Unlock the Day with Praise

God is talking, are we listening? In these last days He is speaking to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Times are fleeing and lives are valued by what we do with Jesus. But are we listening? How far have we drifted from God and His voice? Have we become more dull of hearing and distracted by the things of the day? Satan is our invisible enemy.

I am praying that my world will hear what God is saying, and to the church may we hear her Shepherd and draw nigh to His side. The world needs to realize that repentance is a necessity and only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ to the lost and of its unbelief in His Son. They are dead in trespasses and sins and only He can give life. He is the Creator and Redeemer! All things began by Him and they will end in Him. And all will stand before Him! And one day all will kneel before Him!

The people of God should examine themselves and to repent of her selfishness and fleshly ways. We should know better but we have a drift as well from God’s ways. Our ways are not His ways and therefore we must know Him, hear Him, so as to follow Him. As the church goes so goes the family, the city, the country, and the world. Without the church who is to become a part of the conscience which awakens the sinner all will continue in its apostasy. So will the church listen to what God is saying to her? Will we love, pray, witness, give, confess our need to Him, or will we continue to try to deafen what He is saying? He is slow to judgment and yet He is great in mercy!

May we draw nigh and He has promised to draw nigh to us. Listen to Him!

Pastor Don

KMBC Family,

The H.E.A.R. Journal is one of the best methods I know in getting to know the God who loves you. As you connect with your church in reading the Scripture together on a daily basis, you will find that after your reading, meditating, and journaling, you can find prayer better and more effective.

• Learn to Highlight the verse or verses that God is using for that day.
• Explain the verses in the context of what the writer is saying.
• Apply the Scripture to your life and what God is saying to you.
• Respond to God in praise, thanksgiving, repentance, or in action toward
  someone.

Use the H.E.A.R. Method of reading the Word and allow the Word to get into you and for you to get into the Word.

Adoniran Judson and Ann Judson boarded a ship for India that would eventually lead them to Burma (modern-day Myanmar).  They suffered and endured much on the mission field, yet they were used by God in some extraordinary ways.

A letter was written from Adoniram to Ann’s father asking for permission to marry his daughter.   The following is Adoniram’s candid request:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.  Can you consent to all of this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?  Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

Ann’s dad said “yes,” the couple was married, and a year later they set sail.  Ann’s dad would never see his daughter or son-in-law again.  In fact, Ann would lose her life sharing the gospel with people who had never heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

John Piper said, “God’s plan is that his gospel-spreading, church-planting purpose triumph through the suffering of his people.”  Is this out-of-the-ordinary type of commitment or are we too far behind in our passion for Christ and His gospel?

God’s people have never in any age come to the mountain-peak of spiritual joy, peace, and communion which is the glory of unbroken communion with the Most High God, without having the “self-life,” brought again and again to the grave of death and dust.

 

Revival is realizing that anything from our old life needs to be reckoned dead. As we recognize our death in Christ, confess our self life sinfulness, and turn from our wicked ways to Him, then God will kiss us with the kisses of His mouth.

 

Pray that God’s people will come to realize that the termination of the old self was realized and materialized at Calvary’s mountain. Live so that the sails of your life may be set high, and the wind of God’s breath will blow once more in His church.

 

 

Left Behind (Preached on March 29th, 2020) Matthew 24:36-41
Prophecy seems to be out of place these days in our preaching unless a tragedy takes place. People go immediately to sensationalism to scourging the preaching but we need to go to the Scripture. The soon coming of the Lord seems to as common as American as apple pie, hotdogs, and baseball. We don’t think much about it. But we should! Jesus is coming again.
Our world is anxious today and worried. Everything has been turned upside down. Jobs are shut down, parking lots are empty, nonessential businesses have closed. And the church is emptied of its congregants. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me…” (John 14:1). The Lamb of God is coming for the lambs of God. We are seeing a dress rehearsal for the coming tribulation.
People don’t believe in the rapture. Enoch did. Elijah did. Jesus did. Paul did. One day Jesus is coming back to catch us away. You find that in I Thessalonians 4:13ff. Who are going to be taken up with Him? The ones who have been born again, who have the same nature as God. Those who have a second birth. Those who follow Jesus as Lord on earth.
Some things out of place at this time. The bride is not with the bridegroom. The Jews are not back in the land of Israel. Satan is not in hell. Jesus is not reigning in Jerusalem from David’s throne. God is preparing all things to fulfill these prophecies.
One day children will disappear from their beds. Moms will be missing. Pilots will be taken up. Bus drivers and car drivers will exit their cars. One man working beside another and one is taken. Two in bed, a man and his wife, and one is taken.

1. A Word of Caution (Matthew 24:36)
   We don’t know when the event will take place but we know it will. Millions will vanish without a trace. It will be a worldwide event. In less than a millisecond, there will be an evacuation, an exit, an entry into the glory to be with the Lord forever. Can you imagine the anguish when loved ones have been taken and many don’t know where they are? We look at the nation of Israel. It was reformed as a nation in 1948. Never has this happened to any other nation or state. Jesus said this is the budding of the fig tree and when this happens the coming of the tribulation is nigh. That means before the tribulation happens the rapture will take place. Only when the true church is taken from this world will we see this happen. The world is awaiting a devastating day. And they do not know it and they are indifferent to it.
2. A Word of Contemplation (Matthew 24:37-41)
   Look at the situation today: politically, economically, ecclesiastically, and morally. Jesus said these things would take place and the world will be shaken from its moorings. Their anchor will be pulled up. Everything people have lived for, sold their souls for, will suddenly, fatally, finally be taken away. Noah preached for 120 years and only 8 got in the ark. He was a preacher of righteousness. With every blow of the hammer, with each cutting down of a tree, with the dabbing of tar on the boards of the ark to waterproof the ark from the water, God was speaking. God is saying things today. Adrian Rogers said, “I would rather scare you into hell than lull you into hell.” Too many are not ready! Mortality is coming, hell is coming, and people are being warned by today’s situations. Too many say they know Christ but the question is does He know them? Many Christians are asleep and they will stand at the judgment seat of God to be shown their bad works before a holy and righteous God.
3. A Word of Concern (Matthew 24: 42-51)
   After the rapture God will focus His concern on the earth. He is going to allow man to continue in their rebellion. They will ruin themselves. Then Satan will come in the person of the Anti-Christ to rule over and stamp his mark of 666 on earth of his subjects. But at the last 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation, God will begin to pour out his bowls of judgment upon the earth dwellers. They will cry out for the rocks of the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb of God. Can you imagine that? What should we do as God’s people? Be watchful! Be Warned! Be Awake! What should the lost do? They should repent of their sin, their life of self-serving, self-ambition, and get the life of God in them by turning from their sin and asking God to be merciful unto them.
   One day Jesus is coming. A man went upstairs to the attic. He found an opened box with nuts, bolts, nails, dust, pieces of paper, and some splintered wood. He found a strong magnet and waved it over the box. What leaped to the magnet? The nuts, bolts, and nails. Why? They alone had the same nature as the magnet. Only those who have the same nature of God within will be caught up to Jesus. Those who know Him will be rescued from this world’s chaos that will take place one day. Either party, saved or lost, come to Jesus before it’s too late!

Why is church attendance important? If the Christian is the body of Christ, then why does the church need to be in a building called the “church”? Isn’t having a friend over to have lattes just as meaningful? Or a few family members meeting together just as important?

 

The church organized is the only organization that Jesus Himself established. Church is an “of course” to the Son of Man (Revelation 1). It was an “of course” to the early apostles (Acts 2:42-47).

 

The church at large, which is largely absented, should be a prioritized who name the name of Christ. Instead of saying, “Why should I have to go to church?”; we should be asking, “What can I do to minister to and build up Christ’s own precious body, the church, and which I am a part?”

 

God took disciples who needed much work and together they accomplished much, for they turned the world upside down. This is what God does with and through and in people who take seriously the mandate of the church to meet, to encourage, to learn, to love, to give, to worship and to go.

 

The Bible tells us, “The eyes of the Lord run to and for throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). God isn’t looking for a strong man or a strong woman but rather someone whom He could be strong on behalf of.

 

Get into and stay with the organization, the church. For without organization the organism dies. We need the interaction, accountability, and outlet for our gifts and talents that only the local church can provide. I believe that when God set up the first Church, He did it right.