Will To Live

Recently I've been intrigued with the stories on TvOne's documentary show entitled: "Will To Live". It is true stories of survival against all odds. The only way I can describe each story is by using one word...AMAZING!

As I watched an episode this weekend sitting on the couch my sermon brain began to kick in because their were a number of people with a Will To Live against (and in the midst) of impossible situations. It led me to a preaching/teaching outline that I pray to share some day soon (hopefully in my next pastorate).

- Will To Live With Determination - Mark 5:24-34

- Will To Live With Dependency - Proverbs 3:5-6

- Will To Live With Dedication - Romans 8:35-39

- Will To Live With Direction - 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

- Will To Live With Decision-Making- Joel 3:14

Pray God blesses my study time and presentation!

Study To Show Yourself Approved

During my down time from pastoring, I recognize I still have an obligation as a preacher to continue sermon preparation. My assignment may have changed but my responsibility as a called man of God still requires me to study the word for my own personal development and pulpit presentation.

Its amazing how my mind has been clicking lately as it relates to study topics. Here's a few ideas that have crossed my mind of late...

* Praying With Meaning - A Look At The Model Prayer - Matthew 6:1-13

* Living With Purposeful Intentions - A Look At the Be-Attitudes - Matthew 5:1-12

* Fighting To Win - A Look At Spiritual Warfare - Ephesians 6:10-20

* Daily Spirit Filled Living - Handling Relationships Properly With the Spirit's Help - Ephesians 5:18-6:9

* The Type Of People God Uses - A Look At the 12 Disciples - Matthew 10:1-4

* A Path For Your Life - A Study Of Micah

* "I AM" - A Look At the "I AM" Statements of God - The Gospel of John

* God Is In Charge - A Look At 2 Thessalonians

* The Joy of Partnering in Ministry - A Study of Philippians - This one I need to complete.

* Psalms 119

This will be good study and writing. When my next assignment comes I will be locked and loaded. Not just for the pulpit but also personally.

Look Out!

Much Needed

Over the next couple of weeks I will be taking a much needed time of rest (it’s called vacation). The first five (5) months of this year has been challenging, a blessing, tiring, frustrating, prayerful, and fulfilling. I guess the best way to explain it is I’ve been a bag of mixed emotions since 2011 started. So, the church and I decided, I need to rest as I seek God for direction for the future of ministry.

However, as life would have it the challenges keep coming as my wife received the news Sunday morning that my brother-in-law, Ronald (Ronnie) Spears pasted away at age 47. Totally unexpected and it’s taking the entire family/friends for loop trying to understand what happened. We may never receive an answer but I do believe in the sovereignty of God. He and I had a wonderful relationship coupled with mutual respect for one another. And I will miss him dearly! RIP in peace my brother. And please keep the Tracy and the entire family in prayer. Tracy and Ronnie had a wonderful relationship that expressed love, joy, and respect. Literally, people seeing them would think they were husband and wife the way they spoke and laughed with each other. Needless to say, she’s taking it pretty hard and I request the prayers of the righteous to help her make it through this loss.

This week I started taking intentional steps in my devotional time by making sure I’m not reading my favorite topics but reading material and scripture on what will renew my spiritual strength and vitality. By doing this, I realized I made one of the best purchases of my life; Logos Bible Study Software. I’ve heard about the software but never purchased it because it was a little expensive in my opinion. However, in Dec of 2010 a representative came to our church to do a show-in-tell of the software and after that I was sold on the product. I’m so glad I got it!

The resources and accessibility available are priceless. My iPhone has become my best friend. I was able to download software app on my phone to access all resources for study, devotional reading, and pastoral assistance material. Wow! Before I purchased this product, each week after church I would copy, paste and print study material to read on the bus, at lunch, or wherever I could fit in study time with me being a bi-vocational pastor my study time is limited. My bat cave for study is wherever I make it at the time. But now I can study from my iPhone and no matter where I leave off on my iPhone or laptop computer I can pick up where I left off with my study. I love it!

Not only is study material limitless but resources for pastoral ministry, church administration, leadership development, sermon preparation, marriage counseling, singles ministry, and more are available as well. Books I’ve always wanted purchase is now on my iPhone thanks to Logos. Wonderful purchase, thank software developers.

Also, over the years I’ve developed my own sermon preparation worksheet. Here it is…


Monday:
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS



Tuesday and Wednesday:
VERSE BY VERSE OBSERVATION WORKSHEET

SCRIPTURE CROSS REFERENCE (S)


KEY TERMS (look for long words, big words, sophisticated words, repeated words, central words, emphasized words, words that catch your attention)


DETAILS – WHY (look for therefore, for, since, and, but, that, because) – why is this here? why is he saying this?

DETAILS – WHAT (look for verbs and actions taking place) – what’s going on?

DETAILS – WHEN (time chronology-appointment) – when did this happen?

DETAILS – WHERE (geographical location and spiritual location) – where did this happen?

DETAILS – WHO (look for people in the text) – who’s in the text?

DETAILS – HOW – how does it happen?

DETAILS – HOW – how does it apply?

ATMOSPHERE (sensing what you read – the Bible is about people let them live – 5 senses HEAR, SEE, SMELL, FEEL, LISTEN)

Thursday:
WORD STUDY AND SYNTAX WORKSHEET

COMPOUND WORD ‚ YES ‚ NO
VERSE
WORD
STRONG’S NUMBER
GREEK WORD
PRONUNCIATION
PREFIX
SUFFIX
BASE WORD

ORIGINAL GREEK DEFINITION


TYPE
MOOD
TENSE
VOICE
CASE
GEBDER
PERSON
NUMBER of TIMES USED in Script.

OCCURENCES IN THE BIBLE
# of times it occurs in Scripture:

Authors usage in the same book and other books he has written:

Authors first occurrence of the word:

First occurrence in the Bible:

Other writer’s usage of the word:

Ways it is translated:


CONCLUSION BASED ON CONTEXT AND COMPARISONS


DEFINITION (your definition is the final product)



Friday
STUDY TEXT OUTLINE:


Saturday:
COMMENTARY NOTES

Commentary By:

Notes



Saturday PM and Sunday AM:
Sermon Writing


This may like a lot to do but sermons don't grow on trees and this works for me and keeps me focused.

The Joy of Ministry Partnership

In a few weeks it is my goal and desire to preach through the book of Philippians. Here is my homework of background analysis. I pray this study will be enriching for all who hears the messages.

Sermon Series Title: The Joy of Ministry Partnership

Sermon Series Thesis: The letter of Philippians shows that ministry is a joy when leader/people share the same passion in ministry.

Cross References that led to thesis conclusion:

1:5 - "I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now."

1:7 - "... All of you share in God's grace with me."

2:1 - "... if any fellowship with the Spirit...."

3:10 - "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings...."

4:14 - "Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles."

4:15 - "Not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only."

Philip. 2:1-30 (NKJV)
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, [2] fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. [3] Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. [4] Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Author: Paul

Place of Writing: Rome

Overall of Letter: joy and fellowship

Occasion and Purposes

Paul's immediate concerns in writing this letter are:

1. To recommend to the Philippians one of their number, Epaphroditus, who had come to help him in prison, but had fallen ill and was being sent home.
2. To let the concerned Philippians know about the current state of Paul's welfare.
3. To prevent the Judaizers from persuading the Philippian Christians to submit to circumcision.
4. To encourage the Philippian believers to quiet their dissention and be united.
   

Through the letter, however, Paul does much more than this. He provides the inspiration and encouragement of a friend, mentor, and fellow believer who finds Christ's strength and peace while struggling with opponents, anxiety, physical needs, and fear for his life. To see how a man, an apostle, meets obstacles and overcomes them in Christ, makes this letter very relevant for our day, too.

5000

I'm preparing a message on one of the most passages of scripture: "The Feeding of the 5000" in John 6:1-15. When preparing a message from a famous passage such as this is sometimes difficult because I begin to remember all the sermons, lessons, and illustration I've heard in time past. However, this particular study is becoming very enriching for me and I wanted to share some of my observations on the text thus far. Most of this information may never reach the sermon this week but it will soon or later.

• While a lot of attention is placed on the lad with a small lunch. The focused attention is not on the lad and his lunch but on what the disciple saw Jesus do with the lunch.
• The disciples learned from the miracle that God can be trusted with every care of the world, even hunger.
• The disciples learned that God cares about every detail of our lives: sickness, pain, and need
• The bread in Jesus' day was cheap food but for the people it was a gourmet meal. Don't complain about what God provides it may short circuit an even greater blessing. There was sufficient leftovers at the end of the miracle.
• This miracles teaches that a true is not an event but continuance. Jesus fed the 5000 and then sent them home satisfied and not empty handed
• "after these things ..." - this is the 4th miracle performed by Jesus. The disciples saw Him turn water to wine, raise a dead son, and heal a man at the pool of Bethseda who laid there for 38 years. Why is this significant? If we, Christians don't believe God's ability to do the impossible, who will.
• In Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their account of the miracle they mention "a lonely place". Why is it a lonely place with so many people there?
• The miracle is in the leftovers
• When following Jesus, He never sends you away empty handed
• "200 denarii isn't enough to feed so many people" is this a statement of good stewardship, being cheap or frugal, or recognizing reality?
• Lesson to learn: the reality of a situation can cloud your faith of the situation. When reality meets faith, faith will always when.
• God demands active participation when meeting the needs of others.
• Short on money, short on food, trust God He can still make it happen for you.
• Here's a biblical account of a 3 dimensional recession: physical - sick people in the crowd, spiritual - lack of faith, resources - not enough food or money.
• Life has many lessons and the best time to learn is when you're short on everything.
• Many people follow Jesus for all the wrong reasons but still get blessed. The text says "many followed Jesus because of the signs and wonders He performed"
• Was there anything significant about the ppl in the crowd of 5000? Yes, they were hungry.
• What dies the txt mean that Jesus had compassion?
• The difference between Jesus and the disciples in this story is that Jesus cared about the needs of others while the disciples wanted to send them away hungry.
• This story is truly a miracle but what can we learn practically from the miracle?
• This text also teaches us that the needs of people a great and too great for one person to handle.
• Spiritual bean counters are necessary in the work of the Lord. We should count the cost before moving ahead. There's really nothing wrong with bean counting.
• This text is also a lesson on vision. Vision will always exceed budget. However, God will make up the difference when the vision is in line with His will.
• "there's a lad here..." - a lad oftentimes refers to the age of person or even the maturity of person. The lesson to learn is God can use an immature person to be a blessing to the God's people.
• Jesus thought a plan through before asking how much money was in the account. True leadership thinks before it acts.
• This miracle has so many lessons to be learned:
  1. There's a lesson to be learned on faith2. There's a lesson to be learned on leadership3. There's a lesson to be learned on servanthood, sacrifice, stewardship4. There's a lesson on leadership and lay people relations5. There's a lesson on vision and church work6. There's a lesson on ministry and people relations
• The lad in his young age understood the significance of being actively involved in the ministry of meeting peoples needs. Don't count out what our young people understand about the ministry. Take what they have to offer no matter how small or large their contribution maybe. It's worth it!

This study was birth out of my message from last week on "Can We Live Again" from Ezekiel 37 the story of the valley of dry bones. Our church is faced with a huge monthly bill with few people resources resulting in few financial resources and all that goes along with it.

The feeding of the 5000 helps me as I remind myself of an observation in this passage:

Jesus teaches us a good lesson on leadership do not panik in what may seem as a stressful situation. Huge need to be met with little resources. God is able to make up the difference! And I believe it!

Psalms 23 Mini-Series

I’ve been studying Psalms 23 this past week and man, what a word of comfort. This text is so rich with truth, encouragement, and strength that I’ve decided to preach a mini-series within a series:

Series: The God of Our Trust
Mini-Series: Jehovah-Roi – God, Our Shepherd

Topics:

1. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Safe In His Arms: “The Lord is my Shepherd

2. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Satisfied: “I shall not want”

3. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I Can Rest: “He makes me to lie down in green pastures”

4. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Refreshed: “He leads me beside still waters”

5. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Restored: “He restores my soul”

6. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I Have Direction for my life: “He leads in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake”

7. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Not Afraid of Death: “Yea, tho I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil”

8. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I Find Comfort: “Your rod and staff, they comfort me”

9. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Taking Care Of: “You prepare a table before me in the presence on my enemies”

10. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Honored: “You anoint my head with oil”

11. Trusting God Our shepherd – I’m Blessed: “My cup runs over”

12. Trusting God Our Shepherd – It’s all Good: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”

13. Trusting God Our Shepherd – I’m Going Home To Live With Jesus: “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”

I can’t wait for Sunday morning to get started!

The Danger of Scripture Familiarity

I have a challenge this week studying to preach one of the most precious bible passages (in my opinion, ever), Psalms 23.

Psa 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psa 23:2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

Psa 23:3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You [are] with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Psa 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell [fn] in the house of the LORD Forever.

I learned this passage of scripture as a little boy in Sunday School class. One of the first bible passages, Tracy and I, taught to our children was Psalms 23. This passage of scripture is read in funeral and worship services. Many of us who need comfort run to Psalms 23. Most believers have read, studied, and/or heard messages on Psalms 23.

One would think there is nothing more to be said about this passage of scripture because it’s all been said before by some of the greatest preachers and teachers of my life time.

I’ve heard some great sermons on this passage by some of my homiletical heroes. Men who picked this Psalms apart, verse-by-verse, word-for-word, the entire Psalms, and sentence-by-sentence. It will be a challenge to ignore all that I remember about this passage and approach the text with fresh eyes.

Going into my study this week, I’m reminding myself that preaching this text is not about competition and comparisons, it’s about accuracy. Don’t add nothing to the text and don’t take nothing away from the text. Just say what the text has to say.

I pray God is pleased with my effort of study on Psalms 23.

How Much Time Is Enough Time?

The question that tends to haunt me in sermon preparation is how much time is enough time? It has been said that anything less than 40 hours is insufficient sermon preparation. Who says?! I think the person who can say that is a person who everything in order in ministry administratively, evangelistically, personally, financially, relationally, and spiritually. Realistically, does anyone have 40 hours of sermon preparation time, be it a full-time or bi-vocational pastor?

Life demands a lot of us every day and consumes much our time with priorities and often times sermon preparation falls prey to neglect. Let’s be honest here, any person who’s been in ministry long enough knows how to stir a person’s emotions with any text. People are hurting in more ways than we can imagine and they need more from us than cute jokes and pulpit slang.

I have a DVD by Bishop Noel Jones on preaching that starts with these words; “Take time to study!” No further explanations, illustrations, ministry experiences, or anything were needed to be said after that. “Take time to study” said it all in a nutshell.

I think many preachers (not just pastors) get caught in the trap of:

- Time spent in the study: 40 hours vs less or more hours
- How many pages a sermon manuscript should be: 6 or 12 pages
- Am I original?
- Can I shout a congregation with what I’m saying?

And actually I believe that all these things and many more affects or sermon preparation because we approach the word with wrong expectations.

I have found, as a preacher that hearing from God during sermon preparation is more important than how much time you spend in the study. We can get so caught up in time spent that we miss hearing from God.

There have been times when I did my homework including writing a manuscript and my sermon was powerful and effective on Sunday morning in 10 hours of sermon preparation. However, there have been other times, my sermon preparation took longer than 10 hours and in those times I had to learn more faster as Dr Ray Pritchford has stated so eloquently in time past. However, learning more faster required that I place my butt in a seat to learn.

Chuck Swindoll emphasizes that sermon preparation is hard work and we are workers.

I admit, I love preaching but I hate studying. However, I realize that there can be no effective preaching without good effective studying. Studying and preaching go together like salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese you can’t have one without the other. The power of sermon presentation comes from the fruit of our labor in our study. No exceptions and no matter how long it takes! Sunday's come quick and Jesus is coming soon. We must make sure that we glorify God in our sermon preparation time as well as sermon presentation. Think about this, what would God say to us if He returned during our message on Sunday after we wasted time all week long and didn't study? I'm not sure what He would say but I'm sure He wouldn't be pleased.

In addition, we don’t give our audience enough credit during the preaching moment. We think our members and invited guest are ignorant to biblical truth. While, this maybe true in some cases, they know when you’re prepared and when we’ve goofed off all week.

Let’s be honest, full-time preacher or not, we’re all guilty of goofing off and neglecting our study from time to time. We’re human. We love to have fun. We get lazy, tired, hungry, and irritated. But, we’re still obligated to study.

I resist the temptation to give tips, suggestions, advice, or anything of that nature on sermon preparation because we’ve heard it all before. However, I do believe in challenging us to make our study a priority. Do whatever you need to do to study the text to hear from God. The amount of time you spend is determined by how well you hear from God during the process (whatever your process maybe).

“Study to show yourself approved to God a workman who’s not ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth”. – 2 Timothy 2:15

Study of Adonai

Now, I really understand what it means when “WE” say that “our finite minds cannot obtain an infinite God”. For the last three (3) weeks, I’ve been studying a name of God, “ADONAI”. This descriptive name of God has given me so much trouble in studying it that I’ve decided to abandoned it until a later time. When? Who knows but not right now!

My approach to studying the names of God is to study by it’s 1st mention of Scripture. This particular name is mentioned for the first time in Genesis 15:2; But Abram said, "Lord GOD (translation ADONAI), what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house [is] Eliezer of Damascus?". I’m not understanding how God reveals Himself has “Adonai” in the text.

I’ve researched in every resource possible to find a clear meaning of the name and its relation to Genesis 15. I did a Google search and not much came up that was understandable in my opinion. Here’s what I mean.

www.net.bible.com
ADONAI - a-do'-ni, ad-o-na'-i ('adhonay): A Divine name, translated "Lord," and signifying, from its derivation, "sovereignty." Its vowels are found in the Massoretic Text with the unpronounceable tetragrammaton YHWH; and when the Hebrew reader came to these letters, he always substituted in pronunciation the word " 'adhonay." Its vowels combined with the tetragrammaton form the word "Yahweh (Yahweh)."

Uh!!!!!!

www.blueletterbible.com
Use in the Bible: In the Old Testament Adonai occurs 434 times. There are heavy uses of Adonai in Isaiah (e.g., Adonai Jehovah). It occurs 200 times in Ezekiel alone and appears 11 times in Daniel Chapter 9. Adonai is first used in Gen 15:2.

Variant spellings: None

TWOT Reference: 27b

Strong's Reference: 0136

Adonai in the Septuagint: kurios — Lord, Master

Meaning and Derivation: Adonai is the verbal parallel to Yahweh and Jehovah. Adonai is plural; the singular is adon. In reference to God the plural Adonai is used. When the singular adon is used, it usually refers to a human lord. Adon is used 215 times to refer to men. Occasionally in Scripture and predominantly in the Psalms, the singular adon is used to refer to God as well (cf. Exd 34:23). To avoid contravening the commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain" (Exd 20:7), sometimes Adonai was used as a substitute for Yahweh (YHWH). Adonai can be translated literally as, "my lords' " (both plural and possessive).

What???!!!!!

It appears that this particular name of God is based on statistics of usage and grammar structure. Am I missing something here?

Nevertheless, I’m struggling with the meaning and revelation of God to Abraham as Adonai in Genesis 15.

So, I thought I would write to see if I could make sense of my research thus far. These are scattered thoughts and nothing is definite as of yet.

OT meaning of Adonia: I’ve read just about every cross reference I could in my study. There are a couple of words that came out in my reading of Adonai: reverence. The OT use of Adonai was used in place of YHWH (YAHWEH) because the people held God’s name in high esteem. They lived in practice of Exodus 20:7 – “"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

I also see that Adonai means authority or sovereignty. This is seen throughout the Psalms.

Psa 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Psa 8:9 O Lord , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psa 16:2 I say to the Lord , "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
Psa 22:30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
Psa 35:17 How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions!
Psa 35:22 You have seen, O Lord ; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!
Psa 35:23 Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord!
Psa 54:4 Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

There are many other OT passages that explain “Adonai” - God’s sovereign authority over our lives.

Did I just discover the meaning of Adonai? I’m not sure I’ll keep writing.

Adonai in the Septuagint means kurios — Lord, Master. Kurios means he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord. The possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner who has control of the person, the master. It is title of honour expressive with which servants greet their master.

The OT usage of Adonai is in dual and can refer to God when used with capital letter “L” or can be used for a human being when used with lower case “l”. This seems so technical trying to explain this name. Geeeeesh! But, I guess I have to dig through the technical in order to understand the meaning of Adonai. I hope those reading can follow my messy study.

In the NT Adonai (kurios) is used strictly referring to Jesus (God, the Messiah). It appears that the NT strips the dual reference of Adonai from referring to God and man to just referring to God, alone. Jesus makes it plain to His disciples in Matthew 10:24; “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.” Jesus also says in Matthew 23:8b – “…you have only one Master and you are all brothers.”

In the NT, I see two words of importance; master and servant. God might be many things to us, but He is always our master, and we are always His servants. Adonai reminds us of our place in God’s order.

When we put all this together, the question still remains what does Adonai mean? What is the relation of Adonai and Abraham in Genesis 15? Should I take another route to studying this name? Why is this one so hard to comprehend? Is it fear of discovering a great truth that’s causing me to abandoned this great name? Or is God so big that I’m not ready to receive Him to Him in this manner of Adonai? I don’t know. I have a bunch of question and it frustrates me to study a text for three weeks and still don’t have anything. I pray I become a better expositor on the other side of this study.

Everything within me says live it alone but I think that’s a cop-out move.

If I’ve gained anything from studying the names of God so far I think it’s this for certain, WE SERVE A BIG GOD AND HE DESERVES ALL REVERENCE!!!!!!!!!

Decisions, decisions, decisions, Sunday is here what is a preacha to do?

God Will Provide!

Here is my sermon outline from Sunday 2/22/09:

Topic: Trusting the God Who Will Provide
Text: Genesis 22:1-14

Transitional Sentence: Abraham teaches us an important lesson in the text because Abraham made the decision to put God first. His decision provides a testimony to us today and for ages to come which is my sermon sentence summary for the day:

Thesis: God will meet your needs in the midst of the most difficult circumstances of life when you make Him a priority in your life.


So, let us look at this story of Abraham and gleam some truths to will help us endure difficult circumstances of life by putting our trust in the God who will provide all our needs. Here are four (4) principles to hold on to:

1. The Difficulty of Understanding God’s Purpose – v. 1

To understand the difference between test and trials we need to know how to distinguish between the two.

First, trials are sometimes self-inflicted. In other words, you are the reason for your troubles. You made the bad decision and didn’t need any help.

Secondly, trials are sometimes Satan-inflicted. The bible is clear that Satan goes about searching for who he can destroy.

Thirdly, trials are sometimes people-inflicted. Meaning there are some people you don’t need in your life because they are bad news.

The difference between trials and test is that trials are caused by people, Satan, and/or our own bad choices. However, God is the source of all testing. Job’s test came after God gave the devil permission to attack Job. God’s purpose was to prove to Satan that Job’s faith is strong and could not be broken.

Point: The purpose of test in our lives is to build our character. You may not like it but you need it.

2. The Decision to Obey God Under-Pressure – v. 2-3

This test seems unfair. Why would God want to take back from me what He’s given to me? Isaac is not Abraham’s only son. He also has Ishmael. Take him instead would have been my suggestion. Ishmael is my mistake but Isaac is Your fulfilled promise. Let me keep the promise but take my mistake.

Interesting, it’s easy to give away our mistakes but difficult giving back our blessing(s).

What can we learn about obedience?

- Obedience doesn’t procrastinate (“So Abraham rose early in the morning…”). Tension: We’ll try to negotiate with God to delay our act of obedience. Abraham wasted no time, but got himself up and gathered everything he needed to do what God had commanded. He left nothing out, but he took nothing extra! Procrastination has caused the death of many profound spiritual experiences. We confuse waiting with procrastination. We say we’re waiting for God but in reality God is waiting for you.

- Obedience is being prepared (“…and saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with, Isaac his son, split the wood, and went to the place of which God told him.”) Tension: We’ll try to leave some stuff behind to delay our obedience. Abraham was not only prepared in what he took but he was also prepared in his heart. Abraham knew what he was going to do. Isaac was the future but Abraham was prepared to give for today and all that was promised for tomorrow. Are you prepared to give today in order to let God provide for your tomorrow.

3. The Desire to Please God Sacrificially – v. 4-8

This verse is powerful for two reasons:

It’s a statement of Principle – “We’re going to worship” - Abraham declares in this verse that the sacrifice of Isaac is an act of worship. It’s hard to worship God when God has to compete for our attention. What has your attention more than God?

This worship was going to cost Abraham dearly. Genuine worship is costly because it requires us to make sacrifices. Sacrifices like time, talents, plans, pride, pleasures, secret sins, and some many more.

Here’s the principle to behold:

- God wants nothing less than everything

- God wants nothing less than your best

It’s a statement of Perspective – “We will come back to you” – Abraham believes that when he comes back Isaac is coming back with him. What a faith! Abraham doesn’t know what lies ahead for his son Isaac but he believes that God will provide for them both so that they can come back. It teaches us that faith is expectancy. As a child of God you should expect God to do some things in your life.


4. The Declaration to Acknowledge God Undeniably – v. 9-14

God saves Isaac life by providing a lamb caught thickets and Abraham declares the place; “LORD-WILL-PROVIDE”.

Point: If you take care of God’s business, God will take care of your business.

Finally Figured it Out!

Earlier this week in my Sunday thoughts post, I mentioned the difficulty I was having preparing to preach on a name of God: ELOHIM. I didn't think I could explain the meaning of the name with one verse or one specific text. That's changed now, thank God! Psalms 139 is the focusing text:

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made; [fn] Marvelous are Your works, And [that] my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, [And] skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When [as yet there were] none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! [If] I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.

What an appropriate text for Sunday; "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday".

I can't wait for Sunday.