COMMITTED to train men and women
to have minds for the Lord Jesus,
hearts for the truth, and
hands that are skilled to the task.
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Sermons on Christian Life (Page 13)

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

Where Is Your TREASURE?

When Jesus is talking about the treasure, he means the WORD OF GOD. God communicating to his creation, unlocking the mystery of who God is, why we human beings are here on earth, and how we should live on this earth.
We read the Word of God because it is God’s treasure entrusted to us. When we read in His treasure, we will get to know God better. In it our heavenly Father communicates with us, revealing to us His heart and vision for our lives. Where else could we learn about God’s holy character, or about His kingdom established in our hearts, or about the grace of God, the unconditional love of God for us. Apart from such a treasure, we would never know anything about God’s nature, God’s plan for us, God’s future for us, God’s purposes for us.
In other words, this treasure, God’s Word, shows us the way we should go. It also shows us what will happen if we do not treasure God’s advice.
The psalmist clearly points out that by treasuring His Word in our heart, we will be able to live under its daily influence and experience the blessings that come with it.
The Bible, the written word of God, is the only book in the entire world, especially the only religious book in the world where hundreds of prophecies have been recorded when they were spoken and then recorded hundreds of years later when they have been fulfilled exactly as predicted.
“My hands shook as I started to unwrap one of them. I read a few sentences. It was written in beautiful biblical Hebrew. The language was like that of the Psalms, but the text was unknown to me. I looked and looked, and I suddenly had the feeling that I was privileged by destiny to gaze upon a Hebrew Scroll which had not been read for more than 2,000 years. ” Hebrew University Professor Eliezer Lipa Sukenik
Oh, let us never come to a point to read the greatest treasure like most of the religious leaders did when Jesus walked this earth. Searching the Scripture to find eternal life, yet never understood that the very text was testifying of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Under The INFLUENCE

WE CAN LIVE OUR LIFE UNDER TWO KINDS OF INFLUENCES. And whatever we choose, one or the other, will not just have a major impact how we live, how we behave, how we interact with one another, but also HOW WE INFLUENCE ONE ANOTHER.
John 6:63 says it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
In other words, the Holy Spirit makes life worth living. The flesh, this world, and all religious activities apart from the Spirit of God are of no help at all.
This whole world is under the influence of the wicked one. Jesus introduces to us the ruler of this world as the Father of lies. In other words, the whole world is under the influence of the master LIAR. We are being bombarded daily with news on TV, Internet, Facebook, text messages, phone calls, magazines and books produced by people that are under the influence of the ruler of this world. They are being used by Satan to conceal the truth, to hide the truth, to distort the truth, to make the lie look like the truth. Notice have Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit as the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, which the world cannot receive. Those who are of the world are being influenced by the ruler of this world and are unable to see the truth.
The Holy Spirit was in control of Jesus life. It is this same Holy Spirit whom the Father sent to us as our helper to make us see the truth.
The world cannot see the truth. They are under the influence of the ruler of this world and life and act accordingly. They have given the ruler of this world control over their lives. The child of God is confronted with this truth and must make a decision to GIVE TOTAL CONTROL OF THEIR LIFE OVER TO THE SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD. You can decide to give some control to the Holy Spirit, and leave the rest under the influence of the ruler of this world. Such a Christian life is a very hard life indeed. Full of worldly influence, full of schisms, battles of confusion, anxieties, depressions and despair.
Notice that no one had to force these new converts to read the bible, to show up for fellowship, to participate in a meal together, or to encourage them to pray.
WHY? Because a Holy Spirit controlled Christian does not have to be forced to read the Bible or to pray. The Holy Spirit gives them the understanding of truth and the more they understand the more hungry they become. Remember the Old Testament saints proclaimed HOW SWEET GOD’S WORD IS TO THEM. You come under the influence of the WORD OF GOD because the Holy Spirit gives you understanding, which allows you to apply the Word of God in your life. You can literally see it at work. SUCH ACTIVITY GLORIFIES JESUS.
We need to come under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the one who searches all things, the deep things of God, the hidden things of God. And it is then when we surrender control of our life to the Holy Spirit, that we are able to influence the world around us by letting His light shine through us. There is just no other way.

GOD Never Fails

Since God is love and God never fails, LOVE cannot fail. God and Love are everlasting. It is interesting to know that God’s love in the Greek language is called AGAPE. This is a GREEK word that can only be found in the Bible. This word was specifically coined to describe a supernatural love, because it describes a supernatural Being, God Himself. The other Greek words that are translated into the English word Love are EROS AND PHILEO. Both of these love actions are temporary, originate with human beings and will be done away with one day. In other words, Eros and Phileo are not everlasting, therefore they will fail. Listen, God cannot fail, Agape love cannot fail, because God and His love is everlasting. All the other responses to people’s actions are temporary. They have no eternal value.
When we are troubled on every side, when things go wrong and people do us wrong, when we are hurting and frustrated, it is very difficult to see the eternal value of Agape Love. But that’s just us. Our eyes are fixed on the wrong thing. On people and on emotional and conditional love and acceptance.
When we are involved in the spiritual battle and it seems that our relationships with brothers and sisters in the Lord are going up in flames, we immediately go into the defensive mode. We will become REACTIONARIES.
And all our reactions are based upon EROS OR PHILEO LOVE. Remember, they are temporary, they don’t solve any problems. They simply ask for a truce. For the moment we have decided, even if it kills me, not to go on the attack. UNTIL NEXT TIME.
Not so with AGAPA LOVE. God is love and he is eternal. HIS LOVE IS ETERNAL. It never reacts to any circumstances. It is eternal, always there always available, never failing.
When we are willing to endure all things through the LOVE OF GOD, we then can be the LIGHTS THAT SHINE IN THE DARK WORLD.
Yes, God’s love ENDURES ALL THINGS FOR THE SAKE OF ETERNITY.
God created all of us. We are His creation and He has a specific purpose for all of us. However, it is not our job to find our purpose in life. Because finding our purpose and our place in this life IS NOT OUR GREATEST NEED.
Our Greatest Need is TO BE UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED.
This need can only be met by Our Creator Himself. It is God’s love, His AGAPE love that loves us unconditionally. He loved us while we were yet sinners, the Bible declares. In other words, God loved us just the way we are.
We are loved regardless of our mistakes and failures.

Equipped and Trained

Everything pertaining to life and godliness, all the power we need to live a life that glorifies God has been given to us. All the power we need to overcome the corruption of this world, to overcome the deceptive power of self-help, to overcome the destructive power of false religion, has been supplied by our Lord.
As a soldier of Christ, we don’t have the luxury to fall asleep on our job. The battle is raging and is intense. Everything we need to win the battles has been supplied to us. Now it is our job to get properly equipped.
Moses saw for a few seconds the back of God and immediately Moses’ face began to reflect the divine glory that just walked by him. In other words, God’s glory was bounding off the skin of Moses. However, each passing day this glory on Moses’ face started to fade, because it was only a reflected glory.
Not so on the mount of transfiguration. JESUS CHRIST NEVER REFLECTED GOD’S GLORY, BUT AS JOHN WROTE LATER: WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, THE GLORY AS OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH.
This is what Peter is pointing out in his second Epistle, they have seen His glory and heard the voice of God audibly.In other words, they did not tell people about legends and myths or what others were saying about Jesus. PETER, JAMES and JOHN witnessed the glory of God Almighty in JESUS CHRIST.
Today, too many Christians lack of sense of the greatness and awesomeness of God Almighty, which I believe is directly linked to the church’s ignorance of the Old Testament.
We cannot really understand the New Testament apart from the Old Testament. Peter says that we must obey the prophetic word and regard it as a LIGHT THAT SHINES IN A DARK PLACE, UNTIL THE DAY DAWNS AND THE MORNING STAR RISES IN YOUR HEARTS.
At the Diet of Worms, when Luther was called to recant, he said: “Unless I am convinced by sacred Scripture or by evident reason, I will not recant, because my conscience is held captive by the Word of God, and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other; God help me.”