Faith and Temptation

 Faith and Temptation – James: 1-12
How strong is your faith in the face of temptation?
What is temptation? 
(Anything - events or circumstances that would cause us to turn from God?)
Why does God allow Satan to tempt or bring trails in the life of a Christian? 
(Test our strength of character and our faith in God)
What does the Apostle James have to say about facing temptation when it comes? 
Temptation gives the opportunity for exhibiting active persistence (patience). We continue to think, and do the right thing in the face of wrong. 
What is the right way to think or act? 
Building of our faith is the exercise of asking God for wisdom in the midst of trials, testing, and temptations. Be willing to accept the situations and circumstances in your life are things that God has allowed to come your way to make you a vessel unto His honor. Be willing to be the clay in the Potter’s hand. 
Recent examples of people who are facing trials and how they have responded In the face of such trails.- Mike Wright and Connie Snodgrass.
Giving in to temptation is to rely on your own desires and wishes. Asking God for His wisdom is surrendering yourself to God’s plan.  Don’t let your faith waver or be sidetracked. Don’t let your faith be tossed and driven like the waves of the sea and eventually shipwreck on the seashore of life. 
Is it really possible to be joyful when one is going through difficult times?
Knowing that God is in control and He knows best brings a peace in the heart that turns to joy. Knowing that putting our trust in Him will bring a reward, a crown of life is also cause for joy. It is not the circumstance or the situation we joy over, but the knowledge that God is pleased when we believe Him to do what is best.
How do I deal with the temptation to do evil or sinful things?
God does not entice one to do evil. Doing wrong comes from one’s own desire to satisfy or please self outside of God’s will. Satan uses these desires to cause one to turn away from God. We are not strong enough to overcome the evil one, but God has promised grace in the midst of temptation. “If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.” God’s Word is full of promises to help Christians to become victors. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” Such are the promises of God to those who put their faith in God.  Overcome evil with good. God is good. 

To Save Sinners

April 11th, 2010
 1 Timothy 1:5-16
Becoming a Christian is more than conforming to a set of beliefs or joining a church. To become a Christian, One must acknowledge that they are a sinner and accept Christ as their only means of Salvation. As wonderful as the teaching of Christ were, His main purpose for coming to earth was to pay the supreme sacrifice for your sins and mine and give His life on the Cross. There is no other Name under heaven, except through Jesus Christ that we can be saved from our sins and delivered from spiritual death.
Commandments for Sinners: The law of God was given to man to reveal to them that they were imperfect being, coming short of God's expectations. The commandments, or the law of God is a task master, revealing to man that all his righteousness is but filthy rags.
Condition of the Sinner: The condition of man is one of hopelessness and despair. Outside the grace of God, man is wretched and undone. All of his ways are enmity against God. He wants to run his life his own way and is unwilling to submit himself in full surrender to the will of God. He was born in sin and inherited the nature of sin from the day of birth. The natural desire of humanity is to make sure that self is served. Selfishness, greed, wickedness fills the heart of a sinner. The manifestation may be cultured and tamed, but none the less, the basic nature reside within the sinner's heart.
Conscious of being a Sinner: The 1st step in salvation is to recognized that man is a sinner and his condition of a sinner will lead him to eternal separation from God. Man must realized he is a person who is depraved and has no way in himself to remedy the problem. He must become conscious of his sinfullness and come to the knowledge that he is in need of a savior who will be able to deliver him from this wretched conditions. Many have thought that doing works of righteousness would remove the blackness of sin from their life. Others will seek to become one with nature in hope of being renewed by the creator. Acts of goodness or deeds of kindness are all efforts made by many to obtain the favor of God, but all is in vain and come short of the glory of God.
Came to Sinners: Christ came to earth as the supreme sacrifice for sin. He came to die for the sinner. God's only son left the splendor of heaven, taking on the form of man and made himself the scapegoat for the sin's of man. He came to me and He came to you to take away our sins. His death on the cross completed the plan of Salvation set in place when Adam and Eve transgressed the known will of God. God's love for man was so great that He gave his only Son to be the second Adam that would be the victor over sin and make provision for mankind to be reconciled back to God. Reedeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, who will take away the sins of the world.
Call to Sinners: Not only did Jesus come to man, but He also calls out to man to turn from their sinful way and accept His gift of Salvation. Christ knocks at the door of our heart asking us to open our heart to let Him come in. He calls out to everyone to come to Him, all that are heavy laden, burden with sin, and He will make them whole again. The call goes out today for every open heart to let Christ wash away our sins and give us new life and a new beginning. We can be born again through Christ and the power of His forgiveness. It is time to asnwer the call and be made right before Him.
Confession of the Sinner: With the month confess is made. To answer the call, all we have to do is confess our sins and He will forgive us of our sins. If we confess, believing, He is faithful to give us a new heart. We can pass from death unto life. Where we were once dead in trespasses and sin, we can now be made alive in Christ. True confession is the turning away from the life of sin and the new life of abiding in Christ. It will be through this abiding that we can maintain favor with God and stay always pleasing to Him. Living our lives to glorify God because we believe that through His grace we can be victorious every day of our lives. Let the redeem say so!

Enriched in Christ

1 Corinth 1: 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 

Before life in Christ, the quality of life is based on survival and societal harmony. We live in a world where every man does that which is right in his own eyes.  The values of man are based on human gratification. There are many who seek meaning in life by obtaining power, prestige, and riches. And there are those who find life’s meaning by doing good things to make the world a more peaceful coexistence. Improving or enhancing the quality of life is not achieved by any efforts that man is able to accomplish, enrichment of life is found only through life in Christ. The former state of our life before Christ is one of depravity and hopelessness. Paul wrote to the Romans and said, “but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do”.  All our works are but filthy rags and come short compared to the value that is given to us through Christ. 
How is life made better in Christ? The scripture indicates that every aspect of our life is enhanced when Christ becomes part of our life. It is because of His grace that we can now look at life through different eyes. Before the enrichment of Christ, we lived our life to please ourselves. That is not to say that we still did not do “good works”, but life to the most part is centered around us. The transformation that Christ performs in our life is not done in one day, but daily he adds to our life enrichments that make us more into the image of Him. One of the things that Paul notices about the Corinthians was their speech was different. Words have meanings, and reflect what is in the heart of man. Jesus said, “From out of the heart a man speaks”.  Before I became a Christian, I remember using words that were laced with foul language and cutting remarks. My brother and I would write letters to each other that were filled with hurting and slanderous words. It was not until the grace of Christ reached my brother that I received a letter that was respectable. Christ had enriched his life in the way he now communicated.  It is always good to think before you speak. Are my words kind, helpful, true, and edifying? Are they words that you think Christ would use? By no means am I saying that we should be in bondage to this thought process, but the grace of God in our heart will often show us that the words we are about to speak do not conform to the image of Christ. 
We all have a testimony, a witness that will reflect the kind of life we live. Let our testimony speak of the enrichments of the grace of God that was given to us when we accepted Christ into our hearts. He wants to make us a lighthouse and a witness of His grace to a world that also needs to be enriched.

Thanking God for You

1 Corith 1:4 I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. NIV

When was the last time you told someone, “I thank God for you”? They say that we need to slow down and take time to smell the flowers. Maybe it is also time to get off the express train of life to let people know how much they are appreciated.
I think we realized that life is not perfect and neither are people, but a pleasant word of good will should not be reserved for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season. Spirits are often lifted when one is appreciated and told that they are important and needed. We are often told to “get our eyes off of people, and look to Jesus”. But through the eyes of Christ, we can look at people and not focus on their faults, but focus on the good things they are doing. Maybe today you can get on the phone, send a letter, facebook a friend, or send an email and let them know that you thank God for the life they live in Christ, and the good things they do.

God's Anointed

1 Samuel16:1-13

Controlled By God

• Kingships and governments are part of His Sovereignty
• Saul no longer fit to rule God’s people

Chooses To Let Go

• Provision for King found in Deut. 17:14-20
• Samuel needed to let go of the past- look to the future
• Samuel’s reluctance- Feared for his life- needed assurance.
• Samuel followed his own advise- better to obey—Than
• God sees the forest when we often only see the tree in front.

Coming To Bethlehem

• To the house of Jesse- Grandson son of Boaz- Line of Christ
• To make Sacrifice- The exact truth
• Seems that God approved of holding back information.
• False guilt and how do you deal with it.
• The people had some “guilt” Why are they afraid of Samuel?

Countenance Of Men

• Eliab “looked” like a man of strength. Much like Saul
• He follows all the rule and “lines up”
• A person’s true character does not lay in his appearance
• But, how important is appearance. Does it matter to God?
• God who knows the heart- Yes, the good and bad.
• God did not reject the sons, they were just not chosen to serve

Called From The Pasture

• Samuel was frustrated- He knew that God lead him there
• David, too young to be considered was ignored
• God often uses small things to accomplish His will
• Samuel was determine to exhausts all possibilities
• We often give up to quickly when things don’t go right.

Chosen of God

• David had a beautiful countenance- Fair to look upon
• He had the look of innocence and trust
• Samuel had to doubt. This is He. The glow of God on David
• David- A man after God’s own heart.
• May God see in our heart a pure desire to serve Him
• Be anointed for service in His Kingdom