Episodes
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
Do You “Pray Rightly”?
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
Thursday Feb 20, 2020
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Am I Ready to Pray? (Bude, Cornwall, UK)
INTRODUCTIOIN -- In both our worship and our prayers: “Are we expecting to encounter God?”. Prayer is: 1) spending time with God – acknowledging God’s presence in all our lives’ activities; and 2) conversation with God – listening to and talking with God. Prayer reflects on our relationship with God. Therefore, why don’t we pray? The Apostle James, in James 4:2-3, provides a perspective regarding Prayer Life: “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."
SUNDAY MESSAGE – In James 4:3, we are told: “You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”. As followers of Jesus, we are given the awesome privilege of being able to come before God, the Creator of the Universe, in our prayers. We are given a multitude of alternatives for our prayers that include prayers of "petition" (praying for one's own needs) and prayers of "intercession" (praying for the needs of others). God wants prayers of "petition" from us -- all our needs and concerns should be brought to Him in prayer because He loves and cares for us. However, God want us to, also, focus on others and their needs (intercession) -- physical and spiritual. "Intercessory prayer” is fundamental to deepening our prayer life and our personal relationship with God.
However, we often enter into our prayers unprepared – there is sin in our lives, or our prayers are all about “us”; and we seek “our will” and not “God’s will”. Therefore, we need to learn to “pray rightly”.
To “pray rightly”, we need to consider: “1) Am I “clean” before the Lord – have I confessed the known sins in my life that I have not repented? 2) Am I in “communion with others” – are there people with whom I am not at peace? 3) Am I “confident in God’s Word” – do I believe God’s promises are true? 4) Am I “committed to God’s will” – am I committed to act on and obey God’s answer to my prayers even though His answer is not my desire? 5) Am I “centered in the Holy Spirit” – am I focused and tuned in on the Lord, filtering out the “noise of the world”? and 6) Am I “concerned for God’s Glory” – the ultimate purpose of our prayers is uplifting and glorifying God’s name?”. c
Remember, Jesus taught us that: 1) God is more ready to answer prayer than we are ready to pray; and 2) we must be persistent in our prayers until we have an answer.
Pray specific prayers, in the Holy Spirit and in Scripture, for ourselves and for others -- be persistent.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM RIGHTEOUS IN GOD’S EYES. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): James 4:3; Isaiah 59:1-2; 1 John 1:8; Matthew 5:23-24 Matthew 6:14; 1 Peter 3:7; Luke 11:9-13; Jeremiah 33:3; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:7; Hebrews 11:6; 1 Peter 5:7; 1 John 5:14; Psalms 37:4; John 14:23; James 1:5; Romans 8:26-27; John 14:26.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S RECENT VIDEOS: https://awftlvser.podbean.com/.
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
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Sunday Feb 16, 2020
How God Says He Loves Us: Part 1 -- The Covenant with Noah
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
Sunday Feb 16, 2020
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
We have a God that loves us so much, and God’s love for us is expressed to us through His “covenants”. Also, God’s “covenants” reveal to us His grace and faithfulness. In today’s message, we will discuss God’s Covenant with Noah. A “covenant” can be defined as an “oath or promise of God”. In a Biblical covenant: 1) God establishes the Covenant; 2) God always implies that “I am your God, and you are my people” – God desires a personal relationship with us; and 3) God sets the covenant’s terms and rulers.
In Genesis 6:5-22, the corruption of humanity, through mankind’s sin after the Fall, became too much for God, and He became sorry that He made mankind. From Genesis, we know that God “grieved in His heart” because of human evil, corruption, and violence. However, Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Noah was righteous and blameless, and Noah “walked with God”.
After destroying all humans and all other inhabitants of the earth, except for Noah, his family, those animals that Noah collected for His arch, God “blessed Noah in Genesis 9:1-29; and God established His covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:9-1:10,11-13: “’Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you . . . that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.’". Therefore, this covenant is not only with Noah and all other living things on the earth; but God’s covenant with Noah is with us too! The “rainbow” is a sign of this covenant between Noah and all humanity; and this “rainbow” is, also, a sign of God’s love, grace, and mercy.
In 1 Peter 3:18-21, the Apostle Peter relates Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, which is a redemptive covenant for our salvation, to God’s earlier covenant with Noah: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ . . .". In this text from 1 Peter, we learn that our “baptism” represents our Salvation through Jesus. Like Noah and his family, we have been saved “through the water” not “by the water”. Therefore, “baptism” is another covenant between God and all humanity, through God’s Grace, to save mankind from itself if we accept God’s Grace. God does not see us, now, in our sin like humanity’s evil of Noah’s time; rather, God sees us through the eternal (like the “rainbow”) “Justifying” covenant blood of Jesus.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Genesis 6:5-22; Genesis 9:1-29; 1 Peter 3:18-21; Psalms 28: 1-9.
WEBSITE LINK: www.AWordFromTheLord.org/.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO: https://awordfromthelord.org/video-archives/
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Sunday Feb 09, 2020
Jesus The Messiah
Sunday Feb 09, 2020
Sunday Feb 09, 2020
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Introduction – “Who Is Jesus?”: C.S. Lewis tells us that we are confronted with a decision regarding Jesus’ deity – Jesus is either the Son of God or a mad man. Jesus did not leave us any options like: “Jesus was good man and a great teacher.”. You must make your own decision, for both your earthly life and your Eternal Life. Jesus was and is either the Son of God and the Creator of the Universe or He is not, Answering the question: “Who is Jesus?” is the toughest and most important decision that you will ever make; and your answer will determine everything regarding you for eternity.
Message – “Jesus The Messiah!”: Up until the time of Jesus, the Spirit (i.e. the indwelling of God in a human) had not been given to mankind. However, our access to God through the Holy Spirit changed with the advent of Jesus, as Jesus tells us in John 7:38-39: “’Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.".
In John 4, Jesus talks to the Samaritan Woman by Jacob’s Well regarding the “Living Water”, the Holy Spirit, that He would bring to all mankind. After a series of questions and statements, Jesus tells the Samaritan Woman, in John 4:24-26, that He, Jesus, is the Messiah: “’God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’”.
The “living water”, the Holy Spirit, is quenched by sin; therefore, Jesus points out, to the Samaritan Woman, her sin of adultery that must be addressed by her confession and repentance and by Jesus’ blood sacrifice for her sins and all of mankind’s sins.
Like the Samaritan Woman, we must hear, believe, and confess for ourselves. No one can become a follower of Jesus on the coat tails of someone else – God does not have grandchildren. Each of us must and will stand alone before God, the Creator of the Universe, at our judgment and speak of our life of sin for ourselves. However, Jesus will be with us at our Judgement. Also, the Samaritan Woman did one other action that is required of a follower of Jesus – she told others of the good news of Jesus the Messiah, as Jesus subsequently commanded and commissioned of His Disciples and us in His “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Like the Samaritan Woman, we must answer the question for ourselves: “Is Jesus really the Messiah?”. If we answer “yes”, then what are our next steps? Again, like the Samaritan Woman, we must hear, believe, and confess for ourselves and then “worship him {Jesus} . . . in spirit and truth”. Additionally, we must “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:18-20) – you see, again like the Samaritan Woman learned, the “next steps” to follow Jesus do not lead to a life of passivity. Are you, like the Samaritan Woman, ready to follow Jesus?
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM FORGIVEN. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): John 4:3-10; Jerimiah 2:13; Jerimiah 17:13; Isiah 44:3; John 7:38; Genesis 33:18; Matthew 28:18-20.
WEBSITE LINK: www.AWordFromTheLord.org/.
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Sunday Feb 02, 2020
It’s About Time: Part 2 – Overstressed, Overloaded, and Maxed Out Lives
Sunday Feb 02, 2020
Sunday Feb 02, 2020
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Following Jesus brings peace into our lives even though we may face great trials and tribulations. In John 16:33, Jesus tells us: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”. However, when observing the lives of modern-day Christians, we don’t find many of their lives saturated with peace.
God has given each of us a capacity for our lives with His expectations for living as Jesus described in John 10:10: “. . . I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.". The difference between what would be considered our lives’ capacity and our lives being filled to overflowing is our lives’ margin. God desires to bless us and to have our lives filled with His presence through the Holy Spirit.
Often, technology and the other worthwhile benefits of this age bring the stresses of time, making wimps of us in the management of time in our lives. In Ecclesiastes 3:1, God tells us: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.". As we manage the elements and demands of time in our lives, we must manage time for ourselves and our kids. Kids spell love as “time” – be present in their lives, mentally and emotionally. Indifference can be interpreted as a lack of genuine affection and esteem by children and others. Also, we need “God time”, a time to nurture and deepen our relationship with Jesus.
Without margin, we have built our life-foundations on sand and not on the rock of Jesus’ teachings. Ways we can build time margin back into our lives is by: 1) having a weekly Sabbath; building back into our lives a time alone with God every day; 2) expecting that the unexpected will happen; 3) learning to say “no”; 4) using technology wisely; 5) pruning our activity branches; 6) prioritizing our calendars; and 9) giving thanks to God.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM A CHILD OF GOD. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (John 1:12f).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Exodus 20:8-11; Mark 1:35; John15:1-11; 1 Theologians 5:16-17.
Website Link: www.AWordFromTheLord.org/.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO: https://awordfromthelord.org/video-archives/
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB