Weekend Sermon -- The Attributes of God -- Conclusion

      Welcome to the Weekend Sermon. Today marks the last sermon in our attributes of God series. In this message, I am going to wrap things up in our study.

     Over the course of the last several weeks, we have examined some of the characteristic and attributes that the Scriptures tells us describe what God is like. We have seen during the course of our study that among God's attributes are the the facts that God is love, God is just, righteous, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent among other attributes.

     Even though we have examined many of the attributes of God, there is no way possible that we can ever fully understand what God is like. The Bible says that His ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. Although we can know many things about God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, there is much that is mystery. 

     The best way that we can understand what God is like is to look to Jesus. Colossians 2:9 tells us that in Jesus, all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Jesus Himself said in John 10:30, "I and the Father are One." Jesus also said that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. 

     When we look to Jesus, we know about the love of God, the mercy of God and every other attribute of God. If we keep our eyes focused on the Lord Jesus, we will see how important that we are to God and how much He cares for us. And I think that that is the most important thing that we need to know. 

     As believers, the most important thing that we can do is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He demonstrates for us what we need to do while we are living on this earth. He shows us the way now, and we will be with Him for all of eternity if we place our faith and trust in Him. 

     I want to wrap up our series by saying that we serve an awesome, powerful and loving God. It will be a joy to be in His presence for all of eternity. Keep studying what God is like, and keep looking to Jesus. Amen.

    I know that this has been a shorter message. I want to discuss just for a moment how we are going to proceed on the Weekend Sermon in the next few weeks. Holy Week is coming up. I will have a post for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and an Easter Sermon.  After the Easter season, I will be starting a new sermon series that will take a few weeks. 

Prayer Requests

     Please pray about the bad weather in my area. We are in a high wind warning, and that has me worried. I have an old house with a lot of trees around it. I am not in the financial position to withstand having to fix much in the way of damage. And, I am not just thinking about myself, we've had enough bad weather, and I don't want anyone else to have problems. Please pray that things won't be too bad. 

     One of my friends at work is not doing well. Please pray that his health will recover. 

     Continue to pray for those affected by natural disasters around the world.  Keep praying for those in Turkey, Syria, Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi, California and Mississippi. Pray that they will all get the aid and the help that they need. 

     Keep praying for peace. Pray for Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and other places where there is turmoil. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those living in nations of Myanmar and Oman. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, I will be posting as I've already discussed. I will post the verses on Monday. May God bless you all. 

A Couple Of Prayer Requests

      A friend of mine is having a lot of health problems. Please pray that he will start to feel better soon. Also, the forecast is for high winds in my area for the next couple of days. Please pray that these winds will not be too strong and cause damage. Thank you. 

Something Needs To Be Done

      To begin this post, I would like to ask everyone to pray for the families and friends of the victims in the school shooting in the US yesterday. Pray that God will be with them during this time. 

      Mass shootings and school shootings are all too common here in the US. We are going to have to do something to curb this type of violence. One of the policies that would definitely help is to pass an assault weapons ban. 

      Mental illness also plays a role in violence. Here in the United States, many don't have the access that they need to mental health providers. If we had a proper national healthcare system in this country, people with problems would be more able to seek help even if they did not have the ability to pay. 

     We need to pray and ask God to help us and others. We also need to take action to curb the easy access to firearms, and we need to find ways for people to receive the mental healthcare that they need. 

Verses For The Week

 I Peter 3:8 -- "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit."

Psalm 119:36 -- "Turn my heart toward Your statutes, and not toward selfish gain."

The Weekend Sermon -- The Attributes of God -- Part 13

      Welcome to another edition of the Weekend Sermon. Today, we will be focusing on the attributes of God once again. After this week's message, I have one more message on this topic to wrap up this series. After Easter, we will begin a new series of messages. Thank you for taking the time to read the sermon this week. 

     Today, I want us to focus on the fact that God is love. This is the attribute of God that most people in the world know about and understand in the most detail. I believe that that is because of the fact that God has clearly demonstrated His loving nature to us in many ways. 

     As I've done throughout most of this series, I want us to look at just a few of the verses in the Bible that speak about the love of God. 

I John 4:8 -- "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love."

I John 4:10-11 -- "This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

Romans 5:8 -- "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Psalm 136:26 -- "Give thanks to the God of Heaven, for His love endures forever."

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 will have everlasting life."

    These verses are some of the greatest verses in all of the Bible. They just give us a glimpse into the vastness of the love of God. 

     The first thing that I want to point out is that God loves the world. By that, the Bible means that God loves the entire universe and all that He has made. His love is not just centered on the human race. God in His nature is love, so He loves all that has been created by the word of His power.  Because God loves all that He has made, He is concerned about the welfare of everything and every single creature in the universe. In the book of Jonah, God expressed concern over the people of Nineveh as well as the animals that lived in that city. 

     Because of His love for all creation, God will one day redeem the entire creation at the Second Coming of the Lord. All things will be made new. The creation that is now groaning in travail as the Bible says will one day be released from all of its suffering. 

     The second thing that I want us to focus on is the fact that God loves us His human creation in spite of the fact that we sinned against Him and rebelled against Him and His holy law. Because He is a holy and just God, He had to punish sin. But because God is love, He made a way to redeem people from their sins and bring us back to Himself. As Paul says, through Jesus Christ, God was able to be both just and the justifier of those who put their faith and trust in His Son. 

     Jesus, who is God come in the flesh, loved us and gave Himself for us. In His love, He left the glories of Heaven and took upon Himself the form of a servant. He came to serve and not to be served. In His love for us, He lived a holy and sinless life in order that He might be our perfect example in all things. The love of Jesus Christ for us led Him to lay down His life for us. He bore our sins in His body on the cross out of love in order that those who trust in Him might be redeemed. Jesus rose from the dead in love for us that we might not have to fear death, hell and the grave. He has prepared a place for us in love, because He wants those of us who love Him to be with Him forever in the Father's House. 

     Jesus loves you. He invites you to come to Him. Something that I want to really emphasize is that Jesus loves everyone. He invites everyone and anyone to come to Him so that they might have abundant life in and through Him. Whosoever will may come. The love of God is available to everyone. He invites you to come to Him. 

    Now, as we close this message, we as followers of Jesus need to realize that because of the fact that God is love, we need to be people who love God and love one another. If we do not love others, we cannot say that we love God. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The second commandment was to love our neighbor as ourselves. According to Jesus, if we follow these two commandments, we will fulfill all the Law and the Prophets. 

     Let us rejoice in the love of God. Let His love fill us so that we might spread His love to others. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

     Please pray for all of the people around the world who are suffering as a result of natural disasters. Turkey, Syria, Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar and California need our prayers. Pray that the people will receive the aid that they need. 

     Pray for an end to the sickness and disease that is plaguing the world. First of all, I want to thank the Lord that the flu and rsv aren't that bad in the US right now. We still need to pray for those with covid. Pray for an end to cholera in Africa and ebola in Africa. I also heard that there is a disease outbreak in Equatorial Guinea. Pray that the sick will recover. 

     Continue to pray for peace in this world. Let us focus our prayers intently on an end to the conflict in Ukraine. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Jordan and Mauritania. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, we will finish our series of messages on the attributes of God. I will post the verses on Monday and maybe something midweek. May God bless you all. 

Verses For The Week

 Psalm 94:19 -- "When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul."

Philippians 4:4 -- "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice."

John 16:22 -- "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."

The Weekend Sermon -- The Attributes of God -- Part 12

      Once again, it is time for the Weekend Sermon. We have been studying the attributes of God for several weeks now. I want to let you know how we are going to proceed. After today's message, I want to present two more messages on this topic. We will be having sermons for Holy Week when that comes up like we always do. I will have messages for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. 

      In today's message, I want us to focus on the fact that God is good. There is no evil whatsoever in any way within God or within His thoughts. The Bible is quite clear about the fact that God is good, and we can see throughout the Bible the goodness of the Lord. 

Here are a few verses that speak to us of the goodness of the Lord:

Psalm 107:1 -- "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever."

Nahum 1:7 -- "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, He know those who take refuge in Him."

Matthew 5:45 -- "For He makes His Sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust."

James 1:17 -- "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is is no variation or shadow due to change."

     These are just a very few verses about God's goodness. He is a good God who wants to do good things for His people. God does what is good and sends good things even to those who do not want to have anything to do with Him and to those who do not even acknowledge the fact that He exists. For one thing, God gives the good gifts of His creation to everyone. He sends the rain and gives us all air to breath. We all, no matter our relationship to Him, benefit from this extraordinary universe that God has given to all of us. 

     Those of us who have come to know Jesus know that the Lord has been good to us and supplied us with many blessings. I am thankful to the Lord that in His goodness He allowed me to have parents that introduced me to the things of God. In His goodness, the Lord Jesus allowed me to find my friend Toby. God has been good to me and allowed me to be blessed with food, shelter, a good education and some good friends and a good brother. I am sure that all of us can find examples in our lives of the way that we have been blessed by the goodness of the Lord. 

     What really amazes me about the goodness of the Lord is that He was good to us even when we were His enemies. In Romans 5:10 it tells us that, "For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life." While we were in rebellion against our Creator, God sent His Son the Lord Jesus to this earth to reconcile us to Himself. Jesus came to live a holy and sinless life as our perfect example. He bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might be redeemed. He rose bodily from the grave conquering death, hell and the grave. Because He has risen, those who are in Him shall have life everlasting with Him. 

     God is good and He invites all people everywhere to come to Him in order to receive His gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. God is good and He gives good gifts to those who trust in Him. One of those good gifts is the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. 

     In His goodness, God will one day provide us a home with Him forever. He will make a new Heaven and a new Earth, and sin will forevermore be defeated. Evil will be no more. 

    God is good, and He invites you to know more of the fullness of His goodness by coming to faith in Jesus Christ. No one is excluded. Whosoever will may come. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

     I have to go to the doctor this week and find out how to get more help for the pain that I am having. Please pray that all will go well. 

     Continue to pray for those trying to get through natural disasters. Pray for those in California, Turkey, Syria, Mozambique and Malawi who need help. 

     Pray for peace in the troubled areas of this world. Ukraine, Israel, Syria, Yemen, Haiti and Congo are just a few of the places that need our prayers right now. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of Tunisia and Gambia. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, we will continue with our current series. I will post the verses on Monday. I may have a post midweek, but it is doubtful. May God bless you all. 

Verses For The Week

 Hebrews 11:1 -- "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Romans 12:12 -- "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

The Weekend Sermon -- The Attributes of God -- Part 11

      It's time for another opportunity to study the attributes of God in the weekend sermon. I hope that all of you are having a very good week. 

     Last week, we began to look at the fact that one of God's attributes is that He always tells the truth. He is the embodiment of truth. If He makes a promise or a covenant with someone, He will keep it. As the Bible says, God remains faithful even when we are faithless. 

     I want to stay with the idea of God's truthfulness and promise keeping and look at how this applies in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who has come in the flesh. Therefore, He is God come in the flesh. He possesses all of the attributes of the Godhead within Himself. 

     Jesus made a lot of promises while He was on this earth concerning those who would be His followers. Because of this, it is important to us that we know that we can trust in His promises and trust in His word. 

     Jesus said that anyone can come to Him. He said come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Anyone can come to Jesus if they want to be forgiven of their sins and have a new life. Jesus doesn't reject anyone who comes to Him for life. 

     The Lord Jesus made it quite clear that He is truth. In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In order to have a relationship with the Father, we have to come to Jesus. 

     The Apostle Paul said the if we have hope because of Jesus only in this life, we are of all people to be most pitied. We do have hope beyond this life because of Jesus and His resurrection. Jesus said the He is the resurrection and the life. Because Jesus rose, He has promised that He will raise up those who are in Him. Those who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus do not need to fear death. Jesus is the truth, we can trust in Him and know that if we are in Him, death has no hold over us. 

     Beyond the promise of resurrection, Jesus told us in John 14 that He has gone to prepare a place for us so that where He is, we can be there too. When we pass from this earth, we will go to be with the Lord Jesus in Heaven. Because He is God and truth is one of His attributes, we can rest assured that one day we will be with Jesus in Heaven. 

     Now, what did Jesus promise us before death and life in Heaven. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus said that He will be with us always. He will never leave us, and He will never forsake us. No matter what we are going through, Jesus is always right there with us to help us on our way. 

     Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever. He always spoke the truth and kept His word on earth, He does so now, and He will do so in the future. We can count on Him because He is the Truth. 

    Now what does this mean for us in the sense of what are we to do knowing that one of God's attributes is truthfulness. We must be those who do not lie but who are always truthful. Jesus said that our yes should be yes and our no should be know. We should be people of our word and people that are truthful so that we might honor the one who is the embodiment of the truth. Amen. 

Prayer Requests

     I've been feeling a little better as the week has progressed. Please keep praying for me. I am thankful for your prayers. 

     Please pray for those in California experiencing the bad weather. 

     Keep praying that aid will reach those affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. 

     We need to remember to pray for peace in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and Haiti. Pray for peace wherever you know there is conflict. 

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of South Korea and Iraq. Pray that many will come to know Jesus. 

     Next week, we will continue with our current series. I have three more messages in this series. I will post the verses on Monday, and I will try to post something midweek. May God bless you all. 

      

Verses For The Week

 Colossians 3:15 -- "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

Psalm 62:8 -- "Trust in Him at all times you people! Pour out your hearts before Him. God is our shelter!"

The Weekend Sermon -- The Attributes of God -- Part 10

      Thanks for reading the sermon this week. It has been a difficult week. I've been in poor health again and was not able to post midweek. I hope that you are all doing well. 

     This week, we are once again studying the attributes of God. This week and next, we are going to focus on the fact that God cannot lie. He always tells the truth, and He will always keep His word. For this week's message, I want to focus on the basic idea of the fact that God is truth and cannot lie, and focus on ways that God showed Himself to be faithful and to keep His word and His promises in the Old Testament. Next week, I want us to focus on the way the Jesus is the embodiment of the truth and cannot lie and will always keep His promises. We learned a little bit about this when we focused on the fact that God in unchanging, but I want to go into more depth and be a little more specific.

     To begin with, lets look at a few of the verses in the Bible that speak about God's attribute of truthfulness:

Numbers 23:19 -- "God is not a man that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said and He will not do it? Or has He spoken, and He will not fulfill it?

Titus 1:2 -- "In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began."

Psalm 89:34 -- "I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips."

Joshua 21:45 -- "Not one of the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed, all came to pass."

     There is no falsehood in God. He always speaks the truth, and it is not in His nature to lie. He is not at all like human beings who seem to have a very difficult time telling the truth and keeping the promises and the pledges that they have made. 

     There are four events in the Old Testament that I want us to see that demonstrate that God keep His word and does not lie. First of all, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, God made a promise that one day a deliverer would be born. He would crush the power of Satan and evil. God kept this promise by sending His Son the Lord Jesus. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has crushed the power of death, hell and the grave. 

     After God destroyed the world by a flood in the time of Noah, God made the promise that He would not flood and destroy the world again. God has kept and will keep this promise. 

     One of the great promises of the Bible is the covenant the God made with Abraham. God told Abraham that through Abraham would come a great nation. Through the seed of Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed. This covenant promise was ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ who is the descendant of Abraham. Through Jesus, all can receive salvation. When Jesus comes again, all will be restored, and the whole universe will be blessed through Him. 

     There is another great promise that God has kept, and that is His covenant promise to David. God promised David that a member of his lineage would reign forever. Jesus is the Son of David. He will rule and reign forever on the throne of  David. The kingdom of Jesus will have no end. 

     These are just a few of the ways that God demonstrated His truthfulness in the Old Testament continuing right to our time and into the world to come. We can have total confidence in what God says. He has told us that if we will repent and come to Him that He will receive us. I hope that you will take God at His word and come to Him today. Amen.

Prayer Requests

     As I mentioned, I am not doing very well again. Please keep praying. Thank you. 

     Please pray for an end to the war in Ukraine. What is happening there is just terrible. We also need to keep praying for peace in Syria and Yemen. 

     The people in Turkey and Syria still need our prayers. 

     For are prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the nations of the Czech Republic and Estonia. These countries have fewer than 50 percent of the people claiming to be Christians. 

     Next week, we will continue in our series. I will post the verses on Monday. I don't know if I will post midweek. May God bless you all.