Listen as Pastor Rick shares a simple but heartfelt candid message about what it means to receive the
Holy Spirit. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
Sunday, May 31, 2015
The Spirit Series - Sermon 3 - Receiving the Spirit
Listen as Pastor Rick shares a simple but heartfelt candid message about what it means to receive the
Holy Spirit. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
The Spirit Series - Sermon 2 - The Sending of the Spirit
Listen this week to the second sermon in the 3-part "The Spirit" Series, "The Sending of the Spirit." Shared on Pentecost Sunday, 2015, this sermon briefly shares the significance of Pentecost to the Christian Church, particularly to the individual believer. Do we NEED the Holy Spirit? Listen to this sermon to be prepared to hear the final sermon of the series next week.
Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 7 - "Sealed by the Spirit"
Listen as Pastor Rick shares a sermon that is Sermon 7 of the Footprints to Follow Series and Sermon 1 of a three-part series about the Holy Spirit. Are you sealed by the Spirit?
Excerpt:
"So I encourage you again: do not walk in fear. Instead walk in righteousness as you are called to do, doing so in the fear of God ever listening to that precious whisper of the voice of the Holy Spirit who is our security, our authenticator, our endorser, our preservation, and our protection in this present world and in the world to come."
Magnificent Moms!
Listen as Pastor Rick encapsulates the great privilege and great responsibility of being a Mom! Happy Mother's Day!
A Letter to Moms
At Water of Life
Fellowship, we believe in mothers!
Whether you are able to be a full-time stay-at-home mom or you follow a
less traditional path, each and every mother is immensely valuable. Though we take you for granted far too often,
you truly are the most important people the world has ever known. Without you humanity wouldn’t exist! Every human’s life begins with Momma (and as
many are fond of reminding us, it could end with them too)! :-)
Sadly, our culture has
devalued the role of mothers far too much.
It has tried to demean the many roles they play and hats they wear and
imply that a mom is somehow less valuable than a woman who follows a
professional career path. These days it
doesn’t even stop there. Now the big
debate in some circles is whether or not children need parents of both sexes at
all. This is all symptomatic of a larger
underlying problem: Satan hates families and will do whatever he can to destroy
them: and he is not a nice guy. He won’t
hesitate to make it hard on moms. Satan
recognizes something that many people have forgotten: there is no substitute
for a mom who loves God, loves her husband, and shepherds her children. Moms are in a position to build greatness, shape
history, and change eternity.
Don’t forget, every great
human being had a mom: whether it was Isaac Newton, John Wesley, Abraham
Lincoln, Irene Curie, Eileen Collins, or countless other people who changed
history. Even Jesus, the incarnate Son
of God was granted a precious mother. And
for most of these people, mom was the single most important influence in their
lives. Think about it! Even today when the camera pans to the
celebrity or the crowd, what is the cliché response? That’s right. You guessed it: “Hi Mom!” Why? Because the inspiring assumption is that even
if no one else is watching, Mom is. And
Mom matters!
That is what I want you
to know today. Moms, you matter. Far more than you probably realize as you
discover cheerios in the toilet, clean goo from your designer clothes, and sacrifice
even the most basic rights to privacy on a daily basis, Y-O-U matter. You matter to your husband who is likely
clueless about how very much you have to do (until he has to babysit for all of
two hours). :-) You matter to your children - who don’t know it now - to
whom you are showing every day what it means to live and love and walk with
faith. You matter to God Who - by
granting you the gift of children - has privileged you with the one of the
highest callings of all time: the call to motherhood. Please know how incredibly valuable you are,
how much you matter, and how privileged we are to share your journey! Water of Life Fellowship Salutes You! May God’s richest blessings rest upon you
today and always. Happy Mother’s Day!
-
Pastor Rick
Footprints to Follow Series - Sermon 6 - "Opposites: A Testimony"
This sermon's recording was unsuccessful. As a result, here are Pastor Rick's sermon notes. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Today we continue our
series from Ephesians about what it means to put off the old man and former
lifestyle of sin and put on the new man created in righteousness and true
holiness being renewed in the spirit of our minds. We have learned that we do that by following
Christ and walking in His ways.
We learned that Truth is
at the core of Who God is and whom we are to be in Him. Truth is foundational to all lasting
relationships and is essential to the life and integrity of couples, families,
friends, and church families.
Next we learned about
anger and the only proper way for it to be experienced or expressed. The 3 parameters for Christian anger:
1.
Our anger must be
sinless - In your anger do not sin.
2.
Our anger must be
tempered, controlled, regulated, and not left to simmer.
3.
Our anger must
not become a climate or environment permitting the devil a foothold in our
lives.
We learned that anger is
dangerous. In it lies great potential
for error, harm, and sin. Therefore,
like all our other emotions and actions, our anger must be surrendered to
Christ and placed under His guidance and control.
Then we discovered that
“work” is a gift, a grace, and a testimony and that becoming followers of
Christ means that we go from being selfish takers to selfless givers and that
for the Christian, even their secular work has a sacred quality.
Last week we learned the
importance of our spoken words coming to an understanding that our speech
demonstrates what is in our hearts, can determine where we will spend eternity,
and can dim our relationship with God if we are not very careful. We also learned that the path to changing
from corrupt communication to pure communication takes 3 steps: Get clean;
Self-discipline; and WORD Therapy.
This week we are going to
pass through verse 30 (we will be coming back to that one soon) and pick up
with verses 31 & 32. Today is about
a list of opposites. Let us read our
passage together:
17 ¶ This I say therefore,
and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in
the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because
of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have
been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun
go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but
rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he
may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger,
and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.
(KJV)
Today we focus on verses
31 & 32:
31 Let all bitterness, and
wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with
all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.
In the Holman Christian
Standard Bible it is:
31 All bitterness, anger and wrath,
shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And
be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God
also forgave you in Christ.
Several
of the scholars and commentators I studied see a close connection between these
two verses. As a result, I want to frame
them before you as a series of contrasts that display a true testimony. Remember we are still talking about putting
off the old man and putting on the new in Christ Jesus. In verse 31 there is a list of things that we
are to “take off.” We translate the Greek words to say “Let [these things] be
put away from you which in the Greek it means to “carry them away and make a clean
sweep.”[1]
In other words, get rid of them completely sweep them off the floor and
out the door of your heart. Don’t permit
them to remain. Clean house! In verse 32, however is a list of things we
are to put on. It begins with the
English word “Be” [this way] which in the Greek is actually saying “Keep on
becoming” [this way]. So if you combine the two verses they are saying, “Empty
your heart of one group of behaviors and let it be constantly filling with the
other behaviors. If I could say it another
way, I would say, empty – pour out – the pitcher of all these bad things and
put it under the spout to be constantly filled with good things.
The first
of these contrasts we want to talk about is
Bitterness versus Kindness
Before I dive into this I
want to connect it for our kids a little bit.
What is bitterness? Give me an
example (interplay here with the kids).
When I think of something that is bitter I think of something that is
acidic, tart, and sour like a lemon or sour candy, or even taking a nasty
medicine.
Now I have a video of Emma
from about 4 years ago. She is little
and tries a lemon on camera. It makes me
giggle in the video and I still smile even now every time I see it. Pay close attention to her face all the way
through. Please play the video of
Emma. You see, her face contorts and
reacts to the bitterness of the fruit.
In this context it is only a momentary sensation and it is funny. But what happens when bitterness is far more
serious, deeper, and longer lasting than the taste of a lemon? I am talking about bitterness in the
heart. Bitterness in the heart will
contort the countenance far more than the taste of a lemon in your mouth.
In fact, when you begin to
think about bitterness it is not a long metaphorical leap to connect bitterness
and poison. Poison attacks the systems
of the body and interferes with their normal operation. Poisons can cause illness, impairment,
paralysis, and death. (Poisoning was
associated with 727,500 emergency department visits in the United States in
2010.)[2]
When poison has been ingested into the body, the only solutions really are to
absorb it and expel it. This is done by
ingestion of activated charcoal to absorb it and then various other very
uncomfortable ways to remove it from your body.
Poisoning is something we do not want to experience.
Like poison, bitterness
interferes with the spiritual life of a person and can deeply inhibit the
functionality of the body of Christ. As
a result, just like poison must be removed from the human body completely to
ensure survivability and health, Paul tells us here that bitterness also must
be completely swept out of our hearts.
Bitterness against our
past, against others, against our circumstances, against ourselves, against
God: in all cases bitterness poisons and convulses the soul. It inhibits the functioning of our minds and
hearts as they should. It prevents
healthy relationships and separates us from others and from God. Bitterness is vile thing that can poison the
richest of friendships and ruin the deepest bonds.
I think you get the
picture. Paul is clearly telling us to
kick bitterness out the door. Get rid of
it. Let it go. It will only damage and destroy. In place of bitterness, we are to practice
kindness. It is hard for kindness toward
someone to exist when we are bitter toward them. Conversely it is hard to be bitter against
someone when we are being kind to them.
There is connection in kindness.
And, at very least kindness extended to the undeserving is a picture of
grace. Once the bitterness is expelled
from the heart, it is to be replaced by a continual filling of kindness. That kindness should then overflow out of the
heart and splash into your life and into the lives of others.
To show the strength of
the kindness we are to have, let’s look at another place where the Greek word chrestos (which we translate kindness)
is used. Romans 2:4 – “…Despisest thou
the riches of his goodness and
forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Wow! The goodness of God! That puts it into a new light. Instead of a
poisoning bitterness that consumes and convulses the heart impairing everything
we are and impacting everything we do, we are to be continually becoming kind
filled with the riches of goodness/kindness of God himself! Don’t be bitter –
be kind!
If we do this, we will
find our lives and relationships enriched.
As we are filled with his goodness and kindness it will transform how we
perceive others and how we respond to them.
If we are ever living to look at people through the eyes of Christ to
see them and love them as He does, we will find ourselves putting off the old
man and putting on the new.
The next contrast is
Wrath & Anger vs. Tenderheartedness
We have already spent time
talking about anger and wrath and their appropriate exercise in the Christian
heart. I won’t rehash it. The key here is the contrast between the
angry wrathful heart and life versus one filled with compassion. Show me a person being wrathful and
compassionate to a person at the same time.
You will have a hard time convincing me that the red-in-the-face shouting
individual who is clearly enraged is being kind and compassionate to the object
of his wrath. Those two things do not
easily go together. As followers of
Christ, our hearts are to be swept clean of the anger and the rage and the
uncontrolled violent passion and find it continually replaced with tenderness
and compassion toward each other. This
goes for spouses, for siblings, for families, for friends, for brothers and
sisters in the Lord. What a difference
it displays in our lives to the glory of God when wrath and anger are replaced
with the tender compassion of Christ!
What a testimony to family, friends, coworkers, and even enemies when
they experience our compassion and tenderness where they only expected and
maybe even deserved anger and wrath.
The next contrast is
“Clamor and Evil Speaking” vs. Forgiveness
The concept here is that when you are bitter
about someone or angry at them what is the tendency for most people? We speak badly of them. We try to cast them in a bad light to ourselves
and to others. This is a means of
self-justification. It is incredibly
damaging. This simple act of an outcry
against another person or speaking badly of them (blasphemia) can destroy life-long friendships, fracture marriages,
split churches, and utterly demolish a community. Sadly there is a long and terrible track
record for this one even in the church world.
Paul recognized its danger and
said “get it out.” It must be swept out
of our hearts into banishment. Do not
permit it to linger near. It is deadly.
In its place, should be
forgiveness. When we encounter those
moments in our relationships that for the old man would have been damaging, we
have a solution. When others hurt us or
impact us in ways that once would have resulted in bitterness and rage, we are
to respond with forgiveness. Oh I know
it is not an easy thing. But this is
where it is comforting to know that this is a filling of God’s goodness pouring
into our hearts. When the temptation to
speak evil of or to clamor against someone else is presented we are to respond
with forgiveness.
Literally the Greek word
here means to “grant as a favor, gratuitously, in kindness, pardon, or rescue:
to deliver; frankly to forgive, and freely give or grant that forgiveness.”[3] To pardon or rescue: wow. That puts a new spin on things. When you are extending forgiveness to
someone, you are extending a pardon, a rescue to them. This implies that their words or actions may
very well have been wrong and be in need of pardon or even more that their
actions or words may demonstrate they are in need of rescue. Our job is to extend the pardon or offer that
rescue and we do so by forgiving. And
that forgiveness is to be granted gratuitously which means even when others
would find it unwarranted, even when it is not merited, it is to be given free
of charge without obligation.[4]
The final contrast is
“All Malice” vs. “God for Christ’s sake”
Here the Greek word kakia which we translate as “malice”
means badness, depravity, malignity, evil, naughtiness, wickedness. All that bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor,
and evil speaking – the destruction – of that old man at its root stems from
the depravity of the heart, the sinfulness of evil, and the wickedness that is
in this world. This is contrasted with
what we are to have by putting on the new man in Christ Jesus. From Him we are filled with kindness, favor,
and compassion toward our fellow men, extending forgiveness like an unmerited
rescue to even those who would be against us and we do this just as God for
Christ’s sake has forgiven us.
Against a backdrop of the
darkness, bitterness, destruction, and despair of evil we are shown the
brightness of the glory of God in Christ who died on the cross as a sacrifice
unto God opening the heart of God to us wherein we can experience His kindness,
tender compassion, and gratuitous forgiveness.
What a difference! Therefore, as
followers of Christ, our old man with all its bitterness, anger, wrath, and
evil speaking rooted in the wickedness and malignity of sin and evil is
supposed to be put off – kicked out – from our hearts. In its place we are to put on the new man in
Christ Jesus which is ever being filled with His love to us from which we
extend kindness, tender compassion, and gratuitous forgiveness to our fellow
men. Truly this is a contrast. Truly it is a testimony to the power of God’s
grace in our lives.
“31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger,
and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.”
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