“WHAT SHALL WE DO?”

This is the day that the Lord has made!  I will, we will, we shall rejoice and be glad in it!  For it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves!  So that makes us God’s people!!  We are the sheep of His pasture!  We will praise Him forever, from generation to generation!!  We will proclaim your praise!!  Because “praise” is a weapon!  And when we praise and as we praise, it confounds the enemy!!  It makes null and void his tactics, and it shuts down and stops his plans!!

Our God is Awesome!  Our God is magnificent!  Our God is Excellent!  Our God is powerful!  Our God is not a man that He should lie!  His Word stands through the test of time, and it endures forever!!!!

And with all that is going on in America and the world, we should still be giving God praise!!  All that is happening is in God’s plan to bring to pass everything He has said!!!  

• Ecclesiastes 1:9  There is no new thing under the sun.

After promoting hate and violence; threats against other races of people; belittling women; making fun of the mentally challenged; causing division and separation, Donald Trump has been placed in the highest office as President of the United States.  The question and message for today is:

“WHAT SHALL WE DO?” SUBTOPIC: “OUR GOD SHALL”!!

You Can't Miss It!

Psalms 37:23 (KJV)  The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:  and he delighteth in his way.

The book of Psalms is the 19th book of the bible. It depicts Christ “As Our All in All.”  Psalms has 150 divisions, 2461 verses, and 43,743 words.

When we hear God say that our steps are ordered, we need to take those words at face value.  God is literally saying that He has the entire course of our lives mapped out, and by serving Him, we can embrace that course.

Sure, there are times when we make mistakes and wonder how we will ever recover, but God isn’t taken off guard.  Our mistakes or simple oversights may create detours, but they don’t take us out of God’s plan as long as we continue to serve Him.

God gets us right back where we need to be even when we feel like we have totally blown it.  And even when we haven’t blown it and are just trying to walk out our future, we need to rest assured that God has it all prepared.

So rest in the fact that you are not going to miss your breakthrough or end up out of His will somehow.  But I come to tell you, “The safest place in the whole wide world is in the Will of God.”

Even if you feel that you don’t know what to do today or what the outcome of the future looks like, God is ordering your steps for a prosperous and fruitful outcome.  You can’t miss it!

You will enjoy His plan of blessings and your life will stay on course.  You can’t miss it!

THE AUTHORITY OF THE BELIEVER!

TEXT:  MARK 1:21-28

“OF” is a preposition placed in front of a noun or pronoun to show a connection with or to something or someone.  It is defined as to proceed from; composed of; related to.  

To “proceed from” means to carry on or continue an action or process.

• John 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to my Father.  

To be “composed of” means to make up from elements or parts:  

• 1 Peter 2:5  You as lively stones are built up a spiritual house unto the Lord.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20  What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.  
• Revelation 21:3  I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

To be “related to” means to be connected by kinship, origin, marriage, etc:  

• Acts 17:26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

This tells us that we as “believers” proceeded from authority; we are composed of authority; and we are related to authority, who is GOD HIMSELF!

THE POWER OF PRAYER!

TEXT:  ACTS 12:1-11

SUBTOPIC:  “SOMETHING HAPPENS WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE PRAY”!

Acts portrays Christ as “The Living Lord”!

In the gospels, we hear Christ’s teachings.  In Acts we see the effect of His teachings on the “acts” of the Apostles.

What is Prayer?

Prayer is a communication process which allows us to talk to God.  He wants us to communicate with Him like a person - to – person phone call.  It’s merely talking with Him on a personal level, sharing your heart-felt concerns regarding your life.  Prayer is casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you! (1 Peter 5:7).

What’s so good about it is that God has opened the door to His throne room and invited His children to come boldly into His Presence with our petitions.  Hebrews 4:14-16  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  

We have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses and was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  So with confidence we can come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy to help us in time of need.

Jesus set the example.  He Himself prayed in every aspect of life.  He prayed often and consistently.  He prayed in the morning, late at night, all through the night and day.  

Prayer is the most essential thing in the Bible along with faith (positive thinking, confidence, hope) in God.  Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him:  for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  Anyone coming to God must believe that there is a God, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him!  Without it, it’s impossible to please Him!

I want to expound on three things:  the church persecuted; the church praying; the church delivered.

The Mind!

Text: Philippians 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Mind in this verse is from the Greek word which is phrone’o, meaning to exercise the mind; entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; be of one; be the same; savour; think.

Paul was writing from prison to Christians in Philippi.

The theme of this book is the joy of Christian grace and experience in all life and death.  Christians are to rejoice in fellowship with one another in afflictions of the gospel, in the ministry for saints, in faithfulness of ministers, in the Lord and not in Judaism or in the flesh, in unity, and always in all things.

Apostle Huntsman was on point last Sunday with the message “I know that greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world”! (1 John 4:4)  It’s a “mind set”!  A knowing!  No doubting!  No wondering if but a knowing!

It is essential that we let Christ’s mind be in us.  If it was not important, Paul would not have mentioned it!  

• Philippians 2:5  Let this mind (phrone’o) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus!  

Nor would he have mentioned Romans 12:2.

• Romans 12:2  Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind [nous meaning intellect; divine mind; thought; feeling; will; understanding].  

This is vitally important or Paul wouldn’t have warned us about the carnal mind.

• Romans 8:6-7  To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity (hostile) against God:  for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  
• 1 Peter 1:13  Gird up the loins of your mind [dian’oia meaning deep thought; the mind or its disposition].

Because your “mind” has loins, reproduction can take place in your “mind” and bring you into the total of who Jesus is in the earth!  

• 1 John 4:17  As he is, so are we in this world.   

Not up beyond the blue, but “in this world”!

It all starts in the “mind”!  

• Mark 15:38  And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
  

Demonstrations Are Here!

Prophetic Scripture:

1st Corinthians 2:4-5  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

1st Corinthians portrays Christ as our ”LORD”  It contains 16 chapters, 437 verses and 9,489 words.  It’s time now for “my people” not to just talk about “my power”, but to demonstrate it!!

God wants us to step out in miracles and make a practice of signs and wonders!!

“FOR THE DEMONSTRATIONS OF GOD ARE HERE”!!

Demonstration:  the action of showing the existence or truth of something by giving proof or evidence.

Demonstration in the Greek is Apodeixis (pronounced a-pod’-ike-sis) and means manifestation; making manifest; showing forth a demonstration; proof.  The Gospel is not a verbal argument for the existence of God.  It is above all things a demonstration of God Himself.  It is the evidence of who He is in His love and power!

GOD'S LOVE: THE SOURCE OF LOVE

1 John 4:7-11 (KJV)

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Statistics state that nearly one billion Valentine’s cards are exchanged each year. February 14th is the day!  During that day, many will rush out - and even some at the last minute - to get that special someone a box of chocolates, some flowers and/or a valentine card.

Webster defines a valentine as “a gift or card sent to a loved one on Valentine’s day”.  If you will think about it, we don’t send these cards, flowers or chocolates out to just anyone.  They are generally reserved for those whom we love.  I have received some very nice gifts on Valentine’s Day in the past.

But as we observe this day dedicated to those whom we love, I want to examine the greatest love story of all time:  The love that God had/has for us!  As a result of God’s love for us, we should have that same love for others. No text illustrates this fact better than the text chosen for today’s message.

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another.  What an intriguing thought!  This call to love is one that needs to be heard today.

ACTIVATE THE WORD OF GOD!!!

TEXT:  ISAIAH 55:8-11

Isaiah has 66 chapters; 1,292 verses; 308 commands; 37,044 words; 190 questions; 120 promises; 71 distinct messages from God.  Isaiah is the 23rd book of the Bible.  It is a miniature version of the Bible, having 66 chapters in the first section dealing with the law and judgment and corresponding with the message of the 39 books of the Old Testament.  There are 27 chapters in the second section, corresponding with the 27 books of the New Testament both in number and messages of comfort and salvation through Christ.  

The theme of the first section is one of coming judgment upon Israel and captivity because of sin and apostasy, judgment on many Gentile nations, and the latter-day restoration of Israel under their Messiah.  

The theme of the last section is one of mercy, comfort, and eternal restoration under the Messiah.

The purpose of the book of Isaiah was to make God’s message clear to Israel - to warn them of judgment for persisting in sin and to reveal the final dealings of God with them in complete restoration under their Messiah.

Isaiah is the son of Amoz.  He was a prophet during the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (2 Kings 19:20).  His name means “Jehovah is salvation; help of Jah; Jehovah succors”.  It means assistance and support in times of hardship and distress.  It means deliverance of Jehovah; welfare of Jah; prosperity of Jehovah.

Isaiah’s name means the higher self or “the God power” (Jehovah is salvation) that is in us which discerns the reality, and the real character of the spiritual man (the Christ), and fearlessly proclaims it!  It is “spiritual understanding”!

Philippians 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.  This doesn’t mean we have to die physically because Jesus took our place in that.  

St. John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”!

Our focus for this message is on Isaiah 55:11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:  it shall not return unto me void (empty) but it shall accomplish (achieve; complete successfully, manage, fulfill, realize, attain, execute, perform, consummate, conclude) that which I please, and it shall prosper (flourish physically; grow strong and healthy; thrive; bloom; blossom; to progress),  in the thing [a word], by implication, a matter [as spoken], whereto I sent it.