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"Apostle Paul" Tagged Sermons (Page 2)

From Murderer To MARTYR

We all recognize this man named Apostle Paul. We have heard of him and read his incredible letters that are a part of the New Testament in the Bible. But what do we know about this man? We know that he was and still is an amazing teacher, a colossal figure of the first century world. No wonder some churches and Christian denominations have assigned sainthood to this humble yet greater than life man.
I would venture to say that no other person in the Bible, aside from Jesus Christ Himself, had a more profound influence on his world and ours than this man, the Apostle Paul.
He was a powerful witness of God’s faithfulness. But he was not always that witness of God’s faithfulness. We sometimes forget that all human being, no matter how great an impact they had during their lifetime on this earth, CAME FROM THE SAME PLACE; A WORLD OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND PHYSICAL BRUTALITY.
Saul had a great upbringing. His parents were Pharisees, members of the party most fervent in Jewish nationalism and strict in obedience of the Law of Moses. He was a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city.
Saul grew up in a very controlled Jewish environment. Friendship’s with Gentiles was not allowed. Greek ideas were despised. His parents made sure that Saul could speak Greek, Latin and Aramaic, a language of Judea, a derivative of Hebrew.
Saul and his parents looked to Jerusalem as Islam looks to Mecca. Saul grew up in a home where he constantly was reminded that they are the People of Promise to whom alone the Living God had revealed His glory and His plans. By his 13th birthday, Saul had mastered Jewish history, the psalms and the prophets.
“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” C.S. Lewis “Mere Christianity”

REDISCOVER OUR FOUNDATION

The Apostle Paul established this church about A.D. 50-51, when he spent 18 months there on his second missionary journey. We can find these details in Acts 18:1-17. During his 3rd missionary journey, about 5 years later, he stayed in Ephesus for about 3 years, and during this time he received disturbing reports concerning problems among believers in Corinth. He wrote a letter which we know as the lost first letter to this church at Corinth.
Shortly afterward, a delegation sent by a member of the church at Corinth (Chloe) reported to Paul that there were divisive factions in the church. Paul did not immediately respond. Then another delegation from Corinth arrived with a letter asking Paul certain questions (1 Corinthians 7:1 and 16:17). The first thing Paul did was sending Timothy to Corinth to help correct the problems there. (1 Corinthians 4:17). He then also wrote the letter that we know as 1 Corinthians, expecting it to reach Corinth before Timothy would arrive. (16:10)
If we would analyze this letter carefully, we find that Paul responds to 10 separate problems;
• A sectarian spirit
• Incest
• Lawsuits
• Fornication
• Marriage and divorce
• Eating food offered to idols
• Wearing the veil (head covering)
• The Lord’s supper
• Spiritual gifts
• The resurrection of the body
How does the Apostle Paul address all these problems at once?
He reminds the church that they have to rediscover the true foundation, which is Jesus Christ, as a counter to all human boasting.
WE learn that no matter what local church we attend, believing that there is one without problems between individual members would be at best naïve, at worst, deceptive.The question is not if a Bible preaching, Holy Spirit led church can have problems, but rather, HOW CAN SUCH PROBLEMS BE SOLVED AND THE INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE AND THE LOCAL BODY AS A WHOLE LEARN FROM IT AND BECOME BETTER, NOT BITTER.
The purpose of our church is summarized in a single sentence based upon two key Scriptures:
1. A Great Commitment to the GREAT COMMANDMENT
2. A Great Commitment to the GREAT COMMISSION
What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind? When we deviate just 5% from this commandment and love anything more than God, we are on dangerous grounds. The temptation is always present to love and protect our ministry or people we feel God has given us. Or to love my reputation and my position more than I love God. Or I love a certain program more than I love God.
There is a fundamental flaw in such thinking. WHY?
Because no human being, no program, no ministry, no reputation, no calling, can DO WHAT ONLY GOD CAN DO.
When a program starts making disciples after themselves, it needs to shut down, period. Changing leadership is not the answer, because the culture in a certain ministry has its root in the spiritual place. People begin to think what they have heard or observed, even if it is contrary to Scripture.
This is very important to know, because when our commitment to the program is greater than the commitment to the Lord Himself and his established authority, everything breaks down. Now all we want to be involved in is our program.
The Apostle Paul had to deal with that in in Corinth, and I had to deal with that in our church. While such corrections are painful and easily can be misunderstood or misinterpreted, they are absolutely necessary.
In this church, we always want to be committed to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. As a family, some of us need to rediscover our foundation and ask the Lord to bring those Biblical truths to our remembrance daily.

BABYLON – The Plans within Plans within Plans

The name Nimrod means: “rebellious, revolt, indignation or disgraceful”.
The word Babel or Babylon means: “confusion”.
Mystery Babylon shrouded her plans within plans within plans, while this intentional shrouding is a well-thought-out methodical art to lead people astray. In Ephesians, chapter six, the Apostle Paul is telling us that the “wiles of the devil” are carefully planned and implemented secrets, spiritual traps, that one day will entrap the entire world. Satan used Nimrod, the son of Cush and the grandson of Noah, to develop a system of religious practices that would replace man’s walk with God in every aspect of life. His goal was to entrap the people of Babylon by making them absolute dependent upon those religious systems. What Nimrod did was implementing a system of control where people replace RELATIONSHIP WITH A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. In Revelation 17 we see how God Almighty will destroy that religious system. The people who relied on that system to sustain them will be left to themselves.
We rejected the offer to restore the RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD ALMIGHTY AND exchanged it with a religious system. THAT’S MYSTERY BABYLON. All man-made religious find their origin in MYSTERY BABYLON. There are many of them, plans within plans within plans. Nimrod was a genius. He was able to provide everything the people had need of, including their religious freedom: all roads lead to God. God is always the same for ALL religions in the world. He is just called by a different name. Right now, his name is NIMROD.
Remember, Abram had to leave behind the Nimrod System he was dependent on for all his life.
Abram was rich in earthly goods, but he had no relationship with God Almighty nor did he know HOW TO WALK WITH GOD LIKE ADAM DID IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Now El Shaddai was the one who would multiply Abraham abundantly,
El Shaddai was to restore life to Abraham and Sarah who were as good as dead where offspring was concerned. Through El Shaddai would they have future offsprings as the dust, stars and sand in numbers. By God’s grace, Abraham would escape the religious trap Nimrod set for everyone. Listen, God called Abraham out of Babylon to WALK WITH HIM, much the same way that the Holy Spirit calls us to salvation through the preaching of the gospel. We must leave the religious system behind and learned to WALK WITH GOD ALMIGHTY.
The Apostle Paul reminds us about this truth regarding our relationship with God Almighty, El Shaddai.
Paul was writing to believers in Christ, and when he did so, he was not merely referring to marriage. This is a cry of the Holy Spirit to our generation as well. We need to learn to walk with El Shaddai, walk with God Almighty, the only source of our strength, the only source of our health, the only source of our supplies. We are talking here about spiritual survival.
Satan has done a great job with his earthly disciples to make sure that we cannot see what his plans within plans within plans are. But the Holy Spirit knows and reveals those truths to God’s children so they stop walking within the system but walking with God and Him alone.

Preparing Christ’s Second Coming – Part One

We know that the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is primarily the revelation of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Throughout the entire bible from Genesis to Revelation, the main theme is always the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and the Redeemer of mankind.
The Apostle Paul declares that Jesus Christ has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And he goes on to say that by Him, Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah to the Jews, the king of the Jews, the Savior of the world, is the one who created everything that is in heaven and that is on the earth. All things were created through Him and for Him. And the book of Revelation is giving us the details HOW GOD HIMSELF IS PREPARING CHRIST’S SECOND COMING TO THIS EARTH. There is a condition that must be met before Jesus Christ will return to this earth to establish His VISIBLE KINGDOM.
According to Matthew, Jesus began His ministry in chapter 4. You can read this Gospel from chapter four until chapter twelve to find out that Jesus went around Israel proclaiming that He is the promised Messiah. The purpose of all His miracles recorded in those chapters was to authenticated His Messiahship and His message, the Gospel of the kingdom. In other words, all the miracles Jesus did were signs to the nation of Israel to challenge them to make a decision about Him. Everything changed regarding the purpose of His miracles and His message in Matthew, chapter 12, beginning with verse 22.
The people were not willing to come to a decision by themselves. They were looking for the answer from their religious leaders, the Pharisees. When they accept Him, when they authenticate Him, then we will accept Him as well.
Then, in verses 30-37 Jesus pronounced a judgment on the Jewish generation of that day. Why? Because that generation had committed the unpardonable sin: THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Listen, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was not an individual sin but a NATIONAL SIN. It was committed by that generation of Israel in Jesus’ day.
In other words, the content of the unpardonable sin was the national rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus while He was physically present, on the grounds that He was demon possessed. THIS SIN WAS UNPARDONABLE, AND JUDGMENT WAS SET. THE REALIZATION OF THIS JUDGMENT CAME IN THE YEAR 70 A.D. The Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, burned down the temple, slaughtered over one million Jews, and dispersed the rest world-wide.
It is interesting that from this point on in the Gospel of Matthew, special emphasis is placed on THIS GENERATION. Why? Because it was this generation that was guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Judgment was unavoidable, because there would be no forgiveness for this sin.
Listen, the book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians who, because of persecution, were contemplating a return to Judaism. The book warned them that they must completely separate themselves from Judaism. If they failed to do so, they would be caught up in the judgment of 70 A.D. and suffer physical death. Only of they separated themselves from Judaism completely would they have the opportunity of escaping the judgment upon that generation. Of course, from Hebrews it is not known what the results were. But it is known from JOSEPHUS AND EUSEBIUS quoting HEGESIPPIUS, a Jewish Christian historian of the second century. These men recorded how the Hebrew Christians, in obedience to the book of Hebrews, separated themselves from Judaism. So when the revolt against Rome began in the year 66 A.D., the entire Jewish Christian community left the country and waited the war out in the town of PELLA, and the east bank of the Jordan River. Although 1,100,000 Jews died in this Jewish revolt against Rome, not one Hebrew Christian was killed. Because they did obey the book of Hebrews, they escaped with their lives, and they were freed of the judgment upon that generation.

Mothers Are Made By God

The Apostle Paul is telling the church at Ephesus that as followers of Christ, we must HONOR OUR FATHER AND MOTHER, which is the first commandment with promise.
What is the promise? That it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. That does not mean that everything in life will go according to our plans. NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE, Jesus prayed to His father. And yet, Jesus Himself HONORED HIS MOTHER ON THIS EARTH.
Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was truly blessed among women, yet God made this women the faithful mother she was. So does He with every women who is willing to respond to God as Mary did: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
Mother’s you are specially made by God with a very specific purpose.
When God brought you through it all, your job is not yet done. There is one more thing God will bless you with, and that is to become a TEACHER, AN EXAMPLE, TO THE YOUNGER MOTHERS WHO SO DESPERATELY WANT TO PLEASE THE LORD AND FULFILL THEIR CALLING

The Root of Bondage or Freedom

We have already learned that all of us are subject to spiritual warfare; that Satan and his demons have built strongholds in our mind, that is, have make us believe certain doctrines that are contrary to the Word of God. And we all have learned from the Apostle Paul’s admonition that such strongholds, such doctrines that contradict the Word of God, must be pulled down, demolished, pulverized.
Last week we examined the reality of God’s sovereignty and that not even Satan can go beyond the boundary God has set for him. Now we have to look at what our responsibility is in all of this. The Bible is very clear regarding our responsibilities in the spiritual battle. While God Almighty has equipped us more than adequately to face our enemy, Satan and his demons, he also demands that we use the weapons supplied to us and stand strong in the battle.
THE MAJORITY OF OUR SPIRITUAL BATTLES SPIRITUAL ARE FOUGHT IN OUR MIND.THE MIND IS THE MOST STRATEGIC POINT WHICH WE HAVE TO DEFEND against the attacks of our enemy.
Satan will use people that look like followers of Christ, spiritual leaders who claim to represent Christ, but in actuality they represent Satan, attacking your mind with false doctrines, that is, doctrines of demons. If you choose to accept those teachings, Satan will then have successfully neutralized your mind to engage him in any spiritual battles.
In other words, Satan will attack your mind with the purpose to entangle us with a yoke of bondage. Do you recognize now that the root of bondage or freedom is found in the mind, the way we THINK?
In this parable in Matthew 15 Jesus give his disciples insight HOW GOD WORKS TO CHANGE THEIR HEART. By understanding spiritual truth, Biblical truth. The question of eating food with unwashed hands was used by Jesus to reveal the truth that everything has its root in the heart and mind of the person. The heart will be changed by the mind. And the mouth, the language you use, reveals what’s in your heart. Your language reveals a huge amount of spiritual information: Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Because the Mind is the gateway to the transformation of the heart.
Without UNDERSTANDING GOD’S TRUTH, NO TRANSFORMATION TAKES PLACE. And understanding will only come through LIFE APPLICATION. Reading God’s word with no intention to apply it to our daily life is one of Satan’s most powerful tool to keep us in bondage. God’s intention is to bring us to freedom, freedom we can experience in every day life. Freedom that comes through transformation of the heart. That is God’s objective all along.
The root of bondage or freedom is found in our mind. The way we think. The way we UNDERSTAND GOD’S TRUTH.

Refuge In God’s SOVEREIGNTY

We have already learned that all of us are subject to spiritual warfare; that Satan and his demons have built strongholds in our mind, that is, make us believe certain doctrines that are contrary to the Word of God. And we all have learned from the Apostle Paul’s admonition that such strongholds, such doctrines that contradict the Word of God, must be pulled down, demolished, pulverized.
When we read these verses, we can easily come to the conclusion that the battle is entirely in our hands and in our power. However, as we will find out today, these weapons of warfare are MIGHTY IN GOD. And the battle of our mind, bringing our very thoughts into captivity, cannot be done apart of OBEYING THE WORD OF GOD.
Who is really in Control? You, Satan or God Almighty?
THE ANSWER MUST ALWAYS COME FROM THE BIBLE, which happen to be our standard for living.
God’s sovereignty does not mean that you have no responsibility in spiritual warfare. Although the ultimate outcome is not in question, what happens in your life will be affected by how you respond. Listen, Satan is not deciding what is going on in your life. It is God Almighty who has His own purposes for allowing the enemy access to your life, and God’s purposes are always only for your good.
Because Jesus found refuge in God’s sovereignty, the attitude was one of absolute obedience, the obedience unto death, having confidence in His Heavenly Father as Jesus Himself focused on the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).
Satan did warfare against Jacob and his sons. Satan’s intent was to destroy them all, so God could not fulfill His promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After Joseph was sold into slavery, and the brothers struggled to survive in Canaan during a great famine, God finally revealed His ultimate purposes to those involved. Satan wanted to derail God’s purpose by using evil means, but God meant it for good. He will always turn into good what Satan means for evil. All our spiritual battles are in our mind. The way we think. Strongholds, Paul calls them. Do we think according to the Word of God or according to the things we feel or hear?
No exception.

You Are Enlisted

As one man once said:
“I am a soldier. I am not a baby. I do not need to be pampered, petted, primed up, pumped up, picked up, or pepped up. I am a soldier. No one has to call me, remind me, write me, visit me, entice me or lure me. I am a soldier. I am not a wimp. I am in place, saluting my King, obeying His orders, praising His name and building His kingdom. No one has to send me flowers, gifts, food, cards or candy, or give me handouts. I do not need to be cuddled, cradled, cared for or catered to. I am committed. I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around. I cannot be discouraged enough to turn me aside. I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit.
When Jesus called me into this army, I had nothing. If I end up with nothing, I will still come out ahead. I will win. My God has and will continue to supply all my need. I am more than a conqueror. I will always triumph. I can do all things through Christ. The devil cannot defeat me. People cannot disillusion me. Weather cannot weary me. Sickness cannot stop me. Battles cannot beat me. Money cannot buy me. Governments cannot silence me, and hell cannot handle me. I am a soldier. Even death cannot destroy me. For when my commander calls me from His battlefield, He will promote me to captain and then allow me to rule with Him. I am a soldier in the army, and I’m marching claiming victory. I will not give up. I will not turn around. I am a soldier, marching heaven-bound. Here I stand!” Unknown Author
You say; well I did not sign up as a soldier, all I wanted is to get to heaven. Well, you will not get there without a war. Jesus came into this world to win that war once and for all. But not everyone knows about it. WHY? We fight the greatest war that has ever been fought. This war started long before God created Adam and Eve. It started in heaven, and eventually came to this earth. And this war is not over until all His enemies are made His footstool.

The Objective of TRUE Warfare

The objective of that warfare was very clear. Get rid of the promised Messiah, the one who would break the chains of bondage in the lives of people; the one who came to set the captives free. There is another spiritual warfare going on that is not primarily focused on spiritual beings, but ON OUR MIND. The Apostle Paul was exposing an entirely different warfare that was raging especially in the church at Corinth.
People crept into the church at Corinth that were false teachers, accusing Paul of living according to the flesh. They said that when personally present among them, he would not have the courage to confront them, but once gone away, he then would write them a strong rebuke in form of a letter. They said that such a person is a coward. They accused this man of God to be motivated by evil self-interest, interested in money and power.
TWO IMPORTANT POINTS IN SATAN’S DOCTRINE WERE ANNOUNCED BY HIM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN WHEN HE FIRST APPROACHED THE WOMEN.
First, there was a bold denial of a statement God Himself made
Second, there was Satan’s assurance that if she would act independent from God, they would be as gods.
How can we take down such fortresses? Remember, the Objective of true warfare is to make people change the way they think. And such can only be done BY USING THE WEAPON, THE SPIRITUAL WEAPON GOD HAS GIVEN US.
THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, THE WORD OF GOD. IT’S ONLY THE TRUTH THAT WILL SET US FREE FROM OUR OWN PRISON, FROM OUR OWN FORTRESSES. They either become our prisons and eventually our tombs, or they need to be demolished by the Truth, the word of the living God.