Sermon Notes & Videos
2025-01-03 | II Peter | Grace: Learn to READ
It’s so much more than just a ticket to ride. Sure, if you cannot board the train to paradise, then there is nothing further to discuss. You have much bigger problems than insufficient information. But if you’ve heard those coveted words from the Ticket Collector, “I tell you today, you will be with Me in paradise,” then it’s time you learn to appreciate all the benefits and responsibilities that come with the ticket you hold in your hand.
It’s all right there in the fine print; all you have to do is learn to read. Of course, it seems that first one must inform you that the writing on your ticket is not just boring legalese that is safe enough to ignore, a type of disclaimer there to protect the railroad from frivolous laws suits if someone bumps his head in a sudden stop. It’s not fine print because it’s irritatingly tiny, or annoyingly faded, or nearly impossible to read. Instead, it’s mighty fine print that holds in its letters the secrets to an extraordinary Christian life. The print possesses fine information which, if you knew was available, you’d eagerly consume for all the benefits that come with good reading comprehension.
Your ticket to ride is grace, and it was purchased with the precious blood of Jesus. Right there you must recognize that it is the most valuable ticket in the universe, and yet it cost you nothing to receive. Now, take out your reading glasses, if necessary. Instructions indicate that you must purposefully engage in all the possible benefits, or they will remain as merely untapped potential.
Avail yourself to the power and authority that each ticket holder is granted. And then show your ticket to others; disperse the information in such a way that they too want to join you on the train; they could not possibly refuse the invite. That’s right, learn to READ; Receive, Engage, Avail, and Disperse God’s grace. It’s everything you need to understand in the fine print on the powerful ticket you hold in your hand.
2024-12-27 | 1-2 Maccabees | Hanukkah-Christianity 167 Years before Christ
Feast Notes | Sermon Video
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Hanukkah: Christianity 167 Years before Christ
It was the Feast of Dedication and Y’shua was fully aware of what was about to happen and to what He was alluding. Today, Jews around the world, and even some Christians who have come to understand its deeper truths, commemorate this Festival of Lights. You might recognize the holiday as Hanukkah and it’s all about the fire of rededication.
It would be 200 years after the historical events from which the Feast of Dedication originates that Y’shua would declare to the world, at this celebration of lights, that He was indeed the Messiah, “I told you, and you don’t believe Me. The entire historical event began to testify of Me 167 years before I was born. My sheep heard My voice then, and they followed Me; they still do to this very day. I am the giver of eternal life; none of My sheep will perish. And no one can snatch any of them out of My hand, no matter how great the persecution. That is the true miracle of Hanukkah and the force behind the fierce dedication and courageous faith of the Maccabees. They were the warriors for My truth and radical faith based obedience to God. They were responsible for rebuilding and cleansing the altar, and for lighting the fire of the eight day rededication of My temple. And that is the imagery of what it means to dedicate your temple to Me!”
They couldn’t have known then, but we do know now, the deeper meaning of why Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, would become known as the Festival of Lights. At conception, at the moment the human egg becomes fertilized, there is a burst of light.
That is precisely what occurred when Y’shua, the light of life, was supernaturally conceived. That is also what happened the moment you were born again, when that light of life came into your life and you became dedicated as the temple of the Holy Spirit. He is the light of the world and you too are the light of the world. Let us now rededicate our temples and may our fire shine into this world with such intense brightness that all the world would see the immense burst of light and would come to know the glory of our heavenly Father.
2024-12-20 | II Peter 1:9 | The 1 Thing
For this very reason be diligent to add these things to your faith, these many things and for so many reasons—promises really. If these things, these many things, are yours and abound, the fruit in your earthly life and your spiritual life will be abundant. If you do these many things you will never stumble. Could there be a more encouraging promise?
And the man who fails to do these things, these many things, he is like a man who can’t see anything past what is right in front of him. It’s almost like he is nearly blind, but in this case it is not the function of his eyes that is in question. In other words, it’s not his physical sight that is distorted, but the absence of his prophetic vision that has blinded him, his inability to grasp the magnitude of what God has promised.
And yet, with all these many things in focus, there remains just one thing that will ruin a man’s opportunity to attain to God’s upward call in Christ. And if there is just one thing that will ruin the whole thing, I will not be negligent to remind you of these many things, but more importantly that one thing.
2024-12-13 | II Peter 1:5-8 | Just Add Practice
It should be so simple. It’s all but finished right out of the box —just one final ingredient, an item amply available, and the recipe is complete. Sure, it’s an integral component and is required to bring the entire formula to life, but it’s readily accessible and safe to handle. Plus, the instructions are about as easy to implement as it is to solve one plus one. Unpack everything in your box and “just add water.” Oh that your Christian walk would be so simple.
Your Christian lifestyle does share one commonality with this useful analogy. When you read the instructions on the side of the box, there is only one ingredient missing, one integral component. Nevertheless, that is where the similarities end. It is not amply available, nor readily accessible; and it is not safe to handle, nor is it easy to implement—far from it. And the instructions are complicated and it always gets messy once the box is opened. That must be why most Christians never break the seal. However, if you are willing, this is the ingredient and these are the instructions. Just add P.R.A.C.T.I.C.E. Persistent Repetition Accelerates Character Transformation Impacting Christian Ethos. Your ethos is the characteristic spirit of your lifestyle and culture, how you operate in your community as a manifestation of your core beliefs and aspirations.
Instructions: open the box, just add practice, a complex ingredient and very risky to handle. Practice is a complicated element: to your faith add virtue, to virtue add knowledge, to knowledge add self-control, to self-control add perseverance, to perseverance add godliness, to godliness add brotherly affection, and to brotherly affection add love. Combine and mix these subcomponents of practice very carefully and in the perfect sequence, or the entire recipe will be ruined. Or, maybe it’s just safer to leave the box unopened and not mess with the one missing ingredient.
How bad can that be? Do you really want to know? Well, it’s ugly; the contents inside the box will eventually rot if you don’t use them correctly—if you don’t bring the entire formula to life; and there is simply no way to know how long it will take before it festers. So, each day you leave the box closed and don’t add the missing ingredient, you are one day closer to your Christian walk becoming infested with maggots.
2024-12-06 | II-Peter-1:2-11 | The Infinite Imperishable Jackpot
What’s are your highest aspirations? For what are you working so hard to achieve? What are your ultimate goals? What final destination will bring you the greatest satisfaction? What are you running toward with such fervency? On what are you most passionately focused? If you were asked to describe your heart’s desires, what would be your most cherished prize? Seven excellent questions, but for most people unfortunately, as the train pulls into their dream station, they discover something utterly disturbing about their destination. It was all a mirage, a total illusion. Tragically, everything they believed would bring them a feeling of completion and a sense of meaningful accomplishment was an utter delusion— a thorough deception!
God’s word has much to say on this topic. If you understood His perspective and applied His knowledge beforehand, that kind of wisdom would help you avoid the guaranteed regret, misfotrune, and frustration that is assured anyone who chases rotting carcasses and evaporating vapors. But, God’s precious and exceedingly great promises will never disappoint you; they are infinite and imperishable, while all other treasures that you might chase, even if attained, will be dreadfully temporary.
It’s an epidemic of human achievement, but not because there is anything inherently wrong with human advancements and accomplishments. It’s just that the intense desires for such success transform from God honoring stewardship to a disease of human achievement in a particular environment. At this moment, you should be begging to recognize that type of environment. It’s a pathological setting that can be easily diagnosed with one test question, as long as you are willing to be honest with yourself: “What satisfies your soul?” When your self-talk sounds like this… “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; you are a true success,” the disease process has set in. The Great Physician has life-saving advice for this patient… “You foolish one, tonight is your last and your soul is being recalled. The things which you worked so hard to accumulate—whose will they be when you are gone? Since you can’t keep what you’ve accumulated after death—your wealth, achievements, and accomplishments, don’t bother laying up those perishable treasures for yourselves on earth. Instead, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven that are permanent.”
Here is the true measure of your success—godly stewardship of your advancements and accomplishments. “Delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” If you accumulate treasures for yourself here on earth, but you are not rich towards God, those treasures actually expose the disease of your heart. For you, there will only ever be a temporary and corruptible crown. But, if your heart is one that chases the riches of God, His precious and exceedingly great promises, your rewards will be infinite and incorruptible.
2024-11-22 | II Peter 1:1-2 | Faith Like Mine
In the Good News of Christ God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith. Why two faiths and not one? Surely faith should be unified into a single concept; God’s righteousness is revealed in faith. But, that would be like saying a man who receives a great inheritance from his father would be considered a good steward of that inheritance regardless of what he does with it. The man who guards it and does nothing; and the man who squanders it with wasteful spending; and the man who makes wise investments or uses it to grow into new successful enterprises, should all be considered equally as faithful. But that isn’t reality; to be truly faithful a man must go from faith to faith—from the free gift of faith to the practice of faith!
Jesus sat at the Last Supper table and delivered to His disciples His most prophetic mandate—this is what is coming and this is who you will be. And He made it clear that He was extending that mandate to a world beyond that table. His petition just hours before His execution: “Father, I pray that My disciples grasp this profound revelation and calling, and to embrace that it doesn’t end with them. It is for every disciple who will ever come to faith in Me, because I now commission them to preach this message—as You sent Me into the world, I now send them into the world. My ultimate desire is that this truth would perfectly unify God’s people, as if they are one person, as We are indeed One Person.”
Peter sat at that table and heard His Savior’s heart. Many years later he knew, just prior to his own execution, that he too must leave a legacy. He would write to his disciples and by extension his words were meant to touch us all; “This letter is to those who have obtained a like precious faith. It is first addressed to all those who have received the gift of faith. But ultimately it’s for those who wish to obtain a second type of faith like mine—to walk the narrow road from faith to faith. It’s a faith I obtained for free that is on a journey of faith that I was obedient to practice. The instructions in this letter will explain how.” Yes, two faiths—and dead is the former without
the latter.