Sermon: Safe and Secure in the Fire

Sermon: Safe and Secure in the Fire

Daniel 3

Mt. Moriah Baptist Church (3/12/2018)

Listen: Safe & Secure in the Fire

Not A Time For Grumps

 “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

-Proverbs 15:1 (ESV)

Have you ever had one of those conversations with someone and thought, “Well, that was not very helpful.” A simple hello turns into an hour rant about how they wished things were different, the way they used to be. No answers to the twelve-hundred problems they raised, just empty grumblings.

In my years of ministry there is nothing more disheartening than one of these rants. “How come that young man wore a hat in church?” “That mother allowed that baby to cry the entire service.” “When I was growing up people had respect.” “This generation is just a bunch of snowflakes who care about nothing but themselves.”

Although some of the complaints might be true, there is nothing helpful there.

It is easy to complain about how people are acting around you. There are many days all you can do is just shake your head at how people are acting in the world. The issue is that ranting and screaming will never actually change anything and it will not get your thoughts heard.

Most complaints, at least in a church setting, seem to come from the older folks in the congregation. The question that needs to be asked about these complaints is what are you personally doing to give direction? What are you doing to disciple the next generations?

The Church needs our older saints and we must always make sure that they are valued in the life of the body. Job 12:12 says, “Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.” All generations of a church should lean into what the older saints have to share. We desperately need it.

Although, no one should expect to be listened to if what is said is harsh for harsh sake.

Let us all seek to speak the truth in love. Wisdom is hard to come by these days, even harder to come by without a grumbling heart behind it.

Application and Things to Think About

1.   Before bringing a concern or issue to someone, ask yourself what your motivation is.

2.   Do people hear you complain more than they hear you encourage?

3.   Pray that God would give you a heart of compassion. That this world won’t make you stale and bitter, but that your hope in Jesus makes you joyful and merciful. 

Sermon: God's Mission

Sermon: God's Mission

Ephesians 3:1-13

Mt. Moriah Baptist Church (2/5/2018)

Listen: God's Mission (Ephesians 3:1-13)

Sermon: God's People

Sermon: God's People

Ephesians 2:14-22

Mt. Moriah Baptist Church (1/28/2018)

Listen: God's People (Eph. 2:14-22)

Time to Take Off the Training Wheels

        “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.” Hebrews 5:12 (ESV)

The other day my six-year-old daughter asked me when she would be able to ride her bike without training wheels. My daughter doesn’t have much experience riding a bike, we have never had a place for her to ride before now. I told her it was important to keep practicing, keep riding well with the training wheels and she shouldn’t have to keep them on very much longer.
That is what training wheels are for. They are for a child to get used to riding a bike and learn how to ride safely and efficiently. My daughter is heading for a time when she won’t have to use the training wheels anymore.
Many Christians today, as the writer of Hebrews says, are stuck on milk, spiritually speaking. Now I am not, nor is the writer of Hebrews, pointing out how little new believers know of the things of God. I do not expect a toddler to be able to know how to clean their room well, nor do I expect someone who is a baby in the faith to be able to explain to me the sovereignty of God.
I am speaking to the believer who continues to be content with only knowing the “basic principles” of the faith and never being ready for the deep things of God.
The writer of Hebrews is telling their readers about how Jesus is our merciful High Priest in the line of Melchizedek. He stops and says, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.”
What a harsh word. I wish I could continue going into this magnificent truth, but you are not ready. I want to reveal more of the mysteries of Christ, but I must stop. You are not ready.
I want to be ready for more, don’t you? I want to, as Hebrews 6:1 (NIV) says, “move beyond elementary teaching about Christ and taken forward into maturity.”
It would be strange if my daughter rode her bike in college, continuing to use training wheels. It would be strange if my son grows up and continues to cut with child safety scissors into his adulthood. Which is why it’s strange to see Christians in churches not moving into a mature walk with Christ.
If you have been walking with Christ for years you should know and be able to teach the things of God to those new in the faith. If you have known the Lord, hearing the Word preached week after week, study your Bible daily then you should be able to explain the Trinity without sounding like a heretic. You shouldn’t be wrestling with the same sin you did as a 40-year-old that you did as a teenager.
You should long to know more of this gracious holy God who saved you out of the pit of your own sin.
The good news is this, there is more of God. Maturity is possible. We can be confident, “that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Application and Things to Think About
1. Where are you in your spiritual maturity? Have you seen growth in the past five years? Past year? Past month?
2. Who in your life is mature in their walk with Christ? Ask them to disciple you and push you into knowing God deeper.
3. Pray that God would give you a deep hunger for His Word and a hunger for you to be molded more daily into the image of His Son, Christ Jesus.

From Obeying God’s Law to Loving God’s Law

Psalm 119:9

    “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word.”

This is the question all parents are faced with, isn’t it? The writer of Psalm 119 had to be a parent or at least someone who understands the rebellious mind of a young person.

How do we keep our children pure? How do we keep them away from all of the filth this world pedals at them?

When your daughter comes to you and asks why she can’t watch a certain show that “everyone else” is watching, or when your son doesn’t understand why he is in trouble for saying a word he overheard from a kid at the Chick-Fil-A playground. The answer we give is something like, “because I said so” or if I have more patience and time I may quote some Bible verses.

I want my kids to be pure; to hate sin and to flee from it. All Christian parents do. The Psalmist in 119 makes it clear; we guard our children’s purity, as well as our own, by guarding it according to God’s word. Which is why we have family devotions, memory verses, etc. It is why we take our children to church, send them to Bible study, let them hear and sing worship songs. We want them to hear the word and be doers of the word as James 1:22 tells us.

These are normal thoughts and practices of most if not all Christian parents.

My conviction is this: how do I raise my children to not only grab ahold of Psalm 119:9 but to also be children who can say with Psalm 119:97,

    “Oh how I love Your law!

It is my meditation all the day.”

I pray my children will not only be hearers and obeyers of God’s word, but that they will love what they are told to obey. That they meditate on it all day. That they will experience the peace that comes to those who love God’s law that Psalm 119:165 talks about.

I want my children to obey God and love obeying Him. I want them to abhor what God hates and use the word of God as a lamp to their feet all the days of their lives.

Practical Thoughts and Application

1. 1) Do your children know you love God’s law and His word? How do they know? How can you show or tell them more of your love for God’s law?
2. 2) Does God’s word govern your household? How?
3. 3) Pray that God would give you a love for holiness and love for His word.