Messengers to Prepare the Way: Sunday, Dec. 6th

In Mark chapter 1:1-8 Mark tells us about John the Baptists ministry. Have you ever stopped to think about how much impact John had on the ministry of Jesus? John says, "Make a straight path for the Lord to travel." In John's day, Whenever a person of royalty took a trip he would send people ahead of him to prepare the roads. Repairs would be made and anticipation would be spread from town to town as people awaited to catch a glimpse of the famous person. John cleared such a path spiritually for the ministry of Christ. He preached repentance and a baptism of forgiveness. This cleared a path for Christ and jump started a movement that would change the world and eternity. John did things out of the ordinary and out of step with tradition. Nothing wrong with tradition as long as it still works. But, the tradition of the Law was more of a burden. The gospel of repentance and forgiveness brought freedom and new life to the people who went under the muddy water of the Jordan river.

How can you make a straight path for the Lord to travel in your own life. John's words are more than just a message to a bunch of Bethanites on the banks of the Jordan river. I believe it is a mandate to the church and it's people of today. We need to clear a path and get ready for the spread of the gospel as we anticipate the 2nd coming of Christ. Take some time this week and think of some ways in which you can make repairs in your spiritual life and spread anticipation as we celebrate the advent season.

Been a while

sorry it has been so long since I have posted a sermon on my blog site. I plan to start reposting my sermons as of this coming week.

Sunday, May 2nd, "God is a Vacuum"

I never understood why some people say, "God is like a vacuum." That is until I traveled to Alabama with my brother-in-law Mike, who went to Purdue for engineering. In the time it took us to drive from Louisville to Nashville he explained to me how a vacuum actually works. We got on the subject of a vacuum because we were talking about God. Mike said, "I believe God is like a vacuum." I listened and tried to stay interested but my mind wandered a little.

Basically, I understood that a vacuum is simply made up of a canister, bag, or box of some kind that simply has all the air pressure sucked out. The air pressure in the canister is less than the air outside the canister. This causes what is called suction. Your vacuum works because of this process. I have an upright canister vacuum. The moter causes a fan to turn that in turn sucks all the air out of the canister. When the air pressure decreases in the canister the hose connected to it begins to suck in more air bringing with it all the filth I run over with my machine. A filter keeps the trash and dust from clogging the air flow to the fan. As long as the air flow continues the suction continues.

This past weekend I was at Jr. high weekend at Indiana Wesleyan University. While I was lying in the dorm room half asleep the concept that God is like a vacuum finally clicked in my mind and it all made sense. When I lived on campus at IWU it felt like I lived inside a spiritual vacuum. It often felt like we were inside a vacuum canister. Gods pull in our life was powerful and strong as long as we stayed inside the canister, or bubble, we sometimes called it. We were surrounded by preachers, professors, scripture, chapel, prayer, bible studies, and community service. As I visited campus this week, I felt like I had re-entered that canister, and I could feel the pull of God strongly while I was on campus. However, the minute we left I felt life taking over again and that suction power became less and less powerful.

Gods power operates like a vacuum. His holiness is a powerful cleansing tool. If we allow him to he can literally suck all the bad out of our life leaving us clean.

Many things can block this suction power. Things we should never suck into a vacuum can hinder it's flow as well. Such as pennies, nickles, water, or too much dirt or hair at one time. Our spiritual suction can be shut off by sin, bad attitude, skipping church, or just by being too self reliant. The way to get it to work again is simply repent and seek forgiveness. Allow God to do a cleaning work in your life all over again.

Most importantly, remember that God is still God. Sometimes when we can't feel Gods pull in our life we must simply rely on faith that God is still in control. If we can't do anything else in painful situations we must praise Him irregardless. It's amazing how a little praise and worship can get the flow of God back into our life.

Hope you find this encouraging and thought provoking.

Sunday, March 22nd, "The Life of the Apostle Paul"

This Sunday, Shiloh had a special visitor. The Apostle Paul came to teach us about how God wants to use scripture to change our character. He also reminded us that Satan wants to use our culture to further degrade our character and to destroy others. Paul shared stories from his life about his conversion and his years in the Arabian desert and how through out his life God used His word to develop Paul's character. That training resulted in the gospel being spread through out the entire known world. He ended his speech with his favorite verse from Philippians: "He who began a good work in you will not stop until it's completed."

Sunday, March 15th, "The Death of the Righteous"

This week our church witnessed the "death of the righteous." There was no doubt in any one's mind that Beulah Mardis was now in heaven. She is now alive and well in heaven. The Old Testament saints used to pray, "Let me die the death of the righteous." When I was a teenager I witnessed the death of such a saint. Her name was Marilyn Cromer. She had cancer, diabetes, and went to dialysis three times a week. Even so, she never missed church. If you asked her how she felt she would reply, "I'm joyful." One Sunday evening our pastor came to the pulpit and said, "Our piano player is sick tonight so we'll have to worship a capella Marilyn got up from her pew and walked slowly to the front of the church. She sat down at the piano and began to play one of the selected hymns. That night our little church worshipped louder and with more passion than I had ever heard before. As long as she was able she wouldn't dream of our church worshipping God without a piano player. (it just so happened that Anna Belle was present in our service this Sunday and Joanne, our regular piano player was sick, Anna Belle stepped up and played our piano) Her first Sunday back in 5 months and she played a vital part in our worship service.

The question of the day was, "So what makes a person righteous." The root word of "righteous" is "right". To be righteous simply means to have a right relationship with God. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again. The only way to be right with God is to be born again. To be forgiven of our sins and accept Christ as our Lord and savior. However, their are things that we should do in order to preserve and enhance our righteousness in Gods eyes.

I've come up with five "oughts". Five things a Christian ought to be in order to be called righteous.

#1. A Christian ought to love God. Heaven is a place for those who love God. The Bible says, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind."

#2. A person ought to hate sin. We ought to avoid sin like a plaque. We can't both be righteous and constant sinner at the same time. Paul said that's impossible. Even though we may never reach a point in our life where we will never sin we "ought" to try our best to avoid sin; even though sometimes we catch it's symptoms.

#3. A person ought to love the Body of Christ. The Christian life was not meant to live alone. The Bible says, "Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together." Sometimes, I think people isolate themselves from the Body of Christ. They distance themselves over one reason or another. I know that sometimes we physically should not attend church; but in some cases I know that we allow our physical ailments to become more of a cover up for the real reason we don't attend. We ought to love the Body of Christ and attend as often as possible; even if we physically don't feel like it.

#4. We ought to keep the 10 commandments. If there was ever a list of rules a righteous person should keep it would be the 10 commandments.

#5. We ought to be people of prayer, scripture, and devotion. This is truly a lost art in today's churches.

What will your funeral be like. Will people witness the Death of the Righteous. Or, will they wonder where your soul will spend eternity. The book of James tells us our life is like a breath that is here today and gone tomorrow. We only have one breath; we ought to make sure it's a righteous one.

Sunday, March 8th, "Forgiveness"

Collosians tells us that we must forgive as we have been forgiven. This lesson was a hard one for me to learn. It can be very hard to forgive someone who has hurt us. But, Christ commanded us to forgive not just once but seven times seventy. Christ was not telling us to give our trespassers a blank check to continue to do wrong. He was telling his disciples to have an attitude of forgiveness. We ought to forgive easily because our forgiveness from Christ came easy. All we had to do was ask and repent and we were given grace. Why should we with hold grace when we've been given grace freely. Go to Matthew and re-read the parable of the Shrewd Manager. In this story we are reminded that to those whom much are given much is required.

If you have someone you need to forgive I would encourage you to do it right away. Harboring these feelings can destroy friendships, marriages, and even churches. Grudges can build walls a mile high and keep people from entering our churches. Grudges can leave a husband our wife in bondage for decades. Make that call today and extend forgiveness just as you have been given forgiveness by our Heavenly Father.

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 "My Crooked Pinkies."

I inherited my dads crooked pinkies. When I was a kid my brothers convinced me I was a adopted as a practical joke. I'm so different from everyone in my family that there were times when I actually believed I could have been adopted. That was until one day I noticed my dads crooked pinkies. As Forest Gump said, "They are as crooked as a question mark." I knew from that day on I was my father's son. God made me special even with my crooked pinkies.

Sometimes we forget that God took his time when he created each of us. He loves us and he knows every detail of our life. He told Jeremiah that while we were in our mother's womb he knew us and formed us.

God loves you. This is why he went to all the trouble of leaving Heaven in order to die for the sins of the whole world. You are part of the Body of Christ. As Christians we are part of the Body of Christ. We are sealed into a covenant with God that often reflects the covenant of marriage. We are sealed with Christ in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse even into eternity.

Next time you are having a rough day or feeling sorry for yourself remember God loves you. And regardless of your flaws remember God made you special.

The Sign of Life

Nicodemus often gets a lot of negative criticism from Christians. We sometimes find it hard to understand why Nicodemus could'nt accept the truth of Christ during his private converstaion with him in John chapter 3. The truth is, many of us are just as confused about what it truly means to be "Born Again." This is one reason why we have so many denominations today. There is a lot of confusion and controversy over how a person can become born again. Jesus actually goes into great detail how a person can become born again in John chapter 3: 4-21. He says that a person must be born of water and the spirit.

It's hard for us to understand this statement because we often find ourselves trying to condense it into earlthy terms. These are not terms of earth. These are heavenly metaphors. The water is faith and the spirit is true repentance. The water is the first step; but as a person becomes born of spirit the old is gone and the new has come. The first step; or water baptism is the first step along the pilgrimmate of eternity. Physical water baptism is not required for salvation: although there are some denominations that proclam baptism is required for salvation. The baptism of which Jesus mentions here is a baptism of rebirth. One cannot go back into his mother's womb and be born of water again (i.e. from the amniotic fluid). But, when one comes to believe in Christ as his Lord and Savior he or she becomes born again in the spiritual realm. The old is gone and the new has come. Paul said, 'We have been crucified with Christ.' Oswald Chambers in his book, "My utmost for his Highest" gave himself a white robed funeral. His former way of life was put to death giving way to victory and new birth in Christ.

The second step of being Born Again is to be born of the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit. When you were born you resembled your parents. You looked like them and probably acted like them. You carried the same acsent. Now that you have been born of the flesh through faith in Christ a life long process of begin born of the spirit begins to take place. Some denominations describe this as, "the doctrine of entire sanctification, holiness, and others simply call it discipleship. As a person begins to digest the things of the spiritual world; i.e. communion, church attendance, fellowship of the belivers, bible study, prayer, worship, scripture they begin to take on a new idenity. That identity does not look like the world, but rather it begins to take on the image of Christ. As we grow spiritual every day we begin to look more and more like our Father and his image of Holiness begins to control our life and our actions.

Nicodemus had a hard time understanding all of this doctrinal stuff. And I would imagine many Christians today still do. Of course we do. In the story Jesus gets to this point with Nicodemus. Utter confusion would be the problem. He decides to tell Nicky (or Nicodemus) in verse 14 and 15 a story from Israel's past. He says, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert so should the son of man be lifted up. That whoever belives in him will not perish." Then he goes on to share with him the most popular verse in the entire Bible; which is John 3:16. One would need to to back to Numbers chapter 21 in order to understand this story. (read this story as part of your devotion for today)

The Children of Israel were grumbling and complaining about the food they had been given by God. They were ungrateful and unfaithful. God send upon them the curse of the sand vipers. Many Israelites were bitten and died. They went to Moses and asked him to pray for them and take away the vipers. Moses did. God told him to make an image of a snake out of broze and twisted it around a pole. He told Moses to lift it up on a high pole for all to see. Anyone who looked at the image was healed instantly. So, what does this have to with Jesus and being born again.

Jesus was lifted up on a tree, or cross, or pole; or whatever you want to call it. He was the sign of life just like the broze snake in the desert. This all did not make sense to Nicky until he saw it with his own eyes. His private talk began to make a lot of sense when he saw Jesus lifted up just like Moses had lifted up the snake in the desert. In order to be born again one must first accept Christ as Lord and Savior, but then he must repent and turn and look towards Christ. Anyone who looks at the sign of life will have life for eternity. This turning requires one to make a complete 180 degree turn in his or her life. We must make a 180 degree turn from sin to Christ. From the world to holiness. From what we want to what God wants. This is what it means to be born of the flesh and the spirit. We must have faith and then we must die to ourselves and repent of our sins.

Many of Jesus's disciples realized at one point in their pilgrimmage with Chirst that this was going to be very hard to do. Jesus asked them, "Will you leave me as well." John replied, 'Where else would we go. You teach us the truth.' Yes, turning our lives around in faith is very hard. But, because Christ suffered and died and rose again he has the power to breath grace into our lives. He can and will empower us to live lives dedicated to a life long pursuit of holiness.

I truly believe that the degradation of our churches today has to do with the fact that were good at getting people to take the first step; but we fail when it comes to teaching them about holiness and living a life of repentance. We allow them to be who they are and convince them that this is good enough and they can lead and teach and be a part of eternity with us without ever changing our behavior or our desires. This is not one denomination speaking over another. This is not a doctrinal message this morning. This is a message straight from the words of Jesus himself. He tried to help Nicky understand this truth. Finally, after the crucifixion things became more clear to Nicky. He helped in the burial of the Messiah. Later, he shows up and is a very influential part of the New Testament Church.

Last, from now on when you see an ambulance or a hospital look for the sign of life. The emblem of snakes wrapped around a pole is on the side of a lot of ambulances and hospitals today. They got this idea from Numbers ch. 21, "the sign of lie." Let this be a reminder to you that not only do you need to put your faith in Christ, but also that we need to turn our lives over to Christ including our dreams, desires, and our future.

I pray you will. Any questions about this post can be sent to shilohpj@live.com

The Lord's Anointing, Sunday Jan. 25th, 2009

This weeks sermon came from 1st Samuel ch. 16. In this passage Samuel travels to Bethlehem to anoint David king over Israel. All of Jesse's sons were brought before Samuel but none of them were Gods chosen. Finally, David the shepherd boy, was brought before Samuel. The Lord said, 'Arise and anoint this one as king.' Ray Boltz sings a song titled, 'When others see a shepherd boy God may see a king.' From that time on the spirit of the Lord was upon David with power.

The Lord's anointing is so important. I can remember when I preached my first sermon. I took the anointing of the Lord for granted. I assumed that the Lord would be with me. But, when I got up to speak I was powerless and actually forgot every word I had planned to speak. It's because I was not living a life of purity and seeking the Lord's anointing. When I was 18 years old I was living a lie. I took Gods anointing for granted. I felt like Samson in the arms of Delilah. When Samson had broken his life long Nazarite Vow, or life long fast, is what I call it. He was no longer anointed by the Lord. He went out to slew the Philistines like he had done countless times before; but he did not know that the spirit of the Lord had departed from him. This has always been my biggest fear. I have always feared that I would get up in front of a crowd and it just be me standing before a multitude of people without the Lords anointing. This is why I pray for Gods anointing every day. I ask God to anoint my ministry and my preaching. Not only that, but as Christians, we must seek to live lives of purity. We need to pray for the Lords anointing in our own life and in the life of our church. Without it we cannot be effective at spreading the gospel.

The good thing is that you don't have to be a king, preacher, or a Samson in order to receive Gods anointing. Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ we all have access to the Lord's anointing. All we have to do is ask for it and seek the Lord with all of our hearts. If we do this as individuals when we come together as the Body of Christ we will be able to accomplish amazing things for the kingdom.

Sunday, Jan. 18th, 2009 -- "What makes a Cup a Cup?"

Have you ever wondered what makes a cup a cup? We have so many different kinds. Different shapes, different sizes, tall, short, fat, skinny. We have bra cups, athletic cups. and even sipi-cups for kids. But, what characteristics does a cup have that qualifies it for being a cup? I know this is deep. But, the answer is obvious; it's just a cup! We know when we see a cup. We know when we see a glass and we know when we see a bowl and even though they can do the same thing as a cup we still don't call them cups. This illustration's just for fun to help us understand another obvious truth.

What makes a servant a servant? The answer is simple. We know when we see a servant. A servant of God sticks out in a crowd. They are separated from the majority. Christ said these people were his friends. In John 15:15 Christ says, "I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his masters business. Instead I call you friends." In John 12:26 Jesus says 'where I am my servants will be with me.'

I believe our church is full of servants who would qualify to be friends with God. This is why I believe our church has such an amazing future in Christ. If we continue to put Christ first and serve him faithfully our church will grow and further the kingdom of God. This is a basic truth, not only for churches, but for our own lives. If we are faithful to serve Christ our lives will be blessed. Jesus said, "What you do for the least of these you do unto me."

Make a commitment to serve Christ daily. Pick up your cross every day and follow him. Where Christ is served and lifted up Christ is exalted. I pray he will be exalted at Shiloh Community Church.

Sunday, Jan. 11th, 2009 "Everyone Lies"

Dr. House is a rude doctor with charisma with very little confidence in the honesty of humans. He says, "Everyone lies." Even though he is a fictional character his statement has got me thinking about whether or not this could be true. Does everyone lie? What about the common white lie? Forrest Gump says, "Momma always says a little white lie won't hurt nobody." Are they common practice in today's culture? James 1: 22 says that if we only listen to the word and do not obey it that we are lying to ourselves. We deceive our own spiritual nature when we allow our bodies to run rampant and disobey Gods word. Eventually, as this continues it becomes easier and easier to step across the line and break our boundaries. As time goes by, our defenses become weak and before we know it, we wake up one day and realize were pretty shallow Christians. Who we thought we were on the outside does not match who we really are on the inside. Have you ever found yourself in this condition? Paul did in Romans chapter 7. His soul wanted to do one thing; but his body continued to do another. He was miserable. But, later on in the book of Romans he confessed that it was only by the grace of God that he could overcome this spiritual problem. However, he also doesn't totally rely on his faith. Strong faith and an honest spirit requires discipline and study and a devotion to the fundamentals of being a Christian.

No professional athlete made it to where they are without strong determination and a dedication to the fundamentals of the sport. They would not have made it by faith and hope alone. If you ever find yourself in a spiritual slump make a commitment to go back to the fundamentals of being a Christian. Things like Bible study, prayer, fasting, meditation, church attendance. All of these things will reveal to you your true identity. After spending time in Gods word you will begin to see your reflection. Our goal in life is that our reflection begins to resemble Christ.