Weekly Encouragement
Good Friday Everyone,
Weekly blessings to all. Prayers are many for each of you and your family. July has come and gone. The school year is upon us as are all the blessings and busyness. Remember, as Christians each of us can use this school year as an opportunity to be a blessing. We are inundated with so much negative information about America’s schools: Bethel Baptist can be a positive aspect in one school, in one classroom, for one teacher, and for one student. Christianity infuses encouragement and hope into our schools. Always remember this.
All, this Friday is our final “Movie Night Fellowship” – Join us if you can at 6:00 PM as we show the film “Ordinary Angels”. Once we finish August, we return to our regular Wednesday Night Fellowships in September. We always seek to adapt our fellowships, programs, and services to make them better. Please let us know how. Your input is always appreciated, needed, and welcomed.
We have reached the final sermon in our series from the Gospel of Matthew called “Meet The Messiah”. This has truly been an incredible way to learn and share the life of Jesus Christ. As our world becomes more and more secular, sadly our unrepentant nation follows the way of the world over the way of God. This choice should surprise no one. It did not startle nor surprise the first Christian church and we must not be either, or worse we cannot be confused into thinking we somehow live in a more spiritually advanced world. The world is the same. The world will always be the same. The people in the world change. The people in the world can become new creations living on it. The only way we can change in a manner pleasing to the true living God is by repenting of our ways and turning to His.
As we conclude “Meet The Messiah”, we must be prepared to “Introduce The Messiah” to others. There are two very clear and concise sides to the life of Jesus Christ. We must share both sides. The first side of Jesus Christ is the side most people enjoy, most people know, and most people want. This side is the LOVE of Jesus. This side is amazing, and it is real. God loves us!! We all want to experience the love of Jesus Christ infused into our life. Jesus’ love and God’s love for us is incredible. Then there is a second side to Jesus Christ. Most people are blind to, and most people are deaf to this side of Jesus Christ. The second side of Jesus Christ is TRUTH. When people hear about Jesus, maybe because of a despicable display of the Lord’s Supper represented in the recent Olympics, we must share with them the love and the truth of Jesus Christ.
How to share Jesus Christ will conclude our sermon series. Christians are empowered and ordered to fight a spiritual battle as soldiers under “all authority” of Christ. We are empowered and ordered to this fight because God raised Himself from the dead. Please, PLEASE: For a moment consider the amount of power you would have, and how much power it would take to raise yourself and others from the dead. Of course, you can’t but God did, and God does. This is God’s power. Now, from the authority of God’s power He has ordered us to fight for the spiritual lives of nonbelievers. This fight is not one of flesh and blood, rather it is a battle to testify of God’s love and God’s truth to others while we are able. Christians are not waging war against other people. God is not destroying people who reject Him. The world is raging war against God and us all the while God is seeking peace. In this war: God is holding His enemy at bay, keeping His enemy confined with His power, so we can testify about the love of God and the truth of God before it’s too late.
We are to fight this fight until, “the end of the age.” Christians live under God’s authority. We love our country, we love our people, and we love our way of life, but – We choose to love God more. Christians never want to be at “odds” with nonbelievers or other religions, but nonbelievers must understand that Christians have prioritized a right relationship with God far above ALL else in and of this world. There are things Christians will do and there are things Christians will not do in God’s ordained spiritual battle. We will examine these things this Sunday. Everyone wants to be loved by God and be told His truth, “They just don’t know it yet!” This fact must motivate us as individual Christians, and as members of Bethel Baptist Church to share Jesus. Pray about calling or texting someone and invite to Bethel Baptist.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
