Is There Hope?

In the Book of Ezra we find the children of Israel returning to the land after seventy years of exile.  They had fallen away from God and given themselves over to idolatrous worship and pagan practices.  But God, in His mercy had decreed through Cyrus King of Persia to release the Jews with his blessing to return to the land and rebuild the temple.  Ezra was spearheading the restoration of worship when he discovers that the people haven’t separated themselves from the evil practices of the pagan peoples.  Not only that, they have begun to intermarry with the people of the land (Ezra 9:1-2).  Ezra is broken in heart over it, rips his clothes, weeps, and finally just crumples down astonished at what has happened.  After all, this was what had gotten them into trouble with God in the first place.

Continuing in chapter 9 on over into chapter 10 we find Ezra weeping, praying, confessing, and totally broken over the sin of God’s people.  Reading in verse 15 of chapter 9 he states, “O LORD God of Israel, you are righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before you in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before you because of this.”  He feels hopeless and condemned because of what has occurred.  And I think he probably felt personally responsible since he was a scribe, which was a teacher of the law to God’s people.

Ezra is a defeated, demoralized, discouraged man.  He has no hope and in the midst of we read ‘Ezra 10:2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.’  Notice a few words in his statement of faith.

1  He says, “yet”.  He’s saying, “Ezra, it’s not over, it’s not finished.  The final nail has not been driven in our coffin.”  Sometimes we think we are past restoring or maybe ‘fixing’, but God isn’t finished with us yet!

2.  He says too, “in spite of this”.  In other words, as Paul said in Romans 5:20 ‘But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:’

3.  Shecaniah said ‘there is hope’.  Where would we be without hope?  Where would we be without a light at the end of the tunnel?  Where would we be without a future?

Let me share a story I read a few years back.  I think it illustrates the hope we have in Christ.

The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.”

The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much. But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”

The bottom line for us is that God would not have sent His Son to die for us if there were no hope.  Think on that….

What Does The Resurrection Mean?

In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph. He didn't profess to be a born-again Christian, but it seems he must have been influenced by Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the body. Here's what he wrote: The Body of B. Franklin, Printer Like the Cover of an old Book Its contents torn out, And script of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms, But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believed, Appear once more In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended by the Author.

Ah, the Resurrection.  What does it really mean?  Oh, we know that it means that Jesus rose from the grave having conquered death.  That He is greater and stronger than death itself and that He has power over death.  We have been taught the ramifications of that being that we who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior are going to have a resurrected body one day.  That we will be caught up together to meet Him at His return or if we go by the way of the grave ourselves we will return with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). 

So tell me dear Preacher, what does it mean for me today?  Why does it give me hope?  Well, let me list some things that it does mean to us:

1.   We will one day have a New Body.  An immortal, glorified body.  One that doesn’t age, isn’t susceptible to sickness, knows no pain, one that death can’t touch, one that will be like our Lord’s body.

2.  We will one day have a New Home.  Because Jesus is alive He has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-3).  Think of it, a home in Heaven!  We see so many beautiful homes today, but the one Jesus is building is beyond compare.  Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.”

3.  We have a Better Inheritance.  Sometimes those who have gone on before leave us something of value to remind us of their love.  1 Peter 1:3-4 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,”.  When my Mother died she left each of her children a small amount of money.  It was all she had left, but our Lord has an inheritance set aside for each of His Children, and He rose from the grave to guarantee we would not be left out of His Will.

It reminds me of that old hymn we used to sing:

It will be worth it all

When we see Jesus

Life’s trials seem so small

When we see Christ

One glimse at His dear face

All sorrow will erase

So bravely run the race

Till we see Christ

Think about that this Easter as we worship the one who rose from the grave!

Having a Growing and Vibrant Sunday School

We all envision and desire a great Sunday School in our church.  We want to see people saved, lives changed, and our Lord to be given His rightful due in our lives.  But desire and realization don’t always meet up when it comes to our dreams.  So how do we ‘make it happen’ as we say in today’s lingo?  We tend to analyze and complicate the process when in fact Jesus made it very simple for His Church.  The first Sunday School wasn’t started until the 1700’s in England, but the principles are dominate in God’s Word.  Let me give you four basics for having a growing and vibrant Sunday School in the 21^st century.

1.     We understand that the Mission is to Make Disciples.

Do we remember the Great Commission of Christ to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8)?  Do we remember that He called us to go and compel them to come in that His house would be full (Luke 14:23)?  When we get a mindset of ‘us four and no more’ we miss His calling on our lives.  More than that, others are deprived of an opportunity to know Christ.  To use a quote from the Lorax movie, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not.”

2.     We need to develop a Ministry Mindset

In the wording of today it’s called building community.  Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “a three fold cord is not easily broken”.  Sometimes we say it as “there’s strength in numbers”.  However we phrase it, we all know that we need each other in this world.  Let’s make sure our classes are open and inviting to each and every guest we have.  Let’s keep our eyes open for opportunities to minister to those within the class and those without.

3.     We share the Message of Christ

I remember a survey done a couple of years ago in preparation for the GPS emphasis of the North American Mission Board.  People were questioned as to what they were looking for in life and the top four answers were these:  Hope, Purpose, Peace, and Life.  Our Bible Study should always seek to uplift Christ and His message, because His message is one of Hope, Purpose, Peace, and Life.

4.     We understand we are to Multiply Ourselves

We are not just to teach His truth, but to teach and train others to teach His truth (2 Timothy 2:2).  Our classes should always be striving to apprentice new teachers, to create new classes, and to multiply ourselves by mentoring and discipling others.  If our Classes don’t have a kingdom vision they will become inward focused and self-centered.

Jesus took twelve men and changed the world.  What can He do with us if we let Him? 

Prayers That Get Answered

Reading this morning in His Word I came across something that caught my eye.  2 Samuel 7:27 says “For you, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, I will build you a house: therefore has your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto you.”  Did  you notice that what David said how he had found it in his heart to pray this prayer to you, that is God?  What led David to pray in the manner that he did?  Looking back he uses the term ‘therefore’.  So what was it there for?  Continuing to look back he mentions how God has ‘revealed’ to His servant what He is going to do, therefore David wanted to prayer according to what God had revealed to him.  That is that God, instead of answering David’s desire to build a house for God, would establish David’s kingdom forever.  2 Samuel 7:25 says, “And now, O LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as you have said.”  David heart became one with God and desired to pray not according the David’s desire (a house for God), but that God’s desire be accomplished.  Maybe that is why he’s called ‘a man after God’s own heart’.

All this made me really stop and think.  It caused to me chew on my prayers a bit, if you will.  Was I praying according to what He has revealed to me?  What has He revealed to me in His Word and through His Spirit that I should be praying for?

With those thoughts in mind, I sat down this morning and wrote down six things that I need to remember to pray for.  And the joyful thing is, that I know they will be answered because He has revealed them to me in His Word!  I am sharing them so that you too might see His/Your prayers answered.  So here they are:

1. I pray not that I should be wealthy, but that I should have His riches.
2. I pray not that I should have perfect health, but that I should be one with Him.
3. I pray not that I should be delivered from trouble and tribulation, but that I should trust Him in my trials.
4. I pray not that I should know every step of my future, but that I should follow Him daily.
5. I pray not that I should seek to be successful, but that I should honor Him with my life.
6. I pray not that I should work to better myself, but that I should work to build His kingdom.

That’s my list.  Maybe you can use these, or make your own list.  Just remember 1 John 5:14-15 says “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us: ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we desired of him.”

I love knowing that my prayers are going to be answered, don’t you?

A New Home!

Let me first tell you what a joy and honor it is to be your Pastor!  God has truly blessed my family with a loving church.  God is good!  And by the time you read this we will have moved into our new home here in Russellville.  If you didn’t get a chance to view it during our recent open house you sure missed a great opportunity to see what a wonderful home Second Baptist has provided for my family and me.  Thank you!

It has been remodeled, refurbished, renovated, renewed, and restored (am I missing any words to describe it that begin with ‘R’).  It is beautiful, clean, smells new, with no clutter or dirt anywhere!  The contractors moved some walls, stripped the floors, refinished some of the beautiful wood floors, and recovered some rooms with brand new carpet.  If you didn’t or haven’t had a chance to see it yet come knock on our door, we would love to show it off.

All of this reminds me that we personally need to be refurbished, remodeled, and renovated sometimes.  We call it being revived in the church.  Corporately we hold revival services from time to time in our church so that everyone can experience a renewal with God.  We will be having a spring revival from April 15^th through the 18^th.  Would you and I start now preparing our hearts for the Lord to do a ‘new’ work in us?  Let me give you some things to pray about as we approach this time together.
Ask Jesus to expose and remove the clutter in our lives that keep us from allowing Him to reside freely in our hearts.  Are there some rooms that you have closed off to Him because there are things that you don’t want Him to see.  Trust me, He already knows about them.
Ask Jesus to strip us of all the old habits and sins that dirty our hearts and hide the true beauty He created us to have.  Let’s ask Him to strip us of all that doesn’t glorify Him.
 Ask Jesus to renew our minds to His truth (Romans 12:2).  How easily we are lulled into believing what the world tells us.  Our Lord will have a Word for each of us.  Let’s not let the evil one blind us to God’s truth.

The Parsonage may look pretty much the same on the outside, but believe me, it’s all brand new inside and that reminds me too that Jesus does His best work on the inside.  We just have to be willing to let Him.  Let’s pray for all that to happen.

A Hurting Heart

Does your heart ever hurt?  I’m not talking of indigestion, angina, or the onset of a heart attack.  I’m asking if it hurts from loneliness, tragedy, suffering, being broken over a relationship, or just being brokenhearted?  It’s kind of a rhetorical question isn’t it?  Maybe a better question is what does your heart break over?  What causes your heart and mine to literally ache? 

Some days I need to look into my heart and ask that question.  Sometimes God’s Word asks it for me.  We really don’t like to dwell on painful things so consequently we skirt the tough questions.  Questions like, can I really make a difference in my world when we see so much pain all around us.  If I really, really sold out to Jesus what would my life look like?  If I gave myself to meet and reach a hurting world what would God do to me, through me?

Now, I don’t consider myself an ‘old’ person, but yet I am, I guess, considered a ‘Senior’ citizen.  Just don’t want to admit that, you know?  In retrospect, I am getting older, and I seem to be getting more broken over things around me and this world around us whether across the street or in another nation.  It’s easy to blame it on my age, but is it really?  Or is it Jesus opening my eyes a little more each day like a newborn puppy.

So I see it more and more each day, a child who doesn’t have a home to grow up in as I did when I was young, with a Mom and Dad, and siblings to fight and play with.  A Mom who is trying to raise her children in a Christ honoring way without the support of a husband or a widow or widower who goes home to an empty house without ever hearing the phone ring.  That person in another country who has not been given all the ‘stuff’ that we enjoy each day and never will have those ‘things’?  Is my ‘stuff’ really that precious?  Does my schedule have to be kept to a tee?  Am I on my time or God’s time?  Is it His ‘stuff’ or mine?

I know I’ve been rambling a bit, but these are the thoughts swirling in my head right now.  Will I give up myself that I can be His servant?  I have to remember I didn’t write and choose my job description, He did.  I just have to be willing to fill it.

Spring is Coming

I love snow!  I know, you’re probably saying “What!!”  Sure it brings a lot of trouble with it, but it is one of the most beautiful things that God has given us.  But by the time February arrives I am getting ready for spring.  I’m tired of wet, cold, gloomy days.  My mind is turning to warmer sunny days, being outside, going fishing, maybe even hitting a golf ball, trees putting forth leaves, and seeing some beautiful flowers.  It’s a great time of the year. 

I’m also looking forward to my first spring in Kentucky.  Just as spring confronts us with new life it reminds us too of the resurrection.  Everything that was once dead (or so it seemed) is now alive with color and growth.  My spirit is already stirring thinking of our Revival Services that we will be having this April and the Easter services when we reflect on our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection.  So much opportunity for renewal and growth await us in our lives and in our church.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Do we look forward in faith to what God has for us this spring?  Do we have the vision to see what He has on the horizon for us?  Do we stand ready to be obedient to whatever He calls us to do?  Can we see lives changed, families restored, Sunday School growing, our church revived, and most of all our Savior glorified?  I believe so.  I know so.

Let me give you some things to be praying about.  Pray for our first ever ‘March to the Cross’ which will be our Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions.  America is more lost than ever and there are so many areas of our country that need the gospel.  Pray for our Revival in April.  Brother Tom James from Eastwood Baptist in Bowling Green will be preaching for us.  Begin now praying for those in our community that need Christ.  Pray for our Mission Emphasis in March and most of all pray that this Easter will bring salvation to many hearts and lives!  I’m looking forward with faith to it, aren’t you?

I think it’s time for a good snow and then spring!