Baptist City Blog

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God's Glory in Your Life

Numbers 14:10

"But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel."

Throughout the Scriptures you will see the phrase, "the glory of the LORD." When talking of God's glory, the Scriptures are referring to God's presence.  You will find that God's glory appeared for several different reasons, some of those reasons are good and others are not so good. The fact is this, God's glory will appear in your life for different reasons.  If you are a child of God, then you are to show God's glory to the lost world. Let me show you the three exhibitions of God's glory on a person's life.

First, God's glory is an empowering glory.  This is what you should want.  You will find God's glory appeared when Elijah prayed fire down from Heaven.  You will see God's glory appeared to Moses when he was up on Mount Sinai. Peter, James, and John saw God's glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. In each of these instances and others, God's glory appeared to empower His people to do great works for Him.

This empowering glory is needed in every Christian's life. We will never reach a world for Christ without God's empowering glory.  You will never overcome sin without God's empowering glory.  You will never succeed in the ministry God has placed you in without His empowering glory.  It simply comes down to this, everything in the Christian life needs God's empowering glory in order succeed. You can either do God's work on your own, or you can do God's work through His empowering glory.

Second, God's glory is a punishing glory. In the verse above, you will find that God's glory appeared, not to empower His people, but to punish them. The children of Israel often experienced this punishing glory because of their disobedience. God would have much rather appeared in empowering glory to show His great works through them, but He had to show His punishing glory because they disobeyed Him.

It is not a delightful thing to experience God's punishing glory. Christian, God does not want to have to show His glory through your life by punishing you, but when you disobey His commands, He must show His punishing glory.  You may think that you can get away with your sin, but God's punishing glory will appear. You may think that you are exempt from God's punishing glory, but if you continue in sin you will experience it.

Third, God's glory is a departed glory. This is the worst of all three. Samson experienced this departed glory and didn't know it until it was too late.  The Scriptures teach us that Samson woke up and went out to do what he had done before, but "...he wist not that the LORD was departed from him." If you continue to ignore God's punishing glory, then you will sadly experience His departed glory.

In which way is God exhibiting His glory in your life? Oh, how you should desire to avoid the punishing and departed glory, and instead experience God's empowering glory. You will only experience God's empowering glory by living right, doing right and by spending time with God in the Scriptures and prayer. God's empowering glory is to do His works. Don't try to do God's works on your own, but do them with His empowering glory on your life.  Beg God daily to help you live your life so that you can have His empowering glory upon you.

Listen to this outstanding message by Tony Hutson preached tonight at FBC Hammond. This is the story of Moses in a way you have never heard before. Enjoy!

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Understanding the Why

Proverbs 2:8-9

"He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path."

Often people will ask, "Why am I supposed to do...?" Teenagers are very prone to ask this question.  Asking why you do something is really not that bad. I recall several years ago when I preached a sermon that the next day the pastor informed me he had someone upset with my sermon. I asked him what his response to this person was.  He told me that he simply told them he believed what I preached because his pastor told him it was right. I responded back to this dear brother by telling him that was not a good enough answer.  That person needed to know why the Scriptures said to do what I preached, not what some other preacher said.

The verses above show us two ways to help people to understand the why. First, you help people to understand the why by making right and wrong clear. In Proverbs 2:6 it says, "For the LORD giveth wisdom:..." When God gives wisdom He does not leave gray areas. One of the biggest reasons why people don't know why we are supposed to do things is because it is not made clear in the preaching or teaching. Whenever a preacher preaches, he needs to preach in such a way that people are clear on what is right and wrong. People should never walk away from a sermon wondering what the preacher was really trying to get across.  The same can be said about teachers. If you teach, give absolutes and not gray matter. Though absolutes may make people upset, at least they will know what is right and wrong.

Second, you help people to understand the why by perpetuating the old-time ways. You will notice in the verse above it says, "...and preserveth the way of his saints." Preserving the way of the saints is simply preserving the old-time ways.  Christian, one of the greatest needs today is for people to stop looking for a new way to do things and start perpetuating the old-time ways. When we try to start new ways, it creates confusion in Christians regarding which way is right.  We don't need new ways. What we need to do is simply continue to do what the saints before us did.

Simply put, doing right and preserving right will lead people to understanding why we do what we do.  This is so because when they see the end of each path, then they will understand the result of that path. When you see how something works and its results, then you will understand why it is important to do things a certain way.

Be careful about falling trap to this present day philosophy of modernism. Make everything you do either right or wrong. As you do the right, do it the way the saints of old did it.  By doing this you will help all those who follow you to understand the whys of what we do.

Click here to read the Old Paths Journal.

In Our Own Sight

Numbers 13:33

"And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

The ten spies who went to spy out the land of Canaan made the same mistake that many Christians make.  You will notice in the verse above that when the ten spies talked about the giants of the land they said, "...and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." The mistake they made was they compared the giants to themselves and not to the God Who would help them to overcome those giants. The result of these men looking through their own sight was that they did not follow God's command and caused many other people to disobey God.

Whether or not you overcome your obstacles and trials in life is determined by whose eyes you look through. Too many Christians look at their problems through their own eyes only to cause their problems to get bigger.  Most of the time when we look at the problems we face through our own eyes we make the problems bigger than what they really are.  

Christian, it doesn't matter how big your problem is in your sight, the only thing that matters is how big your problem is compared to God. When you compare your financial problems to God, you will realize that your financial problems are not that big. When you compare your physical ailments to God, you will realize that they are not that big.  When you compare your personality conflicts to God, you will realize that your problems are not that big.  Whatever your problem may be, when you compare them to God, you will realize that they are not that big.

In order to look at your problems through the eyes of God you need to remember Luke 1:37 when it says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible." I promise you, God is not concerned with "how big" your problems may be. To Him your problems are very small. Don't get me wrong, God is concerned with your feelings, but He is not worked up over how hard it may be to overcome your problems.  Too many times we get worked up over the size of the problems when God is very capable of helping you to overcome your problems.

Whatever your problems are that you face today, stop looking at them through your eyes. Looking through your eyes at your problems will make them worse. Look at your problems through the eyes of God and you will see that they are simply opportunities in your life for God to work through you.  Your problems are either obstacles or opportunities depending upon whose eyes you look through.  If you look through your own eyes they are obstacles. If you'll look through God's eyes, they will be opportunities to do something greater for Him.

Ask God today to help you to look at your problems through His eyes.  By doing so you will find that your stress level will be lowered which will help you to live a more joyful life.

Click here to read the Old Paths Journal.

The Burden of Serving

Numbers 4:49

"According to the commandment of the LORD they were numbered by the hand of Moses, every one according to his service, and according to his burden: thus were they numbered of him, as the LORD commanded Moses."

In the verse above, you will find an interesting statement about serving God.  It says, "...every one according to his service, and according to his burden..." God made it clear in this chapter that He gave each person a burden to carry. God did not try to cover up the fact that serving Him would take work, but the results of serving God are great. However, you must realize that if you are going to serve God, their will be a burden in doing so.  Let me give you several thoughts about the burden of serving.

First, every way of life has a burden. Don't get this mentality that serving God is the only life that can be burdensome. Christian, you must realize that the world's way of life is burdensome as well. They may not advertise how burdensome their way is, but God tells us in the Scriptures that both the world's way of life and the Christian's way of life can be burdensome.  The difference between the two is that God's burden is light for He will help you carry your load.

Second, the burden of serving will grow you as a Christian.  You will never grow without serving.  Yes, their may be a burden you must carry to serve the LORD, but you will never grow without that burden. A person trying to build muscles doesn't lift a barbell without weights. No, he adds weight to the barbell so he can grow his muscles.  Likewise, you must carry the burden of serving if you are going to grow as a Christian.

Third, everyone's limit of what they can carry is different. One of the mistakes many Christians make is they try to do what someone else has done or is doing only to overburden themselves. Just because someone can carry a heavier load than you does not make them a better Christian, God made you with your limit, so carry the amount of weight in serving God as you are capable.

Fourth, everyone has a burden unique to them. God made you to serve Him in a unique area. That means that your burden is unique to you.  Only you can best carry your burden of serving.  If someone else tried to carry what you carry, then they would fail in carrying as well as you can for you are the only one who can carry your burden the best.  This is why it is important for you not to quit and to be in your place of service, because you are the best person to carry the burden in the place of service for which God made you.

Finally, know the limit of what you can carry. Christian, every person has a limit of what they can do in the LORD's work.  Don't continue to take on duties and overload yourself to the point that you become bitter at God and the church. Learn to say, "No" when you are at your limit. I would rather you serve God the rest of your life with the load that you carry now than to take on a bigger load and quit serving God. Don't let the idea that you don't want to let your pastor down cause you to take on more than you can carry. Know your limit and don't take on more than you can carry.

If you are going to grow, then you need to find a place of service in the LORD's work. However, be careful about taking on more than your limit will allow you. You don't want to spiritually collapse because you took on more than you could carry.  Remember, your load will increase in time, so slowly take on duties of service to the proportion of which you are capable.

The bulletin from FBC Hammond for 05/22/2011 is now up at www.baptist-city.com.

The song of the week is "Everlasting Blood" now at www.baptist-city.com.

More terrific sermons for you to listen to at www.baptist-city.com. These are for the week of 5/08/11.
Enjoy!