Following Jesus Son of God …

Can we really believe this story?

Message Title: The First Coming of Christ – The Young Child Lives & Herod Dies!
Message Text: Matthew 2:1-23

• PDF First coming of Christ – the Child Lives and Herod dies Matthew 2-1-23 120813 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF First coming of Christ – the Child Lives and Herod dies Matthew 2-1-23 120813 HANDOUT TWO

Only God could or would do this:

• He decided to come to Earth as a human infant.
• He chose a time when a pagan emperor ruled the world, a troubled king ruled the region of his birth and the dominant religious body of the day was opposed to him.

What was God thinking?

In God’s plan …

• Every powerful political and religious force was being directed and prepared by the rulers of the darkness of this age to stop at all costs the young Child – Jesus Christ – from being born and carrying out his mission on the planet.
• God’s team to carry out his plan consisted of a teenage virgin named Mary and a young carpenter named Joseph.
• Per the divine plan Mary would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Christ Child.
• However the evil king had inside information by which he planned to use to find and kill the young Christ Child.

The only way we can believe this story is to understand that God is God. Sovereign Lord, God Most High of the universe. All he needed to defeat the forces of darkness both heavenly and earthly were a faithful, believing young woman and a good, just man to stand by her.

What was God thinking? Love. For God so loved … Remember? God was going to bring salvation to humankind as only God can.

The evil king plotted to kill the young Child and everything possible was on his side. Except God. For Mary and Joseph, everything was stacked against them. Except God.

The end of this part of the saga?
The young Child lives and goes on to fulfill his mission. And Herod, the big, bad wolf, evil king, puppet for the devil, is dead.

http://bible.com/59/JUD1.17.ESV But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Bible.com/app

Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Samsung Galaxy SIV

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/02/war-on-christmas-blog/3802231/

Not all Christians believe there is a ‘War on Christmas ‘
Heidi Hall, The (Nashville) Tennessean 2:34 p.m. EST December 2, 2013

A number of evangelicals distancing themselves from those concerned that the department store greeter said “Happy holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas .”

Story Highlights 

• Author’s blog says being wished ‘Happy Holidays’ is not persecution
• Many remain convinced there is a national war on Christmas
• Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission says media overstating the war

Nothing in evangelical Christian author Rachel Held Evans’ five years of blogging has gone as viral as her simple little flowchart to determine if one is being persecuted during the Christmas season.

Simple little flowchart to determine if one is being persecuted during the Christmas season

• “Did someone threaten your life, safety, civil liberties or right to worship?” it asks. No. “Did someone wish you happy holidays?” Yes.
• “You are not being persecuted,” it says.

At last count, the post had attracted more than 700 comments, the vast majority in agreement with her.

Call it the backlash against the “war on Christmas” camp — a number of evangelicals distancing themselves from those concerned that the department store greeter said “happy holidays,” that the Nativity scene is gone from the local courthouse, that classrooms are hosting “winter parties.”

“God became flesh and lived among us, and if that’s not enough for people, I think they’ve missed the point,” said Evans, who lives in Dayton, Tenn., and wrote last year’s best-selling book, “A Year of Biblical Womanhood.”

Still, the idea that there’s a national war on Christmas is going strong. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s new book, “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas,” is at No. 14 on The New York Times best-seller list for hardback nonfiction. “The ‘war in Christmas’ is the tip of the spear in a larger battle to secularize our culture and make true religious freedom a thing of America’s past,” the back cover reads.

The Fox News opinion site Fox Nation has a prominent War on Christmas page, inviting viewers to submit their own battle stories.

State Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, was thinking about Christmas well before the season arrived, introducing a bill last summer to assure that students and teachers could say “Merry Christmas” in schools. He said it was to protect them against the American Civil Liberties Union, which responded by saying Campfield was addressing a problem that did not exist.
Pastor urges peace
It’s strange that folks would argue about saying “Merry Christmas” in public when Jesus Christ himself instructed his followers to make peace with religious opponents, said Dan Scott, senior pastor of interdenominational, evangelical Christ Church in Nashville. There may be extreme cases where Christians in America face opposition for their beliefs, Scott said, but it’s more likely that some suddenly are realizing they live in a religiously diverse nation.

“We really need a way to treat the public square as the public square and private realms as private realms and not feel demonized because we come from a certain perspective,” Scott said. “It’s not a very popular viewpoint these days.”

Daniel Darling, vice president of communications for the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, addressed the topic in the December issue of Homelife magazine, urging Christians to be joyful instead of judgmental this season.

He said on Friday that some media outlets are overstating the war on Christmas debate, and very few Christians actually engage in it.

“We advise people that, rather than trying to force that weary Wal-Mart worker to say ‘Merry Christmas’ against company policy, how about we be the bearers of joy?” he said. “Instead of taking offense, say, ‘Here’s the story, we’re the joyful ones. We’re the ones that have the greatest story.‘
“If we really believe Christ is the reason for the season, we shouldn’t force people to say it. It should be evident in our lives.”

This Sunday we finish our study in Ephesians, and I have to say that God has amazed me through the entire process. Wow! has been my expression often as I have seen the glory of God in the salvation that he gives to us.

In him we have redemption through his (Christ’s) blood, the forgiveness of sins.

God has gone over-the-top in his generosity and precision and power in bringing eternal salvation to us his enemies. Wow!

Message Title: Dressing for Success!

Message Text: Ephesians 6:14-24

• PDF Dressing for success Ephesians 6-14-24 111713 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Dressing for success Ephesians 6-14-24 111713 HANDOUT TWO

I hope to sometime next week have all my notes for Ephesians available for download to anyone who is interested. You have probably noticed that almost all have been formatted for 8 1/2 X 14 paper for printing.

Dave
http://blog.faithfellowship.info/?p=482

Here are the handouts for Faith Fellowship Church for Sunday November 10, 2013.

• (Ephesians 6:10–13 NKJV) 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Much of our unholy warfare is a result of fear and our lack of trust!

We don’t really believe that God will take care of us, so we have to do it ourselves. When we become frightened, we do not trust in God. We default to self-preservation mode. We defend ourselves and we fall prey to the scheme of the devil.

Too often we do not find our strength in God. When the battle presents itself, we resort to fighting like a mere human. And we inevitably lose whether we realize this or not.

Our adversary, the devil, is a powerful, super-natural being who is more familiar with the ways of Earth than any human. Effective and deadly in his schemes he is out to deceive the entire world. But, as mind-boggling as it may seem, we sometimes think that we are the exception and we don’t give proper attention to God’s instruction. And we fall. And the biggest irony is that this deceived person doesn’t know he has fallen because, well, he’s deceived.

Message Text: Ephesians 6:10-13

Message Title: Standing Against the Schemes of the Devil!

• PDF Standing Against the Schemes of the Devil Ephesians 6-10–13 111013 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Standing Against the Schemes of the Devil Ephesians 6-10–13 111013 HANDOUT TWO

HANDOUTS/WORKSHEETS for Ephesians 6:10-13

Bulletin for Faith Fellowship Church of Tennessee, IL.

Here it is. November already.

• PDF Faith Fellowship Church Bulletin 110313

Faith Fellowship Church of Tennessee, IL

HANDOUTS/WORKSHEETS FOR Ephesians 6:5-9

How time flies when we are having fun. Only three messages left in our Ephesians study. Tomorrow is November and another year is coming to a close.

And Jesus Christ is still King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen!

Here is what has stood out to me the last few weeks: An overwhelming sense of the presence of God and a reverence that seems to fill me to overflowing as he gives his divine instruction to us through the pen of the Apostle Paul.

Like a mighty ocean is God’s righteousness when we bow before him in reverence. Changes our perspective on everything – personal relationships, job, community, the anguish and darkness of this world …

In Ephesians 1:1 Paul calls us God’s saints, holy ones, and now in Ephesians 6:6 we are the bondservants of Christ. What treasure and privilege as we discover who we are in Jesus Christ. Not puffing ourselves up in pride but falling down in amazement as God teaches us who we are – holy ones, sons and daughters chosen before the foundation of the world, redeemed by his blood …

This week – Bondservants of Christ! Wow! I love it.

• David, bondservant of Jesus Christ. What an honor. I praise you Mighty God.

Message Title: Honoring God on the Job!

Message Text: Ephesians 6:5-9

• PDF Honoring God on the job Ephesians 6-5-9 110313 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Honoring God on the job Ephesians 6-5-9 110313 HANDOUT TWO

■ Obey your parents – “in the Lord.”

■ Bring children up in the training – “of the Lord.”

Obedience in the Lord is more than mere obedience. Training “of the Lord” is more than mere religious instruction. We honor God with a commitment to lean on, to live by, the words that he gives. This commitment flows from our deep reverence for a God who is high and lifted up. When we consult a different playbook for life, we step away from reverence. When we believe that we have a handle on things without truly consulting God, then we exalt our wisdom and our way above his. We don’t call it that. We may neither admit it nor identify it as such, but this is exactly the dynamic that occurs.

Here are the handouts for October 27, 2013:

• PDF Honoring God in the family 102713 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Honoring God in the family 102713 HANDOUT TWO

We are so careless with the word of God.

It isn’t heavy, weighty to us, something to be revered. We say it is but our actions betray our profession. Many of our Bible studies are not studies of the Bible at all but sharing our opinion in a socio/religious context.

We think we have really accomplished something when we get people talking, but maybe not. We are so reckless at times that we have swerved into foolishness and evil and don’t even know it. It sounds good and seems right.

• (Ecclesiastes 5:1–2 NCV) ¹ Be careful when you go to worship at the Temple. It is better to listen than to offer foolish sacrifices without even knowing you are doing wrong. ² Think before you speak, and be careful about what you say to God. God is in heaven, and you are on the earth, so say only a few words to God.

For the last two Sunday evenings I have preached from Jeremiah 23 addressing the big problem that Israel had at the time with the people who were supposed to be communicating the oracle of God to them.

Their prophets of Israel were so far gone that God told his people this:

• Jeremiah 23:16–17 (ESV) ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷ They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’ ”

Don’t listen to the prophets of God because they fill you with vain hopes. Astounding. And this was the majority religious voice at the time. Their main problem was that they were speaking for God but they were not first listening to God.

• Jeremiah 23:18 (ESV) ¹⁸ For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

I am sometimes incredulous how nonchalant we are in speaking for God, but we have created an environment that breeds this attitude. Anybody can say anything and we should value their opinion.

No. We did not get that thought from God.

Value the person. Yes. Value their half-baked weirdness on spiritual matters. No. But again this is what we have come to expect.

I had a man call me aside one day to explain to me why we have earthquakes – “Earthquakes are caused by the devil making hell bigger.” I thought at first he was joking, but, no, he was completely serious. And what was his source of information. His opinion.

We have Christians inexplicably buying popular books so that they can learn that heaven is real. Really? Don’t we have a Book already that gives that information? Sit and listen to the discussion and be saddened as people who should know better listen to unbiblical nonsense.

Back to Jeremiah 23.

The prophets that God condemns in Jeremiah 23 were actually blessing people who despised God and who stubbornly followed their own hearts (23:17).

• Jeremiah 23:17 (ESV) ¹⁷ They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’ ”

God had neither sent these prophets nor spoken to them. And, if they had stood in his council, instead of blessing their evil they would have turned them from their evil.

• Jeremiah 23:21–22 (ESV) ²¹ “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. ²² But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.

And here is possibly the greatest tragedy and irony.
The word from God that they were left with – the burden, the oracle – was no longer the word of God but just what they had been vying for all along. Their word had become God’s word to them.

• Jeremiah 23:36–40 (ESV) ³⁶ But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷ Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸ But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ ” ³⁹ therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰ And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ”

God forbade them to any more say “the burden of the Lord.” Continue saying “thus says the Lord” when you have not taken the Lord’s council, and God promises judgment.

• Jeremiah 23:29–31 (ESV) ²⁹ Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ³⁰ Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the Lord.’

God’s word to many is child’s play but our God is a consuming fire, as it states above, “Is not my word like fire … and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

And we play with God’s fire. And our play is profanity.

Where is our holy God? Where is the one to whom we fall before in trembling and silence? And listen? And take council?

• Isaiah 66:1–2 (ESV) ¹ Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? ² All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

http://blog.faithfellowship.info/?p=431

Do we understand the amazing things that happen deep within us when we honor God in obedience?

Do we recognize concrete opportunities to make wonderful abstract truths such as “to God be the glory” reality in our everyday lives?

“Wives, submit to your husbands.”

When hell freezes over …

When pigs fly …

Or … Yes, Lord. And then stand back for the spiritual fireworks that God sets off in the depths of our being.

Message Title: Wives Submit and Husbands Love – God Says

Message Text: Ephesians 5:22-33

•  PDF Wives Submit and Husbands Love – God Says Ephesians 5-22-33 102013 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Wives Submit and Husbands Love – God Says Ephesians 5-22-33 102013 HANDOUT TWO
• PDF Wives Submit Husbands Love DOORWAYS Ephesians 5-22-33 102013 HANDOUT THREE
• PDF Wives Submit and Husbands Love – God Says Ephesians 5-22-33 102013 HANDOUT FOUR