1 Samuel 17-18 David, Goliath, and Saul8/22/2017 The story of David and Goliath is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. What’s sad is that most Christians get the application of this story all wrong. Growing up in church I often heard that I was David and I could conquer my Goliath's. Goliath could be sin, Goliath could be a math test, Goliath could be a bully, or Goliath could be a football team. If we trust God as David did WE can conquer our Goliath, but that’s not true. Correct application of this passage is that Goliath represents our sin, Goliath represents an impossible hurdle. But we are not David in this story. In this story, we are the scared Israelite's hiding from Goliath, unable to defeat the giant and unwilling to face him. So, who is David in this story…JESUS! The fact is that the burden of our sin is too great for us to handle. Jesus came to save us from our sin. The law is impossible for us to uphold, but Jesus fulfilled the law. Our sin was great but Jesus is greater! On our own we will never conquer our sin, we need our warrior God and King, Jesus to save us, to conquer for us! If we trust in Jesus as David did, Jesus will conquer our Goliath! One other observation is the example of Saul. After David defeated Goliath, God blessed David greatly and that enraged the jealous king Saul. Notice Saul’s heart though. Saul watched David, by faith, slay Goliath but instead of: one realizing that he himself lacked that same kind of faith, two repenting of his faithlessness, and three putting his faith back in God, Saul just became bitter and jealous. This sadly happens too often in our churches today. We see the spiritual success of other Bible believing churches and often become bitter and jealous, bringing up false accusations against the growing and successful church. Instead we should be looking at the heart of our own church, repenting of our sin, and trusting our church with Jesus no matter what changes might occur.
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Our hearts are so wicked. God has done so much for us by way of our physical provisions and by the way of eternal provision through Jesus. Yet, we still run to false gods. Israel ran to baal, we run to worship ourselves through temporary pleasures. Because we run to false gods we end up enslaved. Israel was enslaved to the Midianites, we are enslaved to our sin. We are not called to be slaves of anything or anyone other than the One True God! In slavery to our sin, we are beat down, we are oppressed, we have no joy.
We need to know that the Israelite's oppression from the Midianites was their own doing. Our enslavement to sin is of our own doing. Neither are punishments from God but are natural consequences of our failure to keep our eyes on the One True God! Just like Peter in Matthew 14, Peter trusted in Jesus to walk on water but as soon as his personal safety trumped his trust in Jesus he began to sink. Jesus did not make Peter sink, Peter’s lack of faith caused him to sink. Judges 7:22 tells us that God WON the victory for the Israelites. God reduced the number of the Army from 32,000 to 300 men to prove it was God who won the victory. We dig ourselves into holes and only God can pull us out. We cannot earn salvation, and we cannot white knuckle our sin. We are in desperate need of a savior! He saves us from the bondage of sin and he pulls us out the ocean when we start sinking. Pray and ask God to reveal sin in your life that is leading to bondage and then ask God for grace to repent of sin. Where were You? Job 38-395/15/2017 Job had three pretty awful friends who did not at all understand how God works. There are so many beautiful gospel truths found in the book of Job that not only proves God’s character as good but points us to Jesus and his unconditional election. Job’s friends believed that Job’s loss and pain where a direct response to something Job had done. Job responds to them by defending himself knowing that he had done nothing to deserve the loss and pain acquired. The primary concern of God is His own glory and as God, only He deserves glory! In his pain and suffering, Job is displaying the glory of almighty God. Job is proving God’s goodness! As bad things happen Job trusts God. Sometimes bad things happen, we can choose to glorify God as Job did or we can curse God. Our purpose in life is to glorify God! In Job 38 & 39 we see God respond to Job’s wrestling over trusting in God. God reminds Job that He alone is almighty God. God reminds Job that He alone is faithful. God tells Job to “dress for action like a man” or basically to man up. God reminds Job that He has never failed and will never fail and that Job needs to just trust God! Today we can trust God through all things! Jesus has come and defeated sin and death! We need to fear nothing and trust God! He is faithful.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:25-26 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 Job is a really awesome character in the Bible. Job gives us an example that seems impossible but obviously is possible. For us it almost seems impossible, in the same situation, to respond “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."(Job 1:21) Sometimes I try to close my eyes and picture myself in Job’s shoes. My heart breaks to quickly! I still don't know how I'd respond but I pray that I would respond like Job. Job trusts fully in God. It wasn't written yet but Job had the Philippians 4:13 mindset. Even in the worst pain possible Job was content with God alone! “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”Job 2:10 I am also reminded of Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Job was not afraid of death or losing everything because he knew where his real treasure was! Pray that God would fix your eyes upon the things above that you would be content in all things!
In the beginning God called humanity to be "fruitful and multiply." But in Genesis chapter 6 we see humanity being "sinful and multiplying." God created humanity in His image for the purpose of spreading His Glory! At this point no one except for one man was living for the glory of God. The Bible calls Noah a righteous man. Was Noah perfect? No, but Noah was a man who trusted and had faith in the Lord. You do not spend years of hard labor building a HUGE boat unless you have faith in the one who told you to build it. Noah trusted in God for salvation. He trusted in the fact that God would provide salvation both from the flood and also from his own sin. Humanity failed and continues to fail at our primary responsibility to glorify God by being fruitful and multiplying. Praise be to Jesus that He came to right all of our wrongs. Praise be to Jesus that He rescued us from our sin and has made a way to righteousness. Praise be to Jesus that if you have given your life to Him you can actually live out your primary reason for existence and glorify God! Be fruitful and multiply, go make disciples. Trust in Jesus he is our rock and our salvation! If he is for me who can be against me! Noah's faithfulness brought a new temporary clean slate for humanity. Jesus's faithfulness brought an everlasting clean slate for all who repent and believe!
Made in the Image of God - Gen. 1&25/9/2017 It's pretty awesome to think about how God created humanity in His own image! Because of that truth, every life has value, beginning at conception. Because of this truth we are reminded that Jesus calls us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) to all people of all backgrounds and color. Let's pray for racial reconciliation in our country and that God would open the door for our church to start reaching people who are different from us and also let's pray for the unborn all made in the image of God! Hope y'all enjoyed day 1!
Using the Bible to Disciple5/9/2017 The most basic purpose of the church is to glorify God. Therefore the most basic purpose of the Student ministry is also to glorify God. I also believe that the primary way we do this, is by making disciples (Matthew 28:18-20, John 14, Acts 1:8, Romans 1:16-17). So to start moving our ministry in the direction of disciple making, I have begun walking a group of 5 students (our student leadership team) through the Bible using Robby and Kandi Gallaty's book "Foundations." The cool thing is that the Gallaty's have 3 different "Foundations" books one for Adults, Students and Children. If you would like to follow along with us, BUY THE BOOK, also I will be posting regularly my thoughts on that days reading!
My favorite thing about "Foundations" is that its not just about reading God's Word but studying God's Word! The Gallaty's teach a method of studying called the H.E.A.R. method. Highlight, Explain, Apply, Respond. I'm not going to explain anymore than that because I really want you to buy their book! This is a great resource for Christians who are serious about discipleship! The Why? - God's Providence Week - 111/7/2016 Parents,
The holiday season is here. This is a time when families get together and celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. But for some families, the holiday season can be rough because of the loved ones who aren't there. This past week a high school senior at Edgewood took his own life, a member of our church passed away, and two of our students lost an uncle in a car accident. This life is full of pain and full of sorrows. If God is good and loving, then why do bad things happen? Why? We just started a new series in the youth called “The Why.” This series is covering the doctrine of God’s providence. We define providence as God’s perfect power over everything for the purpose of Jesus. What we mean by this is that the gospel has always been “plan A” for God. God has an end game for your life and for the whole world. That end is for the glory of Jesus to be put on display. In John 17:1-5 we see Jesus about to go to the cross to pay for the sins of the world. In verse 3 Jesus tells us that the gospel lets us know God. Evil had to happen so that Jesus could come and show us how loving, merciful, and graceful God is! God has allowed sin so that we can see how amazing he is! So, we can understand why God would allow sin but why do we have to suffer in this life? Why all the pain in losing loved ones? Why? Romans 8:28-30 the Bible tells us that even in times of suffering all things work for good for those who love God. A lot of the time we can't see the good but in verse 29 the Bible tells us what the good is “to be conformed into the image of the Son.” When we suffer, and are obedient to scripture we become more and more like Jesus! This is the end game for your life, that you would be conformed to the image of the Son glorifying Him! Love you guys! Praying for You! Trevor Angels, Satan, and Demons - Week 310/20/2016 Parents,
Last night was a third week of our Angels, Satan, and Demons series. We took time last night to look at who Satan is, and his strategy against humanity. I wanted to make it very clear to the students that we did not want to give any glory to Satan last night. Even though we were talking about Satan, our goal is to glorify God. We started our service by singing three songs that all speak to goodness and power of God (Unstoppable God by Elevation Worship, God is Able by Hillsong, and Strong God by Vertical Church Band) to remind our students that God is more powerful and has already claimed victory over Satan. So who is Satan? We pointed to five character traits that define who Satan is.
We also looked at Satan’s strategy to take our worship off of God and give it to anything else which is sin. 1 John 2:15-17 tells us that we are not to love the world or the things of the world. This is not talking about people or even just stuff in the world. (Some people read it that way and totally cut themselves and their families off from the world which is ultimately what Satan wants. Remember this, Jesus told us to love our neighbors and also to follow his example of fellowshipping with sinners so that we can show them the love of Christ. If we cut ourselves off from the world, we cut ourselves off from obeying God’s call on our lives to minister to all people by sharing the gospel.) This passage actually tells us what the world is and the things of the world. Look at verse 16. Verse 16 tells us that the things of the world are:
The other example is Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus was preparing for his three-year ministry by fasting in the wilderness for 40 days. At the end of the 40 days Satan came to tempt Jesus. First Satan tries to get Jesus to turn stones into bread (I want to FEEL. Desire of the Flesh), but Jesus responds with the truth of God’s word. Satan then tries to tempt Jesus to jump off a building so that angels will come down and give Jesus angelic protection (I want to HAVE. Desire of the Eyes.), but again Jesus responds with truth of God’s word and says “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Then Satan tries one more time to tempt Jesus. Satan takes Jesus to the top of a mountain to look down at all the kingdoms of the world and tells Jesus that he will give him all of the world if Jesus would just bow down and worship him (I want to BE. The Pride of Life.). Jesus again responds with the truth of God’s word and Satan leaves defeated. Matthew 4:1-11 shows us not only Satan’s strategy to get us to fall into temptation but it also shows us Jesus’s winning strategy to defeat Satan and resist temptation. Jesus shows us that if we want to resist temptation we must read and know the Word of God. Study God’s word so that when Satan tempts you, you can defend yourself with the Truth! Parent please be an example to your student of someone who reads and studies the Bible. Encourage your students to be people who read and study the Bible. If it is important to you, it will be important to them! Love you guys! Praying for you! Trevor AuthorTrevor Williams is the Lead Pastor at Ector Baptist Church in Ector, TX. Archives
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