AM Service
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-5
I am excited to meet with you this morning. I am excited for what God is doing in our midst. I believe God is preparing us for an exciting movement of the Holy Spirit. I want to remind you we will be having revival services November 10 – 13. Reverend Matt Greene of Kingwood Baptist will be preaching for us. I want to ask you to pray for the revival, pray for revival in your life, pray for revival in our church family, pray for revival in our community, in our County, our state, our nation, and our world. Do you believe God can move in this way; that a world revival could start among Rose of Sharon? Do you believe God can bring revival in hardened hearts? Do you have the faith of a mustard seed? Nothing is impossible for our God!
Our Scripture this morning tells us that we, that people are dead in sin and transgressions. Wrongdoing equals death, its simple, our sinful actions bring about death in both the physical and spiritual life. Because of our sin all individuals are essentially dead man walking. We are people condemned to die and then spend eternity in punishment. However, God acted to provide a way that we can be “quickened” according to the King James Version. Other translations state that God makes us alive. This is revival! Webster’s dictionary has six definitions for revive. The first definition for revive is to bring back to life.
God revives us from our sinful state and makes us alive, this is one way we experience revival, and it is the testimony of all Christians. We were once dead in our sin but made alive by Jesus’ work on the Christ.
I ask again, do you believe God can bring about revival in our church, community, and beyond? Do you believe God wants to revive people today? No individual with breath in them is beyond hope or too far gone for God to reach spiritually and God has been proving this over and over again. Our Lord, has been proving His power to revive with physical revival. Look at this Scripture testimonies:
1 Kings 17:17-24 The man of God, Elijah, prays over a woman’s dead son and the boys is revived to life.
2 Kings 4:18-37 A mother seeks the man of God, Elisha, and asks him about her dead son. Elisha prays over the boy and he is revived to life.
2 Kings 13:20-21 A dead man is hastily thrown into Elisha’s tomb and when the dead man touches Elisha’s bones he experiences revival and lives.
Luke 7:11-15 Jesus tells a dead boy to arise and the boy is revived and sits up alive.
Luke 8:49-55 A man approaches Jesus about his sick daughter who dies and then Jesus tells her to arise and she is revived to life.
John 11:17-27 & 39-44 Jesus talks to His friends about their belief and then He calls out to the several days dead Lazarus and he is revived and comes forth alive.
Matthew 27:50-54 When Jesus dies on the cross, believers from the grave are revived and appeared throughout Jerusalem.
Acts 9:36-42 Peter prays for Tabitha and she is revived to life.
Acts 20:9-12 A boy falls asleep during Paul’s preaching and falls three stories to his death. Paul prays over the boy and he is revived to life.
Our God is awesome and powerful to revive before Jesus, as Jesus, and after Jesus. Revived young and old. Revived where believers sought His miraculous power. Revived individuals and a multitude. And if our God is powerful to revive from physical death to life then He can also revive the physically alive out of spiritual death in sin and into a new abundant life in His family! Let us demonstrate our faith by seeking God, praying for revival with faith, inviting people to come to hear the Gospel, and living for Jesus every moment!
P.M. Service
Scripture: John 13:31-36
Tonight as we continue our study through the final night Jesus shares with His disciples before the resurrection we find Jesus speaking with the remaining 11 disciples. At this point Judas Iscariot has left and only the 11 are with Jesus. We find Jesus telling the disciples about His coming death. In verse 36 Jesus tells the disciples they cannot follow Him in this upcoming event meaning His crucifixion. We know from other gospel account that Jesus quotes to the disciples from Zechariah 13:7 regarding the prophesy that the Lord’s Shepherd would be smote and the flock scattered. This speaks about His coming death. All of this will conclude we know with John 16:33 where Jesus tells the disciples the reason He shared this information was so they could have peace, courage, and know He had overcome the world. Jesus repeatedly told the disciples about His coming death so they wouldn’t be caught off guard, wouldn’t be shocked, wouldn’t feel defeated, and wouldn’t lose hope, but rather could have peace and courage.
Jesus has done the same with us. We live in a world today that seems to have unthinkable incidents occur every day in all theaters of life. Our world experiences troubles that make no sense to us. But God forewarned us about this throughout the Bible. Consider Matthew 24:4-12 where we are told about future wars, famines, disasters, deception, violence, hate, and evil workings. The troubles we face today, they are not a surprise to God. The troubles we face, we have been warned about by Scripture. Knowing they are here and going to continue to come we can have courage to face them also knowing God sees them all, knew about them all beforehand, and has overcome all.
Back in John 13 we read Jesus sharing how the coming crucifixion would be a glorious moment. The work on the cross, while the natural reaction would be to view it as defeat was actually the great victory whereby Jesus made salvation possible for all people. Jesus was telling he disciples there was a purpose and a mighty purpose for His soon to come death. Jesus wanted the disciples to know this so they could continue with courage and peace.
In the same way, we can know there is a purpose for us in the midst of troubles. Verses 34-35 command us to love one another so that people may know the love of God too! In Matthew 24 it tells us that among all the troubles there would become a lack of love. As the rest of the world moves towards sin and no love, Christians should be loving each other and other people to share the love of God among people. In doing so we will bring glory to God and surely people will be drawn to our Lord and experience salvation. We have a purpose, Jesus wants us to know that and to live it with peace amidst the circumstances and courage.
Let’s live with that courage and peace and we seek God and share His love with others!
If we can be of help in some way to you, please let us know.
In Christ’s Love, Charlie Tucker