How many of you have ever had a really trying time in your life that has made you question your faith? Where you question everything you have built your life and beliefs upon; throwing you deeper into anxiety and worry; leaving you uprooted, and often in a private hell that you won't talk about to others? Sometimes leaving you on the threshold of walking away...then you begin to wonder how God, if He exists, must feel about you right now...and you are overrun with guilt—you know God is angry and disgusted—you feel unworthy, dirty, incapable of being used again; then you begin to wonder why, if God exists, would He even let you be tested to a point where you even could lose your faith, because you are not supposed to be tested beyond what you can handle, right? And here you are feeling abandoned by God, and it is beyond what you think you can handle. And, now that you have these doubts, how are you supposed to ever get that faith and trust back again? Does any of this hit home with where you have been at some time? Any of it hit home with where you may secretly be now? If you have ever been there; if you have ever experienced those thoughts and feelings—take heart—you are not alone! God was not surprised, He saw this day long ago; He is not offended, and has not lost His love for you. There is a Scriptural answer for how to handle it all…
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At some point in your life as a follower of Christ, you will doubt. God knows this and made sure to share with us the stories of other followers that doubted in His Word - Gideon, Sarah and Abraham, even John the Baptist. Today Pastor Doss reminds us that God is with us, even in our times of doubt, and He still loves us. Listen in for a little Truth and encouragement.
Why are we here? Luke 14:15-27, 33-35: Invited, accepted, treated host flippantly, replaced: nothing else can be done to get you excited (dangerous place to be). So many people talk about living for God, make plans to live for God, get excited about living for God—but they never want to leave where they are in order to go there—and you have to go there! There is no way to serve God with real passion and yearning and stay where you are in life. Don’t you think God gets frustrated or let down over our hesitation to leave where we are, and come to Him? Over our reluctance to give ourselves completely to Him? He must be—not because He is disgusted with us or loves us less, but because He must be exasperated with our rejection of Him and our lack of zeal for anything He truly cares about. Hebrews 5:11-14: many people can teach themselves how to fix a car, master new software/video games, etc. in a few days/hours, but are years into the most important decision in life and have to get help on the simplest questions about God, still making the same mistakes with no clue what you’re supposed to be doing. Why is that?
We get it. Church is hard. Getting up early for service. The pastor asking for volunteers to help with Children's Church, a ministry opportunity, cleaning. Summoning some feeling during praise and worship when you just feel .....well, blah. Then there are the people in the church. You know what we are talking about....
But is this what church is supposed to look like? Is it how we are supposed to feel? If not, where are we going wrong? Listen to today's sermon as Pastor Doss takes a look at church today and compares it to what God says it should be. There is only the human race, created in His Image—no other: Acts 17:26. Therefore the only foundation for any ‘racism’ is simply through perceived bias in our personal bad experiences or taught bias through individuals and/or culture. There is not another factor that can contribute to allowing racism to be a reality. There are a number of reasons psychologically, that people become biased or prejudice, and there are very real, and serious issues within our culture that are fueling, and snowballing racism from all sides. We will address some of those issues headlong, because we will not dig to the heart unless we do so, but then, we will dig deeper into the Word of God, and the heart man because the answer to this awful hatred is not ultimately found in laws, restitution, or political correctness, but in God's Love—God's Spirit within us, helping us see reality through His eyes. If we, as Christians with the very Words and Spirit of God in our hearts, can't help others find our way through this selfish mess we are in—what hope is there for a lost world?
We’re going to address the elephant in the room—no beating around the bush, no political correctness will allow us to meet the problems we face, honestly enough, to let God’s love prevail. And though we can’t speak from every perspective, or feel the empathy from every experience, it doesn’t negate God’s Word. God’s Word triumphs our feelings, our justification and our experiences. [Let that sink in for a moment…] |
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September 2024
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