Episodes
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
God’s Covenant with Abraham Expressed God’s Love Then and Now “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles {us}”
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
How God Says He Loves Us: Part 2 -- The Covenant with Abraham
Throughout human history, God has reached out to humans for a personal relationship and to express His love for humankind. 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 Abram and Abraham. 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 12:1-5, God presents His promise to Abram: “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.".
In Genesis 15:18, God makes a covenant with Abram: “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give his land . . .’”. In Genesis 17:4-5, God makes another covenant with Abram changing Abram’s name to Abraham: “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.". in Genesis 21-1-4, Abraham’s son through Sarah, that God had promised Abraham, is born: “The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.”.
In Genesis 22:1-18, the final part of God’s covenant with Abraham is found when God provided the blood sacrifice of the lamb that sealed His covenant with Abraham: “And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.’”.
The significance of God’s covenant with Abraham includes: 1) Abraham believed God and had faith, and because of Abraham’s faith God made Abraham righteous – foretells the significance of the Gospel because God’s covenant through Jesus for us is a covenant of faith; 2) God’s covenant with Abraham foreshadows His covenant through Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ – Isaac is the first legitimate son of Abraham, and Jesus is considered the last son through Abraham, Isaac voluntarily went to the alter and Jesus voluntarily went to the cross, Abraham offered his son as a sacrifice and God gave His Son as a sacrifice; 3) God’s covenant is still being fulfilled today – in a physical sense, the covenant is fulfilled through the Arabs and the Jews since both consider Abraham as their father and fulfilled in a spiritual sense through Jesus as Paul tells us in Galatians 3:14: “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.".
Remember, the “God” who made covenant with Abraham is Jesus.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, 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): Romans 10:9; Genesis 9:20-29; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12:1-9; Genesis 15:1-27; 1 Peter 3:18-21; John 3:16-17; Hebrews 11:6; Galatians 3:7-9,14-16,29.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Jesus the Christ Is Our Hope in Life and Death and He Is “Hope” for the Wave of Loneliness and Uncertainty Sweeping Our World Today”: www.AWFTL.org/watch
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
God Does Not See Followers of Jesus in Our Sin; Rather, God Sees Us Through the Eternal (Like the “Rainbow”) “Justifying” Covenant Blood of Jesus
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
How God Says He Loves Us: Part 1 -- The Covenant with Noah
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 “rain’bow’” 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 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: Today, 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): Genesis 6:5-22; Genesis 9:1-29; 1 Peter 3:18-21; Psalms 28:1-9.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Jesus the Christ Is Our Hope in Life and Death and He Is “Hope” for the Wave of Loneliness and Uncertainty Sweeping Our World Today”: www.AWFTL.org/watch
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
As Followers of Jesus, We Will Face Difficult Circumstances; but We Are Comforted to Know that God Will “equip you with everything good that you may do his will”
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Introduction to the Bible’s Letter to the Hebrews and “Hope”: Today, all of us live in “times” requiring us to face circumstances that include the Pandemic, civil disobedience, cultural dissonance, and “discussions” among people in which there is no respect for the words and ideas of others. Therefore, we need a context to learn about “Facing Difficult Circumstances”. We can both learn a great deal and gain “Hope”, in our current situation, from the situation faced by Christians in Rome who were “Facing in Difficult Circumstances”. Our context for learning is described in the Bible’s book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrew’s Writer wanted to give “Hope” to the persecuted Christians in Rome by pointing out the superiority of Jesus the Christ over all the problems that they were facing from their persecution by the Emperor Nero. The Writer of Hebrews begins by pointing out, in Hebrews 1:1-2, both the superiority of Jesus and that Jesus is the end of the line of supporters (i.e. prophets) that God has provided and will provide humanity: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.". The Writer did not want Christians to deviate and leave their Faith in Jesus because their times were bleak and filled with difficult circumstances which appeared hopeless. Rather, in Hebrew’s, the Writer wanted Roman Christians to understand that if they turned away from Jesus there was no one else with whom they could face their difficult circumstances. The message to us, in our “difficult circumstances”, is that without Jesus in our lives and in the life of our country there is no one or no institution, to whom we can turn, for help in “facing our difficult circumstances”. To this end, in Hebrews 1:10-11, we find the culmination of Jesus Divinity and His humanity that positions His superiority for us: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”.
Today’s Message – Running Your Race: The Writer of Hebrews encourages the persecuted Followers of Jesus, living in Rome, to look to Jesus in so many ways. The Writer of Hebrews begins, Hebrews 12:1-2, with a reference to “running” and a race of “endurance” as a metaphor for the pain and perseverance need by the Roman Christians to live through their “difficult circumstances”: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”. In these verses, the Writer is telling us things about “facing difficult circumstances”: 1) remember those who are watching, for example the men and women of God from the Old Covenant he listed in Hebrews 11 – we are not alone in our “race”; 2) in this “race”, we are to lighten our load – get rid of anything that keeps us from following Jesus (e.g., sin); 3) let us run our “race” well; 4) run your “race” with perseverance even when you face impediments which mitigate your efforts and make you want to quit – winning when “facing difficult circumstances” comes when we keep your eyes on Jesus and follow Him, through perseverance, to victory, and Jesus endured pain and suffering for us so that we would not be weary of the long race “facing difficult circumstances” and to not lose heart before our finish line; 5) remember, the Father is working for your good -- God sees us as His “Sons” and “Daughters” and supports and disciplines us when needed, as we are told in Hebrews 12:5-6: “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’”; and 6) do not forget the Lord’s counsel – in Hebrews 13:1-19, the Writer outlines those “Sacrifices that Would Be Pleasing to God”, and in Hebrews 13:5b-6, we are told: “for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”.
In our difficult circumstances, if we shift our focus to all the uncertainties, troubling events, and people around us and take our eyes of Jesus and the finish line, we will, certainly, not win the race; and we will, probably, not finish our race. In Hebrews 13:20-21, The Writer summarizes how and why we should and can “face our difficult circumstances”: “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
In your difficult circumstances, God will not leave you. Through the Holy Spirit, God will walk with you. He may not fix your situation, but God will give you a way to see you through. Stay out of personal pity parties driven by our circumstances. Instead, look to God. In many cases, the “lead” of difficult circumstances may turn to, ultimately, “gold” in your life.
As we live, today, “in these last days” of difficult circumstances, we should look only to Jesus rather than to any person, institution, force, government entity, or nation. Jesus is our only source of protection and the way out of our difficult circumstances which are manifested by the Pandemic, civil disobedience, and cultural dissonance. Once again, Jesus is the only “way, and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, 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): Hebrews 1:10-18; Hebrews 12:1-11; Hebrews 11:1-40; Hebrews 13:1-21.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Jesus the Christ Is Our Hope in Life and Death and He Is “Hope” for the Wave of Loneliness and Uncertainty Sweeping Our World Today”: www.AWFTL.org/watch
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB
Sunday Feb 07, 2021
Sunday Feb 07, 2021
Followers of Jesus Should Let Difficult Circumstances Draw You Toward God Rather than Pulling You Away from God and Your “Faith” – God Walks with You
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Introduction to the Bible’s Letter to the Hebrews and “Hope”: Today, the Pandemic, civil disobedience, and cultural dissonance a context for our need to learn about “Living in Difficult Circumstances”. We can both learn a great deal and gain “Hope”, in our current situation, from the situation faced by Christians in Rome who were “Living in Difficult Circumstances”. Our context for learning is described in the Bible’s book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrew’s writer wanted to give “Hope” to the persecuted Christians in Rome by pointing out the superiority of Jesus the Christ over all the problems that they were facing from their persecution by the Emperor Nero. The writer did not want Christians to deviate and leave their Faith in Jesus because the times were bleak and the difficult circumstances, they were facing appeared hopeless. In Hebrew’s, the writer wanted Roman Christians to understand that if they turned away from Jesus there was no one else with whom they could face their difficult circumstances. The message to us, in these times, is that without Jesus in our lives and in the life of our country there is no one or no institution, to whom we can turn, for help in “facing our difficult circumstances”. To this end, in Hebrews 1:10-11, we find the culmination of Jesus Divinity along with His humanity that positions His superiority for us: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”.
Today’s Message – Exercising Your Faith: The Writer of Hebrews encourages the persecuted Followers of Jesus, living in Rome, to look to Jesus in so many ways. Today, in Hebrews 11:1-3,5-6, the Writer of Hebrews defines “Faith”: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible . . . By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.". From this text, we can see that “Faith” involves: 1) confidence and conviction; 2) looking ahead – “faith is the ‘Hope’ that we mix into cement to harden it” {Charles Swindoll}; 3) what is not seen; {faith speaks to two of our human uncertainties: knowing the future and seeing the unseen}; 4) pleasing God; and 5) focusing totally on God.
“Faith” is like a muscle in that it needs to be used or it will grow weak through atrophy, and “Faith”, like a muscle, needs resistance to grow stronger, as we see from the Writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10:32,36: “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings . . . For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.". As directed by the Writer of Hebrews to the Christians of Rome, in their difficult circumstances, we should let our difficult circumstances draw us toward God rather than pulling us away from God and our “Faith”. In the remainder of Hebrews 11, the Writer of Hebrews is telling the Followers of Jesus, in Rome and us, about all the great men and women that did great things derivative of their “Faith” in their lives that drew them close to God in their difficult circumstances. Also, their lives pointed toward the promised coming of the Christ, whom they never saw; but their “Faith” saw them through. However, as today’s Followers of Jesus, we have the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. Additionally, we know that God, through the written Gospel, is faithful; and our “faith” can be strong in our difficult circumstances as we draw our lives and actions, in our difficult circumstances, toward God.
In your difficult circumstances, God will not leave you. Through the Holy Spirit, God will walk with you. He may not fix your situation, but God will give you a way to see you through. Stay out of personal pity parties driven by your circumstances. Instead, look to God. In many cases, the “lead” of difficult circumstances may result, ultimately, to “gold” in your life.
As we live, today, “in these last days” of difficult circumstances, we should look only to Jesus rather than to any person, institution, force, government entity, or nation. Jesus is our only source of protection and the way out of our difficult circumstances which are manifested by the Pandemic, civil disobedience, and cultural dissonance. Once again, Jesus is the only “way, and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, 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): Hebrews 1:10-18; Hebrews 11:1-6; Hebrews 10:32-39; James 1:2-3; Habakkuk2:3-4; Hebrews 11:7-40.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Jesus the Christ Is Our Hope In Life and Death and He Is “Hope” for the Wave of Loneliness and Uncertainty Sweeping Our World Today”: www.AWFTL.org/watch
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB