You Alone

Pastor Kurt Gebhards gave a sermon on Philippians 4:14- 19 today and while the whole thing was (as always) inspirational and great, there was one part I just loved!

In this passage Paul is writing to the Philippians, thanking them for their support. At the end of verse 15 he wrote, “you alone” or in some translations, “you only”. No other church had entered into a partnership with Paul in giving and receiving.

Pastor Kurt encouraged us to act like we were the only ones helping. Because maybe we might be! We need to be the one who gives, who has integrity, who is kind, who speaks up for Christ, who picks up after someone, who’s not selfish or lazy. We need to be generous in attitude, with our time and with our money.

He suggested three ways we can be a “you alone” type person:

1. Care from a compassionate heart. Does your heart beat for the needs around you?
2. Consider your circumstances. Be on the look out for needs around you.
3. Cultivate ministry “fast twitch”. Be on the job and immediately be the first to help and serve. Remember people’s names; showing that you care. Be a blessing to everyone you come into contact with.

Don’t wait for anyone else to act this way first. Do it, even if you do it alone!

Mark 1: 32 – 45

Our pastor, Kurt Gebhards, of Harvest Bible Chapel, gave another inspiring sermon from the book of Mark that I wanted to share.

Mark 1:32-45 32That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33The whole town gathered at the door, 34and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
38Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." 39So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
40A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." 41Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 43Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44"See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." 45Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Ministry is for everyone who has been saved by Christ. These verses tell us how to be a minister like Jesus.

In verses 32 – 34 the crowd was mobbing Jesus for what He could do for them, not for Who He was or to know Him better. But it’s important to see that some of the people couldn’t come to Jesus on their own. The passage says “they” brought them. What we can learn from this is to be a “they”. We need to bring people close to Christ. One thing we can do is memorize scripture so we are ready to share with them in their need. We must bring the truth to others and to do this we need to stop thinking about ourselves and our own needs.

From verses 35 – 39 we learn the importance of setting aside time for prayer. The core of prayer isn’t our wish list; it’s just being with God. Jesus had been up late the night before, but He got up while it was still dark so He could talk to His Father. Prayer brings us into fellowship with God. This probably also strengthened Him to go on to the next town to preach the gospel. If He had just wanted to be popular with the people He would have stayed and healed more, but His mission was to preach the gospel.

From verses 40 – 45 we learn about His compassion. Leprosy was especially bad back in those days because the Jews believed it was the evil within coming out. So not only was it a physical disease and highly contagious, it was thought to be a spiritual disease too. The leper was desperate. He beseeched Jesus. He had no other hope. But he wasn’t doubtful that Jesus could heal him if He wanted to. And Jesus did.

As a minister, Jesus gave and served and cared, even though He had no time for Himself. People were asking Him to do things constantly and He was always gracious. We can learn a lot from Him.

An Evening with Walk in the Word’s James MacDonald

James MacDonald of Walk in the Word http://www.walkintheword.com/ has been on a bus tour this spring and John and I went to his worship service in Hendersonville, NC last weekend.

The message was Why Trials from James 1: 1-6

1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

This book was written by the brother of Jesus, yet he calls himself a bondservant of God and Jesus. He was writing to believers who were scattered and suffering. So he gets right to the heart of his message.

Consider your trials joy.

To understand this you have to have the right definition of joy. It’s not happiness. It’s a supernatural delight. It’s one of the gifts of the Spirit. Joy in God Himself!

God knows us perfectly and loves us infinitely. And He’s working out His plan for us: in the person of God, the purposes of God and in the people of God. That is certainly a reason for joy!

To count (or consider) it all joy means you need to think about it. When you are thinking about your trials ask yourself, “Why am I here?” “What is the purpose of my life once I’ve been saved?” James says it’s to display the superiority of a Christian life well lived. That’s why Christians have trials. God allows trials so we can show people the difference between a follower of Jesus Christ and someone who isn’t.

When you stand strong through the trials of life you are displaying the superiority of a life lived in God. God trusts us with the big stuff!

Eternity is racing upon us and the Bible says our trials are a light and momentary affliction. They should be our opportunity to show the world how awesome God is.
They are also a testing of our faith and they produce patience.

James says we should ask ourselves these questions:

Do you believe God is in control when something awful happens? (Even when you can’t see it or feel it.)

Do you believe God is good? (His disposition toward you is to bless you even if He has to hurt you awhile to make you a better person. God is interested in conforming us into the image of His Son.)

Are you willing to wait, by faith, until you see how God is working this out all together?

And finally James said we need to stay in the trial for as long as it takes. Don’t give up, don’t run, don’t complain or lash out. Trials produce transformation. We have to go through the whole thing to get the full effect. There is power in waiting.

Verse 4 says if you let it have its full effect on you you will be perfect and complete: lacking nothing. God is trying to rid us of the self-inflicted misery. Embrace the trial.

Verse 5 says if you lack wisdom ask God. This is about the trial. Ask God what you are supposed to learn from it. And God will give you insight.

Verse 6 says to ask in faith. You have to really want to know.

We Stand Forgiven at the Cross

The sermon in church today was on forgiveness and called Freed to Forgive. Pastor Jon Krick based it on the passage:

Matthew 18:21 – 35 21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" 22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. 29"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' 30"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

This passage was written for believers and teaches us we are to forgive as God forgave us. He forgave us a debt that was so big we could never have paid it off ourselves. What we owe Him from this is our obedience. We prove ourselves to be believers by our obedience. And obeying Him means we are to forgive others. Because He told us to.

The part where we are to forgive as He forgives us is really important though. He chooses to forget our sins once we’ve repented and asked for forgiveness. This means we aren’t to bring up someone’s sin against us ever again. Even to ourselves.
Mostly this is for our own good. Failing to forgive someone causes us to become bitter. It eats away at us.

It’s not easy to forgive this way, but someone once said, “We are never more like God than when we forgive.”

I talked about this in a post almost two years ago here

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Purchased for a Price

Pastor Jon Krick at Harvest Bible Chapel in Hickory gave me a lot to think about with his sermon this morning. (And that’s my definition of a GOOD sermon!)

The whole thing was on one verse. 1 Corinthians 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

He got us to really think about what the cost was to Jesus. Leaving heaven and all of His divine rights, being born to a human, working as a carpenter and then a painful humiliating death on a cross.

Jon suggested we need to write the verse Matthew 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" in our Bibles above 1 Corinthians 6:20. Because Jesus: perfect, sinless, Jesus took on ALL the sins of the world at that moment on the cross. He who had had a perfect relationship with God since before time began, was separated from His Father – for us!

It cost Him. Dearly!

Next Jon reminded us that since we, as Christians, are saved we have the Holy Spirit living in us and our bodies really are the temple of God.

Those are two reasons we shouldn’t take our sins (whether they are internal "heart and mind" sins) or external (the things we do) lightly. We really do sin against Him. Jon stressed that we remember what it cost Him.

Puts a whole new light on those little sins we commit without even thinking about them, doesn’t it?

I loved where he said that if we bought something that was really expensive (or “of great price”) we would really remember it. And so does God. We have value to God! Jesus was forsaken so that we never will be.

Our take away message from this is: first we remember (what He did for us) and then surrender. To surrender we need to stop doing what isn’t pleasing to God. We also need to renew our hearts and minds. Our purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.



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James 1:22 -25

We went back to Harvest Bible Chapel in Hickory this morning and heard a wonderful sermon by Pastor Kurt Gebhards on James 1:22 -25. The church is getting ready to start Life Groups and he related the sermon to the groups and also what the congregation should be doing when they come to church.

James 1:22- 25 22But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

25But one who looks intently at the perfect law the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

The goal of the Bible is to understand and for understanding to lead to life application. Pastor Gebhards said when you look into the truth it compels you to do something about it. Hearing does nothing for you if you don’t apply it. You must know it, but then you must live it out.

These verses tell us that to be an effectual doer of the word we have to obey it. Obey God’s Word. We should also be taking on the attributes of Christ. His holiness, His humbleness, His servant’s heart, etc. There should be proof in our lives that we are Christians. That we are followers of Christ.

And there are two things we get from this. Freedom (God’s law gives us freedom and keeps us safe) and blessings.

The Pastor gave us another verse to meditate on:

Luke 6:46-50 46"Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? 47"Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49"But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great."

He ended with giving the congregation a list of 8 things they should do.

1. Bring their Bibles to church
2. Expect to hear from God in church and when reading the Bible
3. Have a “live” Bible during the sermon. (Meaning people should not only be following along, but reading the cross references and looking things up.)
4. Take notes
5. And along with that keep a Journal
6. Study the extra passages during the week
7. Bring their application plan to Life Groups to encourage others
8. Establish a to-do list from each sermon