Today’s Word

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Jesus was raised to life again. He has the power, freedom now and forever and one day every knee shall bow. His is the Kingdom, power and glory forever. Nothing God stand against the name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. The name above all names. Jesus the name that give peace, hope. God who is unstoppable.

God is doing some amazing things. Very exciting time. Question – What does it meant to put Jesus FIRST above all things. Five Week series. Page 54. March 10. Commitment Night. Testimonies, Worship & Commitment.

Convoy of Hope – Making a difference in Ukraine. Items that restore dignity and hope. Family terribly affected by this crisis. It is not a movie, it is a real thing – people caught in arms way.

Director of Missions to Ukraine. Has 45 Staff Members in Ukraine. Keep them in Prayers.

Brighter Note – Northview is our multi-site church, by strategy. One church in twelve different locations. It has been a while since we have announced a new location. The next multi-site will be in Noblesville. The number of question. We have found a location. We will be asking some of you to step up and help us reach that community.

Mathew 25 – Jesus a story of being a faithful steward. What does it look like to put Christ before all things. 5 bags of Silver. Master trust him to manage silver while he is gone. Another one bag. Take care of what I have given you until I return. Good steward of what his master trusted him with. Doubles what he was entrusted. Nothing but praise for the faithfulness of the two servants. He says to them, well done thy good and faithful servants. Third servant. I was afraid so I buried. You wicked lazy servant. You did nothing with what I gave you. Those who use well what they are given, they will be given. Those with nothing, even what they have will be taken away. Master trusted these men to be faithful.

Colossians 1:15-20 – Pre-eminence of Christ.

We are called to be faithful stewards. One day, our Master is going to return for us. Jesus left us with different gifts and talents. When he comes back, he wants us to give account? Were we faithful with what he entrusted us with?

It is required of us that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. He has trusted us and given us gifts, talents and resources? Should he give you more? Have you been faithful for God to give you more of financial resources? How have you done so far in handling all that he has entrusted in you?

A good steward would never think of withholding any thing for his master. We should never consider withholding anything gives to us. This will require personal holiness.

Paul is writing Colossians from Prison Cell. He has never met God’s people in Colossae people. There were people who ridicule Christianity. Verse 24. I am happy in my sufferings for you. James 1:2 – Consider joy my brothers when you consider trials of all kinds. Paul believed his greatest obligation in life is putting Christ first. Serving Jesus was Paul’s first priority.

Inviting culture and atmosphere. Atmosphere of giving. We are put here to glorify God and if our generosity can draw other people to him, then that is what we want to do. We are all blessed. We all live a good life. What is the legacy we are building for our children and the generations that comes after us? Let us give us best? With our faith in God we look forward to the next giving season.

Are you willing to make sacrifices? Paul talks of how important to make sacrifices. A sacrifice is giving up something you love for something you love even more. Paul loved seeing people come to Christ.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 God loves a cheerful giver. Do you give with you that you give to people who are hurting. Childbirth. Who would willingly go through that the pain of birth?

I am happy in my suffering because I know what it is going to produce in you. Do you feel that way about your immediate family? What sufferings are you willing to make so you family and friends can stop across the line of faith.

Paul says I rejoice in my suffering. Because of your sacrifices many people have step forward and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Because of your sacrifices you have sponsored over 50 children in Ghana.

You are making a difference when you join this initiative. There are things Christ must still suffer through the church. Salvation is complete in Christ and Christ alone, and yet there are still things we must do. We must tell the world about Jesus. The Gospel is goodnews if it gets there in time.

Colossians 1:25 – if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a steward of the GOSPEL. You only have one job to do. Mathew 28 – Therefore Go and Make Disciples of all Nation.

No contradiction in the Bible. Once you understand, you see that there is no contradiction. Are you being faithful? Are you trustworthy? It is the mystery now made to all people – the Mystery is CHRIST.

That is different, that is odd. NO REGRET. Apart from Christ, there is no explanation for such a life. Our life should scream, it is all worth it because of Christ. Col. 1:28-29.

EXPLORE 72 – Taught people how to share faith. We hope to raise, but the priority is 100% engagement. All in. God wants us to declare him FIRST. God will never do anything through us, till we allow him to do something through us. I am not asking to do anything.

God has given entrusted you with resources. I pray that we give in ways that are preeminent. Once a month, we do a miracle prayer. You may be at the end of the rope. Standing on a cliff.

EBENEZER

NEW FACES, NEW OPPORTUNITIES, NEW CHALLENGES

Every pastor and every preacher stands in a long line of those who have preached and led the church, stretching back all the way to apostles. We do not take the training and the calling we have received lightly. We don’t take lightly the privileges we have to be in North America a place where no one from Kalenjin Nation had established a leadership structure to serve the Biblical Church gathered as a Conferencing Body. We stand in a long line of those who have preached and pastored in North America. There are many in history who long to be part of a moment like this or a continent such as this. By your grace, stretching back to your Covenant to your people, all the way back to the Apostles and the prophets. Our prayer is for consecration, set us apart, sanctify us we pray. Prepare our Hearts, Guide our hearts, guide every conversation, superintendent every discussion. By your spirit, guide eyes reading books.

We set about this task with a sense of the weight of it, but also with a sense of the joy of it. We pray that that joy will be reflected in glory to you. We pray for those who for years to come, will continue build on the foundation we are laying this year. May everything that takes place in this place be for the health of your church, for the purity of the Gospel, for the power of the Word that never fades.

Welcome NEW MEMBERS

At least one distinctive that is necessary and critical but not alone sufficient is that we are a confessional institution. Without deep learning there is no long orthodoxy. Without a regulative confession of faith, there is no assurance of the continuity of the faith once revealed to all the saints. We have not trust in papacy or magisterium. We recognize no such stewardship or office. We do recognize responsibility of Christ Church, of individual congregations, denominations and associations of churches to establish parameters of beliefs and to establish the faith that is to be taught and confessed.

Continuity here is one of our deepest concerns. We want to hold, to belief, to teach the faith that was to given by Christ unto the apostles. And by apostles unto the church. It is continuity we seek. Continuity wedded to consistency and to the eagerness of the heart to belief in the truth and teach the truth.

Without hesitation or mental reservation. Spanish inquisition. Jesuit reasoning during the time of inquision where people said they would profess the faith but with hesitation.

PRINCIPLE OF PHYSICS, a particle is suspended between two different polarities. Is not here or there. So when it looks that this side is popular, I will say I am here. Where this side looks like it is winning, I will say I am not there, I am here. Hesitation. Mental Reservation. Someone with fingers crossed behind. Without any private arrangements with the one who is in office. The abstract is the HOLY Spirit document – The scripture, all scripture, and godly created creed of the church. Why are we so arrogantly to demand such?

The church has learned through the years that it is not just enough to say I believe the Bible. A sign of contract has to be done both in private and in a public ceremony. It is a very important moment and event in the life of the institution. Achieved upon election into an office. Not everyone is elected into an office. It is a rare privilege.

Confession the Creed of NICENE CREED – followed by the song My Jesus I love Thee.

A sign of God’s promise to his church and the great future ahead us. The knowledge that something big is about to happen. Theological correction – A start of an adventure, the stewardship of teaching class, and we will not get over until we glory. No we teach according to what God has revealed to us. We teach the principles of godly ministry, application of the Gospel to every dimension of life. We have eschatological vision to know that what we do has eternal consequence.

1 Peter 1:13ff – prepare your mind for actions. Thankful for Peter. Sounds like Peter. A Galilean fisherman writing like this. Thoughts like these. This is Peter the instrument of the HOLY SPIRIT. Peter speaking to us in the living active word of God. Peter begins his epistle by a diagnosis of the Christian Church. Elect exiles. Such a powerful word. Throughout centuries some people thought this was about the early Church but not the early church. But we know better. We are elect and we are exiles dispersed. There is a vulnerability to being exile. It means having homes that are contingent – home here and everyone. But we have eternal home with God. We have a permanent home in HEAVEN. We were born again and for now we are being kept. Having been born again, we will be kept by the power of God for something in future – salvation to be begun in the last of times.

We are here by the Sovereignty of God and here for a future yet to be revealed, But also a future closer to us where many things are ahead of us. Sermons to preach, conferences and retreats to be planned, zooms to attend, Good enterprises to be began, families to be raise, lost people to hear the Gospel, churches to be planted, pastors to be stationed to shepherd established congregations. Express the inexpressively. We need the tongues of angels to express the inexpressible yet that is our task.

Our sense of privilege – of God’s grace and mercy. having the privilege of being in North America at time. Church given privilege to know things others cannot know. We are in advantaged situation. Prophets died in confident hope, but we have the knowledge. Things into which angels longed to look. Envois for the church – to understand the Gospel more comprehensively. By God’s grace we are here.

Guard your loins, put your sandals and prepare to leave, as soon as the trumpet sounds. Something explosive is going to take place. How is it that God allows us to understanding. God forbade his privacy so that sinners may know him. There is greater joy in the changing of every calendar.

Something we must recognize – we are preaching superior wisdom. It pushes out idolatry. Ready, mentally alert, set our hope ready to a future to be brought to us. Most faithful, Christian organization. You will have learn the tools and a foundation of learning – being sober minded. Ultimately our knowledge is completed on the day of our LORD.

Multiple diagnosis – problems is confusion of means and ends. The learning is the means. Holiness is the end. Christian learning is the means, not ends. Means to what, to the preaching of the Gospel. Yes. Every godly assignment given to ministers of the Gospel. Yes. But those are penultimate. The ultimate end is HOLINESS. You have to be holy. You shall be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written. Leviticus 11 where God declares himself HOLY. Not eating bugs. One of the easiest command of the Scriptures. God says I am HOLY, therefore you must be HOLY. Confor