The Secret of True Riches by John.

The Secret of True Riches.
Luke 12:13-34

1. The world is full of people, and all of us would like to be rich, wouldn't we? ill. Jeffrey C. "If I bought all the land in NE, SD, WY and CO, it wouldn't be enough!" (I don't think he was serious.)
2. The world has a warped idea of value, and how it is measured.
(1) Let me see your hands on this: How many of you know who Warren Buffet is?
(2) How many know who Bill Gates is?
(3) How many of you can name of the widow Jesus pointed out as she dropped two mites in the temple treasury?
(4) How many know who Bob and Jo Baynard are?
3. We know the first two because they are rich, and they are in the news frequently.
4. No one but Jesus knows the name of that widow.
5. Bob and Jo Baynard were in Bethel church in Lincoln in the early 1960's. Bob left the air Force to spend his life in his home state serving God as a pastor. He and she are still doing it,
6. The world plays up the rich, the famous, and the notorious. Bob and Jo will probably never be rich or famousi in this world, but they probably will in the next one!
7. You see, God notes and cares for His Own.
8. I believe Jesus wants the whole world to know that society teaches us a wrong concept of riches!

I. Amassed Posessions Are a Waste!

1. If they are used correctly, they are a plus.
2. God gives riches on earth for a reason. They are not given to accomplish His will. Saved, or spent on personal pleasure fails to accomplish God's will.
3. The rich man in this story may have had a large family.
4. He may have considered himself self-made! Or he could have inherited everything from his father.
5. He may have been an excellent manager, or he could have been a bad one.
6. We don't know.
(1) Why don't we know?
(2) Jesus would have told us if we needed those facts. We don't.
7. This man's whole concept of wealth disagreed with God's view!
(1) Warren Buffet has impressed me for a couple, or three reasons.
a. He achieved wealth, and I have to admit I admire that just like everyone else does.
b. He was named the richest man in the world, but he lost the title to Bill Gates. He never whimpered or complained. In fact, I understand the two are now friends and business partners. That shows a good attitude concerning wealth and power.
c. Buffet stated that he is not going to leave all his wealth to his children the way most rich men do. He wants his children to make it on their own. That's a good attitude, too.
(2) The man in this story seems to be only concerned about himself!
8. Jesus said in 12:20, "God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'"
9. Holding on to wealth does not accomplish God's will! It's wasted! And the effort to gain it was wasted, too!
10. If you have possessions, ask God what He wants you to do with them. Do it, and you will have heaven's riches.
11. Whatever you have will give you the riches of heaven when you invest them for God!

II. If You Want to Be Rich, Seek God's Kingdom First! v 31

1. Why?
(1) Because you can't even enjoy riches when you are dead.

(2) Because nothing is as important as being a citizen of the Kingdom of God and living forever!
2. Why? Because there is no promise in this world that we will have a tomorrow.
3. Why? Because time itself may be so short that we won't have time to enjoy it!
4. Why? Because it is the only logical thing for a thinking person to do.
5. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus seeking eternal life missed all the wealth on heaven because he was too concerned with his earthly riches!
6. It pays to seek God's kingdom first! And it pays to do it with sincere desire to serve God!

III. The Only True Riches Are Heavenly.

1. Let's be logical about this:
2. What are riches? Money? Property? Wheat? Beef? Soy Beans? Cotton? Rice? Gasoline? Power?
3. Where do these things come from? ill. Some years ago, a woman fed her family with hamburger so much that her husband told her she ought to write a book about it. She fed them hamburger because they couldn't afford anything else. She wrote a book called, 101 ways to prepare hamburger, or something like that. All the publishers turned it down, so she and her husband published it themselves, and became prosperous because of the tremendous sales! They established their own publishing company and did well with that, too. We call that the fulfillment of the American Dream! Anyone can get rich in the USA!
How did that happen? Was it because they were lucky? A fertile imagination? A "Won't say die" attitude?
Well, there is no such thing as luck. (Luck is a heathen god! Good fortune comes from God, and so do all these other things.
4. God created everything and everyone. He is the One Who blesses and He is the One Who withholds His blessings.
5. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
6. The world has pondered this question for ages, "Why do the good die young?" and the answer has been with us for many, many centuries. Isaiah 57:1-3 says, "The righteous perish and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death."
7. Galatians 3:24 says, "So the Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith."
8. Wealth, riches, education, talent, whatever the gift, it is given to us to accomplish God's will in our lives.
9. When we accomplish His will, we can be sure we have riches in heaven with our Heavenly Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Conclusion:

1. I think I would like to be rich, but at the same time, I'm aware that riches on earth bring with them a tremendous responsibility to God.
2. I'm not sure I am ready for that responsibility or that I even want it!
3. I am quite sure that I am far more interested in laying up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt, and thieves do not break through and steal! That's what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 6:20.
4. It's time for us to change our thinking, and in turn, we may change the thinking of the world about value, riches and wealth.
5. Are you laying up for yourself riches in heaven? No you are not, unless Jesus is your Lord and Savior!
6. You can start your savings account in heaven today by entrusting Jesus with you entire life!
7. When you do, you will begin immediately to live forever!


Emmanuel 6:25'2006

New Fire by John

NEW FIRE
2 Timothy 1: 1-14

1. Did you ever live in a house where you had to build a fire to get warm? You snuggle down under comforters into a feather bed, and wish Daddy would get up and build the fire! He does. You hear the wood crackling see the pattern of the flames dancing on the walls and ceiling, and you jump out of bed and run to the fire to keep from freezing! Then you grow up, and Daddy is not there to build the fire anymore. It's your responsibility now!
2. Paul said to Timothy, "Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you."
3. He was saying several things:
(1) The fire doesn't go out, it just gets banked up. (Like ashes around the hot coals in wood fires.)
(2) You have to kindle it daily, if you have it.
(3) You shouldn't hang around, like a child, waiting for someone else to kindle it for you!
4. We receive the Holy Spirit when we trust Jesus, and He is the living fire in our lives, but no matter how earnest we are, we take back parts of our lives, and we bank up the Spirit's fire in our lives. We have to stir up those ashes, uncover the living fire, add fuel and watch it burn!!!
5. If we don't, we will be sorry! ill. Thomas B Welch, jr. told about George. The whole church was happy when George made his life right with God. He had become a Christian when he was young, but some minor dispute in the church caused him to drop out completely. His wife was a devoted Christian, and she took the children to church regularly, but as they grew up, they followed their father's example.
A malignant tumor caused George to straighten things out with the Lord, and he called all his children to his bedside. He told them, "I have been a fool, children! The church is the greatest thing in the world. Don't do what I have done. Do what I'm asking you to do now--join it, support it, love it." He repeated his plea for those few weeks he lived, but his children are still following the example of their father's lifetime, not his words the last weeks he lived. (Baptist Bulletin Cover 1/20/85)
6. It is easy to let Satan draw you away from the Lord's church, and you may never feel it, but your children always know where your priorities are! KINDLE AFRESH THE GIFT OF GOD WHICH IS IN YOU!
7. Was Paul telling Timothy how to start his fire? Yes!
8. I've picked out five words to help us with his instructions.

I. REMEMBER! V.6

1. Remember your spiritual roots!
(1) Grandmother Lois and mother Eunice have a sincere faith. You too!!! (Remember encouraging things).
(2) Remember the Spirit's gifts
a. Sanctification occurs when you trust Jesus.
b. You immediately feel the need for, and you dedicate your life to, Jesus!
c. Remember God sealed you. Ephesians 4:30, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
d. Timothy received the sealing power of the Spirit with the laying on of other Christians' hands.

II. RECOGNIZE! V. 7

1. You do not have a spirit of fear or timidity. (If you have a timid, fearful spirit, it came from somewhere else! Not from God! And I personally have a real problem with timidity!)
2. You have a spirit of power, love, and discipline.
3. Power, love and discipline are your Christian heritage and character! Remember your roots and recognize your Christian Character!

III. RESULT! V.8.

1. Don't be ashamed to proclaim that you are a Christian!
2. Don't be ashamed of your Christian brothers even when they are jailed and disgraced by society.
3. Join your suffering brethren in their suffering!
(1) He was not saying be strong when suffering comes.
(2) He was not saying make yourself suffer.
(3) He was saying we are to do God's will whether we suffer for it, or not!
4. It is a strange twist Satan has introduced into the faiths of many people to believe God gives us gifts to do nothing with! v.9.
5. Expect to change! Expect to grow! Learn to test how closely you follow Jesus by how the world receives you!

IV. RETAIN! V.13.

1. Christians are not supposed to look like a flame of fire today, and the shadow of death tomorrow!
2. We are to retain the standard of sound words! How do we do it? In the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus!
3. And we are to guard (v. 14) the treasure that the Lord has entrusted to us! The only way to do that is through the Holy Spirit!

V. REASON! VV 11,12.

1. Paul says God called him to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.
2. v. 12 says, "That is why I am suffering as I am."
3. He was confident that God is able to keep the soul he has committed to Him until final redemption comes!
4. You see God doesn't call us like the world does. ill. A little boy in Liberal, KS, Clayton Bowers, told me how you progress in Karate. You prove yourself, and each time you reach certain abilities, you get a belt to show you have passed that stage of development. There are about six belts and then Ninja. All the world has the Missouri "show me" attitude, but God does it differently! And I am so glad He does!
5. God calls us before we have done anything to prove our ability.
(1) Live! Serve! And you will grow proficient as we work together!
(2) No wonder Paul said, v.12, "I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day."
6. Paul was saying, Timothy, what God is doing with me, He is doing with you! And I say to you today, What God was doing with them then, He is doing with you now! You just do your part, and you can watch the miracles take place!

Conclusion

1. Listen! Lost person! The world wants self-starters, but God wants someone He can fill with fire that never goes out! He wants you to be able to fan those coals into a living flame for Him every day! And when you receive Jesus, you'll know the fire is always there! It never goes out!
2. God will help you learn and remember your spiritual roots. He will help you recognize the great gifts you have. He will see to it you retain the standard of sound words. And He will give you reason to live for Him!
3. Then one day, you will have a Timothy to point to Jesus, and you'll say to him, Timothy, we don't deserve any of these great gifts God gives us in Jesus. That's reason enough for you to live for Him just like I do!
4. When you become a Christian, you have the highest position any person can reach on earth! And it's all free! In Jesus!
5. Maybe you are here today and need to make that decision. Maybe you are a Christian, but you've let the fire grow cold. This is your opportunity to fan it into a fresh flaming fire!
6. You can do what God asks of you while we pray.




Emmanuel Baptist, Liberal, KS 2/17/85
Hugoton, KS 4/20/1986 ´
Emmanuel Community Church, Bassett, NE 6/18/2006

Can We Heal Our World?

Can we Heal Our World?
Matthew 4:4 "It is written:

1. Jesus spoke those words.
(1) Do they impress you?
(2) They should because they were spoken by Jesus to the adversary, the devil, when the devil tempted Him to sin.
2. Let me read you a few verses from Leviticus 18: 24-28. "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled, so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you."
3. Aren't these awesome words? God does not change. James 1:17,18 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."
4. God does not change. His requirements for all of us, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Communists, Criminals, everyone, is the same now that it always has been!
(1) That means that He expects us to live morally clean lives. For us to think we are saved and now we can live like the devil is a terrible mistake! Romans 6:1,2 and verse 12 say, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?...Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
(2) God expects us to be honest.
(3) God expects us to treat each other as creations of God!
(4) He expects us to worship Him alone!
(5) I can almost hear someone saying, "Isn't the preacher talking about keeping the ten commandments?" And, I say, yes, I am.
5. Almost any good Christian would answer immediately, "But we are not, and we never have been, and we never will be under the Law!"
6. And that is true, but that does not change the requirements that God placed on the entire human race!
7. If we human beings are rebellious, God told us He will curse the land, and it will vomit us out!
8. Look around you, people. Look right here in this town. Can't you see God's commandments, not just being broken, but being totally disregarded?
9. I believe this is as good a town as you will find in the USA! That means the situation of this nation is perhaps even worse than it was in Sodom and Gomorrah!
10. I think God has spared this nation because He does have more than ten righteous people here! But wars, the sounds of battle, floods, drought, hail and lightening storms are tools God has used in the past, and He may just be giving us some early warnings of what is in store for this nation if we do not change!
11. What's the cure? What will heal the land? Repentance! But how do we get a nation to repent when the leaders are stealing tax money from the people? When leaders are prostituting themselves with the vested interests of big business?
12. How can we get people to repent when common every day citizens commit every sort of lewd and indecent act!
13. I really know only what I read in the papers, see on TV, and hear in the coffee shop. Much of it is incorrect at best, so you know as much or more than I do.
14. I think I know the answer for the health of our nation. It is to obey God, and that starts with repentance.

I. How can you Obey God, Without Knowing What He Wants?

1. I remember the story about a young mother whose little girl got into everything. She was constantly saying, "No! No! Don't do that!" After a trip to the grocery where the girl was constantly into something, the young mother put down her bags of groceries in the kitchen, heaved a sigh of relief, and said to the little girl, "Do anything you want to! Now, let's see you disobey that!"
2. We have a puppy who knows his own mind. He will do anything you want him to...if it suits him!
3. So many of us are so disobedient to our wonderful heavenly Father because we don't know what He wants! And some don't want to know what He desires of us.
4. I think some of us have that childish idea that if we don't know what God wants, He can't hold us responsible.
5. If you have that idea, go out on the highway and drive at a breakneck speed, and when a patrolman pulls you over, tell him, "I didn't know what the speed limit was!"
6. Ignorance is no excuse before the law!
7. It is our responsibility to learn what God wants of us!

II. To Learn What God Says, We Must Read the Bible.

1. Wow! That's a new concept, isn't it???
2. Of course, it is not. We have been told that since we were children, right?
3. The problem is, most of us have never looked for a good reason to read the Bible.
4. Most Christians if asked will say, "Yes. I read the Bible, but I don't read it enough."
5. I wonder what they think is enough?
6. Some of us reading the Bible every day feel like we know too little of it, right?
7. I have always liked that little statement, "It is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but how many times the Bible has been through you that counts!"
8. Every Christian should, if he hasn't already done it, decide to read God's Word!

III. Reading a Small Portion of the Bible Is Not Enough!

1. Many of us, preachers included, tend to read favorite passages, or passages that we believe we understand.
2. There's nothing wrong with that except that it is too little.
3. In Paul's final address to the Ephesian elders in Acts. 20:25-27, he said, "Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God."
4. "All Scripture is God-breathed (God breathed life into Adam when He made him, and this means that God's Word is alive!) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (II Timothy 3:16,17).
5. Paul was saying he had done all he could, but he was also marking out a route for people to follow!
6. We need to know all of God's Word!
7. I don't think any of us will ever know God's Word like Paul did, but we can expose ourselves to all of it!
8. Read the whole Bible, people!

IV. Reading the Whole Bible Can be Very Hard.

1. I struggled with the King James for years after I became a Christian.
2. If someone asked me if I had read the whole Bible, I would sort of hedge by saying something like, "Not yet. I'm working on it." It would have been true if I had said, "I've tried and tried, but I just have not been able to make myself do it!"
3. The Bible was written in the language of the people who lived at the time it was written.
4. Every new generation changes the language, and as a result, needs to have a new translation of the Bible. (I had trouble with the King James because I did not understand the English language of 1611. That's when it was translated.)
5. I can read a little Hebrew, a little Greek, a little Spanish, and a lot of modern English. If I am going to read the whole Word of God, I need to read it in the language I think and usually speak! So do you!
6. I need to read it from cover to cover.
(1) There are parts of the Bible I don't like, but I read them. It's God's Word!
(2) There are parts I just love, and I certainly read them.
(3) There are parts that are sort of ho-hum to me, but I read them!
7. We need to get "the whole will of God!"
8. When I know what God has said, then I am prepared to be obedient.

V, Through Trial and Error, I Worked Out a Number of Ways to Keep Track of My Reading.

1. I'm going to tell you about the latest and simplest one.
2. I listed every Book of the Bible with the number of chapters in each one.
3. Then I typed out a number (beginning at one) for each chapter of each Book.
4. When I read a chapter, if my list is on paper, I mark through it. If it is on computer, I erase it.
5. I set myself an average goal of 4 chapters a day. That will get me through the entire Bible in a little less than a year.
6. I know that because of work, illness, vacations, etc. I will fail to read the Bible at all some days, so I set myself a daily goal of six chapters. That way, when I miss, I will be ahead of my average.
7. If reading the Bible in one year is too much for you, you can cut the chapter reading in half, and you will accomplish it in two years. (Most people never read the whole Bible in their entire lives!)
8. When you do get through it, you will have been exposed to the whole will of God! That alone should change your life.
1. Our whole world is sick, sick, sick! It's sin-sick!
2. We can sit idly by and watch the land vomit us out, or we can start doing the will of God in everything!
3. God doesn't expect us to be flawless, but he does expect us to be obedient.
4. Set yourself a goal and stick to it. Read the Bible!
5. Perhaps the rest of the world will begin to see God blesses obedient people!
6. The first acceptable act of obedience to God is to receive His Son Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Have you done that?

Emmanuel Community Church 6/11/2006

The Whole Bible?

Do You Read the Bible? How much? How well? These are three questions I asked myself many years ago, and I was not happy with the answers. I knew it was easy for a minister to fall into the habit of preaching the same thing over and over again perhaps changing the text, but preaching the same sermon. I was worried that I was doing that, or that I would fall into that habit.

I had already discovered that the sermon well runs dry from time to time, and it may take a lot of prayer before God gives a message. I wondered why that was true. Then it seemed to me a voice whispered in my spiritual ear, "When do you have the most ideas for messages?" And I knew it happened when I read a lot of Scripture. That's when that same whisper said, "Your Bible is full of messages." It's not original with me, but there is a story about a young minister who was shopping in a Bible Bookstore. The clerk asked him if he could help him find anything. He said, "Yes. I'm looking for a good book of sermons!" The clerk went back to a shelf and brought him a Bible. The minister glanced at it, and said, "No thanks. I preached through that three years ago!" When in need of a message, I read the Bible.

Sooner or later, God's Spirit impresses my heart. It's "like a fire shut up in my bones!" (Jeremiah20:9). That desire to preach is so strong that I can understand how a minister without a church congregation has a hard time containing himself. Having that fire will not make you an eloquent speaker, (and I've never been one), but it will assure you that God's will for the hearers will be plain. His Spirit will see to that.

Of course, if you only read the same Scripture over and over, you will still be preaching similar sermons again and again. I made a schedule for reading the whole Word of God every year. I discovered I could complete it if I read just four chapters a day every day. The problem is, there are a lot of days when we just have so much to do, perhaps preaching, or teaching, or visiting, or illness, or maybe vacation, that we miss some days. To take care of that, I try to average four chapters a day. My aim is to read six chapters a day. At the moment I am writing this, I am 126 chapters ahead of schedule. If I miss some days, I won't need to make them up, and at the end of the year, I will have read the whole counsel of God! That's really important to me, and I believe it is important to the church I serve.

It helps, of course, to have an easy to read translation. I struggled with the King James, which I love, for many years. When Taylor's paraphrase came out, I sailed through it with ease. I graduated from that to the American Standard the next year, and then eventually to the New International Version which I use all the time now. I don't consider any translation better than another. They are, after all, translations, not exact duplicates of the original. No one has the original either! We must depend on God's Holy Spirit to guide translators as they prepare God's Word in the language of today's people. The original scrolls were written in the language of the people to whom they were addressed. Paul was certainly fluent in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. When he wrote to the Corinthians, he didn't use Hebrew. He used Greek. That was their language. Every generation needs a translation that fits their language. We should expect either a constantly updated version, or a new version for every generation. Our language and our ideology change constantly, and we need God's Word in the language we understand. I will never forget when a church member approached me after a message and said, "Pastor, you spend more time explaining the King James than you do preaching!"

Would you like something to help you read God's Word, whatever version you use? When I started on this pilgrim journey, I formulated a number of different "helps" to keep me on track. I remembered that in a sales class I attended years ago, when a salesman was making his presentation, there was the sound of a loud kiss! Everything stopped, and everyone looked for the source of that kissing sound. The instructor said to the speaker, "Young man! Always remember "KISS!" It means, "Keep it simple, stupid!" Simple is better, and eventually I came to a very simple system. I use and prepare this one new each year, and that's simple because, all I need to do is change the year at the top. It contains a listing of the Books of the Bible in order with every chapter numbered. If you print it out, you can mark through a chapter when you read it. If you have it on your computer, you can erase a number or numbers as you read. By having it this way, you can read from any section of the Bible at any time, and still get it read by the end of the year.

If you choose to do this, don't wait until January 1. Start immediately. You can just mark the date down, and you will know you will be through by that date next year. You'll find an address below where you can send an e mail, and I'll send the file to you, or you can just make up your own form. God be with you as you read His Word consistently!

One of my addresses is: hjajah@yahoo.com. I will happily send you one for this year, and for 2007. You can change them any way you like. Please put "Bible form" in the subject line. I hope that will keep me from considering your request as spam.