Word Keeper

Sermon from June 20

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The Audio

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God calls people. If you answer God’s Call, it will impact your family. It might have a negative impact, but it will have a positive impact.

Genesis 12 – The call of Abram:

Verse 1 – God spoke to Abram. How? We don’t know. He can speak to us in anyway He wishes. God speaks to you and me as well … God tells Abram to leave his home and go somewhere else. God always calls people to leave something/somewhere and to go to something/somewhere else…. How does this apply to us? The New Testament uses “call” in two primary ways. The first way is when we are called to salvation. God calls us from sin to salvation (1 Peter 2:9). The second way is within the call of salvation. It is a call to serve God, to minister (1 Corinthians 1:1-2, 9). Paul was called to serve God by telling the gentiles how to be saved. 1 Corinthians 1:1 shows the word “call” used this way. 1 Corinthians 1:2, 9 shows the first use of the word. Paul was called to preach to the gentiles as a lifelong ministry, but not all calls to ministry are lifelong. Paul was also called to some, specific, short-term ministries. Paul was called to go preach the Gospel to the people of Macedonia (Acts 16:9-10). Paul was a minister, but these calls are not limited to ministry. We are all called to serve God and to serve others. Phillip, a deacon, was called to go somewhere else too (Acts 8:26).

Verses 2-3 – God’s call will bless your family. … God told Abram he would be a great nation. Abram did not have any children and he was age 75. Israel is a nation full of Abram’s descendants and as Christians, we are also referred to as  children of Abraham (as Abram’s name was later changed to Abraham).

Verse 4-5, 10 – God’s call will challenge your family. … Abram and his family traveled almost 1,000 miles on foot to go to Canaan and had to leave their extended family. Then they arrived and there was a famine in the land, so they lived in Egypt for a while. … Scott, our youth minister, had run from God’s call for a long time, and he talked to Dr. Cox, our pastor, about it one day, but decided to not follow God’s call. A few months later, he was going on a trip as helper for the youth group and the only seat left on the van was the front passenger seat beside Dr. Cox. Scott tried to get someone to swap with him because he new Dr. Cox would bring up God’s call to Scott sooner or later. Nobody would trade seats with him. And sure enough, Dr. Cox asked him about it. Scott finally decided to follow God’s call. He and his wife put their house up for sale, he quit his job as the grounds keeper at a golf course, his wife stayed here and worked, and he went to North Carolina to go to South Eastern Seminary. He slept on an air mattress for three months in North Carolina while his wife was working in Tennessee and trying to sell the house. The house didn’t sell for two years. The were making house payments in Tennessee and paying rent in North Carolina. On paper, the math never really worked out. How in the world can two people pay for a house and rent when one is in school? God always provided. It was stressful, bu now Scott is a wonderful youth minister and has a great family.

Genesis 18: 17-19 – God’s call will deepen your family’s connection with God. … God was about to destroy the city where Lot, Abraham’s nephew, but Abraham’s relationship with God was so great that God did not want to destroy the city without warning Abraham first.

How does it apply to us? How is God calling you?

1. If you’re not saved, He is calling out of the darkness of sin and into the light of salvation. It will be the biggest blessing in your life, but it could also be stressful because we are called to follow Jesus above all else.

2. God could be calling you to ministry. Is He calling you to be a missionary, a pastor, a music minister, a youth minister? Is He calling you to use your vocational skills to serve Him in some way? Maybe you’re being called to teach Sunday School or to just talk to someone specific about God and how they can be saved through Jesus.

He will bless you, but you will also be challenged.

Jason religion, Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

Sermon from June 13

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The Audio

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Your relationship to God is reflected in your family experience (Romans 8:15-16; Hebrews 2:11; Ephesians 5:25-28). … We are God’s children, brothers and sisters of Jesus, and the church is a bride to Jesus. Just like a regular family. God will use our human family relationships to teach us. … He even uses bad familial experiences t teach us. For example, the story of Joseph (Genesis 50:20).

God uses your family experiences to: (All of this is to make you more like Jesus)

1. Expose your sin and show you where you need to grow (1 John 4:20). … You’re probably most comfortable around your family. When we get comfortable, we make mistakes. Sometimes it’s hard to love family members, but how we act towards family is a reflection of our relationship with God. … Your spouse is like a full length mirror from God. Your spouse will expose your weaknesses and your strengths.

2. Challenge your self-centered-ness and teach you to sacrifice (Matthew 1:18-24). … Joseph had to learn obedience and sacrifice as he would raise a son that was not his own blood, but a son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

3. Build perseverance in your life (Hosea 3:1; James 1:2-4). … Hosea’s wife was an adulterer, but God told Hosea to continue to love her just as God continuously loved (and still loves) Israel even when they worship false gods. … Abraham Lincoln apparently had a tough marriage too. His wife had a bad temper and spent a lot of money. Once when he was away for a while, she had a second story added to their house. Once, she threw coffee in his face because she was angry. How different might the United States be if Abraham Lincoln’s perseverance had not been built up in his marriage as he led the country that was trying to turn against him?

4. Teach you to submit to authority (Ephesians 6:1).

5. Drive you to Him for strength (Genesis 32:9-11). … Jacob had lived his life tricking people and deceiving people, but when he was afraid for his life because his brother and his brother’s men were coming to see him, he turned to God.

Jason religion, Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

Here’s the sermon from June 6.

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The audio

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What does it mean to be saved? How does that connection happen in a family? (Acts 16:22-33)

Being saved means having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. … In these verses, Paul and Silas are in jail after being arrested and beaten under false charges. The false charges came because Paul and Silas, in the name of Jesus, had cast a demon out of a slave-girl who could tell fortunes. Without the demon, her fortune-telling ability was gone and her masters were upset and had Paul and Silas arrested. … To be saved you have to acknowledge your problem with sin, understand that Jesus died for your sins so he could become the solution to your problem, and finally you have to respond by believing all this in your heart. … To make the connection in your family, make sure they the Gospel. The best way to do so is by living your life like Christ would want you to and then tell your family about Jesus.

Why do we not baptize infants as some churches do? (Acts 16:34; 18:8)

I (like my church) believe that people must make the decision to believe in Christ on their own. In the New Testament, there are no instances of baptizing someone who does not believe in Christ by their own decision.

When can a child be saved and baptized? What happens to a child who dies at an early age before he can be saved and baptized? (Romans 7:7-11; 4:15)

Young children are unable to fully understand the law and sin, and so they are not fully accountable. To transgress, there must be a line that is clearly understood. … But there comes a point when children fully understand what the law means and what sin is. This point differs from person to person. When a person comes to this point of understand, this age of  accountability, they spiritually die. In order to become spiritually alive once again, they must be saved by believing Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to save them from their sin.

Why is it critical that families help forge the connection of salvation? (2 Timothy 1:5)

85% of adults ages 18-29 who say they are Christians accepted Christ before they were 14. Pass on your faith. Expose them to other Christians and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jason religion, Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

This is the sermon from May 30.

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The Audio

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Ephesians 4:31-32; Genesis 37-50

What does it mean to forgive someone?

Forgiveness is acknowledging I have been wronged, releasing the person from the

debt, against me and promise not use it again.Forgiveness is not condoning the event.

Forgiveness does not mean I feel good towards the person who wronged me.

Forgiveness does not mean I forget what was done to me.

Am I supposed to forgive a family member who does not ask for forgiveness?

Extend forgiveness. Luke 23:34; Acts 7:59-60; Proverbs 19:11

Does forgiveness always lead to reconciliation?

No. Forgiveness is unconditional and goes only one way. Reconciliation is conditional and requires two people. … The story of Joseph – Genesis 37-50. It’s a long story, but it’s a good one. Here’s my extremely short summary. Joseph was wronged by his brothers. Joseph forgave his brothers. Joseph was reconciled with his brothers. … I must elaborate a little. Joseph eventually became second-in-command in Egypt and in charge of handing out food during a famine. Joseph’s family was experiencing a famine just like everyone else, so Joseph’s father sent Joseph’s older brothers to Egypt for food. Joseph’s family thought he was either a slave or dead. When Joseph’s bothers came to him, they did not recognize him, but he recognized them and said they must bring back their youngest brother, Benjamin, in order to get food. By now, Joseph has forgiven his brothers for what they did, but he wants to make sure they are genuinely sorry for what they did so they can be reconciled. His brothers tell him what they did to him and how their father would hate it if anything happened to Benjamin, but they reluctantly go and bring back Benjamin. When they get back with Benjamin, they eat with Joseph, still not aware that he is Joseph. Joseph then frames Benjamin for stealing a cup and forces him to stay, but the oldest brother will not leave without Benjamin because their father wouldn’t be able to handle not having Benjamin too. At this point, Joseph couldn’t take it any longer. He told them who he was, an that he forgave them, but they didn’t believe he could forgive them. When their father died, they were afraid Joseph would take vengeance, but when he didn’t, they were finally, really reconciled with him.

Jason religion, Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

I’m excited! The first Word Keeper revival and this Sunday Sermon kicks it off!

This one is from May 23.

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The Audio

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The most important days are the ordinary days, the regular days. However, you and your family can also use significant events to remember God and to connect with God. … God encouraged the Israelites to do so, and we still do this today.

Three ways to connect with God:

1. Make holidays, holy-days. … Take important days and commemorate them so you won’t forget them. … In Exodus 12-13 Moses has been God’s messenger to Pharaoh. In chapter 12, the tenth and final plague is delivered. This plague involved an angel who would passover all the houses and kill the first-born son of each house that did not have blood of a lamb on the door-post. After this plague, the Israelites were allowed to leave Egypt in the great Exodus. … God told the Israelites to make a holiday (or holy-day) in order to remember what God did for them. Each year, they were to have a meal called Passover. Each family would roast a lamb and eat the whole lamb that night. … Commemorate and celebrate! These days that are meant for us to remember important landmarks can also be fun. Holidays don’t have to be just commemorative or just fun. They can be both. … Holidays are also meant to be teaching opportunities. Parents are to teach their children why they commemorate and celebrate the holiday. … Here in the U.S. we have Easter and Christmas as our main Christian holidays

2. Create landmarks to record the activity of God in your family life. … In Joshua 4 When the Israelites were camped on the banks of the Jordan River and about to reach the Promised Land and Joshua became the leader of the Israelites, God performed a miracle through Joshua to help validate him as the new leader. The priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the river and it dried up. As the priests stood in the middle of the dried up river, Joshua had twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, go back and stack large stones from the riverbank in the middle of the river. They were monuments that commemorate and celebrate what God did for them. Now when children asked why the stones were there, they were to tell the children of the events of that day and the place. … When God does something in your family, create a landmark or a memento of a what happened there or on that day. Just be sure that you do not worship the landmark.

3. Mark times of transition in your family. … In Joshua 23-24, Joshua is getting to be an old man and is ready to hand leadership over to someone else. This is a significant event that and the Israelites needs to realize it. So Joshua calls the next generation of leaders to him and encourages them and challenges them to be strong and to fear the Lord. But he also tells them to make their own decisions and decide whether or not they will serve the one true God or the false gods of other nations. Then he says, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” … They had to make a choice in this time of transition. Serve God or serve false gods? They chose God. The covenant was renewed and Joshua recorded the event and then he took a stone and set it there as a witness to what happened.

Jason religion, Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

Sunday Sermon from May16th … third in the “Your Family and God” series

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The audio

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What a Savior – Amazing song! I love it…

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It is possible to go to church and read the Bible and still not be connected to God. I have seen people do it. They simply refuse to accept God.

In order to keep this from happening with your family, create an atmosphere of love.

Proverbs 15: 16-17 – Fear God. Love God.

Proverbs 21: 9, 19 - Arguing puts distance in a relationship. Anger along with arguing puts even more distance between the people in the relationship.

Proverbs 27: 15-16 – Arguing wears down a relationship. A great thing to do would be to aim for a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative discussion.

Proverbs 30: 21-23 – These verses list four unbearable things. These four things should never enter the relationship, especially the third and fourth ones. Today, it seems like they almost always go in hand-in-hand, but they shouldn’t be there at all.

Genesis 24-27 – The story of Isaac and his family…..

Isaac was 40 years old and unmarried in Canaan.

He sent his servant out to found him a wife. The servant was to look for a sign. The sign would be that when he asked the lady for water from a well, the lady would offer to water his 10 camels too. Rebekah came to the well and did offer to water the 10 camels. She would be the one.

It’s a fairy tale kind-of start. Isaac and Rebekah fell in love immediately.

However, they did not have children for forty years. Then there were twins. Esau and Jacob.

Isaac liked Esau more, but Rebekah liked Jacob more.

Soon, there was no trust left in the family and Rebekah and Jacob tricked Isaac into giving Esau’s blessing to Jacob. There was more competition than cooperation.

A lack of trust and love tore this family apart.

How can we create an atmosphere of love? Turn the Holy Spirit. Romans 5;5 gives us hope that we can create an atmosphere of love with the help of the Holy Spirit

Jason Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

Sunday Sermon from May9th … second in the “Your Family and God” series

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UPDATE: The CD must be out in the car, and it’s late, so I’ll upload tomorrow night if I find the CD.

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No Orphans of God – Indeed, once we are part of God’s family, we are always part of God’s family.

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Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Four things you need to do with the Bible in your home:

1. Think about the Bible at home (v. 6). … Meditate and read the Bible. Keep the Word in your heart.

2. Teach the Bible to your children (v. 7a). … Impress it upon them. Repeatedly tell them the Bible stories.

3. Talk about the Truth with your family (v. 7b). … Everywhere. Indoors and out. In fact, use the surroundings to help explain the Truth. The awesome beauty of the waterfalls, rainbows, trees, and lakes, and then the awesome power of Hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.

4. Live out the Bible in your home everyday (v. 8-9). … Practice what you preach. This is often the hardest part; we must take we think and turn it in to what we do.

What if my family has problems? (See Acts 16:1) … All families have problems. Yes, some problems are more difficult to deal with than others, but they can be dealt with. Checkout D6family.com for some cool stories.

When should I begin teaching the Scripture to my children? (See II Timothy 3:14-15) … These people learned in their infancy. It is always a good idea to tell Bible stories to your children. Perhaps you should get some of Bible stories for kids books and make those the bedtime stories. It’s amazing what repetition will do to our memories when we are young.

Jason Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God

Sunday Sermon from May 2nd … first in the “Your Family and God” series

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The audio

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Circle of Friends – Good song!

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Four passages that show families involved in Worship:

Deuteronomy 31:10-13 - “appear before the Lord.” This is universal advice. Also in this passage we see the command to bring non-believers and their families to church as well as ourselves.

Nehemiah 8:2-6; 12:43 – “all who were able to understand” came to listen to the scriptures. Men, women, and children; husbands, wives, sons, and daughter. They did  not only learn together, but also worshiped and praised God together. Men, women and children all rejoiced, and the rejoicing “could be heard far away.” … I wonder if people “far away” hear us rejoicing. I don’t really mean it in a literal sense, but that would be awesome, I mean it more metaphorically. Can others see it our lives, do our lives sing praises to God? If so, awesome! If not, we should be working towards it.

Matthew 21:14-16 – Children praising Jesus in the temple! … Children can be very influential within the family and often try to get their parents to come to church too. So, we shouldn’t solely focus on one group or the other because it works the other way too, only children have to come if their parents tell then to.

Acts 20:7-11 – Sunday and Paul preached for a long time in a hot, crowded room. Then a young man, probably a teenager, fell out the window because he fell asleeep and God worked through Paul to bring the teen back to life. Then Paul preached some more in the hot, crowded room. … What do we learn from this story? Don’t fall asleep in church, it’s dangerous, pay attention to the preacher. Today, we have it easy, pastors talk for about 45 minutes, not 12 hours, and we have air conditioning. We also see that even teenagers should attend church and that they met on Sunday.

Four benefits church provides family/Four ways to connect your family to God:

1. Church membership gives your family identity. Find a church and join it. Church can also make moving to a new town an easier transition. … Even good ol’ Jimmy Stewart new all this.

2. Church attendance communicates to your family your priority. Make church attendance the routine of your week. … Put God first.

3. Church involvement teaches your family to relate to people in the community. Work through difficulties with people at church.

4. Church activity provides provides your family a place of ministry. Find an area of service for your family through church.

Jason Series, Sunday Sermon, Your Family and God