May 1st *David The Giant Killer? Pt 2*

Lastly, we spoke about David’s list of qualifications from men’s point of view to be king of Israel and a man after God’s own heart.

This week let’s examine what he did after his anointing as king.

He went back to his sheep.

That’s right! He went back to doing what he was doing before because there was no other direction from God.

Why didn’t he go out and change his wardrobe, buy a Ferrari camel, and begin to brag to everyone who God had made him to be?

While there could be many factors the one I like most

is that God was only making him aware, not releasing him to go.

We get confused sometimes as well with the calling and the actual appointment. God had a specific time in mind when David would be installed as king even though, in God’s mind, he already was.

Jesus has saved you and set you free. You have been anointed to do great things. So continue on while God gets everything ready for you to be installed and, like David, try not to take matters into your own hands.

Pastor Brent

April 24th *Why David?*

David was thought of by his brothers, as most youngest brothers are, as worthless and barely able to be of any value to the family at all.

If we look at I Samuel 17:28 we see that Eliae, the oldest brother, sums it up like this, “I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart.”

But apparently that was not the opinion of a much weightier opinion, for God says, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart.”

God does not speak hastily or lightly concerning His judgments, and yet, we often confuse actions with heart. Because we are human it is only natural to judge by things we can see, but God judges by things He can trust in us.

We need to know that it is not our skills, or brains, or looks, or charisma, or….who are we kidding? It is nothing that we bring to the table with God. It is only our heart toward Him, even in the midst of our failure, our heart can remain His.

Don’t set your sights on success and failure like profit and loss; set it on keeping ourselves quiet until God is able to have His way and then praise Him for it.

Pastor Brent

April 10th *Passover Pt 3*

If you have swept your house and cleaned out the leaven, searching for sin and purging it from your life. If you have chosen a perfect lamb and nourished and treated it as a member of the family for four days, now you’re expected to do the hardest thing…..sacrifice this perfect animal.

Because they were farmers and raised their own meat and grains and vegetables they would have known how to do this, cutting the carotid artery along with the nerve in close proximity, so that not only was the death quick, but virtually painless as well.

But, still, it is a death. However, it is the only thing different about the Passover lamb versus the true Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. Whereas the Passover lamb was treated kindly and gently, Jesus was subject to mocking, beating and whipping before not a quick, painless, death; but one of intense and drug out agony.

Jesus chose to do this and was comforted by angels as He prepared His mind and body for the excruciating ordeal that was to come. We get to receive the benefits of His determination and should be eternally grateful for the fact that He willingly chose to do this for us.

But, in fact, too many times we don’t consider His agony when making choices and we, to our shame, crucify the Son of God afresh (Heb 6:6). We bring shame to Christ when we willingly, and repeatedly, sin again and again with the same thing. Accept the power of the Holy Spirit, treat sin like a red hot stove not to be touched lest it leaves us disfigured.

Christ endured for us. Can we please endure for Him?

Pastor Brent

April 3rd *The Passover pt 2*

The blood and the search for leaven.

The blood is sacred to God. It is an addition that angels and those close to God do not have.

Our uniqueness as humans is because of the blood. Very specifically God warns us against spilling innocent blood and drinking blood. He tells us that our blood speaks to Him and cries out to Him.

In Gen. 49:11, it is prophesied about a person in the line of Judah washing his clothes in the blood of grapes. Our clothes that God will clothe us with are to be washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). The clothes that God made for Adam and Eve were made from the sacrifice of an innocent animal.

All of this to say that Passover is an event to be remembered.

In Ex 13:7 no leaven shall be seen with you in all your house.

And the Jewish people take that seriously and make a game for the children so they can recite what the Lord has done and who He is.

Do we as parents and grandparents have those kind of things that we recite to them? They are going to need markers in their lives to be reminded of who God really is because, more and more, God is going to be belittled and vilified before our very eyes. He will be treated like an old man out of touch with modern times.

Lift up His Name

Pastor Brent

March 27th *Passover*

This year will mark a significance in my life. Because of surgery I will be having, I’ve asked Dr Jim Jenkins to preach on Easter Sunday, the 17th of April.

I hope to be in the service, but might also be held over in the hospital because the surgery is on “good” Friday, although I fail to see what’s “good” about that.

But, leading up to Easter, I would like to take these three Sundays and talk about the Passover. It’s origin, it’s history, and the miracles that have taken place on Passovers in the past.

Of course, it started in Egypt, the culmination of God’s terrible judgment on the Egyptians for their disgraceful treatment of the Jews. But to understand the prophecy it contained, even in it’s infancy about Jesus’ death is quite remarkable.

And God knowing our hearts and our ability to forget significant moments, had the Israelites forever have a feast and celebration, not only remembering the past, but looking forward to the future.

Go with me on this journey from intense celebration and awe; to the wonderful sacrifice of the true lamb, bringing us the fullness of life and sparing us from the angel of death.

Pastor Brent

Why is it called Passover?

In order to protect their first-born children, the Israelites marked their doors with lamb's blood so the angel of death would pass over them when the plague killed the first born of all the Egyptians. Thus the name Passover, which is “pesach” in Hebrew. The Passover begins after nightfall on the first day and ends at night fall on the last day during the Hebrew month of Nisan on the 15th day of the month.

March 6th *What If*

What if God worked more like He did in the Old Testament bringing judgment on nations because of their drifting away from His love?

Because it is for love that God brings punishment. He understands the slope that we stand on, and if we don’t have solid ground, we tire ourselves out just keeping our footing.

Does God really change? Isn’t He the same yesterday, today and forever like Jesus? So why the difference in the Old and the New Testaments? Because we could never keep the law. I can barely, as easy as Jesus has made it, keep Him at the forefront of my decisions in everyday life.

God is the same—it is our communication and relationship for those of us who believe in his Son—that’s what has changed.

As Jesus talked; He was all about priorities and the appreciation and love of God vs the punishment if something didn’t happen.

Can we settle on something? God is not looking for something to be angry with, He wants to have something to rejoice over. If we are putting ourselves at His command, He asks nothing more. Our efforts are not really His goal, our desire for effort is. God is the same, but His opportunity toward us is infinitely more gracious. One choice—eat from the tree of Life. Leave good and evil to God.

Pastor Brent

Feb 27th *Gog and Magog*

Ezekiel 38:10 & 11 you will make an evil plan: You will

say, I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to

a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling

without walls having neither bars nor gates.

Who is Gog and Magog? Well, they were historical

figures. Leaders of countries who set their face against the

people of God.

And in Revelation, Gog and Magog will be nations who

are bullies and try to gather other nations by different means

to form a coalition to bring down Israel while supposedly

increasing their own wealth and power.

We will not unveil some great mystery this morning,

revealing who these nations are, but we must not hide our

heads in the sand and say, “Oh, that is for others to worry

about, I have my own problems.”

People are going to be afraid and people will need

comforting answers about a God who cares. And those on the

front lines of this conflict need support and prayer. Both the

Ukrainian and Russian churches have asked for prayer. For

safety and for the unity they need that would transcend

nationalism and the hatred that could be fomented by such

actions.

People are dying, people are hurting. Are we asking

God how to pray or what we can do? If not, why not? If this is

not the time to answer the call, the call may leave us behind.

Pastor Brent

Abraham—Isaac 2-20-2022

Gen 25:7 This is the sum of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years.

And Abraham had more children after Isaac. He lived thirty-eight years after Sarah died and had six more sons who he blessed with gifts and sent them east, away from his son Isaac.

Abraham lived one hundred years after God asked him to leave his father and continue on to the land of Canaan where he received further promises from God about the future of his family and legacy.

We receive from God promises that require us to change location, job, house, stature, situation, or any number of life-changing challenges that He sets forth.

Many people do not respond to the call of God (Matt 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen) and they will never know what the response to God would have brought to their life.

But others do, and are able to see the working hand of God as he exceeds even our imaginations as to how He works within our life.

Respond to God and become a doer and not a hearer only.

Pastor Brent

Five promises of God:

Promise #1: God Is Always with Me (I Will Not Fear) ...

Promise #2: God Is Always in Control (I Will Not Doubt) ...

Promise #3: God Is Always Good (I Will Not Despair) ...

Promise #4: God Is Always Watching (I Will Not Falter) ...

Promise #5: God Is Always Victorious 131 (I Will Not Fail)

Test, Trial or Failure? 2-13-2022

Gen 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” and he said, “Here I am.”

First of all, it sounds like when someone jumps around a corner and tries to scare you to death! But, more importantly, God is trying to reveal something now in Abraham’s character.

The King James version of this verse says that God did tempt Abraham. But James 1:13 says let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth He any man.

So which is it? Does God tempt or not? But look at James—-God tempting us with evil to see if we are strong enough to withstand or God testing us to show us how strong we are in Him?

Two completely different words. One meaning to draw away to evil, the other to show that we actually have our priorities in place.

Testing is not tempting. Tempting implies there might be failure and it’s our strength that is needed to get us through. Testing is going through material that we have already learned and just need the emboldening of a victory to know He is there.

God would never have asked Abraham what He did if He thought Abraham would fail. He is showing us how far we’ve come in our battle against doubt and our old way of thinking.

Pastor Brent

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Father of the Year

Gen 21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham scoffing.

And Sarah was upset that this woman and child (of her own making) was scoffing at the weakness of the child of promise.

Many of our decisions come back to bite us in the end. And many times we are angry at ourselves because of the choices and we make even more poor choices which haunt us for a long time.

Maybe if Sarah wouldn’t have run Hagar off, Ishmael wouldn’t have been the thorn in Israel’s side. But that is just conjecture.

All we can do is repent for the bad decisions we have made. It is no use trying to bury them. They will be found. Give God the glory that He is still working within and without you to fulfill His promise.

Don’t despise your mistakes, use them as the building blocks for your future decisions. He is still going to go forward with His plans, so don’t take the bait to use precious time and energy on past indiscretions. Plod on, my friend, plod on.

Turn that barren land into a great harvest with the strength and promise of God.

Pastor Brent

God has a perfect timing, never early, never late. It takes a little patience and faith, but it’s worth the wait.