12-10-06 Basics 401 Church
Second week of Advent
Last week we light a candle signifying Hope, this week the 2nd week before we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we consider LOVE.
Malachi 3: 1-4 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Phil 1: 3-11 3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
PRAY.
12-10-06 Basics 401 The Church
We have talked about God, Man, Sin and or Satan, and how Jesus Christ came as the bridge to fill the Gap between God and Man.
Starting this week we are going to talk about next when we accept Jesus Christ as the bridge for the gap, we become part of Christ’s Church.
God has told us that Jesus is the head of the church and that we are to be His body.
EPH 1: 22-23 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
ROM 12: 4-5 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Meaning that we should fellowship together, we should gather together and worship together and Love one another.
JN 13:34-35 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
In Christ’s church we need to be deferent that others may see our love for one another and want to know the same Jesus that we know.
MT 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
So with that some times we have to forgive others when they don’t understand what we may be doing or they may try to hurt us.
Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, Jesus forgave us our sins and we should forgive others of what they do wrong to us. OH by the way Christ gave us a prayer that most of you know that tells us that in “The Lord’s Prayer”+.
Mt 6:9-15 Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need,* and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,* but rescue us from the evil one. 14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. NLT
Wow we are to forgive if we expect God to forgive us. Some people say you know that person has done this over and over again, and I have forgiven them once. How many tines do I have to forgive them?
MT 18:21-22 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times
That is a lot of times, 490 times. I actually believe this is not a specific number rather meaning as many as it takes, that’s a hard one.
How are we suppose to learn all of these things that we have talked about who is going to tell us all this?
We do this by these thing we have been talking about; fellowship, forgiving one another, praying and allowing God to minister to us through the Holy Spirit and His Word.
That Word is life to us as Christians. We need to hear from God and listen to His instruction.
Rom 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Jesus told us early in Mt when He was being tempted by Satan that it was not just a matter of eating food or bread as he was presenting. It was and is more important to eat of the word of God.
MT 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
My daughter Elissa made a leather Bible cover for her Bible, on the Front she put the words “Tasty Jesus”. People have asked her what that means because it sounds so cannibalistic.
She may say that we are to eat the Word of God and scripture shows that the Word of God is Christ and has been with God from the beginning.
JN 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning
And JN 1:14. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Daily we to should be eating of the Word of God that we know of as the Bible, we may not call it “Tasty Jesus” although we should know that we are to grow in the nourishing word.
In review when we accept the bridge of Christ to bring us to fellowship with God, we have some things to do which will help us grow and reach others for Christ.
Fellowship, meaning going to Church and other Church functions
Forgive, meaning forgiving others as we have been forgiven
Pray, meaning talking with God.
Reading of the Word of God, His Bible. Or as Elissa might say Eating Tasty Jesus
Lets Pray!
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* Or Give us today our food for the day; or Give us today our food for tomorrow.
* Or And keep us from being tested.