Defining Verse by Wiersbe

 Hannah  p.125 Faith isn’t something we have to work up; it is something God sends down to let us know He is pleased with our prayer request. True faith is strengthened by the promises of God that the Holy Spirit shows us in Scripture. As we pray, there is a growing confidence in our hearts that the Bible calls “joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13) 

p.126 - One of the dangers of answered prayer is that we permit the gift to.become more important than the Giver, and this is idolatry. Whatever God gives us must be places on the alter and dedicated to Him, or it will become a stumbling block in our lives. Our lives, our lives ones and friends, our plans, our possessions, our opportunities and achievements, our abilities - all of these things and more must be places at the feet of Jesus before God can bless and use them for His glory. Like seeds, we must be. Irked and experience death before we can produce fruit (John 12/24), for it is out of death to self that we discover life for others. 

Defy Insanity

 

“The church is not a voting bloc in the dangerous game of identity politics. What at least some evangelical leaders apparently don’t recognize is that we lose everything not when we are fed to lions but when we preach another gospel. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt 16:26). We should not be surprised when a politician appeals to our fears; what should alarm us is when this appeal succeeds among those who profess faith in Christ. ”

Excerpt From

Recovering Our Sanity

Michael Horton

“Despair is another common response to the problems we see either in ourselves or in the world. Some of us assume that although I am a relatively good person, there are too many people who are not—and there’s no way that I can change them. Again, this is fed by hours spent in our preferred silo of so-called “news” and social media instead of actually rubbing shoulders with neighbors.”

Excerpt From

Recovering Our Sanity

Michael Horton

https://books.apple.com/us/book/recovering-our-sanity/id1574132636

This material may be protected by copyright.

“Karl Barth’s description of sin as, more than anything else, sloth. Most of our sins are in the “left undone” category I just mentioned. We’re lazy. Apart from God’s grace, we are not inclined to care about God or our neighbor. We don’t even really care about ourselves—at least not about our most important needs. We just want to have fun, make a splash, let a few people know we were here, and . . . whatever. Most of us are not even brave enough to be truly awful; mostly, we’re just indolent.  

“In Psalm 2, then, God laughs at the pretension of the would-be autonomous self. The powerful ones of this age are not living with the grain of reality. Insanity has gripped them. It just does not make sense that they would not acknowledge the Messiah as their lawful sovereign. It may seem a little off-putting that God’s response to all of this vaunted show of autonomy is to laugh. Once more we meet a God who is not necessarily the familiar one in our culture today. Yet his response makes perfect sense. Here are rebels God created in his image and still loves, running around on the ground like ants and spoiling their realms and natural resources. They think that they’re free and can make their own choices, but they don’t realize that only God’s fetters can liberate them”

“Like our first parents, we quickly realize that our prized autonomy is just a dream—a nightmare, in fact. It is not consistent with reality. We can  declare our independence, but that does not mean that we have succeeded in gaining it. We may cry out in elation, “I am free!”, but we are actually in bondage to lords which cannot liberate but merely seek to pull us deeper into their deathly depths”

“God’s laughing is not the sardonic cackle of a tyrant, but the head-shaking amazement of a liberating King at just how deluded we are as we seek to “burst [his] bonds apart.” We cannot actually do this, because we cannot choose or unchoose to be God’s creatures. But we try, however feebly, to resist anyone or anything that exposes our charade of autonomy. This is not power, but impotence; not freedom, but bondage; not authenticity, but vanity; not intelligence, but foolishness. Why would anyone want to cast off the bonds of this king, who said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28–30)?”

“We’re all afraid of being unrighteous. Self-justification is our default setting. And that is because we know deep down exactly what we are: the “ungodly.” We know what God requires of us and what it means to be righteous, to be godly, and to be responsible, loving, and just human beings. But often we do not do what we know is right when we’re up to bat. We’re afraid of losing something if we do the right thing. In other words,  we’re selfish. We don’t love God and our neighbor, and we show it not only by what we do but by what we fail to do.”

“When we try to justify ourselves, nobody wins. God is offended that we think we can do better than the gift he has offered through his Son’s righteous life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection.”

Jesus is also a true and faithful human, the Last Adam, who is exactly the sort of person we were all created to be, God’s faithful covenant partner. And the evidence of his Spirit-endowed wisdom was the fear of God.

Fear is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. If you come to know God, the true and living God, your first response will be fear. You are astonished at how unlike anyone or anything he is. You do not have the intellectual, psychological, moral, or emotional equipment to handle, much less explain, it. You are not in charge. You realize that you have not discovered God; he has discovered you. He knows you inside and out. You now know, not just intellectually but deep in your heart, that you are a sinner in the presence of the holy God. It’s disorienting because it’s not what your “little voice within” would ever tell you” Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton

“In sharp contrast with other religions (which sometimes even wear the Christian label), God does not frighten us into submission. Instead, he draws us by cords of love. Godly fear, in fact, turns out to be synonymous with love, as the first fruit of faith in God’s mercy and forgiveness: “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you” (Ps 5:7, emphasis mine); “but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Ps 147:11, emphasis mine). Through faith in Christ we no longer fear God’s anger, so that we can begin to “fear him” for his unchangeable and merciful promises, clinging to him alone and looking for no other savior. This is true worship and, with it, true sanity.” Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton

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“But the highest wisdom comes not from “looking around” or “looking within,” but from being driven outside of ourselves—what we feel, assume, imagine, or do—by just hearing God’s Word, especially his gospel. Here there is no speculation—no more chattering within ourselves about what we might believe. The gospel is a strange announcement of news brought from a herald. It’s based not on timeless principles but on the resurrection of the God-Man in history. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). It is not something you ascend to attain or descend to bring up from the dead (vv. 3–16). Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton

“The slightest brush with God’s majesty fills us with dread, and this is the beginning of all wisdom. Then God condescends to reveal his favor—his gospel—and this is the consummation of all wisdom. Christ is the cleft of the rock in whom we are hidden to behold God’s grace in the preaching of the gospel. Veiling his glory in the humility of our flesh, he made it possible for people to see, hear, touch, and be touched by God himself. 

“God does not exist for my happiness, but I exist for his glory. And when I am glorifying God, I am also enjoying him. Worshiping God is the flourishing of ourselves and those around us. So it is only in communion with him that I find genuine satisfaction which can weather unhappy circumstances. I don’t naturally know this because I’m a sinner. Rather, I have to be confronted with God in his holiness and majesty, accept that I am the problem, and then flee to his mercy in his Son. And then he unites us also to each other as members of his body—gifts instead of threats. That is what Christians should be saying. Maybe I’m living on an island, but I just don’t hear enough of this” - Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton

“However, my thesis is that the fear of God drives out the fear of everything else. And, to begin, we will turn to God’s Word for wisdom. We do not have a stern Father who just tells us to brush off our wounds and move on. He binds our wounds—even ones he inflicts—to save us, like a doctor who cuts out a malignant tumor.” Excerpt, Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton

“I want to help us shift our whole focus from a human-centered obsession with saving ourselves through false securities and promises of immediate gratification to the “solid joys and lasting treasure [that] none but Zion’s children know.”23 From that perspective, we can be joyful even when we are unhappy, hopeful even when the hype fails us, and persevering and growing even in and through fearful trials.”

“The antidote to our fears is the fear of God. The proper fear of God leads us to Christ, our only mediator, so that the improper fear of God—anxiety about whether he is our terrifying Judge or merciful Father—can be settled once and for all.”

I have written elsewhere at length about how a human-centered society turns God into a supporting actor for our life movie. Whether as a personal therapist, life coach, entertainer, manager, or mascot in the culture wars, God exists for us.”

“Fear really is worship—we fear what we believe is ultimate, what we think has the last word over our lives.”

“Even in many churches, the biggest problem seems to be peace of mind or with ourselves, perhaps even with each other, rather than peace with God. When our greatest fear is subjective shame rather than objective guilt before God, or threats to a long life instead of everlasting life, we live in a flat world.”

“Our corrupt heart guides us to use our reason and sense observation for weaving webs of half-truths, distorted truths, and untruths. So we do not start with ignorance and come to truth, but begin with truth and, as Calvin put it, “deliberately befuddle ourselves.”3”

“Think of the top ten worst sins in today’s world that come to your mind. Like me, you probably picked symptoms, not the root illness. In the Bible, the worst thing that can be said about a people is that they “did not fear God” (Deut 25:18). Active rebellion against God is not the root but the fruit of failing to take God seriously: “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps 36:1, emphasis mine). “There is no fear of God before their eyes,” Paul repeats in his diagnosis of the human condition (Rom 3:18). Did you know that it’s possible to live an outwardly pious life, thanking God that you’re not like the godless secular humanists, without any genuine fear of God in you?”

“In the political sphere, false prophets profane God’s name by using it as a credit card for whatever policy, candidate, or party they believe best contributes to human flourishing. Yet the entire system is human-centered, using God to accomplish our own agenda. Here’s the key: The fear of God is not a means to an end, but the end itself. We don’t use the “fear of God” as a slogan for national revival, personal well-being (even spirituality), moral crusades, or social justice. We don’t use God to make a point—God is the point.”

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Awe by Paul Tripp

How many believers really live a lifestyle that results from believing that God has graced them to be not just recipients of the work of his kingdom but instruments of the work of the kingdom as well? When you believe this, you live with a constant ministry mentality that results in an everyday ministry lifestyle.

Paul David Tripp, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do

Every awesome thing in creation is designed to point you to the One who alone is worthy of capturing and controlling the awe of your searching and hungry heart.

Paul David Tripp, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do

I came to see that I was wired for awe, that awe of something sits at the bottom of everything I say and do. But I wasn’t just wired for awe. I was wired for awe of God. No other awe satisfies the soul. No other awe can give my heart the peace, rest, and security that it seeks. I came to see that I needed to trace awe of God down to the most mundane of human decisions and activities.

Paul David Tripp, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do

Martin Lloyd Jones

 

Here is one great name - Jehovah-jireh. You will find it in the story of Abraham going up into that mountain to sacrifice his only son Isaac. He was on the point of striking his son when suddenly God stopped him and said, 'Do not strike him, I have another offering.' And Abraham found a ram in the thicket. The Lord had provided the offering and the sacrifice, so he gave that name, 'The Lord Will Provide'. And so, whenever you go into the presence of God, whatever your need may be, whatever form the need may be taking, remind yourself that you are praying to Jehovah-jireh, the Lord who has promised to provide. He will be with you for He says, 'I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee' (Josh 1:5).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

If a man says that having thought about the matter and having considered all sides he has on the whole decided for Christ, and if he has done so without any emotion or feeling, I cannot regard him as a man who has been regenerated. The convicted sinner no more ‘decides’ for Christ than the poor drowning man ‘decides’ to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this – always obey such an impulse. Where does it come from? It is the work of the Holy Spirit (Phil 2:12-13). This often leads to some of the most remarkable experiences in the life of the minister. So never resist, never postpone it, never push it aside because you are busy. Give yourself to it, yield to it; and you will find not only that you have not been wasting time with respect to the matter with which you are dealing but that actually it has helped you greatly in that respect. You will experience an ease and a facility in understanding what you were reading, in thinking, in ordering matter for a sermon, in writing, in everything which is quite astonishing. Such a call to prayer must never be regarded as a distraction; always respond to it immediately, and thank God if it happens to you frequently." (Preaching & Preachers, 170-171)

The gospel commends itself to me because of its truth, because it does not just say, "Well now, let's forget our troubles and think of something beautiful." It says, "In the world you shall have tribulation..." (John 16:33). It says that in a world like this, dominated by Satan, there will be "wars and rumors of wars" (Matthew 24:6). It is psychology and not the gospel that just tries to ask us forget our troubles for the time being. The gospel of Jesus Christ always, therefore, of necessity annoys certain people, people who think that a place of worship is just a place where you listen to beautiful things, and therefore while you are sitting there, you forget your problems and the problems of the world. These people are certain to be annoyed.

The gospel confronts us with the facts. It is all based upon a person; it is based upon certain things that happened historically. It comes and tells me, "Let not your heart be troubled." But it comes in the light of Gethsemane and Jesus' trial and cruel death upon the cross, the broken body, the burial, the utter hopelessness, and despair. Then, and only then, it goes on to tell me of the Resurrection and the glory of the Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit that puts me in an entirely different position. It has taken me through the facts, through the tunnel of darkness to the dawn that lights the other end.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

 

And—you can be very sure of this—all who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ; who have seen the all-importance of the soul; who have seen their dread condition under the condemnation of the law; who have believed in Christ and His sacrificial death; who have committed themselves to Him, taking upon themselves the scorn and sarcasm of the world; those who have counted all things loss for his sake, who have denied themselves and taken up their cross daily and followed Him; those who have said, “I care not what happens to me as long as all is well between me and Him”—these are they who will be with Him in the new heaven and the new earth and will share and enjoy His glory for ever and ever.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Quiet Heart

That, surely, gives us a picture of a great deal that is happening at the present time. This is one of the problems confronting the Christian Church today. This ‘affluent society’ in which we are living is drugging people and making them feel that all is well with them. They have better wages, better houses, better cars, every gadget desirable in the home; life is satisfactory and all seems to be well; and because of that people have ceased to think and to face the real problems. They are content with this superficial ease and satisfaction, and that militates against a true and a radical understanding of their actual condition. And, of course, this is aggravated at the present time by many other agencies. There is the pleasure mania, and television and radio bringing their influence right into the home. All these things persuade man that all is well; they give him temporary feelings of happiness; and so he assumes that all is well and stops thinking. The result is that he does not realise his true position and then face it.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers

Dealing With Critics 22

 Dealing with critics seems like a life long battle. Real or imagined criticism can destroy our inspiration and creativity as we live in fear of the next comment. Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy by magnifying what might be a source of negative trash talk. One critic can speak volumes louder than the five compliments by others. How should you and I handle criticism?   Nehemiah seemed to filter out the invitation to meet with his enemies. He kept his goal of rebuilding the wall foremost in mind and acted like a true leader. Our mission of following Christ, obeying Him no matter the cost, will filter out the noise of the world and minimize the noise in our thoughts.

“‎Stop praying about this particular fear, for while you are praying, you are reminding yourself of it. You must stop thinking about yourself in terms of fear. Never think about thunderstorms; turn your back upon that altogether. You must think of yourself as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and as one who belongs to Him. You must concentrate upon positive Christianity, not upon a negative fear.” - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking with God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotional Selections

Dare To Be The Church

Several years ago, one of our senior leaders met with then Mayor Beutler. There were some things going on in our city and we just met to ask, “What can we do to help?” But it was very affirming that the first thing he affirmed is how much he appreciated, as the mayor, the many ways we, as a church, make our community better. That's what we want. As a result of who we are as the people 6

of God, we want to be better business owners. We want to be better employers. We want to be better employees. We want to be better neighbors. We want to be better teachers. We want to be better students. We want to be better citizens. So think of it this way. What we want is for every environment where someone from Lincoln Berean is, that that environment is better because you're there. These are hard times. There's a lot of conflict. There's a lot of anger. There are a lot of problems. But what would it be like if thousands of people in all these environments all over our community made those environments better simply because you're there?

Now part of the challenge is that we have a media and politicians who are determined to divide us up into sides and keep the conflict going. It's very frustrating because it is destroying people's lives. And sadly, a lot of Christians get sucked into that. And rather than those environments being better, they're just contributing to the problem. One of the challenges we've had as a church, for those of us who speak, is some people want to interpret everything we say, through the grid of COVID. So it doesn't matter what you say, they're trying to figure out, “What?” “Wait a minute.” “Did you say we should get the vaccine or shouldn't get the vaccine?” “Wait a minute, are you saying we should wear a mask or shouldn't wear a mask?” So just remember, there were lots of issues before COVID and there will be lots of issues after COVID. This is a difficult world.

Sadly, studies are showing many Christians today are choosing a church, not based on their theology, but rather on their politics. I just can't imagine how that grieves the heart of Jesus. I can say with great confidence, no one has stood on this stage over the last two years and told you what your opinion should be about vaccines or about masks. No one has! As a matter of fact, it’s just not how we do business. Let me explain it this way.

The vision is that we come together in order to know Jesus, in order to become like Him. That's what we're doing. We would call it discipleship. As a result, as you grow in your relationship with Jesus and become like Him—this is where it gets really crazy radical—we actually trust you. We trust you to go out into whatever environment you're in, to follow your conscience, to follow the leading of the Spirit, and you decide how to rightly represent Jesus in the environment you're in. There are lots of issues. Now we're not talking about things that are clearly biblically defined. There are just lots of issues that aren't. And part of what we have to accept is there is going to be quite a diversity of opinion. And that's okay. As a matter of fact, it's one of the things I love about Lincoln Berean. There is great diversity here. We've worked really hard to make this a safe environment for anyone to walk through the doors and pursue Jesus. As a result of that, you have quite a diversity of opinion. Good Christians can disagree on a lot of issues. The church has never been about uniformity. It's about unity—and we're unified in the person of Christ. It's not helpful to cast judgment on another Christian because they don't see something exactly the same way you do. Here's how those conversations often go. “Now I'm not judging...” but the very next sentence out of their mouth is a judgment. I guess we think if we say that, it's a pass to be judgmental. It's like you are judging. It's possible to be really good Christians and not necessarily see everything the same way.

 But there are two non-negotiables, where there is no wiggle room if we're going to be serious Christians. One is we must agree together that Jesus is the only hope of the world. I don't know how you could be a Christian and not understand that. And number two, our calling is to rightly represent Jesus in whatever environment we’re in. There's no wiggle room there. There's no margin.  - Bryan Clark

for disagreement there. As the church, we may have differences of opinion on lots of things, but we must agree together that Jesus is the only hope of the world. And we are called as a church to rightly represent Jesus in every environment we’re in. I can confidently say, if Jesus comes back next week, that's what matters most. There are lots of things that matter, but we can't lose sight of what ultimately matters most...if we're going to Dare to Be the Church.

Psalm 119 - Doug Shada

 7/23/17 The stability of God’s Word (Psalm 119)

Why do we take God’s Word so lightly?  It’s because we are so self sufficient and self focused. God’s Word provides the strength we need to defeat doubt, discouragement, disappointment and being disillusioned. Who has established His way of doing things? Who has given the truth we need to live in this world?  How can we be transformed and changed into the person who honors God? We must choose God’s truth. There are 15 benefits of knowing His truth:

1. God gives wisdom (vs.97,98)

2. He gives purpose (137-138) - to give glory to His name

3. He gives comfort (50)

4. He provides the right values to live by (14)

5. He helps us to be pure in a contaminated world (9,11)

6. He helps us to be fruitful in this life (25)

7. We are loved (73) and do not need to struggle with self image

8. We are refreshed and motivated to stay away from vane pursuits (37)

9. We are strengthened during adversity and hard times (54)

10. We are companions to like minded believers (63)

11. We have true freedom from the bondage of sinful habits (4()

12. We have peace through our trials (65)

13. We have a steadfast stabilizing hope (49)

14. He provides guidance and direction as we make decisions (77-100)

15. We experience joy in His presence (11)