Category: Sermons

For the Love of Money

Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.  ~1 Timothy 6:6-10

If You Cannot Love Your Neighbor, You Cannot Love God

Matthew 22:36-40 New King James Version (NKJV)

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

We are not loving God with all of our heart, soul, and might if we are not loving our neighbor as ourselves.  This is illustrated in this verse very well:

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”  ~Matthew 5:24-25

This is also supported by the old testament scripture that teaches us that obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22), because we cannot sacrifice ourselves or an offering unto God knowing that we have not been obedient to his other great command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  God does not want us to come before him with false piety and righteousness when we have trespassed against or offended our neighbor.

Therefore if we cannot love our neighbor, we cannot love God.

~selah

Death and the Afterlife, Part II: A Depiction of Hell

God wants me to share with you all what Hell is like.  As I spoke of in this post, Death and the Afterlife, Part I: My Dream, Hell is rooted in Sheol, the pit of the earth.  Literally and figuratively it involves being buried deep in the bowels of the ground and being imprisoned without any chance for escape except by one means, the grace of God.

Adam, the word for man, and the original son of man, means ‘ruddy’ in the Hebrew language.  Adamah is the Hebrew word for ground.  It is feminine because it opens itself up for Adam to work it and keep it, which is the curse of man from the time of his original sin in the Garden of Eden.

God gives us every chance in our lifetime to regard Him, even if we have not heard of Him or heard His Word, because we can regard the world about us and marvel at its Maker (~Romans 1:19-21).  To make it even more obvious and clear for us, He sent our Lord Jesus the Messiah to redeem our souls if we but believe in Him.

Hell is the place those go, who in their hardened hearts, do not believe in God.  God consigns them to the ground from which earthly Adam came, which is also the path Cain chose, Abel’s wicked brother, the earthly son of Adam.  Abel chose the spiritual path and was killed for it by his brother.  The ground swallowed Abel’s holy blood by his brother’s hand.  It is all fitting then that God places the wicked into the same ground for them to suffer their deeds.  Their wicked hearts in denying their Maker will not have the final say.

I was obsessed with the movie Motel Hell when I was a girl and must have watched it no less than a dozen times (or so it seemed).  I was 12 or 13 and beyond when I watched it and while it scared the living daylights out of me, I also found it irresistible for some reason I did not know.  There were a few movies like that from my childhood, the ones I could watch over and over and never tire of:  Blue Lagoon, Tootsie, Friday the 13th, and Motel Hell.  Now I know these movies all have a common theme for me which is pertinent to my main mission I serve for God.  I just was not aware of it at 12.

This movie is inspired for its accurate depiction of hell.  I tried to research the writers and could find only that they were born in NYC, into a film production family.  There was also an uncredited writer as well.  The writers or director either were conscious of what hell is, or intuited it from God.  Nonetheless, this is something like the hell in my visions and dreams,the hell which God is revealing to me to share with you.  The people are buried in the ground.  They are victims because a terrible fate has befallen them.  They are alive but unable to communicate.  They cannot move at all and are in a perpetual state of solitary confinement.  Solitary confinement has been described as one of the worse tortures a man can endure, and is utilized as a last punishment for those who act out and hurt others. It causes mental illness because it is so contrary to human life.  Try enduring it until the Judgment Day!

If you find this humorous, that was the writers’ intent.  However, I am sure hell itself will not be funny at all.  Hell is the holding ground for those who have denied their Maker.  It is the embodiment of God’s final grace for those to turn their wicked hearts back to Him so that on the Final Day, they might find their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

You do not have to go to hell.  You can turn and repent and believe in Jesus, do good works, and love God.  Then you can escape this punishment.

~Selah

Part II: IPOD is an IDOL

An idol is anything that comes between you and God.  In the bible-days idols were represented by golden calves and naked deities, so I think it is easy for us as modern-day Children of God to think the second commandment (the second most important commandment of the 10), ‘Thous Shalt have no other gods before Me,’ does not really apply to us anymore.  However, if you stop to think about how the Gentiles (pagans) of the time used the ancient idols, you can see similar behavior in our current culture.

It doesn’t really matter what you do with it, an IPOD  is made to be a personal device for entertainment; to be clutched, protected, and clung to like a constant companion.  It is a muse and a cherished device.  It is a modern-day deity.  In older generations, the TV was our IPOD.

An idol can also be a bottle of booze.  A pack of cigarettes.  A phone.  A credit card.  In all these cases, we worship something that we perceive is going to deliver us unto happiness.  We might not even consciously believe that, it might be completely subconscious, but the point is, our action reaches for and intoxicates upon, the Thing, whatever it is.

Technology is our golden calf.  We might not literally bow down to it, but I bet if your IPOD or phone or computer breaks, you are going to lament, contort yourself somewhat, and take steps to replace it immediately.

Do we do this with God?  Do we take the same loving care with our relationship with God as we do with our personal devices?  Do we protect from taking His name in vain with the same diligence with which we protect our phone from moisture?  Do we keep our communication with Him as quick and responsive as our texting?  Are we as enraptured by His wonders as we are by viral youtube videos?  If not, we are probably serving idols in place of God.

Technology which is a vehicle for communication and connects people together, such as certain aspects of the internet and phone, are not all bad, but we must use them with caution, knowing they could lead us into temptation and subsequent idolatry.  Usually God does not want us to be tempted at all, and commands that we avoid temptation by eliminating all of it from our lives.  As He illustrated when the ancient Hebrews settled in the Promised Land of Canaan, He demanded that all the pagan tribes be destroyed, lest they lead His chosen people into sin and idolatry.

Even though we might think we are far removed from worshiping golden calves and sacrificing our children to gods, we are actually the very same now.  We let our children go away from our protective arms from the time they are born, so that we can make double the money, one of our favorite gods.  We elevate our false egos that make us worship ourselves and each other, because since we do not believe in God, we make ourselves or someone else god.  We pay homage and adoration to stars, and look up to them.  We clutch cold shiny metal that portrays any image we crave to see, and in the imagination of our own hearts, we think that it is good.

 

My First Sermon at Advent

As we approach the time of the year when we, as the children of God, celebrate His greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ, it is an appropriate time to consider the spiritual climate in and around the holy Promised Land during this time.

God revealed Himself to man from the very Beginning, when He first created man in the form of Adam.  Adam then fell away from God, and over time, God became sorry that He had made man, and He decided to flood the earth, saving only Noah and his family.  Noah was a just man, blameless in his generations, and he walked with God.

By ten generations along, however, things were very bad again, and pagan polytheism was prolific throughout the fertile crescent, and especially surrounding Egypt and Babylonia.  Here Abraham heard the voice of God telling him to move into Canaan, the Promised Land, and that God would give all the land Abraham could see to him and his descendants forever.  Abraham then begat Isaac, and Isaac then begat Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons became the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son of Rachel, was sold by his jealous brothers into slavery and carted away to Egypt.  Famine drove the Hebrews to Egypt for food, and eventually they all became enslaved by a cruel pharaoh.  Moses, a Hebrew baby orphaned into Pharaoh’s household, heard the voice of God telling him to lead his people out of captivity and into the Promised Land of Canaan, as He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so long ago.

Through great signs and wonders from God, Moses led his people out of captivity into the wilderness.  And there, on Mount Sinai, He made a covenant with Moses, which we call the Ten Commandments; that as long as the children of God obeyed his Law, God would deliver them into the Promised Land.  Moses led the Hebrews in the desert for forty years, as a nomadic people, and is considered the greatest prophet to ever live.

But still, idol worship and depravity plagued man, and evil prowled around like a hungry lion.  As God’s children coalesced into a nation of Israelites, they were influenced by the surrounding culture and fell victim to societal and spiritual corruption more than ever before.  Israelite kings, prophets, and even Priests broke God’s commandments; practiced idol worship, even naming their own children after Baal, a pagan idol; and practiced elitism by interpreting and enforcing the Law so strictly that it was impossible to follow!

Around this time, Isaiah prophesied, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel [God with us].  Curds and honey he shall eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.”  ~Isaiah 7:14-15.

Hundreds of years passed and then God made good on His message, and sent Jesus, the Great Messiah, to our rescue.  Messiah means savior.  Jesus’ coming was prophesied by all the great prophets and was foretold by angels:

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s namewas Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.  Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.  Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.  For with God nothing will be impossible.”

 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”  ~Luke 1:26-38

 

God desired to redeem us yet again from our debauchery and sinfulness by showing us that living just for God meant living humbly and simply, as Jesus lived.  As opposed to the Pharisees of the time, it meant not exalting yourself, but debasing yourself for God’s purpose, whatever that might entail, even if it means death, as Jesus showed.  It means that being innocent like a child is necessary to obtain the kingdom of heaven, versus being a corrupt holy high Priest, as Jesus taught.

Jesus demonstrates to us that a man can stay righteous and pure.  That life is not easy, but living for God and the kingdom of heaven is worth it.  Jesus avoided temptations and taught the devil the Law in the process!

As we reflect near this time of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it is important to know that Jesus’ perfect blood made a perpetual, everlasting atonement for us and for our sins.  He knew his mission was Divine and that God wanted him to sacrifice himself for the sake of mankind.  And he willingly did this.  For us.  What amazing love for us and for God, his Father.  He didn’t want to die.  He asked that this cup be passed from him, if there was any way.  But there wasn’t.  Jesus’ birth prevented our everlasting death.  His death gave us everlasting life.  Moses gave us the Law but Jesus needed to come to give us grace and Truth in God.  Amen.