Title: Answered Prayer
Date: September 20, 2009
Text: 1 John 5:14
Introduction
- How many of us would like to have answered prayers?
- Some say, God knows everything about me, so why do I need to ask Him for anything?
- Did you know that it is God’s intention and desire, to answer our prayers?
- But sometimes things get in the way and our prayers do not seem to be answered
- James 4:2-3
- You don’t have because you don’t ask God
- God is too busy with bigger things
- My need is too small
- I don’t know if God will answer
- We don’t have because we don’t ask
- When our motives are right, God will respond
- It is normal for a child to ask for things from their physical dad
- It is the same with God
- 1 John 5:14-15
1. Discover God’s will and then ask for it
- Read the Bible to find out how God thinks about it
- Be full of God’s word, and then pray accordingly
- When we find God’s will we can be confident in our request
- Mark 11:24
- James 1:5-6 – ask in faith not doubting
- Math 21:21-22 – if you believe you will receive whatever you ask for
- Knowing God’s will we bring our requests before Him
- Lord, I need wisdom
- Lord, I need financial help
- Lord, my body needs healing
2. Live a life that is pleasing to God
- 1 John 3:22 - We receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands
- John 8:29 - I do always those things that please him
- 1 Pet 3:7- When we behave contrary to God’s will, our prayers will be hindered
- Walk closely with God
- Mat 7:7 – ask and it will be given
- John 15:7 – if you remain in me, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you
3. Pray in the right manner
- James 1:5-6 - Ask in faith, not doubting
- Mat 21:22 – if you believe you will receive whatever you ask for
- Faith is the key to answered prayer
- Matt 18:19-20 – if two of you agree on earth. . .
- Have a prayer partner – share your needs and pray for them together
- Maybe your spouse, a believing relative, a trusted friend (same sex)
- Great benefit of praying in church – others agree with you in your prayers
- Persist in asking
- Mat 7:7-8
- Luke 18:1 – always pray and don’t give up
Conclusion
- God wants to answer our prayers
- When we have needs, don’t be afraid to ask God to respond
- 1. Discover God’s will
- 2. Live a life that is pleasing to God
- 3. Pray in the right manner
- Keep a prayer journal
- Write down your requests, and then make a note when they are answered
- Will encourage you in future prayer requests
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Repent and be Baptized - Acts 2:38
Title: Repent and be baptized
Date: September 15, 2009
Text: Acts 2:38
Introduction
- Once there was a young minister who kept boring his congregation with sermon after sermon on baptism. Finally church officers instructed him to preach on the subject of pills the following Sunday. They could see no connection between pills and baptism.
- So on Sunday, the young minister announced that would be his topic for the day. "There are big pills and there are little pills," he said, "bitter pills and sweet pills, cheap pills and expensive pills. Another pill is the gospill-and that gets to my real subject-'baptism.'
- The Bible instructs us to be baptized
- Mat 28:19-20
- Acts 2:38
Examples of baptism
- Mat 3:13-17 Jesus baptism
- Acts 8:26-39 Ethiopian eunuch
Baptism by immersion
- Jesus was baptized by immersion
- The eunuch was baptized by immersion
- The word baptidzo means “to immerse or dip under water”
- Example of pickle recipe
- Example of sunken galley
Jewish baptism
- repentance first
- self-immersion
- there had to be a witness
- for both men and women after conversion to Judaism
- a ceremonial cleansing after defilement
- seen as new birth
- spring or flowing river the highest form of ritual bath or mikveh
Being born again
- “The baptismal water (Mikveh) in rabbinic literature was referred to as the womb of the world, and as a convert came out of the water it was considered a new birth separating him from the pagan world. As the convert came out of these waters his status was changed and he was referred to as "a little child just born" or "a child of one day" (Yeb. 22a; 48b; 97b). We see the New Testament using similar Jewish terms as "born anew," "new creation," and "born from above."” - http://www.bebaptized.org/Jewishroots.htm
- John 3:1-7
Symbolism of baptism
- Rom 6:3-4
- Just as Jesus died, was buried and was raised from the dead, we die to our old life, are buried in baptism and come up to live a new life
- Baptism gives us a fresh start
Date: September 15, 2009
Text: Acts 2:38
Introduction
- Once there was a young minister who kept boring his congregation with sermon after sermon on baptism. Finally church officers instructed him to preach on the subject of pills the following Sunday. They could see no connection between pills and baptism.
- So on Sunday, the young minister announced that would be his topic for the day. "There are big pills and there are little pills," he said, "bitter pills and sweet pills, cheap pills and expensive pills. Another pill is the gospill-and that gets to my real subject-'baptism.'
- The Bible instructs us to be baptized
- Mat 28:19-20
- Acts 2:38
Examples of baptism
- Mat 3:13-17 Jesus baptism
- Acts 8:26-39 Ethiopian eunuch
Baptism by immersion
- Jesus was baptized by immersion
- The eunuch was baptized by immersion
- The word baptidzo means “to immerse or dip under water”
- Example of pickle recipe
- Example of sunken galley
Jewish baptism
- repentance first
- self-immersion
- there had to be a witness
- for both men and women after conversion to Judaism
- a ceremonial cleansing after defilement
- seen as new birth
- spring or flowing river the highest form of ritual bath or mikveh
Being born again
- “The baptismal water (Mikveh) in rabbinic literature was referred to as the womb of the world, and as a convert came out of the water it was considered a new birth separating him from the pagan world. As the convert came out of these waters his status was changed and he was referred to as "a little child just born" or "a child of one day" (Yeb. 22a; 48b; 97b). We see the New Testament using similar Jewish terms as "born anew," "new creation," and "born from above."” - http://www.bebaptized.org/Jewishroots.htm
- John 3:1-7
Symbolism of baptism
- Rom 6:3-4
- Just as Jesus died, was buried and was raised from the dead, we die to our old life, are buried in baptism and come up to live a new life
- Baptism gives us a fresh start
Sunday, September 13, 2009
God's Love - Romans 8:38-39
Title: God’s love
Date: September 13, 2009
Text: Rom 8:38-39
Introduction
- As we grow up we hear the word love all the time
- Our grandson Preston is regularly entertained by Barney on TV
- “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family
- “With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you
- “Won’t you say you love me too?”
- We ask our parents what love is and they say when you find love, you will know
- An old song says, it’s love that makes the world go round with a happy sound
- And so we experiment all kinds of ways and find our own concept of love by trial and error
- And yet it is true
- Love is at the center of our existence
- Without love, life would be very cold
- One of our needs as people is to be loved
- Our concept of love is formed by our experiences with the important people in our life
- Preston may grow up with the Barney theme song in his head, but I hope he also remembers my lying on the floor with him building blocks and racing toy cars, because it is an expression of how I love him
- The way I express love, however, is very inadequate
- It always hurts when I have to leave and say goodbye to Preston
- I know he doesn’t understand why I can’t always be there with him
- Our experiences with love impact our relationship with God
- Today I want to talk about some aspects of God’s love
God’s love is unconditional
- In our experience people love us because of how we behave
- When we behave ourselves and do things the way they want, they love us
- When we mess up and wreck our lives, people don’t want to know
- It’s a hard world out there
- That is why we are so intent on making a good appearance
- Whether that appearance is as goody-goody two shoes, or as the mean tough gangster, whatever fits into our environment
- We want to blend in and be accepted by our crowd, our friends
- It is hard for us to imagine ourselves standing out and being different, people with values and prepared to live them out
- The way God loves us though, is not dependent on our actions
- He loved us before we even thought about him
- Before we found a relationship with Jesus, we were out there, living for ourselves and not concerned with who got hurt in the process
- This was totally opposite to the way in which God lives, or wants us to live
- God is selfless and his love for us is totally unconditional
- Rom 5:6-8 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
- Deut 7:7 – “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”
- Eph 1:4 – “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”
- My love for Preston is unconditional
- I love him just because he is my grandson
- I would do anything for him that is in my power to do
- It is not dependent on how well he behaves, sometimes he behaves as though he doesn’t know me. But I still love him
- It is the same with each of us, and God
- God loves us, wherever we are at, whatever we have done
- His love for us is not dependent on our goodness
- He draws us to him and woos us until we surrender and allow him to have relationship with us
- God loves us because he has chosen to do so
- It is his sovereign will to love us, and have relationship with us
God’s love is unchanging
- When we meet that special person, and our heart flip-flops and goes head over heels, we say we have fallen in love
- We tell that special person, I love you, and we give them flowers and special things that show them we care about them and that they are special to us
- Later on, however, the storms of life and our own selfishness attack our marriage, and often we fall out of love and end up divorcing that special person and leaving them
- God’s love for us, however, does not change
- God’s love for us is persistent, it continues on through the hard times in our relationship
- Psa 103:15-17 – “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children”
- I may get upset at someone and write them off and tell them I never want to see them again
- But God does not deal with me that way
- His love is from everlasting to everlasting
- From the very beginning to the very end – infinity to infinity
- Ephesians tells us that God chose us to be his sons, in love, before the creation of the world
- And that this love relationship will continue through all eternity!
- Think about this: there never was a time when God did not love you; there will never be a time when God does not love you.
- That love is not only in terms of time
- It also relates to the nature of that relationship
- God’s love is infinitely greater than any love I can show to Preston
- I can spend some time with Preston and I feel I have expressed love to him
- However, Preston’s mom, Becky, has a way deeper love for Preston and his brand-new baby sister, Layla
- God’s love for all his children is infinite in its depth
- Rom 8:38-39 – “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
God’s love is all-encompassing
- Just couple of weeks ago, Preston’s little baby sister Layla was born
- This is a major adjustment for an only child like Preston
- Mom and dad and all of us had to be sensitive to Preston’s need to be loved, even though everything seemed to revolve around the new addition to the family
- We can sometimes and perhaps often think – God loves mankind, and he loves the church, and I am sure he loves all those people around me, but what about me, does he love me?
- It is often when things go badly in our life when the clouds are dark and the winds of doubt batter us, that we wonder if God really knows what is going on
- We feel sorry for ourselves and question if God really loves us
- Our experience with people has been that most people seem to be fair-weather friends, so we think God is like that too
- Proverbs tells us
- Prov 18:24 – “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
- God’s love is greater than any trial or problem
- God’s love is greater than all our sins and the pain in our lives
- Prov 10:12 – “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.”
- Yes, God loves us as a church, as a body of believers marching together towards our destiny
- But he also loves us as individuals, knowing all our needs and responding to us as we draw close to him
- God says he knows even our individual names
- Isa 43:1-2 – “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze”
- Jesus tells us “Fear not little flock, it is you father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom
Conclusion
- We can take heart because God does love us, personally and individually
- God knows everything we are going through and he loves us so much that he will never give up on us
- God’s love is not a temporary fuzzy feeling
- God’s love is unconditional, unchanging and all-encompassing
- John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
Date: September 13, 2009
Text: Rom 8:38-39
Introduction
- As we grow up we hear the word love all the time
- Our grandson Preston is regularly entertained by Barney on TV
- “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family
- “With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you
- “Won’t you say you love me too?”
- We ask our parents what love is and they say when you find love, you will know
- An old song says, it’s love that makes the world go round with a happy sound
- And so we experiment all kinds of ways and find our own concept of love by trial and error
- And yet it is true
- Love is at the center of our existence
- Without love, life would be very cold
- One of our needs as people is to be loved
- Our concept of love is formed by our experiences with the important people in our life
- Preston may grow up with the Barney theme song in his head, but I hope he also remembers my lying on the floor with him building blocks and racing toy cars, because it is an expression of how I love him
- The way I express love, however, is very inadequate
- It always hurts when I have to leave and say goodbye to Preston
- I know he doesn’t understand why I can’t always be there with him
- Our experiences with love impact our relationship with God
- Today I want to talk about some aspects of God’s love
God’s love is unconditional
- In our experience people love us because of how we behave
- When we behave ourselves and do things the way they want, they love us
- When we mess up and wreck our lives, people don’t want to know
- It’s a hard world out there
- That is why we are so intent on making a good appearance
- Whether that appearance is as goody-goody two shoes, or as the mean tough gangster, whatever fits into our environment
- We want to blend in and be accepted by our crowd, our friends
- It is hard for us to imagine ourselves standing out and being different, people with values and prepared to live them out
- The way God loves us though, is not dependent on our actions
- He loved us before we even thought about him
- Before we found a relationship with Jesus, we were out there, living for ourselves and not concerned with who got hurt in the process
- This was totally opposite to the way in which God lives, or wants us to live
- God is selfless and his love for us is totally unconditional
- Rom 5:6-8 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
- Deut 7:7 – “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.”
- Eph 1:4 – “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”
- My love for Preston is unconditional
- I love him just because he is my grandson
- I would do anything for him that is in my power to do
- It is not dependent on how well he behaves, sometimes he behaves as though he doesn’t know me. But I still love him
- It is the same with each of us, and God
- God loves us, wherever we are at, whatever we have done
- His love for us is not dependent on our goodness
- He draws us to him and woos us until we surrender and allow him to have relationship with us
- God loves us because he has chosen to do so
- It is his sovereign will to love us, and have relationship with us
God’s love is unchanging
- When we meet that special person, and our heart flip-flops and goes head over heels, we say we have fallen in love
- We tell that special person, I love you, and we give them flowers and special things that show them we care about them and that they are special to us
- Later on, however, the storms of life and our own selfishness attack our marriage, and often we fall out of love and end up divorcing that special person and leaving them
- God’s love for us, however, does not change
- God’s love for us is persistent, it continues on through the hard times in our relationship
- Psa 103:15-17 – “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children”
- I may get upset at someone and write them off and tell them I never want to see them again
- But God does not deal with me that way
- His love is from everlasting to everlasting
- From the very beginning to the very end – infinity to infinity
- Ephesians tells us that God chose us to be his sons, in love, before the creation of the world
- And that this love relationship will continue through all eternity!
- Think about this: there never was a time when God did not love you; there will never be a time when God does not love you.
- That love is not only in terms of time
- It also relates to the nature of that relationship
- God’s love is infinitely greater than any love I can show to Preston
- I can spend some time with Preston and I feel I have expressed love to him
- However, Preston’s mom, Becky, has a way deeper love for Preston and his brand-new baby sister, Layla
- God’s love for all his children is infinite in its depth
- Rom 8:38-39 – “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
God’s love is all-encompassing
- Just couple of weeks ago, Preston’s little baby sister Layla was born
- This is a major adjustment for an only child like Preston
- Mom and dad and all of us had to be sensitive to Preston’s need to be loved, even though everything seemed to revolve around the new addition to the family
- We can sometimes and perhaps often think – God loves mankind, and he loves the church, and I am sure he loves all those people around me, but what about me, does he love me?
- It is often when things go badly in our life when the clouds are dark and the winds of doubt batter us, that we wonder if God really knows what is going on
- We feel sorry for ourselves and question if God really loves us
- Our experience with people has been that most people seem to be fair-weather friends, so we think God is like that too
- Proverbs tells us
- Prov 18:24 – “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
- God’s love is greater than any trial or problem
- God’s love is greater than all our sins and the pain in our lives
- Prov 10:12 – “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.”
- Yes, God loves us as a church, as a body of believers marching together towards our destiny
- But he also loves us as individuals, knowing all our needs and responding to us as we draw close to him
- God says he knows even our individual names
- Isa 43:1-2 – “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze”
- Jesus tells us “Fear not little flock, it is you father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom
Conclusion
- We can take heart because God does love us, personally and individually
- God knows everything we are going through and he loves us so much that he will never give up on us
- God’s love is not a temporary fuzzy feeling
- God’s love is unconditional, unchanging and all-encompassing
- John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
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