LBC Sermons & Messages

Psalms 1:1-6

“Blessed is the man”. Another translation is “Oh, how very happy is the man”. Everyone wants a happy life. We thirst for it, try any thing to find it. I have noticed a phrase that states “the one who dies with the most toys, wins”. Implying that happiness is found in possessions. The message of Psalm 1, informs us that there are two ways or two roads. One leads to God and happiness and the other leads to disaster.

The practices of a happy man, informs us first that there are three things we need to avoid (v1). It portrays a momentum of degeneration, each more permanent and embedded. Degrees of conduct (walk, stand, sit), lead to involvement (counsel, path, seat) and results in evil (wicked, sinners, scoffers). What the happy man is to involve himself (v2) in is to “delight in the Word of God”. This involves a positive choice on his part and he is to “meditate in the Word”. Meditate is a comprehensive term for applying the teachings of Scripture into daily practice.

Verse 3 lists the habits produced by heeding verse 2. The happy man becomes a person of strength, stability, testimony and success. Notice that he is like a planted tree. Transplanted into a new environment (salvation) and then beginning to exhibit the character of Christ in his life for all to see which will lead us to victory. Psalm 37:6, states “He (God) will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day”.

The permanency of the happy man (godly man) is contrasted to the ungodly man in verses v4-6. The ungodly, cannot stand in the time of difficulty, but will blown away. He cannot stand in the day of judgment, nor stand with the righteous and cannot stand in life. They are earth dwellers, which will be taken away from them just as it was with the ungodly in Noah’s day. But the happy man, the godly man, is known by God who will protect him just He did with Noah.

Happy is the man, who knows God as his Savior and walks in His ways.

II Corinthians 5:17-6:2

When an individual turns and accepts Christ as their Savoir, that person is considered to “be in Christ”, a new creation, not unlike that of Genesis chapter 1. As a new creation our standards and motivations change. We now interact with others not based upon their background or social standing, but upon their relationship to Christ. As such we have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation.

Reconciliation in the technical sense, is that someone or something is changed and adjusted to a standard. Like me, adjusting my checkbook to the bank statement.

In the spiritual sense between God and mankind, we are not in sink with each other due to the fact that we are sinners and separated from a holy, righteous God due to our sin. Something needed to be done to bring us back into fellowship with our creator.

God’s holiness demanded we be holy, God’s righteousness demanded that all unholy creatures were to die, but God’s love determined to reconcile us to Him that we could once more be in fellowship with Him. The way the Lord accomplished this was that He would become a human, a holy righteous human, without any sin and therefore not subject to death, since sin leads to death. In (v21), He took on our sin and willingly died in our place. This satisfied the righteousness of God and took away the enmity between God and mankind. We are now reconciled to God.

We are now savable, but individuals must appropriate this for themselves and when we do, thru faith in Christ, God gives us new life, makes us new creatures. If we do not avail ourselves to God’s reconciliation then that person will die in their sin for all eternity in a place the Bible calls the lake of fire.

We, who have trusted in Christ as our redeemer, have this ministry of reconciliation and appeal to others to accept God’s grace. No sin is beyond God’s grace to save. Please, with repentance (change of your mind) and faith in the work of Christ at Calvary, accept Him as your Savior, today.

II Corinthians 5:9-16

In our study of II Corinthians, the major theme has been that the Lord will lead us victoriously, and we have noted all the ramification of that thruth. Last week we viewed that in Christ we will also receive a new body and be taken into his very presence for all eternity.

What will tip the scales to live in a way which will glorify the Lord. The worlds has it motivation criteria and it is based upon what the person wants, a “Its all about me” type of motivation. Paul relates the believers goal of “pleasing God” (v9), and gives us two truths which should motivate us into a life of living for Christ.

First, it is Jesus role as our judge, “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”. Every individual who has ever lived will have to give an account of their lives before Him. Our text, is for those who have trusted Christ as their saviour and therefore is it a time of evaluation not condemnation. Thoise who never turned to Christ will stand before the Lord and for them it will be a time of judgment. For the believer this is a time of revelation, Christ will be examing our lives, for the quality and motives for our service tyo Him and be rewarded accordingly. Knowing this truth we should be persuding others, and appealing to others about Christ and His love.

Secondly, it is Jesus role as saviour, “for the love of Christ contol us”. We should be so consumed with the fact that Christ loved us so much, that He willing to come while we were still sinners and die for us (in our place), that we will just live our lives totally in submission to Him. Because the love of Christ constrains us, we will regard no one based upon wordly values, but again seek to relate Christ to them regardles of their status.

In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus gives us a description of His minisrty, later on he states “so send I you”.

I Kings 17:4

Before we want to examine the tesing of Elijah, I thought it might be good to just try to give a general overview of the reasons and purposes for trials in out lives. None of us like maturing experiences but God has dertermined to use them to develop our spiritual development.

1. We may experience trials as a testimony to othersof the power of Christ in out lives. (II Cor 4:11-15)

2. We may have trials to cause us to develop sympathy in comforting others (II Cor 1:3-5)

3. We may experience trials to maintain a spirit of dependency upon the Lord (II Cor 12:7)

4. We will have trails to develop our spiritual maturity and walk with Christ (James 1:2-4)

5. We may experience trials at the hands of evil men on us, and it will reveal their evil character and the justice of God when it falls upon them (I Thess 2:14-16)

6. We may experience trials in order to broaden our ministry with others that we may have never had the opportuniuty to do so otherwise. (Phil 1:12-13; 4:5-9)

Isaiah 53:7-9

The characteristics of sheep are used in the Bible to describe man’s spiritual condition and also the ministry of Christ. In verse 6, we see that mankind like sheep, has wandered off and is now astrayed and lost. In verse 7-9, we see the defenseless characteritic of sheep being used to describe Jesus as He is led to the cross on our behalf.

In the book of Acts, Philip was lead by the Lord into a desert area, where he came upon an Ethiopian Eunuch reading this text. Being unsure of its meaning, Philip begins with this text and reveals to this man how Jesus carried our inquity that was placed upon Him.

In verse 7, we find that through this Jesus was silent. He did not plead for mercy nor did He cry out in protest. You and I are never silent while in pain and torment, yet He was. Why? Isaiah 52:13, hints at the answer “he would act wisely”. Jesus knew that this was a service to God, He was doing this on our behalf. Greater love has no man ever seen.

In verse 8, we are told that He was led away after an unjust trial, but no one even cared. In our society if there was some illegal method was used to convict, then the convicted one is entitled to a new trial. Not so with Jesus, they were going to condemn him any way they could and He never said a word. Never asked for a retrial, but quietlt accepted it.

In verse 9, wse sees that there was found no violence or deceit in Him, yet they insisted that He be put to death.

In all of this Jesus said not a word.

As we observe the Lord’s Table, let us be mindful our “our so great salvation”, and remember what Christ did at Calvary on our behalf, bearing the judgment of our sins upon Himself so that The Father could reconsile us to Himself and thereby save us when we accept Christ as our Saviour.

I Kings 17:2-3

Virtual reality leads into another type of world which seems real but is not. Scripture on the other hand brings us face to face with reality and how to deal with it.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon describes to us what life is like without God and he concludes that it is empty. God has placed within us a God-shaped vacuum that can only He can fill. Until He is there, nothing satisfies for very long.The Bible is God’s Word to show how to fill that vacuum and give us instruction on how to live in this world.

Verse 2 states “and the Word of the Lord came to him”. The word “and” can be thought of as “then”, which implies a sequence of events. After Elijah had acted upon what he knew to be the Word of God and telling King Ahab, God then give him additional insight. Knowing what the Lord’s will is for our lives will be a matter of knowing what the Lord has stated in His Word, the Bible and then heeding it. If we do not heed what we have learned then that simply hardenes our hearts.

Verse 3 states “depart from here and turn …”. The idea here is that Elijah is to make a deliberate choice to hide himself east of the Jordan river, something that probably caught him off guard.
Proverb 14:12 states “there is a way which seems right, but its end is the way of death”. We need Godly guidance, without it we will end up making a mess out of our lives.

Knowing what the Lord’s will is for our lives is vital, if we want to accomplish anything for the Glory of God.. Next week we will look at the principles given to us in the Word of God as to how we can ascertain what the Lord’s will is for us.