The attributes of God – Love

⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

¹⁶We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

God is love.  Language can confuse us, especially when we translate it. In these 2 verses ‘love’ is the agape love.  It is a love freely given that expects nothing back. Often, we think of God as love, and then we confuse it with our modern usage of the word ‘love’. We think of love as a sentimental or gushy feeling.  This is where we need the truth of Scripture to change our thinking and give us the real definition of love.  That is found in (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) and you can read that on your own.  Often it is cited at weddings and it was at mine too.  Here is a love that denies itself for the one loved.  The love of man is often conditional upon others returning our love, but God’s love does not seek the returning of love for His own benefit.  We should always keep this in the front of our minds:  We love Him because He first loved us. (1John 4:19) If we were to describe the love of God without the Word of God we would fall short. (1 John 3:16) says¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Love is a giving up of your life for another.  (John 15:13) says Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. What more could anyone give for another?  (Romans 5:5-8) tells us ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. ⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Did you notice the theme of death as the ultimate expression of love as I read from the Scriptures referring to the love of God? If we are to look at a picture of this attribute there is but one perfect picture – it’s the cross.  It is in Jesus Christ loving us so much that He willingly laid down His life for us.  That is the love of God demonstrated for us so that we might be able to understand it. For God so loved the world He gave his only begotten son… A laying down of one’s life or that dearest to him for another is the love we are talking about.  This is the love that God has for you.  Our flesh does not like us dwelling on this subject because ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us  says (1 John 4:19). Remember what love we are talking about? Love that lays down your life.  We see the love He first had for us in laying down His life for us, and as soon as we let the power and reality of that through our hard exterior and into our heart, that same type of love will be born in us.  The NASB has a more accurate rendering of the Greek, for there is no pronoun that is the object of love in the Greek.  It doesn’t say we love HIM or we love OTHERS. The text just says, “We love because…”

You can’t have that agape love in you without loving God and in turn those who He loves.  And again, that love is death to self, laying down your life.  Please take a look at what John writes in (1 John 4:7-21). In verse 9 it says God showed His love – it has been demonstrated by sending His only Son into the world.  Why?  That we might live through Him.  God loves us so much that He wants to rescue us from our spiritually dead condition.  We don’t deserve to be rescued, but He loves us, and He wants to rescue us and give us life.  The only way it could be done was through the highest price He could pay. He loved you that much.  If you ever have a question about the love of God toward you, look to the cross.   Medical professionals will tell you they have to become somewhat insensitive to the pain of others because it hurts too much to deal with it every day.   They have to do that to keep from getting ulcers and constantly hurting for others.  I think we do the same thing in regards to this expression of the love of God in Jesus.  When we take communion we try to re-sensitize ourselves to the love that He showed us, but often, even then, we will only go so deep.  We need to let it grip our hearts, for His love begets love.  His love will produce in your heart a love for Him and others.  ⁹ Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love says (Psalms 48:9).  Any Christian would say they want to love God more, but few will let the power of the love of God break their heart and bring them that same kind of love.  We must have the love that shows we are willing to laying down our life for Him and others.  That is our first love. As we just sang “At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light...”  If you want your first love back you have to return to that place you got it and let the pain of that display of God’s love grip you afresh. It will renew your desire to lay down your life for Him.

(1 John 3:1) says ¹ How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  I like that word ‘lavished’.  God’s love doesn’t just get distributed sparingly, for God declared Himself to Moses as the One abounding in love. What a need there is for us to know how much we are loved.  We need the love of God in abundance.  James chapter four tells us how jealous God is over us.  The world looks at jealousy as a negative virtue, but we must understand the desire of God is that we be completely His.  What else is there?  If we belong to anything else, it is the world – and that is sin – and sin destroys. God’s jealousy is holy, unlike man’s.  It is a desire to see us pure, kept from evil, walking in His life and light, completely His.  The love and faithfulness of God are ever preceding Him, but remember that his rule and reigning is established on a foundation of righteousness and justice. (Psalms 89:14) declares Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. The love of God will not ignore justice or keep from disciplining those He loves.  With love comes some painful chastening.  God will do, in love, whatever it takes to keep His child from going astray. He wants us to know the consequences of sin. Sometimes we will have to speak the truth in love to our family in the Lord, even though it pains them and us. Love speaks what is most helpful to the one loved. Did you ever notice how some unbelievers don’t seem to suffer from sin and you always do? Your Father is not going to let you slide.  I know I can’t get away with anything, and I thank God for it.  I consider that an expression of His love for me.  If you want to walk closely with God welcome that consistent discipline from His loving hand.  When God allows those painful experiences in life it helps me to remember what Christ suffered. He was beloved of the Father but He experienced humiliation and persecution.  The fact that men were allowed to spit on Him and punch Him didn’t mean that God didn’t love Him.  And so we, too, should not question the love of God when we are rejected, afflicted or in a trial.  He had nowhere to lay His head, but He did have the Spirit without measure.  Understand that spiritual gifts and spiritual comfort are gifts of God’s love that are worth more than wealth, more than pleasure, more than all the world can offer.

If we will see the love He puts into planning each day of our lives // we will be more in love with Him more than ever. (Psalms 89:15-16) reads ¹⁵ Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. ¹⁶ They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness. I was thinking about these verses and, what it means to learn to acclaim or praise God.  We praise him for what He does in our lives.  Some eyes see the works of God all around them throughout the day.  The more I walk in the Spirit the more I am tuned into those things in which He expresses His love to me and I praise God for them.  The more I walk in the world the more readily I see things as discouraging and praise is missing from my lips. When I do this, my focus is off the love of God. It is like I’m looking for something to complain about instead of things to praise about.

Loved ones, if we are going to touch our community, we must be willing to allow God to change us from whiners to winners!  Winners realize they have won.  They don’t focus on the little errors of others.  They are focused on the victory of Jesus Christ.  Because God loved you so much He made you a winner in His Son.  When He said, “It is finished!”  He was declaring His victory for you.  When He rose from the dead He rose victorious over death and hell.  If you’ve risen with Him you are a winner!  His abundant love is upon you.  Why dwell on some little fault in your brother?  You’ve got bigger things, better things, to dwell on.  Dwell on the God who loves you.  Dwell on how to share Him with others. What would this church look like if every one of us would do that?  What would people see when they came to visit?   They’d see the love of God because you are willing to keep your eyes fixed on Him as He changes you!  Please read (Eph 3:16-19) about His power.  We need His power to see His love in the world around us.  When we are willing to receive it and see it, His love establishes us and roots us in Him. Nothing can separate us from it. I pray that all of us would start to see the dimensions of the love // that God has for us, so that we might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Just as with all His attributes, God expects His life in you to express His love, His unconditional love to Him first.  That is the great Commandment, and then to others as His love flows through you.  John said, if that isn’t happening, we probably don’t know God, because GOD IS LOVE.  The invitation is to open our hearts once again to Calvary and our eyes to His love expressed to us in so many ways every day. Then we need to return that love and let it flow to others.  Keep your eyes open to His love as you go through each day and your ears open to His words of abounding love toward you.

Attributes of God - Faithfulness

We are going to start looking at the attributes or the character of God for the next few Sundays.  First, who is God?  He is the sum of all His attributes.  Each attribute or characteristic we find perfected in God.  In fact, all other expressions of that attribute are mere reflections of that characteristic that is perfected in God.  Faithfulness is one of God’s attributes.  All the characteristics of God are perfect and in perfect harmony with one another.  Just like the facets on a diamond, each cut makes a surface on the diamond, and light goes in and out of all the surfaces making a sparkle.  If one surface is marred you do not have a diamond that will sparkle like a flawless diamond. Each perfect surface is like one of the attributes of God.  If God was faithful but He was not totally righteous, what is it that He would be faithful to?  If God is love but is not just then what does He love?  You see how the attributes of God interact and are perfected by the other attributes?  If anyone were missing, none would be perfect. Today we will look at His faithfulness, and the Lord willing, in the coming weeks we will look at the other facets of the diamond of His character such as sovereignty, mercy, grace, love, justice and maybe a few others.  It is very important that we understand God’s character.  It is His character that sets the standard for right and wrong.  It is because He is faithful that we should be faithful.  Have you ever thought about what makes something right or wrong? It is not just because God says so, for anyone can make a demand.  It is right because it is godly, like God.  This concept is almost lost in today’s society.  Abortion isn’t wrong just because God says “Thou shalt not kill”, but because in Him is Life.  Lies are not wrong just because God tells us not to lie, although that is reason enough.  The greatest reason is because God is true. As we enter this subject we are standing on holy ground.  We are not walking on the disputable territory of the opinions of men but the Word of Scripture.  How do we know God is faithful?  The word of God tells us so, and He cannot lie.  He has proven Himself faithful in the lives of the characters throughout Scripture. You will see that when His faithfulness is mentioned often another characteristic of God is mentioned alongside it.

(Exodus 34:5-7) reads ⁵The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. ⁶ Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; ⁷ who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Here God declares Himself to be abounding in faithfulness.  The Hebrew word used here for faithfulness is emeth. It is used in Genesis 24:27 when the servant of Abraham looks for a wife for Isaac and is led right to her; he declares that God has been emeth with Abraham. God answered Abraham’s prayer and provided a wife for Isaac.  That was an expression of God’s abounding faithfulness. Faithfulness is translated ‘true’ in the King James.  Strong’s concordance says emeth means: firm, sure, reliable, and stable.  That is what God declares Himself to be.

Hasn’t He proven Himself emeth with you? Has He answered your prayers and provided for your needs?  Have you found Him to be reliable?  Then you have experienced His faithfulness.  I can certainly tell you He has been faithful toward me.  Even when I was faithless, ignoring His warnings, fighting His Holy Spirit, He was faithful. He was faithful to discipline me, faithful to continually to convict me when I walked in rebellion, faithful to provide a way to escape, faithful to bring brothers and sisters to help, faithful to teach me. He has been nothing but faithful (emeth) to me.  (Deuteronomy 7:9) says ⁹ Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving kindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.  In this passage the Hebrew word we look at is aman: To support, confirm, and be faithful – It is used of the support pillars for a door. Here it is used in connection with His covenant of love. He is the One that confirms it and supports it. “He is the faithful God,” means you can count on His love continuing in your life. Where do you run when the earth shakes?  Between the door pillars, the faithfulness of God! Where do those who do not know God run when there is trouble?  There is no one else that can support us like God can.  (Deuteronomy 32:4) says ⁴ “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.  Here the word ‘faithful’ is Emunah – firm, steadfast – You can count on God to do what is right with consistency. He is never one way this week and another way the next week.  He is steadfast!  When you go to Him, you always know what to expect.  He’ll never be out to lunch, sleeping on the job, not ready to hear your need.  No, our God is steadfast.  He is always on the side of good because He is good. (Psalms 36:5) states ⁵ Your loving kindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  His love and faithfulness are always bigger than our need.  I’ve been tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness and His dependability.  I think we all have doubted.  If we did not doubt we would believe every word of Scripture as if it was a contract with the most capable, most dependable person to ever live.  Come to think of it, it is!  Has there ever been anyone more capable, more dependable than Jesus?  Then why do we not utterly trust His every Word?  We certainly should.

(Psalms 86:14-15) reads ¹⁴O God, arrogant men have risen up against me, And a band of violent men have sought my life, And they have not set You before them. ¹⁵But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in faithfulness and truth.  Abounding faithfulness!  When we are under attack, when it seems like everyone is against us, we can count on the abounding love and faithfulness of our Father. He is seeking our best, in contrast to those that seek to harm us. Compassionate and gracious, abounding in love and faithfulness, what an awesome God! (Psalms 89:1-2) says  ¹ I will sing of the loving kindness of the LORD forever; To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth.  ² For I have said, Loving kindness will be built up forever;  In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness.”  David wanted to tell every generation of God’s faithfulness. The youth can trust Him to raise them up to be men and women of God. The adults can trust His faithfulness in guiding them into the ministry He is leading them into.  The aged can count on His faithfulness to see them through to their heavenly home.  He says the foundation of this faithfulness, this eternal love of God, is fixed in heaven itself, not here on this changeable realm.  He is faithful to you because He has set His love on you.  (Psalms 91:4) says ⁴ He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.  (2 Thess. 3:3) says ³ But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.  His faithfulness protects you. You must realize that Satan would destroy you in a minute because he came to kill, steal and destroy, but the Lord is faithful to protect you!  Take that protection away for an instant and we would be gone.  Thank God for His faithful covering. Don’t step out from under it. Walk in obedience.  (Psalms 119:75) reads ⁷⁵ I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Illness can be an expression of His faithfulness.  If there is something we need to learn or somebody treating us needs to learn through us, His faithful love will bring us into affliction and through it if it is His will and the lessons have been taught. (Isaiah 25:1) says  ¹ O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. All He does is in perfect faithfulness.  You will notice that perfection is applied to all His attributes.  There is not a flaw in His faithful acts.  All that God has planned will happen, and it is all planned in consistency with His perfect faithfulness. We are  used to thinking of God as being like man that sometimes we have a hard time  grasping how perfect and wonderful He is.  He is utterly trustworthy.  Where are you placing your trust?  

(Lamentations 3:22-23) reads ²² The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  His love and compassion are always new every morning – what great faithfulness! (1 Thess 5:23-24) ²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. We wonder if we are ever going to be made into the image of the Son of God.  Well, this passage declares that the One who called you is faithful, and He will do it.  He will present you faultless before the throne of God.  Thank God it is not up to my faithfulness or yours, but His!  Whew!  What a relief! Turn to the person sitting next to you and say, “I’m glad it’s not up to you.”  Now tell them, “I’m glad it’s not up to me.” The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.   (1 Cor 10:13) ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

God is faithful to limit our temptations to what we can bear, and in our temptations to provide a way out. He doesn’t leave us in there to be clobbered in our weak areas.  He provides an escape in His faithfulness, but we must chose to enter the escape He provides. He has always provided a way of escape for me.  He always has and always will for you too. (1 Peter 4:19) says ¹⁹ Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. Troubles in this fallen world and persecution from the ungodly may cause us to suffer, but remember God is the faithful Creator. Commit yourself to Him and keep on being obedient. Count on His presence and His promises to see you through. He’s never failed me yet, and He never will. He may not always do things according to my wishes, but He will be faithful to do what is good.  (1 John 1:9) says ⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we confess our sins, He does not debate forgiveness, hold a grudge or put our past works on a scale, NO; He faithfully forgives us because of what his Son did for us.  (Rev 19:11)  ¹¹ And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. Jesus name is Faithful and True.  The Old Testament word for faithful was often translated true.  He is truth, and because of that He is also faithful.  Here faithfulness is mentioned alongside justice.  God’s love is His faithfulness toward those who receive what Jesus has done for them, and His wrath is His faithful justice toward those who reject Him and all the goodness that He is. From these passages we have a clear picture of faithfulness how it is displayed toward our lives.  Let me go over these Biblical implications of the faithfulness of God as declared in these passages. He is dependable to answer our prayers and to meet our needs.  We can count on His love continuing in our lives. He will always be consistent. In every thing He does and in all His ways, faithfulness is displayed. It is limitless.  It never changes.  It seeks what is best for us.  It protects us. Sometimes it afflicts us to teach us.  It assures us that all God’s promises will be kept.  It is perfect.  It brings new compassion each morning.  It will see us to be made complete, blameless in body, soul and spirit. It limits our temptations, providing a way out of temptation.  When we confess sin it applies forgiveness and cleansing.  It is inseparable from truth and it should be a part of our character.

We may believe God is faithful but do we act on it?  To act on His faithfulness means not to worry about tomorrow.  It means fretting and fear have no place in our lives, for God is entirely trustworthy.  It should give us a sense of peace regardless of our situation.  We will all face times when it will be hard to see His faithful love in circumstances in our lives, but if we believe what we know of His character, we can praise God in the midst of the trial, knowing He is faithful.  In the Psalms, David pours out his complaint to the Lord and then says, “But in the past You delivered me and I know You will do it again.” Then he begins to praise God. That was His confidence in God who is always faithful. He has delivered you in the past and He will deliver you in the future. Today, faithfulness has hit an all-time low in our society in almost every area you can think of.  Since God is calling us to the faithfulness that is His own character, how does this work in your life?  How can you express His faithfulness to your  spouse, children, employer or employees, and those you see every day?  Can they see God’s faithfulness in your actions? Is God calling you into a deeper walk of faithfulness today?  And how will you let Him express it in you? He is faithful and He will help you to live in an expression of His faithfulness if you are willing.  When I look back on my life, I see many times when I doubted the faithfulness of God. HE was faithful, even when I was not.  If you are in a time of wondering, let me encourage you that one day you will see that God has been faithful.  I say that with all certainty. One day you will see that His faithfulness has never wavered.  It never has and never will. Just as God is good all the time, He is faithful all the time.   I have shared with you these Scriptures and some of their implications so you can examine how God desires to work into your heart and life.  He wants sons and daughters that look like Him.  Be a godly expression of faithfulness in the world in response to His faithfulness to you. 

Pentecost Acts 2:1-4, 37-39, 42-47

Pentecost literally means fiftieth. It was the fiftieth day after Passover. It was one of the three mandatory Jewish feasts for those who lived within 20 miles of Jerusalem. It was one of the most heavily attended by those Jews who lived far away, because it was the time of year when weather was most favorable for travel. Pentecost was a celebration of the beginning of barley harvest. It was also a celebration to remember when the Law was given to Moses. Today is Pentecost.  As the Jews gathered for Pentecost, some 2000 years ago, a small group of 120 disciples of Jesus gathered in an upper room obeying Jesus’ instruction to wait for the power to be a witness. You see, they had been cowering, fearful traitors up until this point. It almost looked as if the three years Jesus invested in them was wasted. But Jesus told them to wait for the Promise of the Father. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  Where had Jesus spoken about that? We find those words in John ²⁶"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”   And also it says ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

The promise goes back much further, all the way to Ezekiel and even Jeremiah says ³³"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Ezekiel prophesied about this day with these words, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”  Here was this little band of followers of Jesus waiting in that upper room for the power to testify with the presence of the Holy Spirit.  ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."   Let’s read the account of what happened on Pentecost 2000 years ago. ¹When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  Did you picture that in your mind? This little band of frightened followers is praying for God to do what Jesus had promised and fill them with the power to witness. They knew the Spirit had come upon the prophets. The Spirit had been with them, but Jesus said He was going to come and live in them! ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Suddenly it sounds like a hurricane, and a ball of fire appears. In the Old Testament the Lord dwelt with His people in the Holy of holies over the Mercy Seat in the form of a ball of light.  This was the manifest presence of God. God cannot be confined to one area, but this was something for them to grasp the reality of His presence. Now the ball of light comes into the room where they are praying. It had been centuries since Israel had seen it, for their rebellion against God caused it to depart and you can read that in Ezekiel.  Now it is back; the presence of God is back. That alone was cause for great joy, but something that was almost beyond the wildest expectations of man was taking place. The ball of light was separating into little flames of fire, and settling over each person. The prophecies were happening right before their eyes. Jesus had come to live in them, just as He had promised. This day was a celebration of the gift of the Law. The Law drastically changed their idea of how to relate to one another. But now, another greater and more drastic change was happening on the very day they were celebrating the gift of the Law. The power to live the Spirit of the Law was being given to man. That would drastically alter the way they lived, not just in concept, but also in actual practice.  They were so filled with joy and wonder that the gathering crowd thought they were drunk. They began to speak of Jesus to the crowd that had come from great distances to the feast of Pentecost. They were amazed to hear their own languages spoken. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?  ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Then Peter stood up and explained that this was the fulfillment of the prophecies, and quoted the prophet Joel. ¹⁷‘in the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. ¹⁸Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  The Promise of the Father through the prophets was taking place. The Spirit of God no longer just came upon people, but because the sacrifice of Jesus had made, those who would receive Him and by faith be right with God would now find the Spirit living in them.  Peter went on to tell them that King David had predicted the resurrection of Christ 1000 years earlier. He told them that they were witnesses that God had indeed raised Jesus in fulfillment of that prophecy. Because we are all born rebels against God, defiantly going are own way, we could say this was true of all of us. It is not likely that that crowd was the same one that shouted, “Crucify Him!” fifty days earlier. But Jesus did die for their sins and ours. Their reaction was the only that one man should have. ³⁷When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"    Peter tells us what we should do when we realize we have been living a life as if we were the Creator and not the creation. He tells us what to do when we realize that God sent His only Son to save us, to die for our

rebellion against God, to take the justice that should have been dealt out to us. ³⁸Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call."  Let’s examine what Peter said, or better yet, what the Holy Spirit said through Peter. Repent! That means to have a revolution in the way you think. You once thought you were boss. Pleasure and personal gain were all that mattered. “Take what you can before someone else does” was your motto. A revolution in your thinking is to think like Jesus taught us on the Sermon on the Mount. Recognize you are in desperate spiritual need. You need to hunger and thirst for righteousness, not worldly pleasures or even physical needs. You are blessed when people badmouth you because you are faithful to Jesus. Most of all, it doesn’t matter if you do what looks good to men, but whether or not your heart belongs to Jesus. Does He know you? Are you seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness? That is a revolution in the way man thinks. Before it was all about you. Now you realize it is all about Jesus. That is repentance. You have been master of your life, now you realize you need to invite Jesus to be your Master.  Next Peter declares that you will receive the Holy Spirit. The amazing power of the presence of God in your life is yours when you repent and are baptized. The promise God made through the prophets, the promise that Jesus made, will be yours! The Spirit of God will come and make His home in you. ²³Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Peter said the promise is to you!

You don’t have to be good enough. You don’t have to beg and plead for a second blessing. God wants to give the Spirit to those who ask Him.  You may be filled again. ³¹After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.  You may not have a sensation of feeling, you may make more space for Him at a later time and be fuller than you are now, but the promise is to all who repent and are baptized.  I’m afraid there are many who have acknowledged the fact that Jesus died for them and have prayed for the gift of salvation but have not had a change of mind. They have not crossed that crucial bridge of repentance. Imagine this. Your child is rebellious and disobedient. Because of that, you are not going to take them into your arms and love on them and give them gifts and privileges. You want to hear them acknowledge that they are wrong and need to change. If they ask for their toy and a snack and your loving favor and have had no change of heart, they are being presumptuous about your love. They are presuming they are so special they can get away with anything and expect you to overlook it all, letting them continue to rebel and disobey.  There must be a change for relationship to be restored. There has to be a turning around in the way they are thinking. That baptism said, “I’m burying my old way, and rising up to a new life.” Then, only then, is the promise yours. That very day of Pentecost, 3000 were baptized and received the promise!  The verses that follow tell us what life is to look like when we are in a group of people who have repented and were baptized and received the promise of the Spirit. ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  They devoted themselves to several things. The first was learning about the life and teachings of Jesus, called the apostles’ teaching. As I taught before, if we don’t have enough love to remember Jesus’ instruction, we don’t love Him much. Take time to be in God’s word!  It is essential for spiritual growth to take time in God’s word.  They devoted themselves to fellowship. You can study on your own, but when you share your life with your brothers and sisters in Christ, it becomes much more practical. We need to share our lives. We were designed to work together.  They devoted themselves to communion, which is remembering what Jesus did for them. And they devoted themselves to prayer.  Are you spending time alone with the Lord to share your heart with Him? Do you communicate with Him as you go through your day as we learned in the last two weeks? He wants to hear your heart and direct your life if you will let Him. Devote yourselves to prayer. Remember that I am praying for you. I trust you are praying for me.  

Coming out of the closet

Here we go, I’ve waited a long time to say this and I’m almost embarrassed to think that I haven’t thought about saying this before.  I am coming out of the closet, that’s right out of the closet.  I am no longer going be a person who stands in the pulpit, like so many others, and doesn’t share with my congregants what I believe and what I stand for.

So here it goes, wait for it, I …believe…in…the …Bible! That’s right, I believe in the Bible, the inerrant, infallible, wholly inspired word of God.  I believe in the literal creation that God spoke the world in to existence in seven (7) literal 24-hour days.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who was born of a virgin, and was fully man and fully God.  I believe that Jesus was crucified dead and buried and was literally raised from the dead on the third day and now sits at the right hand of God the Father.  I believe that not all paths lead to heaven and that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through Him.  Wow, I feel so much better now that I have gotten that my chest.  I am no longer a preacher that lives in the closet of believing some of the Bible, as many “pastors” do, I believe all of it.

What has happened to society that places up on a pedestal a preacher who in many cases is just a good speaker or showman who doesn’t even believe in the Bible in its entirety?  Do we want a show and to be entertained?  Or do we want a God fearing man or woman who brings the word everyday and more importantly lives the word as well?  I suggest there are and have been many ministers who have fallen from grace because the preaching gig was too good of a job to give up and they did not believe in what they were doing or saying.  That is the same in our public servant’s lives as well.  One man with one woman is a concept that is looked on as old fashioned today.  Now, one man sexts or tweets or emails someone who is not his wife for the express reason to make him feel like he is “the man”?  How about sleeping with someone who is not your wife and getting them pregnant?  What dishonor they have brought to themselves, their families, and their public offices.  If more people would read their Bible, and more preachers would preach the Bible, more people would believe the Bible and think about eternal consequences not just feeling good for a moment or two.  Please pray for our country.

Mountain Moving Prayers

⁸ Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

When we pray we should examine our motives.  We should consider the attributes of God so that we pray according to His will, asking for what is righteous and just, merciful and good.  God already knows what we need. We don’t need to go on and on or say some secret expression over and over.  He wants to meet our needs.   When we begin as Jesus began this prayer, He is free to meet our needs in a way that is consistent with His character.  The prayer begins with acknowledgement of the holiness of the Father’s name, God’s kingdom coming, and God’s will first and foremost.  When you begin there, your heart is turned away from selfish vanity and turned toward God’s eternal purposes.  “Your name, God, Your kingdom and Your perfect will be done.” Prayer is willful submission to and in cooperation with the heart of God.  Since His ways are loving, gracious, just, but merciful, my desire is to yield my will to His in prayer.  Understanding our old selfish and destructive nature should give us the motivation to pray for God’s will instead of our own.  Even when it looks painful, if we submit to the truth that God knows best and loves us, we can pray for His will and we can expect His peace to fill us.   I remember asking God for things that I thought were in His will, and yet if God had given those things to me at that time it would have been contrary to God’s kingdom and His purposes. I thank God He withheld them.  After putting His kingdom and will first we can pray the rest of the prayer Jesus gave us. (Matt 6:11-13) ¹¹ ‘Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]

We have need of two kinds of bread.  We need physical bread, which is food for our physical bodies.  We can go without it for a time, but we need to take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit.  God has placed this vessel, my body, in my care, and as a good steward I should care for it.  So, I ask God to be the Provider of my food, one day at a time.  I don’t ask for a warehouse, because I would become self-dependent and not seek Him. That is human nature.  What a comfort we have when we know it is God that provides our daily bread.  The Psalmist said he had never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.  The God that feeds the birds all over the face of the world feeds us.  The other kind of bread is spiritual.  Jesus said He was the bread that came down from heaven. He is the Word made flesh.  He said, “This is my body which is broken for you, take, eat in remembrance of me.”  This bread is the spiritual food that we feast on when we open His word, when we hear from Him in prayer, or when a message is relayed by the Holy Spirit through human means.  We are feasting on Jesus, the heavenly bread.  How often do we need that?  Give us this day our daily bread.  When we pray, do we think only of the physical?  We need to pray our spiritual needs are met just as we pray for our physical needs.  We need an appetite, a spiritual hunger, to remind us we need the Bread of Life. We have the promise that our God will supply all our needs, according to His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus.   He will meet our physical needs and our spiritual needs, if we will just ask and have a will to receive.  Then we ask for forgiveness AS we forgive others. We’ve had our sins covered by His blood, but we still continue to sin.  You would think that since I became a new creature in Christ I would quit sinning.  But I’m still in this earthly body and still prone to error.  I ask the heart of the One with the hallowed name to forgive me. But, unforgiveness in my heart will block His forgiveness from flowing into my life.  If I won’t forgive those who owe me little, why should I expect God to forgive me when I owe Him so much?  Unforgiveness is a poison that restricts your communion with God.  Unforgiveness hinders prayer and our relationship with God.

Our last request in this prayer is to not be led into temptation.  I recognize how weak I am and how strong the Evil One is, so I ask to be kept from his attacks.  The Psalmist prayed to be led in a plain path, because of his enemy.  We should pray the same.  Lead us plainly, for the enemy of our soul desires to capture what territory he can.   Test and grow me, but keep me out of his clutches.  We start with His name, His kingdom, His will and move on to our needs physical and spiritual. Then we ask for forgiveness for our sins, and to be led away from the Enemy’s traps. The prayer is so simple a child can pray it but so rich it can encompass the deepest expressions of our spirit.  As we pray the will of God into our life and the lives of those with which we are in contact, our faith increases.  As we listen with our spirit, our spiritual senses become sharpened.  We increasingly become a vessel through which God intervenes in the world.  There is no higher calling or honorable work.  Look at a few of the glorious promises that are ours! (John 15:7) ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:16) ¹⁶ You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.  (John 14:13-14) ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.    (1 John 5:14-15) ¹⁴ This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

“Whatever you wish”, “Whatever you ask”, “anything you ask”, these are very broad terms.  Then why do many of our prayers seem to go unanswered?  Let us look back at some of the conditions we skip over. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you…” What does it mean to remain in Christ?  NASB uses the word ‘abide’.  That is to live in.  I abide in my home.  I’m not always there but it is where I spend most of my time.  Do you spend most of your time in Christ?  If Christ is your home, you have a heart for His will and His untainted desires, you will ask for those good things that are His will, even when they would not be your first choice.  The second condition is asking in Jesus’ name.  We often add on our prayers, “In Jesus’ name.”  That means, at His direction and per His will and with His authority.  When you add to the end of your prayer, “in Jesus’ name”, you are saying, “I am speaking as an ambassador of Jesus and asking these things on His behalf.”  Jesus says that when you do that, the Father answers.  Now some of you might be thinking, “How disappointing! I thought I was going to find some formula to get what I want without surrendering to God!”  That would be neglecting the first principle of prayer, seeking God’s kingdom and will. Your Father only gives you what is good for you.  Even the difficult things can be in our best interest.  If you are disappointed because of God’s goodness in withholding things that would be detrimental to you, you only have a worldly perspective.  You need your heart transformed so that your desires become His. Your prayers are not answered because as James says, “…You ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts.” Or they may not be answered because you have stopped listening to God and His will and ways.  Listen to what the prophet Zechariah warned God’s people was happening. (Zech 7:13) says ¹³ "And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts…  They wouldn’t listen to God so He wouldn’t listen to them.  That is not some childish response but it is looking out for their own good. If we won’t listen to God’s perfect and holy desires, we plead our own selfish and destructive desires.

If the prospect of praying God’s will into your life and the lives of those you come in contact with excites you, it is because you realize His will is the answer to the evil in the world around us.  It is not our methods, and our ideas and programs, but a sovereign move of God doing what HE has planned. Jesus promised if you had the faith of a mustard seed you could say to a mountain, “be moved”, and it would happen. Listen to (Romans 8:26-27) ²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We are learning from Christ how to pray, but we don’t know what we ought to pray for.  We need the help of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes we can’t even express it, so He does for us.  See how He prays?  He prays in accordance with God’s will.  God’s will is so much better than what you or I would pray for ourselves.  He sees your deepest need and knows every possible path you could choose. Sometimes we don’t consciously know what God is doing.  Remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?  They chose to obey God. The king said he would throw them in the furnace if they didn’t bow to his image, a huge golden idol.  They answered, “Our God is able to deliver us and rescue us from your hand, but even if He doesn’t, we want you to know we won’t worship or bow down to your idol.” (Daniel 3:17,18) They must not have known with certainty God’s will for their future.  They were prepared for either outcome because they believed God is God and they were men.  And God did deliver them.  Yet, for everyone God has miraculously healed or delivered there are as many that have not seen the answer in this life.  They were healed or delivered through death – our great graduation.  Why some and not others?  Only our Sovereign God knows and we must trust and believe He knows best how and when to answer our prayers. We say with righteous Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15)  Sometimes, I would ask for some things to be different.  Sin wreaks havoc on this world.  The curse upon sin with disease and inequity is heart wrenching.  Man’s inhumanity to man never ceases to disappointment me.  What we are praying for is the culmination of this time of man reigning in the earth. We are praying against the evil that would harm the innocent.  The freedom to choose God also allows the freedom to choose evil, and that evil causes so much pain.  John looked into heaven and prayed, “Come quickly Lord Jesus!”  As an old man in his 90’s he had seen the horror of life in this world where man could so brutalize man.  He saw prayer open up heaven and the future before his eyes.  He had seen Jesus praying when the Spirit descended on Him like a dove.  He was there when they gathered in a room and prayed until the Church was born in the outpouring of the Spirit.   He saw prayer break Him out of prison and fill the disciples with boldness in the face of persecution. His prayer in response to seeing both the horror of the rebellion of man and the glory of the Kingdom of God was, “Come quickly Lord Jesus!”  (Rev 22:20) Pray His will as you are led by the Spirit and you will be praying in faith, believing.  Mountains moving will seem like nothing compared to the transformed lives and the redeemed situations that your prayers will bring about.  Pray God’s will into your life, your home, this church, and our nation!