Prayer is something that most Americans say they do daily, yet it’s a vibrant prayer life that is a challenge for many. In this message, we look at the purpose of prayer and the transformative impact it can have in the life of a believer.
Category: Commentary
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Sermon: Shameless – Romans 1:16-17
The gospel is a message that offends the world and Christians can sometimes be tempted to water down the message. But as Paul begins his letter to the Romans, he says “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” This passage gives a great summary of the gospel while also telling us who it’s for and how it works.
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Sermon: Show us the Father, Part 3 – John 14:8-14
In this passage, Jesus tells disciples that those who believe in him will do greater works than he has done. But how can that be? It is because of Jesus and his ministry that the church has been enabled to have a worldwide ministry of reaching people with the good news of the gospel. This ministry is something that all Christians are called upon to share in and take part in.
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Christians too often settle for less
In Numbers 32, the Israelites are pursuing the Promised Land when some of the tribes decide that they would prefer to stay outside the land.
The chapter begins with: “Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock (Numbers 32:1).” The passage goes to their request to stay in the land: “And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan (Numbers 32:5).”
They didn’t want to go to the Promised Land!
What they wanted was unwise. What they wanted was settling for less than God’s best, settling for a land that wasn’t the Promised Land.
It’s an interesting situation.
They do offer to support the other tribes in the pursuit of the land. So it’s not that they’re totally abandoning their brothers and sisters. But this is still them making a decision that undermines the wisdom and goodness of God.
They have the promise of the land and they think that something else will be more suitable.
Their issue is thinking the they had a better plan for them than God had for them.
They didn’t trust that God was good enough to give them something better than what they had found.
While the Israelites are on the Exodus journey, this is the first passage where they lay claim to land, but it’s groups settling for land that wasn’t their land.
They have the promise of the land and they think that something else will be more suitable.
Their issue is thinking the they had a better plan for them than God had for them. They didn’t trust that God was good enough to give them something better than what they had found.
I think we so often settle for less.
It’s easy to focus on what’s comfortable. On what brings the immediate satisfaction. They took what they saw in front of them and decided that the land God had promised hundreds of years before to Abraham would somehow be better.
They played it safe rather than walking in faith.
It’s easy to be a Christian in America but to really go on living like the rest of society.
It’s easy to know that he has promised you land and yet to say, “My kingdom come, my will be done.”
It’s easy to settle for a relationship with God that’s cold and dead. It’s a challenge to pursue him daily. In the good times, you feel like you don’t need him. And in the bad times, it can be tempting to want to blame him.
It’s easy to want to just go it alone.
It’s easy to focus on what you have, what you want, what your goals are, and to have a heart that has little to no real love for Christ.
It’s easy to settle for less.
God wants you to be blessed. He wants you to have a life that is totally oriented and focused on him. But we choose less. We say, “Nah, I’m good right here. The rest of you can go on and know God more deeply.”
Never settle for less than God’s best.
It’s easy not to push. It’s easy not to pursue God, not to pursue holiness, it’s easy to want to go our own way.
It’s our default.
God freely gives grace and that’s the good news of the gospel. Without that, what a sad life that would be. Trying to earn it, never having assurance. In his goodness, God promises eternal life through the cross.
But then we have a choice to make everyday about how we are to live.
Never settle for less than God’s best.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe!
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China now allows 3 children, other atrocities, and American silence
China now allows a family to have up to three children.
The fact that a government would ever try to issue such a decree is a true crime against humanity.
It’s also a crime against nature and has led to all sorts of social problems in Chinese society. In 1980, with a soaring population, China instituted a one child policy. There were exceptions for certain privileged individuals, and people could still have twins, triplets, etc.
But the population control measures led to many predictable social problems. Abortions skyrocketed. Only allowed to have one child, many preferred having sons which led to sex-selective abortion. This led to the result of unnaturally skewing ratios of men to women in certain parts of China. It has also led to a disproportionately older population since the government enforced an unsustainable birth rate.
In 2016, China upped the policy from one child to two. Now, they’ve upped the policy again from two to three.
So China restricted the population, punished families with fines for violating it and now they are reaping the fruits of that. And I think it’s just such a sad situation. It’s sad for the millions of lives that could have been lived. It’s sad for the women who were forded to have abortions or forced to be sterilized.
It was a truly evil thing that the Chinese government pushed for decades.
China controls the internet, the regime of Xi Jinping is increasingly cracking down on churches. It’s the country that gave the world Coronavirus and more indications are pointing to the virus having originated within a Wuhan lab. And then they lied about the virus and hid it from the world. They are enslaving Uyghur Muslims in internment camps. Violating agreements with Hong Kong and Taiwan.
They are an evil empire.
But I feel like Americans largely don’t care. Our public discourse revolves around looking at events in America from multiple generations ago and acting as if that’s still the norm today while China is actively committing crimes against humanity TODAY and turning a blind eye.
Earlier this spring, industries targeted the State of Georgia for updating their voting laws. We saw attempts from billion dollar companies to bully a state for a more progressive voting law. It was called racist. President Biden called the law “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Major League Baseball removed its All Star game from Atlanta.
So massive corporations who profit richly off of the Chinese market and who utilize cheap labor in China could not tolerate Georgia voting laws which are even less restrictive than several blue states in America.
Where are the stands they take on China? Where do they call out the evils of the Chinese government?
Recently, actor and professional wrestler John Cena called Taiwan a country. He profusely apologize (in Mandarin) for saying Taiwan is a country. To be fair, Taiwan and China have a complicated matter. But Taiwan does have their own government, military, and various degrees of diplomatic relations with many other countries. But it was before the premiere of Cena’s new Fast and the Furious movie that he made the comments and in fear of hurting the box office, he folded.
In 2019, then Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morley expressed support for Hong Kong on Twitter. This drew backlash from many in the NBA (many of the same people who want to lecture Americans about police brutality and social justice issues while supporting the Chinese government).
How does all of this fit together? I just find it interesting that so many Americans are so quick to talk about how evil our country is when we have an exponentially worse regime in China. Many of the same industries that are quick to push social justice issues in America cower to the thought of losing Chinese dollars.
Meanwhile, China continues to get more aggressive and oppressive and the rest of the world does nothing out of cowardice. I think it also shows how little these major companies and powerful athletes and movie stars actually care. It’s easy to bash America. That’s the flavor of the month. That’s socially acceptable.
Criticizing China. That is what takes courage. Because it’s a 1.5 billion person market and they can hurt the bottom line. But the sad irony is that if American companies would actually band together and if American celebrities would band together, maybe they could make a difference over there that mattered.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe!
