Scripture for April 21st: II Kings 6:24,25; 7:3-11; 7:16

Sermon Title: Hunger Games

II Kings 6:24,25: Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.

II Kings 7:3-11: Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.” So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

II Kings 7:16: Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the LORD had said.

Every Christian has a mission given to them by God – a Christian leader and writer, Dennis Bickers, calls it the “Great Commission” and “Great Commandment” calling. This means God calls us to love others and tell others about Him. No Christian is excused from this calling – everyone who comes to faith in Christ has been given this mission as part of their inheritance from God. We should be concerned that we not only carry this mission out in our community, but also throughout the world. It is God’s desire that every person hear the message of the Gospel and experience His love, and it is every Christian’s calling to participate in God’s great work. This Sunday, we will hear that how God has given us an opportunity as a church to be a part of a new church starting in Peoria. God will use the new church to spread the Gospel message and share God’s love with others, thus carrying out the “Great Commission” and “Great Commandment”. Our support of this church plant is one of the ways we fulfill our calling as individual Christians and corporately as a church. Pastor Russ Shearer, the leader of this new church in Peoria, will be sharing about this work and bringing the message on Sunday. He is a gifted speaker and his message will sure to be a blessing. Hope to see you then!

Scripture for April 15th: Proverbs 14:8, 4:23; Ephesians 3:20

Sermon: Reclaim Stolen Dreams (Hope)

Proverbs 14:8
The wisdom of the wise man is to understand what to do, but lying is the foolish way of fools.

Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart pure for out of it are the important things of life.

Ephesians 3:20
God is able to do much more than we ask or think through His power working in us.

Because of circumstances and difficult trials, many people often find themselves feeling hopeless or in despair. It becomes hard for them to dream and think about the future in positive ways. God does not desire for Christians to live in such a state. In fact, our faith in Christ was described in Hebrews as a “safe anchor” of hope.

Dr. Charles Stanley has written that he understands why Christians often lose hope when going through difficult and challenging circumstances. However, he encourages believers to remember these facts: “God is in control … always. God is always the same in His love toward us and in His offer of mercy, forgiveness, and intimate fellowship. He is always our Savior, Deliverer, Healer, Restorer, and Ever-Living Lord. God alone is always worthy of our obedience and trust. The title of the old Gospel song, “Trust and Obey,” sums up what is always God’s will for our lives. Our confidence must always be in Him. He is the One who loves us beyond measure and calls us His beloved children and the heirs of His abundant promises.”

By remembering these facts about our faith, we can hold on to hope as we go through the most demanding situations. This coming Sunday I will speak about reclaiming dreams and hope in our lives as we continue to the sermon series, “Stolen: Reclaiming Stolen Treasures in Our Lives.” Hope to see you then!

Scripture for April 7th: I Peter 1:3-9

Sermon Title: Reclaiming Stolen Peace

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Why do people live their lives free of peace? Instead of having peace, they are filled with fear, anger, regret and hopelessness. They lack the ability to simply lay their head on a pillow and go to sleep without laying awake worrying. Through the day they fret about what will happen or what they need to do. They live anxious lives, often hurting their relationships with their lack of patience and inability to give their attention to others. Does God intend for Christians to live like this?

Dr. Charles Stanley says the answer is no. In fact, he says that peace is offered to every Christian through the presence of Christ. He writes the following:

Have you ever been on a troubled sea? I have experienced storms at sea on several occasions and frankly, I have no desire to repeat such experiences! On the surface, the winds can sweep across the ocean at forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred miles an hour, with blowing rain, lightning, thunder, and an overpowering darkness. Waves can rise to twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet high. A ship in such a storm can be tossed about like a little toy boat. It’s easy for an oceangoing craft to be lost in such storms, but underneath the surface, just a hundred feet down, there is no storm; all is perfectly quiet. No sound. No tumult. Not even a ripple of turmoil.

This remarkable fact makes me think about God’s peace. It gives me an inkling of what our Lord must have been talking about when He promised His disciples His peace. He told them that because they were His followers, they would have trouble in this world. In fact, He claimed that some of them would be persecuted because they were His disciples. But in spite of this, the promise was made by Him that He would never leave those who followed Him, and His constant presence would be the means whereby they could experience His peace. Do you see the connection between His presence and His peace?

On Sunday, we will talk about why we often lose the peace God wants to give us and what we can do to obtain and maintain God’s peace in our lives as we start the sermon series, “Stolen: Reclaim the Stolen Treasures in Your Life.” Hope to see you then!