Sermon Nuggets Mon June 15
Theme- Effects of the Word
Verses- 1 Peter 1:18-2:3
Effects of the Word
It was a great time, yesterday, to be part of Trade Lake Baptist’s 140th celebration. I was the pastor there from 1978-1984. Anniversary times are for celebration and reflection. As is true in many churches there are high points and low points. At anniversary times the high points are highlighted and the low points ignored. But to come together to see what God has done and is going is also a means to continue the call. It becomes a service of hope.
What was encouraging to me is the breath of fresh air given by the Holy Spirit to revive and renew the church. The people were unified. They were optimistic of the future. They loved their new pastor and he loved them. He knew God had sent him there and they knew it too. He has been through tough times in his life and as I visited many of the people they also experienced many heartaches and trials. Yet in the midst of difficult there is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. They saw people come to Christ, clean up their lives, change, and worship. The theme around which many of us spoke was the enduring work of God that is founded on continual teaching, training and preaching from the Word of God. As we remain faithful the Word of God and seek to put it into practice and obey it, we can believe it will not return void. God is doing something by his Spirit through the Word that is to produce love.
As we continue to look at Peter’s encouragement to the suffering church they knew Pastor Peter experienced the hard times of life. They knew he did not always get it right. He wanted them to keep looking to the Lord. He knew the only practical way to do that was to keep diligent in the word of God. It is not just for the purpose of study and learning truth. It is for the purpose of living out that truth and changing our hearts and our relationships.
The truth of the word points to the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not only the author of truth, but of life and love. Hope comes, as we looked at last week, to focus on the works of Jesus who died for our sin and is coming again. Accepting Christ in our lives and seeking to follow up is the key for our eternal hope and life everlasting.
Peter 1:21 “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
As we look ahead this week we will see encouragement founded on the word of God and two thoughts about it. First, the Bible is to be a living book. That is a present tense verb. It talks about continuingly living out the truths that affect us in life and in suffering. But likewise it is an enduring book. It will last forever. In a world where everything is dying around us there is one thing that endures. It is the word of God.
When we start to replace the teachings of the Bible with thoughts of mankind we will endanger the church. When we speak the truth without love we have hardened the church. When we speak love without truth we move to a man made religion. The anchor holds. It is the basis of not only our faith, but our life. If it doesn’t affect how we live then we haven’t understood it well enough yet.
Can you think of a practical way to carry out one of its principles today? How has it encourage you? How has it affected you? How has it affected others through you? It is the change agent through which God works.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues June 16
Verses- 1 Pet 1:18-21 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Effects of the Word- Salvation
The word of God in the Old Testament was God’s story of redemption toward the nation of Israel. Of course difficult periods of their history were the occupation of Palestine by pagan forces since the fall of Judah by Babylon. Prior to that Assyria had captured and destroyed the Northern tribes of Israel and divided up the people and intermarried so they were forever destroyed.
Daniel predicted there would come nations whose domination resulted in great persecution. They saw that happened with Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Like the days of Moses the people were praying for the coming promised Messiah.
Peter was part of the select group chosen by God to be instrumental of revealing Jesus Christ to the world as the Messiah of Old who fulfilled the requirements laid down in Scriptures. There were more to be fulfilled when He comes again in glory.
Peter was pointing the readers once again to the tremendous work of God and the marvelous salvation that is ours by his grace. We are not redeemed with things that pass away and are temporary, but rather with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. Christ indeed is sinless. There was no need for him to die for any crime or wrong doing.
The Word of God pointed the Jewish readers to the implication of the sacrificial lamb killed in the temples for their sins so that blood covered their personal wrong doing. The picture was vivid now that God took that place in the person of his own son, Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:9-10 "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love; not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
The Gideon’s International are committed to the ministry of passing out Bibles because it is powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. They have seen how many people who read the Bible get convicted of their sins. They see the story of Jesus who died for their sins. They come to see it is by faith in the death burial and resurrection Jesus that salvation is given as a gift by a loving God. When they commit themselves to Jesus by faith they are born again.
The love of God is directed to each one of you as well. Love is initiated by God through the death of Jesus for you. He loved you. He redeemed you. He bought you. It was for you sakes that Jesus came from Heaven. It was love that initiates from God, not from us. That is what we reverence Him. That is why we worship Him.
But that love from God it to be responded to by his followers. We receive His love and love Him back. The greatest of all commandments is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
The story of the Word is that it became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1). John and Peter and the other 10 behold the glory of the Son of God. The lives of those who believe and follow have never been the same since.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds June 17, 2009
Verses: 1 Pet 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
Effects of the Word- Sanctification
The Psalmist said it millenniums before “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Ps 119:11
The way the Word works on us is through the power of the Holy Spirit who brings truth to light and prompts us to put it into practice.
I was reading this morning on internet news how our President is pushing the agenda for gay pride. This month has been declared gay pride month. He now is proposing federal benefits for gay partners. He wants to nationally remove any bans against gay marriages. The more you read and are bombarded with the agenda of promoting a sinful lifestyle the more it is accepted and believed to be a God given and blessed option for sexual immorality. Why I say something so politically incorrect? Because of the Word of God.
When the word “homophobic” is used enough in propaganda the more hatred, prejudice and oppression are labels given to anyone objecting to the gay agenda. No Christian wants to be declared unloving.
Yet, in Peter’s passage we find the purifying agent of the Word of God produces sincere love. The greatest command is to first love God. His love is then directed to the brothers and sisters in the faith, and then to others-even our enemies. The response of love is truth also to protect people from all types of consequences that result from living in disobedience to God’s laws which man cannot change. Sin destroys people.
We recognize that because people live in rebellion the proper response is not attack and hatred, but love that is godly and sincere. When Jesus meets a woman at the well and in conversations reveals her sexual impurities, He revealed the need of her heart for the living water. She was looking for sustaining love but had no idea it was found in Him. She knew the prejudice against Samaritans; she knew the rejection by priests; she experienced racial rejection; she was aware of her sinful lifestyle. But to be given an alternative to be made whole by faith in Jesus caused her to run and tell her neighbors in that Samaritan town. I wonder what types of people would listen to her? Would they be the religious crowd or the friends of one who is a sinner?
The Spirit of God does something within us that allows us to be the vessels through which His love now flows. We are new creatures in which the Spirit of God lives. That is spiritual love. It is not something that comes and goes. It is permanent. It is holy it is living and active.
Edward Rogers, in his book, That they might have Life says, "I began to feel that there was something subtly and tragically wrong in any emphasis on the agony of the cross which dimmed the brightness of the resurrection, any suggestion that it was endured pain rather than overcoming love which secured man's salvation. Is it the darkness that covered the earth at noon, swirling round the pain and anguish of the cross? Or is it the dazzling, mysterious early-morning brightness that shone from the empty tomb?" The cross was a means to an end. The end was the glorious life of love planned for us in Jesus.
Salvation begins with us as a decisive act but has ongoing response. It is an imperishable seed. The word of God takes root within responsive soil. We want to be Holy because He is Holy and Holy love is spiritual love. It is reflecting the character of our creator.
We can only understand love if we begin to understand it as a gift from God received and desire to share it to others. Unless we know the author of love, all other expressions are mere imitations and temporary.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs June 18
Verses- 1 Peter 1: 23-25 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
Effects of the Word- Security
Peter is telling them they have been born again through the word of God. That word does not pass away. It lasts forever. Everything else of mankind passes away.
Security comes by knowing our salvation and our sanctification is based on something that is not fleeting and faddish. It is based on solid truth from the word of God. It is not faltering. It is secure.
The Psalmist often referred to the word like a rock, or anchor that holds in storms or in troubling times. The security of the believer is based on the promise of God not on the actions or emotions of mankind.
When it comes to this commitment to love one another that is also provided by the God who loves through us. God never asks you to do anything that He is unwilling to do first. When it comes to love, the Apostle John offers a definitive word on this rule: “We love because He loved us first” (1 John 4:19).
Peter’s words illustrate God’s love in Christ. He reminds us what it cost God for us to become His children. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1:18-19). Therefore, God’s command is reasonable. His expectation—that we love one another—comes to us at His own great expense.
What God commands you to do, He empowers you to do. Practically speaking, when we heard the Gospel and received it, confessing our sins, God forgave us and instantaneously sent His Spirit regenerate us into new spiritual beings. In other words, you and I were “born again.” This tandem work of the Spirit and the Word is imperishable. Our dead sin nature was made righteous and alive in Christ. Therefore, it is now possible for us to love one another deeply. The Spirit of God has awakened our mind, soul, and spirit to God’s love. It also enables us to love God, each other—even those who are most difficult to love. Think about it—what greater testimony of our God than the love we show one another. It is possible to love like God because He is now living in us. Without His Spirit, Christ’s command to love one another would be unreasonable because fulfilling it would be impossible. The call to love one another with a sincere heart comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God keeps us reminded to depend on Him and not ourselves. It is the spiritual family, involving the church and believers of all nations and all colors.
Brother James Brown used to be the pastor of Philippi Baptist church and we supported that African-American work. Jim and I had taken a class together on cross cultural ministries. There were things brought up in the class that bothered me regarding race relations and the cultural communication of the Gospel. Is there such a thing as a white Gospel and a black gospel? I know there can be prejudice on my part against people of other races and be blind to it.
Jim and I talked after class on more than one occasion and I felt had significant agreement. He and I had more in common than I do with many white folks and he did with many black folks who do not know Jesus Christ. We have a unity in Jesus that is deeper and a communication that we are one together in the Lord that breaks down the racial barriers. Yes we can each recognize our upbringing and the culture.
Although there might be many cultural differences in how our churches may express worship, the gospel, the truth of the Bible does not change based on our color or even language. San there be love? Absolutely. Love for the Indians on the Reservation, love for the fellows believers in our conference, love for our brothers and sisters in Christ at Philippi. Love for the world that isn't based on external concerns, but internal ones.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri June 19
Verses 1 Peter 2:1-3
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Effects of the Word- Sweetness
“now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” The figure Peter uses is food. The quality of a Christian is love.
Jesus uses food to point to his death and suffering for our sin when he met with the disciples at the last supper before his death. God uses food to celebrate the release of the Jews from Egypt. Jesus calls himself the “Bread of Life”. It was food that became the downfall in the garden of Eden as the forbidden fruit was taken. A picture of heaven shows a banqueting table where Jesus is our host.
The word of God is used as milk in this passage. It is spiritual milk. It is the basics of the teaching of God about Himself, about salvation. It is like a baby who keeps drinking milk until she can mature enough to start taking other foods that are solid.
But before a Christian matures there are other habits that get in the way for the sweetness of God to be realized. The first verse shows qualities that are opposite of love. It reveals heart issues where we think we are gaining when we hold people in contempt. We think it is to our advantage to be deceptive. We pretend to be people we are not and act in different ways around different people. We want what others have. We put down other people. We are like people eating on self which in contrast to the spiritual milk is like eating garbage.
If you want to kill love then be selfish. If you want to grow in love and in the character of our Lord then feed yourself on the Word of God.
Since we cannot purify ourselves and that is done by the Holy Spirit then why does Peter put this teaching in this way? As we discussed last week the call to holiness is both positional and practical. We are already made holy by the Holy Spirit in our standing before God, however we are now to act holy in our actions. We have the practical application of holiness. We purify ourselves by getting rid of selfish attitudes.
If you want to grow in your walk with the Lord then put to death these traits. Let me use the word death as an acrostic helping to identify the problem.
D-deceit; It is lying while thinking you are not really lying. It happened often when people sell items and find that is not what is advertised in quality. The word is similar to a lure. Fishermen are deceptive in catching fish. They pretend to have good food, only it has a hook in it to trap them.
We can be anger with a company and claim false advertising, but what about you? Are you showing deceit against others in your business, in your home, in your marriage? Put deceit to death.
E-Envy, is what happens when we look at other apparent successes or material gains and think ill of them because we think we deserve it. We think we are better than the other are deserve ________ (fill in the blank)- health, grades, money, houses, larger church attendance, more conversions.
Envy is not love it is selfishness against another.
A- Anger, Malice includes anger, it includes all evil that seeks to do wrong against another, harboring feelings of negativism. Who do you hate? Can you take that person and pray for him or her regularly? Can you pray for the saints in Christ that cause you angry feelings? Can you let God love them through you even if it means you must forgive them of their sins, or worse yet let God work on them rather than you?
T- Tongue. Sins of the tongue include slander, lies, put down about others, rumors against people that we may not like or have hurt us in some way. Someone said, “Nobody like to gossip but everyone loves to listen to it. Slander is seldom spoken in front of the person who is the subject of our statements.
James says the tongue is so hard to control. How easy it is to slip unkind words about someone instead of talking directly to the person who offends us. How often do you degrade someone hoping the listener will agree with you to make you feel better?
H- Hypocrisy. Being deceitful will cause us to live in ways that are full of pretense That is what the word means. Play acting is the way people pretend. Pretending to love is that way too. God sees the heart and knows.
If these things bring death to love, then what will allows us to give live? It is the word of God. We have indeed tasted and sensed that the Lord is good. He teaches and empowers us as we determine to obey and follow his ways. We become lover of God and others, when we realize our rights are given over to Him and He is now in charge of letting us resort priorities.
Fall in love with the Word of God and realize it is powerful and active and living, and touches our lives at most important needs.
Pastor Dale
