Worship the REAL God

Worship and good theology must go hand in hand. When Jesus dialoged with the woman at well in John 4, he reprimanded the Samaritans with the words, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know” (John 4:22). Paul did the same when he spoke to the Athenians in Acts 17, and told them, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). Just as in those days, the problem with a lot of today’s worship of God is that people aren’t really worshipping God. Tragically many worshippers are busy adoring a god of their own imagination. It is understandable, that as fallen and sinful creatures, we would foolishly prefer the holy and sovereign God to be someone other than he is. But the Bible is clear that a genuine and acceptable offering of worship to the true God requires accurate thoughts about who he truly is. So be sure that you are not exalting an imaginary god—one that has been conveniently constructed to mirror your own values and character. And instead, resolve to always be a diligent student so that you might better understand and actually worship the God who has revealed himself in the pages of his word.

For more sermons and devotionals on Worshiping the REAL God, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org. 

Wait Patiently

Sometimes the way we read the Bible becomes a disservice to our Christian life. When a tension is presented in the plot of a biblical narrative we naturally “can’t wait” to see how it will be resolved; so we rush on to see how God works it all out. And after we’ve become familiar with all the Bible stories, our rereads of the various human crises are often skimmed with the calm thought that “in a few pages it will all be fine… I know how this story ends!” Unfortunately the impact to our Christian lives in not allowing our hearts to feel the duration of the time markers found in these accounts, is that we begin to feel like our own prolonged and unresolved conflicts, injustices, pains, and problems are bizarre or unusual. We impatiently cry out to God as though he is inattentive or has forgotten about our hurt. But stop, think, and sympathize with the reality that Isaac wasn’t born to Abraham until twenty-five years after the promise. Remember that Joshua and Caleb had to wander through the desert for forty years before entering the Promised Land. Call to mind that the time between the anointing of David as king and his enthronement was a turbulent fifteen years. Don’t forget that the Babylonian captivity stretched on for seventy years. So when you read your Bible, slow down and experience these stories as they were intended. Recognize that built in to almost every biblically recorded predicament is God’s call for his people to “wait on him” and “be patient!”

For more sermons and devotionals on Waiting Patiently, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org. 

Tumultuous World

We live in a violent and tumultuous world—for now. Surprisingly, it’s one of the byproducts of grace. Had God chosen to destroy every sinner at the moment of his or her sinful intent, our world would indeed be free from all the horrible headlines, but it would also be unoccupied. Instead, God graciously and mercifully provides time to bring many sinners to repentance, and this leaves us living in a prolonged period of human rebellion and suffering. On top of that, as a consequence of the first act of rebellion in Genesis 3, as well as a reminder of our dire need, God justly imposed material rebellion and natural corruption to be interwoven into the fabric of our planet. Therefore, the immediate forecast will be an ongoing string of moral and natural disasters, which will continue to erupt around our world as we go about calling men and women to repentance and faith in Christ. As Jesus warned, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed… For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:8). It’s doesn’t feel good to hear a “bad forecast”, but it does keep us from being demoralized while we continue to make our way toward a time and a place in which sin, violence, and suffering are a distant memory.

For more sermons and devotionals on Tumultuous World, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org. 

Self Apologetics

The Apostle Paul actively engaged the people of his generation, logically and persuasively “destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Such is the work of apologetics, evangelism, and discipleship. But this is not only the work we should seek to do in the minds and hearts of others, it is a job that starts with our own thoughts and feelings. Earlier in the same letter Paul wrote, “we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Consider the first record of the Tempter’s work. He was insidiously twisting and contorting the commands of God in unsuspecting minds. He was tragically successful in leading those who should have known better to rationalize and justify their compromise with a series of distorted thoughts and feelings. We can read of Eve’s sinful negotiations and we can easily imagine Adam’s. So be careful. Police your heart and mind, deny and biblically counter any line of thinking or set of feelings that are not in keeping with the truth God has revealed in his word. Don’t underestimate the battle that goes on in your mind. Be ruthless with self-serving “arguments” and “lofty opinions.” With hope in Christ and our eyes in the Book, may we see increasing success in taking our own thoughts captive to obey Christ.

For more sermons and devotionals on Self Apologetics, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org.  

Prayer and Evangelism

Prayer and evangelism go hand in hand. Many of us hope that our lives will be used by God to lead people to the place of repentance and faith in Christ. But if we learn anything from the example of the evangelists in the New Testament, we learn that this is not likely to ever happen unless we pray! Consider the person who had to be one of the best-prepared evangelists in history – the Apostle Paul. He should have been able to rely on his knowledge of the truth, and his persuasive speaking skills, but he did not. Paul knew that prayer was the key. If people are to be saved, God has to get involved by setting up opportunities, guiding conversations, and ultimately changing hearts. To the Colossians Paul writes, “pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ… [pray] that I may make it clear” (Colossians 4:3). In Ephesians 6:19 he says, pray “for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.” So today, let’s do more than hope; let’s begin to fervently pray. Let’s ask that God would use each one of us to boldly and clearly present the message of the gospel in those divinely orchestrated conversations, which end with someone repenting of their sins and placing their trust in Jesus Christ.

For more sermons and devotionals on Prayer and Evangelism, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org. 

Trinity

The Bible presents us with a mathematical dilemma when we study the nature of God. From the beginning we are told that there is only one God. That revelation became the doctrinal rally point of ancient Israel – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). And yet, also from the beginning, there has been a kind of uncontainable “plurality” to that one God. Not only do we find in Genesis plural pronouns for this one God, but even the Hebrew word for “God” is a plural noun—utilized as a grammatical singular throughout the Old Testament (i.e., Elohim). Then, when we turn to the prophecies concerning the Messiah, we find him described as a distinct person, and yet at the same time he is presented to us as the “Mighty God” and “the Lord” (Isaiah 9:6; Malachi 3:1; et al.). And when he arrives in the New Testament we read that the people who were chided and even threatened to only worship the one true God (Exodus 34:14) were repeatedly called to worship Christ from the time of his birth all the way through his post-resurrection appearances. Add to this that the Spirit of God is spoken of as a distinctive third person, who the Messiah said the Father would send to be our Helper (John 14:16-17), and you have the mathematical dilemma that God’s people have been grappling with for centuries. While some foolishly try to explain it away, humble Bible students have been left to worship this God who is far more complex than anything or anyone could possibly imagine. So boldly stand with God’s people throughout the generations, and take time today to admire and worship the mysterious God who is three in One.

For more sermons and devotionals on Trinity, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org. 

Proverbs and Parenting

When we read through the Proverbs we often forget that much of the book is framed as a parental plea to children. The collection commences with the words, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and forsake not your mother’s teaching” (Proverbs 1:8). Of course we ought to go to the Proverbs for God’s wisdom regarding our own lives, but what an overlooked resource when we fail to prayerfully read this inspired book with our children in view. Solomon boldly warns his child of the deceptive enticements of temptation (Proverbs 1:10), the corruptive influence of rebellious friends (Proverbs 1:15), the value of God’s painful discipline (Proverbs 3:11), the incomparable rewards of righteous choices (Proverbs 4:10), the repercussions of sexual sins (Proverbs 5:20), the enslavement of financial debt (Proverbs 6:1), the grief that a rebellious child brings to his parents (Proverbs 10:1), the shameful by-products of laziness (Proverbs 10:5), the incomparable joy a child’s wise choices bring to parents (Proverbs 23:24), and the necessity of the fear of God (Proverbs 24:21), just to name a few. So if the dialog with your kids has degenerated to “So, how was school today?” perhaps you should take a cue from the book of Proverbs and engage in the kind of conversation that your children could only get from a loving and godly parent.