Troy Mills Christian Church

Sunday, May 30, 2021

Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 31:6 & 8 “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” {8} And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”

Hebrews 13:6 “So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

The Helper Series #4: Guide

Text: John 14:18; 16:7-8

Review: John 13-John 17

John 14:18—Orphans

            James 1:27—orphans and widows

A desperate situation. Hopeless; comfortless; purposelessne16-ss; chaos; no boundaries; no guidance; alone; no provision.

A “spirit of orphan”—James 1:27 “unspotted from the world.”

            Judges 21:25—selfish; rebellious; lived as though they were orphans.

John 14:16 & 17—dwelling with us and being in us.

John 14:26 & 27—Teach & Remind

John 16:8—convict: to point out sinful (wicked ways); to set our feet on a path that is at a higher level than we have ever lived at before.

Convictions can be a special call of God on our lives for a season. We are to “live out” our convictions and not try to force them on others.

When the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we have direct access to the deepest, most intimate thoughts of God the Father—1 Corinthians 2:11 “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”

Periodically, I hear the question, “How do I know I can trust the Bible?” This is a legitimate question and one that deserves an answer. While time does not allow for a complete answer to this, I would like to remind us of what the Apostle Peter had to say about this.

I love what happens in the final six verses of 2 Peter 1. Peter, the Apostle alludes to his memory of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. You can read about this in Luke 9:28-36. I can’t begin to imagine what this must have been like for Peter, James, and John. They were eyewitnesses to not only Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus about his coming death and resurrection, but they also witnessed the glorification of Jesus and heard the voice of His Father, God, announce to them, “This is my beloved Son; hear him.”

Eyewitnesses were considered the number one reliable source for anything that happened. Eyewitnesses always trumped the “hear-say” or the speculation of the day. Yet Peter introduces us to a more reliable or as he put it, “a more-sure word.”

He is speaking of the Holy Spirit who spoke into the hearts of 40 men over a period of 1500 or 1600 years. He describes how this happens by drawing a word picture of a sailboat being carried along by the wind.

This is how he describes how the breath of God, the Holy Spirit, breathed the Word of God into the hearts of these men so they could write the living Word of God that would live on for generations to come.

Those on board were not in trances, they did not become robotic in how they spoke or wrote. They maintained their unique personalities which came through in their writing. They were also influenced in their writing by their cultures and by the circumstances they found themselves existing in. Much changed in the world over the 1500 years. The only thing that did not change was God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Peter wasn’t putting himself, James, or John down. He was not faulting their memories. He was saying though that as reliable as three eyewitness accounts of this event might be, they were not as reliable as the Holy Spirit breathing into the hearts of 40 men could possibly be.

When men such as Moses, Ezra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, Mark, or Paul wrote what the Holy Spirit breathed into their hearts, we had a “more sure word” than an eyewitness account.

We do not follow cleverly devised fables but we have the God-breathed, living, and dynamic Word of God that we can put our trust in.

And I really like what the Apostle was prompted to write in 2 Peter 1:19, “you will do well to pay attention to it.”

Always in Pursuit!

Don

Due to sound issues with the Face Book Live segment, we are posting my notes for this segment of “Take Ten with Pastor Don” for May 11, 2021. We apologize for the sound issues but hope you are blessed by the notes.

May 11, 2021

What Happens When God Calls You Out?

If you are reading through the Gospels with us each month, you have already read the following or you will before the end of the day.

In Mark 3:13-19 we find the list of disciples that Jesus “called out.”

Mark 3: 13-19 “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to drive out demons. ¹⁶ These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

These were young men, for the most part, that Jesus selected to be His disciples.

Because we know the rest of the story, being called to be a disciple had no guarantees of riches, or a life of ease attached to it.

Again, because we know the rest of the story, we know that one of those He called out betrayed him. Being called out did not guarantee success either.

Being called out did not prevent failure. How many times in the Gospels have you read about the disciples arguing among themselves about who would be the greatest?

And how many times did they fail the test of faith? When you read about the time when Jesus fed the 5,000 or a little later when he fed the 4,000 note that it was disciples who wanted to send them away.

And then even after they had seen Jesus feed these multitudes, they had problems believing that God could supply their needs when they left their own bread at home.

And being called out by Jesus didn’t keep the disciples from being afraid. Remember the time when they were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and the winds and the waves started up? They were afraid they were going to die.

And there was a time, again on the Sea of Galilee, that Jesus came walking out to them and they became frightened because they thought He was a ghost.

We really don’t know what it was the drew Jesus to these men. They weren’t particularly educated. It appeared most of them, or the ones we know about came from religious homes. They knew enough to be looking for the Messiah.

When you read in Luke 6 about the time Jesus called His disciples, we are told that Jesus prayed “all night” before selecting the 12.

It would seem Jesus got His marching orders for whom to select from His time in prayer.

Tomorrow night on the Ask Pastor Don segment, we will talk about what the disciples did after Jesus returned to the Father and about how their lives ended. I think it will be interesting for you.

In thinking about the disciples, I don’t know that it was so much about them as much as it was about the power of God at work in their lives.

Jesus poured Himself into them. When they came to faith in John 20, God poured the Holy Spirit into them. And from the Day of Pentecost on, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit like never before.

They still weren’t perfect. But they were empowered to do what God had called them out to do.

God is calling you out. He has a unique task for you to do. I don’t know what it is, or when it will come about. But I do know the same God who called out 12 young men and empowered them to “turn the world upside down” will empower you.

Always in Pursuit!

Don

Recently someone ask Kris about what was up with the Psalms? It seemed you went from a Psalm of Praise and Worship to one of great anger, disappointment, and frustration.

I think it caught them a bit off guard to read a Psalm of Praise and then read a Psalm where the writer was asking God to smash the teeth of his enemies.

The Psalms are a bit of a reflection on life. There are great Psalms of celebration such as Psalm 136.

Listen: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
² Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.”

Psalm 8 is a Psalm of praise:

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

There are 44 laments found in the Psalms.

A lament is a Psalm that starts off with a moan but ends up with a praise. Perhaps the most well-known lament is Psalm 22. You’ll recognize it when you hear the first couple of verses:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? ² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.”

These were the words of Jesus just before He died on the cross. He was quoting from Psalm 22. It starts off with a moan but listen to how it ends up.

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, ²⁸ for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. ²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive. ³⁰ Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. ³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!”

Included in the Psalms are the songs that were sung as pilgrims made their way up to Jerusalem for the Holy Days such as Passover or Pentecost. These are called “Psalms of Ascent.” You can find these in Psalm 120-134.

Some Psalms are Messianic, predicting the coming of the Messiah. Some are called Thanksgiving Psalms and some recite the history of God’s dealing with His people from Egypt to the current day. The Psalms are real life and serve as a great example of how we are to approach God as we live our lives.

You can also find the Psalms that were sung during the Passover Celebration. These are called the “Hallel Psalms.” This would be Psalms 113-118. It is thought they would sing the first two or three before or during the meal and then the final ones after the meal. We belief these are the songs that Jesus and His disciples sang on the night He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We are currently studying the Psalms of Enthronement on Thursday Night. These are Psalms that celebrate the coronation of a King, such as David or Solomon. But they also are a celebration of God as King. There seven of these Psalms. Psalm 93-100 is one such group.

Another type of Psalm that I find interesting are the Psalms that were written either during or right after some historical event. Psalm 3 was written when King David’s son, Absalom tried to overthrow his father as king. David penned these words as he was fleeing.

Perhaps the most difficult type of Psalm for some of us to deal with is the imprecatory Psalm.

The word “imprecatory” means to call down evil or curses, as upon a person. In other words, it means to ask God to drop a rock on someone because of what they’ve done to you.

Here’s a sample from Psalm 69: “May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. ²⁴ Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. ²⁵ May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.”

The Psalms were written out of life. They are full of emotions, full of drama, full of honest expressions of emotions, frustrations, and disappointments.

I like to think of the Psalms as being honest expressions from people who are living real lives, dealing with real circumstances that are not from God and people who are dealing with their own messes from time to time.

They are honest. They are coming to God for help and finding God to be faithful. Just as we will find Him to be faithful.

Don’t shy away from God in tough times or in times that you don’t understand. Those are the times to come to Him, honest and vulnerable. He will not turn away from you, nor will He become angry with your questions or with your frustrations and disappointments. He will welcome you with open arms and hold you tightly as you hold to Him.