Sermon Notes & Videos
2021-11-05 | Genesis 25-28 | The Treasure of the Heart
Think about how often we make cavalier statements. We sloppily allow words to stumble from our lips. We say things flippantly, without ever considering the power of words and the wrong thinking behind them. How many times have you said things like: “My neck is killing me,” or, “I’m starving to death.”? These are exaggerated statements that declare serious things we don’t really intend. Isn’t the truth more like: “My neck hurts,” and, “I’m hungry.”?
How about the way we diminish what words mean, at times, when we say things like: “I love my new truck; I love my job; I love my football team.” Love is not reserved for things, but for people. God is love and as much as you might enjoy your new “4 X 4”, you can’t love it!
Do you think I am making more of this than I should? Well, I bet Esau wished he could take back his words. He was simply tired and hungry, but said this instead. “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” He didn’t know it at the time, but his entire future was wrapped up in those thirteen words. Stinking thinking and rash remarks changed the trajectory of his life and the course of history. His entire legacy was at stake and he didn’t even know it.
No one describes it better than the prophet Obadiah many years later. “”And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,” for the Lord has spoken.” Esau had surrendered his birthright and spoken death over his own life. The true proverb says it like this; “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” “I am about to die…” Yep, Esau spoke death over his own life and that is the fruit he ate.
2021-10-29 | Genesis 23-25 | Bicycles Don’t Have Reverse
Have you ever been tempted to go backwards? You know, when you’ve chosen to do what was right and it still ain’t working out. It stinks when good decisions seem to yield bad results. What then? “Must you go back to, from where you came?” It’s certainly tempting to reverse your decisions when you’re sure you did things God’s way and it turned out to be a big mess. “No good deed goes unpunished” is the comical euphemism often inserted in these situations.
Nevertheless, it’s also abundantly clear that going in reverse is NOT the answer. I’d like you to consider your faith-walk like riding a bicycle. It can be wobbly at times, and truly, steering takes a million micro-corrections to get you where you want to go. But, bicycles don’t have reverse. Sometimes you just have to keep going forward until you find the right spot to make bigger turns. But don’t be mistaken, you are always going forward. I really like how Abraham said it, as he instructed his servant on finding a wife for Isaac. I’ll paraphrase it for you. “Go find a wife for my son, but under no circumstances are you to take him back to, from where I came. That life is over and all of God’s promises are right in front of us.”
2021-10-22 | Genesis 18-22 | Preconceived Notions
Preconceived Notions: having the foreknowledge or awareness of something before having any evidence of that something being real. It’s why Y’shua spoke in parables, and it’s what you are privy to when it comes to what Yahweh is doing in the earth. And let me add, it’s not simply a privilege; it’s an obligation. “Surely God does nothing without first revealing it to His servants the prophets.” Of course, He can do anything He wishes, He just chooses to include us in His plans as His human initiative partners. He wants us involved and we ought to take that responsibility seriously. The Holy Scriptures are rife with proof that Yahweh has chosen to operate this way, right from the beginning; “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?”
Y’shua continued His Father’s ways; “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” I think there is no better time in history, than right now, to learn what this means and how to discern what God is doing in the earth. The ongoing problem is that God’s people have a history of killing the prophets. Back then it was with swords and stones. Today, it is the church that keeps them in stone-cold silence!
2021-10-15 | Genesis 12-17 | You Have it in You
Have your ever heard the phrase that begins with the words, “You have it in you…?” Then, you fill in the blank to make your point. In a portion of scripture spanning six chapters, containing so many important moments in Biblical history, all focused on the life of Abraham, all relevant to you as a Christian, what jumped off the pages to me this week was this one responsibility. “You have it in you to bless all the families of the earth.”
In an era that features an outright assault on the family, what better time in history could there be to take on this duty? It’s a mandate that should not be overlooked.
And may I add one further job description for serious disciples, again considering the times in which we live. “You have it in you to execute God’s judgment on anyone who wishes to destroy the family.” You have it in you!
2021-10-08 | Genesis 6-11 | Cataclysmic Intervention
Are you contemplating the significance of the days in which we live? Given the events of the last 18 months and counting, you could be questioning things more now than at any other time in your life.
As history rushes headlong into what Christendom calls the last days, do you understand what Y’shua meant when He said, “just as in the days of Noah”? Speaking to His disciples, Y’shua pointed to how Noah was warned of Yahweh’s impending Cataclysmic Intervention in His creation, aimed at cleansing evil from the face the earth.
Anyone who has ever been to Church service, even a handful of times, has heard of Noah and his famous Ark. Why did Yahweh command him to build it? What exactly was going on at the time of Noah, and what was Y’shua warning about our future? Make no mistake my dear brothers and sisters, while Yahweh promised to never bring destruction through water again, He did promise another Cataclysmic Intervention. “Just as in the days of Noah” and the “Days of Lot”…”so will it be when the Son of Man is revealed.”
2021-10-01 | Genesis 1-6 | The Image of God
Yahweh, our Creator, desired that we know Him so He created humanity “in His Image”. First He created Adam, who we now know had both male and female DNA. All men do! Then He “extracted” the woman from Adam so we could see a man and a woman separately with all their distinct characteristics. He looked at them and said, “This is My image.” To further clarify, He commanded that they marry and be fruitful and multiply, thus completing the family—the perfect image of the Creator Himself. We learn that God is a Divine Family, the Father, Spirit and Son, and so His expressed image needed to be represented by all the distinct parts of a family. Thus, the human family, a father as the husband, a mother as the wife, and the child as the fruit of their love.
When you contemplate the existential crisis of our day, you can simplify it with two opposing viewpoints. One stance says men and women are distinct and definitive, marriage is a holy union between them, and that children are the blessed fruit of that union. The other stance says gender is a social construct and there has never been a distinction between a man and a woman, nor is gender limited to male or female. A person is born as one gender, both genders, or neither. Marriage is unnecessary, or if desired, may take place between any genders or no genders at all. And of course, the unborn child is the fruit of nothing, is not even human or alive, and has no rights to live, other than what the person carrying that lump of cells permits.
Think about it! One side believes in the family, as God presents it to us, as His image. The other has rejected all aspects of the family, and by inference has rejected the image of God Himself. In other words, there is no God! Could opposing positions be any more contrary to one another?
The destruction of the family is the enemy’s chief strategy and the restoration of the family to the image of our Creator is the most important work on earth today. When we do that, only then will the Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.