LBC Sermons & Messages

I Chronicles 16:14-15

Our country has set aside this day as Memorial Day, a time when we honor those who had died in a war fighting to establish or preserve our freedoms. Without remembering the past we become helpless to face the challenges of the future.

In our text, David is bringing the ark of covenant into Jerusalem when he breaks out in a song of praise and admonishes us to “remember God’s covenants”. Deut 32:7 states “remember the days of old”. God has given us monuments to help us remember> to the nation of Israel He has given them offerings, sacrifices and national festivals, all are tangible reminders to the nation of their relationship to God. To the church He has given a living memorial of communion, “this do in remembrance of me”. When we forget we are prone to every poor decision imaginable. That kind of stumbling drains us of all our passion for God, therefore we need to remember.

Remember it is all about God, not about us. In the sixties the prevailing thought was that a new age was dawning. It did not happen, why? – God was left out. Now consider Moses, with 3 million people, there was no humanly possible way for him to care for them. But God could and did. Consider Gideon, God told him to decrease the size of his army. He did and God defeated the enemy. It is all about God. He is eternal (Psa 90:2), His is unchanging (Heb 13:8). He is love (I John 4:8), He is perfect (Matt 5:48), He is righteous (Psa 145:17), He is all powerful (Psa 33:6-9), He is all knowing (Heb 4:13).

Remember it is all about what we know about our God. When we don’t know what to do we need to focus on what we do know? In desperate times, “I know my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25-26). When in a stressful situation, “I know that it will turn out for my deliverance” (Phil 1:19). When in a life threatening situation “I know whom I have believe .. To keep what I have committed unto Him” (II Tim 1:12).

Remember the God who sent His son to redeem us.

Matthew 24:1-25

In verses 3-8, Jesus gives us a summary view of the conditions found in the church age. That many false Christ will appear, there will be wars and rumors of war and as the age comes to a close there will be nations fighting one another and famines and earthquakes will occur with increasing intensity.

After verse 8 and before verse 9, the rapture of the church will take place (Rev 3:10), the anti-Christ will be revealed (II Thess 2:6-9) and is identifies as the one who will conquer 3 of the 10 nations (Dan 7:20,24)

In Daniel 9:24-27, we have God’s timetable given to us. Verse 24 gives us the scope of God’s program for Israel.

Verse 25 we have the starting point. With the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem (Neh 2:5-8), a total of 173880 will elapse, broken down by 17640 to rebuild the city and then 156240 days to inhabit the city during troubling times at which point the Messiah will enter the city. Which is recorded in John 12?

Verse 26 describes an interval time, during which the Messiah is cut off (crucified) and the city and temple in Jerusalem is destroyed and the peoples scattered. We are still in this time period.

Verse 27, describes the final 7 year period of time left in God’s time table. This is known as the tribulation and it starts when the prince of the people makes (anti-Christ) makes a peace treaty with Israel and then will break it after 3 and a half years.

Next week we will start to look at some of the detail the Bible gives us concerning the tribulation.

Matthew 14:22-34 - Message by Pastor Jon Roe

Jesus has just miraculously fed 5000 and they wanted to make him king, even the disciples were getting caught up in this mindset. To defuse the situation Jesus dismisses the crowd and sends the disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, while he departed into the wilderness to pray.
While heading to the other side of the sea a storm arises that frightens even these experienced fishermen. Obeying Christ does not exclude us from the storms of life. God allows trials into our lives to perfect us, to make us complete in him. Therefore do not be surprised by this storm but to rejoice (Heb 4:12-13).

While the disciples were battling the storm, they were not alone Jesus was up on the mountain praying. What was he praying? Most likely he was praying for their faith to be strengthened to draw them closer to God. We need to learn that we don’t go thru storms alone but Christ is they’re praying for us and therefore we ought not to let storms drive us away from God but to Him. We need to be always looking for Christ during the midst of storms rather than being fearful.

Peter calls out and he responds in faith when Jesus says, “come”. Peter knew that apart from faith in Christ he could not walk on water. So it is with us when we call out to God for salvation. The Bible teaches that we are all sinner, lawbreakers, deserving the justice of God, but by the grace of God Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins. We need by faith to repent, turn away from trying to save ourselves and to trust in Christ to save us and to help us in our walk with Christ.

What do we learn from this portion of scripture, 1) that Christ is praying for us (Heb 4:14-16), that he understands the storms we experience and therefore we can go to him in confidence and 2) that Christ will come to us, that he will never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5). Heed the admonition of Heb 12:1-2 “looking to Jesus the founder and finisher of our faith”.

I Samuel 1:1:1-28

Many have been blessed by what they have learned from their mothers. The mother of John and Charles Wesley spent hours each week praying for and with each of her children, talking to them about spiritual matters.

Hannah lived in a period of moral and religious degeneracy. The nation needed a great leader and God needed a woman to shape that man. Samuel was the man and Hannah was the godly mother who greatly influenced him. In this chapter we note three relationships which made Hannah a godly wife and mother.

She had a correct relationship with her husband (v1-6). In spite of a home situation that was not of God’s design, nevertheless both she and her husband were followers of God and consequentially they worshipped together and loved one another. It is of vital importance that we do not marry an unbelieving mate. Eph 6:14 states “do not be unequally yoked”. Both Hannah and Elkanah were God fearing people.

Secondly, she had a correct relationship with God (v7-19). Hannah had a problem, no children and only God could solve it. She was a woman of prayer and a woman of faith. They take their problem to the Lord, trusting in him to handle the situation and then go on with their lives not allowing their deepest concerns to keep them sad and ineffective. Hannah took her problem to the Lord, and then got on with her life.

Thirdly, she had a correct relationship with her son (v20-28). The Lord answered her prayer and gave her a son, Samuel. Hannah spent the next few years raising and influencing him to be a God fearing man. Deut 6:6-9 tells us that we are to teach our children the word of God. This she faithfully did and when the right time came, she gave him to the Lord.

How our next generation will responds, depends a great deal on the present action of godly mothers.

Revelation 19:7-9

This event takes place in heaven after the judgment seat of Christ. While the earth is experiencing the wrath of God during the tribulation, the raptured church, the Bride of Christ, will have been made ready and now dressed in robes of righteousness which are our righteous deeds in Christ, enter into this closet of all human relationship, marriage.

Human marriage is a picture of this unique relationship that we have with our Lord God (II Cor 11:2; Eph 5:23-32).

After the wedding feast, the Lord will return to earth to set up His kingdom (Luke 12:35-36)

Exodus 12:14-20

This feast started the day after the Passover, lasted for seven days, and all leavened bread was prohibited from being eaten and even was to be purged out of their houses during this time. Leaven bread was caused by the gases being released from the yeast in bread dough and is the beginning stages of decay. In the Bible this was used to symbolize the corrupting influence of sin and therefore was prohibited in this feast.

The teaching of this feast was to impress upon the worshipper the sinless character of the Messiah (Jesus), in his life (Isaiah 53:4, 6, 10), in his burial. (Matt 27:57-64) and in his resurrection (Psalm 16:10). He was pure, sinless (without leaven), he died not for his transgression (he was innocent) but for ours (we are guilty). Christ is the fulfillment of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The application for us today was made by Paul. In I Cor 5:7-8 “cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened”. Those who have accepted Christ as their Passover Lamb, by receiving Him as their Savior, are admonished to a life of purity and separation from the leaven of sin. I Cor 5:6 “do you not know a little leaven, leavens the whole”, the two do not go together.

Rom 6:1-18, teaches that we are no longer under the power of sin, it has been broken, the believer is no longer a helpless slave to sin but rather chooses to sin when drawn away by our own lust (James 1:14-15).

The tragedy of today is that many believers don’t realize this truth, but are duped into thinking and acting as if sin is still the evil taskmaster we cannot defeat.

In God’s sight we are now unleavened and called to lives of holiness. Rom 6:19, “so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification”. In summary, “put this into practice”.

II Corinthians 5:10

This event occurs after the rapture of the saints and is a time when Christ evaluates the life of the believer. It is not a judgment to determine if we belong in heaven, but to determine rewards to be given to the believer based upon their life after they had accepted Christ as their savior.

God will examine our motives and attitudes as he evaluates our thoughts, words and deeds (Rom 2). Our quality of our works will be tested by fire and those, which survive, will be rewarded. I suspect it will be for each one of us a time of sorrow and joy. (I Cor 3:9-15).

Good works are those things, which glorify the Lord (Matt 5:16; Matt 26:7-10; I Tim 6:18; Matt 10:40-42).

There are three parables given by Christ, which gives us further information concerning this judgment. Matt 25:14-30 (talents) reveals that rewards are based upon faithfulness of using what abilities and spiritual gifts that were given to us, using what we have. Luke 19:11-27 (pounds) shows that rewards are based upon our faithfulness in the opportunities that we had, and the rewards are not based upon results. Finally Matt 20:1-16, rewards are based upon our willingness to serve.

There will be crown rewards (II Tim 4:8, loving the return of the Lord; I Cur 9:25-27, life of self discipline; James 1:12, being faithful under trials; I Theses 2:19, based upon our ministry of edification; I Peter 5:1-4, faithful service). There will also be service rewards (Col 3:23-25; Eph 6:5-8 which will be based upon our attitude). Finally there are universal rewards (Rev 20:6; I Cur 6:2-3, our life now will determine what we will do during the millennium).

I Cur 4:5 reveal that Christ will give praise to each of his people.

Salvation is great, not only does he save for all eternity but also rewards us for our service. Which should behoove us to heed I Cur 10:31 “do all to the glory of Christ”.