Monthly Archives: November 2014

Jeremiah 29:1-14-Follow Plan “J”

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11/16/14-Jeremiah 29:1-14; 1 Tim.2:1-4-“Follow Plan J”

The prophet Jeremiah lived a long, long time ago, and he wrote this passage to his people when they were hurting.

To really grasp how welcome these words would have sounded, we must go back to biblical times.

After Moses, Joshua, Saul, David, and Solomon, when all finally seemed peaceful in the kingdom of Israel, things started to go south. God’s people began to forget about Him and started to live without Him, doing whatever felt right with no regard to the Holy One who had redeemed them to freedom.

God loves Israel like a husband loves a wife, and these wrongs and sins and chasing after other gods is just like infidelity. Yet, God wants to give His beloved another chance, and another, and another.

And so for 400 years, God sent prophet after prophet after prophet to try and win his bride back, to woo her back, out of his deep care.

Yet, Israel would not listen, so they became vulnerable to attack, and they got into a war, and they lost. They lost a war, and they were taking captive away from their homes to the capital of the empire that just beat them to live as refugees for the rest of their lives.

If anyone needed to be reminded that God was still there, it was these guys, and here is Jeremiah and he saw all of it.

These guys needed to know God knew the plans they had for them. They needed to know there was hope and a future and, that is exactly what they got. 🙂

Pray for the land you are in to prosper, for we as believers know that we too are refugees in a way. Our home is heaven, so we can pray for the prosperity of the land for our land.

And we too can pray for the land we are in for we as believers are called to pray for all sorts of reasons. Do we pray for the lost in our land, that they would come to know Jesus? We mention our joys and concerns, yet we must not forget those who still have yet to have the hope that we claim.

Do we pray for our leaders, even when we disagree with them? Because remember, God desires to save them too.
When the people in Jeremiah’s time lost everything, they thought God had abandoned them.

He hadn’t. In fact I would think that the reason he sent them away to a foreign land was so that maybe the foreigners would be exposed to the truth of God as well.

He knows the plans he has for all of us.

He was using Jeremiah to reassure the people, “I have this all under my control, and this is going to work out for your good”.

Listen here today, God has not left you, He has not abandoned you and He has not forsaken you.

At times in our lives, we think God may have left us, moved on, but no friends, God may be preparing you, friend, just as he did then, for a new beginning with Him at the center.

And He gives us the most precious gift of all: Himself, in the Person of The Holy Spirit.

God’s goodness is secure, and we can have peace in that. When you enter times of trouble or sudden change, pray diligently, and move ahead doing whatever you can rather than give up.

Take it to Jesus, do what you can, then trust Him that He also knows the plans he has for you, plans to give you hope and a future. He knows the future, so we need not fear. His plans for us are good and full of hope.

Not only will God forgive, He will do much more than that.

To them, and to us, He will end the captivity by breaking the chains of sin, discouragement and doubt, giving us freedom to love.

To them, and to us, He will restore His people, like an artist restoring a masterpiece to its original brilliance.

To them, and to us, He will gather us from our lostness and darkness, and guide us by His holy light until we are gathered to our true land, heaven.

If we seek him wholeheartedly, he will be found. Neither a strange land, sorrow, persecution, nor physical problems can ever, ever break our fellowship with God, for we are His. No matter what we endure in life brothers and sisters, we can press on, “for He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.”

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Psalm 121; Phil 4:6-7. Look Up!

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Sermon Notes-11/9/14-Psalm 121; Phil 4:6-7. Look Up!

This psalm would have been sung as a Jewish believer would have been traveling to Jerusalem, going to church. As such he would have to walk up hills in order to get there.

On the One hand, mountains are hard to travel, they are hard not just for the terrain, but because these hills have wild beasts and robbers. Yet, on the other hand, on those same hills that are so dangerous, rests the temple of God, the church.

And I can imagine that as he sees the temple, it reminds him of just Who is the mighty One who dwells there. And it causes him to look above the peaks of the hills, to look up and remember where his, and our, help comes from.

And we as Christians have a leg up on this Psalm writer, for we know that since Christ has come into our hearts, here is where God dwells. Not within walls of wood but within the heart and mind of a person.

We are safe and protected. In these first two verses, we learn this:

God is a Helper (v. 1,2)

As we read on, we are further given cause for peace of mind for we see our God is an ever-present sentinel, a solider on the watch, a guardian who never leaves his post, and is always faithful.

The biblical writer is showing his praise that the real God, the true God, does not need sleep, does not need slumber.

In fact, because this Lord of ours does not rest, we have the peace and the freedom to rest.

I think we would be all better off if every once in a while, we just stepped back, took a deep breath, and said “God is my protector, and He is in control.”

So, not only is He our Helper.

God is our Keeper. (v. 3,4)

He is the One who holds and comforts us and gives us the courage and the hope to face each new day with its challenges.

Not only does our help come from the One who made heaven and earth, but this help is available day or night, rain or shine, and gives round the clock protection.

Anyone who has traveled in the Middle East knows the threat of dehydration and sunstroke. Back in biblical days, just as too much exposure to the sun could be dangerous, they also thought too much exposure to the moon could pose a health threat.

So it does not matter even if these two great celestial bodies, the sun and the moon, come after you. God still has you.

So God is not only Helper (121:1,2), and Keeper (121:3,4).

Now we see Him as our Protector (121:5,6).

It says that God is watching over you, keeping you from all harm. This is more than simply nice words, or a warm sentiment. Rather, it should bring a steady stream of calm peace into our hearts and lives.

Friends, God’s is in control, and we can really have rest and peace, when we grasp that. That is liberating, that is freeing.

It means we can take the undue burdens off our back, not get so stressed at life, and take time for what really matters.

This Psalm teaches us four ultimate truths.

1) God is Helper,

2) God is Keeper,

3) God is Protector,

4) God is Preserver

With these truths laying the bedrock of our spiritual lives, why worry? I mean imagine, never worrying about anything! Paul’s advice is to turn our worries into prayers. Do we want to worry less? Then we need to pray more.

Prayer is the key to opening the door to God’s peace for a worrisome mind.

Because through prayer, we enter into God’s presence, and when we dwell there, when we sit there, and just worship the Lord,

Cast your cares upon the Lord for He cares for you, and when you are feeling down…look up! Amen

For the Full Sermon by Craig, look here Look Up

Psalm 23-Notes

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Psalm 23-11/2/14-Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us

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This is a familiar Psalm for many of us, and several of us may have this beloved Scripture memorized by now. Yet, sometimes it takes looking at a well-known Scripture with fresh eyes and an open mind to discover God’s deep caring for our souls.

What is a shepherd? What is the role? A shepherd, like a pet-owner, many different roles to the animal. Protector, Master, Provider, Lover, Caretaker, Delighter. And Our Lord is all of these.

The beautiful relationships given to us repeatedly in Scripture between God and man can be put another way: those of a father to his children.

This intimate relationship started in the mind of God, was made possible by the work of Christ, and are confirmed and made real to us by the Holy Spirit.

So when the simple statement is made, “The Lord is my Shepherd” it immediately implies a profound relationship between a human being and his/her Maker. It links a lump of common clay to divine destiny. It means a mere mortal becomes the cherished object of God.

God invites us to make Him the Shepherd, the Ruler, the Caregiver of our lives, and in return, He promises to take the best of care of us.

We all face struggle, and life gets hard, but with God, what do we really lack in this world? We human beings want purpose. With God we have it. We seek community and fellowship. With God we have it. We search for truth to live by, With God we have it. We desire unconditional eternal love. With God, we have it.

Verse 2 says that, He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Sheep don’t sit still very often. And is this not the same for us? If we are restless, discontented, always agitated, disturbed, we do not do very well.

How can we be free of such anxiety, such restlessness? It is to walk and live with a daily reminder that God is ever-present in our lives.

Sheep are often quieted when the know their Shepherd is in their midst, and when we live, knowing that our Shepherd is in our lives, we too can rest in peace, green pastures, quiet waters, having our souls refreshed, and be guided by His loving hand that promises care.

Verses 2 and 3 use very powerful and descriptive verbs. God makes, leads, restores, and guides. These are four characteristics of the Lord as Shepherd. He makes all things new and full of life where there once was no life.

He leads us through the dark times in our lives so we don’t stumble. He restores our hope and our broken hearts. And He guides us into peace and joy. And the last part of verse 3 says why God does this…and the answer is quite simple

Because He is good. Our God is good, we can rest in our struggles in life knowing that much.

This Psalm hits its zenith in verse 4 when it says that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and why? Because only One can walk with us through death’s dark valley and bring us safely to the other side. Yes, Life is uncertain, yet, brothers and sisters why do we need to fear? Why not instead follow the Shepherd who leads us to eternal comfort?

Our Lord Jesus is a protector and a comforter. A shepherd loves the sheep and proves this love by protecting the sheep with a rod. And a staff was used to lead.

So to protect and to lead.

To defend and bring along.

God does both.

He is the Master in Charge. We can say hearty amen to that! The Lord serves as a gracious host. We put our trust in God, we become Christians, and not only does this Mighty Shepherd give us all we will ever need, allows us to rest, restores us, bestows upon us new and eternal life, lead us through the darkness but also this Loving Shepherd actually invites us to a banquet!

For David, and for us, God serves as the master of ceremonies. The MC is the one who controls the gathering. It is He who has the final word. And this MC loves us and shields us from our enemies. For David, God is the host and the presence of enemies is no longer a cause for fear.

God does that for us. He restores. He redeems. God takes our broken, battered, and bruised lives and fixes and restores and makes new. David said that “goodness and mercy follows him. This idea of following does not simply mean, keeping a safe distance. NO! Here, following has the idea of running/chasing/overtaking. So those of us who follow the great Shepherd Jesus are overtaken by goodness and mercy, we cannot escape it even if we try! The goodness and mercy are that persistent!

We as humans were created to be in relationship with God. “We were created for you Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you”. When we put our trust in God, no struggle, no hurt, not even death can stop Him from bringing us into his house.

It is in this house, that we find safety, and where we will dwell and worship God forever. This is the most beautiful picture of heaven God writes a happy ending, where there is no more pain, no hurt, no trouble, just peace.

Christ has overcome the world. We too when we follow Him, are over-comers. Let that be your source of joy and hope my friends. Amen

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