David Platt, Senior Pastor, The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, is featured in this week's Christianity Today. I have been "following" David since he was at New Orleans Seminary and I listen to his IPod messages almost every week. To see a pastor in a large, metropolitian church preaching 55-60 mintues every Sunday morning and then his compassion for the world and poor is such a role model. Enjoy the article posted here.

John MacArthur on The Gospel

Randy Alcorn on pain and suffering

Randy Alcorn is a worthy author to read. His books on Heaven and money I have in my library. When I saw this blog post interview with him I immediately read it. Then I saw it was about a book on suffering so I did a double take.

With the series of messages on suffering, I think it would be worth your time to read this blog interview. Especially if you have interest in reading more, he makes two book recommendations to read.

See the complete blog here.

Sermon Notes August 2, 2009

Here are the sermon notes from Sunday, August 2 "God's Purposes in Suffering" Part I. Sorry for the delay. See them here.

The Bridge of Grace

I was reading through a blog the other day and came across the following quote:


“The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by the thousands, by their myriads, e’er since that day when Christ first entered His glory.
They come and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them.” – Charles Spurgeon

"Cry Out to Jesus"

As we are preaching this series of messages on suffering, there is a song "Cry Out to Jesus" that is just awesome. Third Day sings it and you can see it via YouTube here. Here are the lyrics. Read and listen.

To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right

Chorus

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They lost all of their faith and love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

Chorus

When your lonely (when you're lonely)
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight