The blog contains daily devotions and notes from the weekly messages.  We encourage you to review the notes during the sermon or through the week!  Most of the posts will have an audio and/or video link at the end of the notes.  From time to time the pastors will share other insights and devotions here.
 
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Seize the Moment – Day 302

Hold Fast to the Promises of God!

Hebrews 3

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, January 13.

 

This morning’s Bible reading in Hebrews 3 is a great reminder of Sunday’s sermon about how God has given us the privilege of partaking in His nature according to the precious and magnificent promises of God (see January 10, 2021 sermon on 2 Peter 1:3-4).

Listen to Hebrews 3:12-14,

 

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

 

The Bible commands us to live “today” with a present tense, active faith. We are called to watch our hearts and maintain our walks of faith—to hold fast! So, please, do not lose heart: Jesus will accomplish that which He promised; your deliverance is guaranteed and your salvation is secured; God is faithful to keep all of His promises and the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for you today!

 

Today is the day the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it! Sing that song to yourself every morning and it will change your outlook on your day, more and more as you make it a habit of your life. That is part of training yourself in godliness.

 

May the Holy Spirit remind you today of God’s promise from Hebrews 3:6: “but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” This is a promise with a practice—HOLD FAST!

 

Seize the moment and never stop starting! Today is a great day to walk with Jesus! This is a key to victorious living—hold fast to the promises of God!

 
 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Seize the Moment – Day 301

“Medic!”

Hebrews 2

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, January 12.

 

You have seen in the movies that when a soldier is wounded in battle, one of his buddies cries out, “medic”. What does the medic do, often putting himself in great danger—he goes to the man down to give him aid.

 

Like a medic on the battlefield, Jesus left his place of safety to enter the battlefield of human life; He came from heaven to earth in order to provide aid to anyone who would call upon His name: Jesus!

 

Hebrews 2:17-18 is a triumphant declaration of why Jesus Christ came into the world:

 

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

 

Are you facing temptation in your life and need help? Are you struggling with issues of forgiveness in your relationships? Are you facing a health crisis or financial difficulty?

 

Cry out to Jesus today and He will come to your aid!

The Gospel is the story of the greatest rescue effort ever made in the history of humanity. Jesus came on a mission—to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10)!

 

Do you see someone else on the battlefield who is in need of Jesus’ help and rescue?

 

You have been saved to be a part of the great rescue work of Jesus! You have been blessed to be a blessing! You have been empowered and equipped with the presence of God’s Spirit in you!

 

Seize the moment and be the hands and feet of Jesus today. Pray for and then practically help someone today!

 

Don’t know where to start, check out the weekly prayer guide or the prayer request emails that go out from our church. There are many invitations for you to be a part of God’s work.

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Seize the Moment – Day 300

Worship Jesus Above All Else!

Hebrews 1

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, January 11.

 

Did you know that today is Daily Call #300? One day at a time!

 

As I read Hebrews 1, there is one message that is clear: Jesus Christ is to be worshipped above all things in all of creation.

 

Listen to Hebrews 1:1-4,

 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

 

In this first chapter of Hebrews, the author quotes multiple Old Testament passages, including Psalm 104, to proclaim the awesomeness of God’s splendor and majesty that has been made known and visible to us through Jesus Christ.

 

The point is that Jesus is greater than all of creation, including the angels, which, throughout history up to today, people want to worship. Verse 14 teaches us that angels exist to “to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.” The true purpose for all of creation, seen and unseen, is to bring glory to God so that we may know Him and enjoy Him forever.

 

Seize the moment and worship Jesus above all else; only He is worthy of your worship!   

 
 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Live Like a Champion (Week 2)

Series:  Live Like a Champion: Victory Through the Promises of God!

“The Promise of Becoming Partakers of the Divine Nature!”

2 Peter 1:3-4 (NAS95)

 

Last week, we learned that we are going to learn how to live like a champion by learning how to live in the victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. In order for this to happen, every player on the team has to play like a champion.

 

That means, each player must do the following four things:

(1) Know the team’s playbook;

(2) Train to be in great shape;

(3) Listen to the coach; and

(4) Work together with all the other players as one team.

 

In the same way, as we learn the precious and magnificent promises of God so that we may become partakers of the divine nature to the glory of God, we must also do those same four things:

 

(1) Know God’s playbook—the Bible—by learning the promises of God.

(2) Train ourselves for godliness by learning to live according to the promises of God.

(3) Learn how to listen to the Coach’s voice so that we play the right play at the right time.

(4) Work together as members of God’s family—His Church.

 

Never forget, the championship celebration is in our future and we are invited to live like champions, as one team, today. Today, we are going to learn an overarching truth about the promises of God that will allow us to live like champions because we know that the Victory is already ours in Christ Jesus!

 

Listen to Peter’s words from our theme verses for this sermon series, 2 Peter 1:3-4,

 

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

 

The promises of God are both a future-focused faith (hope) and a present practice of our faith (behavior). Partaking in God’s nature is both a promise of immortality (eternal life, salvation, saved, etc.), but also the life of a new morality (Christlikeness, godliness, righteousness, holiness, etc.).

 

Paul taught us this is the meaning of our baptism; the imagery of our being united in Christ’s death and resurrection.
Listen to Romans 6:4-5,
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

 

Your submission to this ordinance is critical to your living a life of victory. By God’s grace, through faith, believers become partakers in the divine nature and now share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; in other words, we live in the victory of this future hope and that allows us to persevere to the end and to live with hope in the face of the most difficult of situations. Because we are partaking of His victory and our baptism is a proclamation of our fellowship with God and our break of fellowship with the world and its corruption.

 

Paul taught in Ephesians 4:22-24,
“in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

 

In order to learn how to live like champions, I need to define two terms from our 2 Peter 1:3-4 passage:

 

(1) Promise, as used by Peter in the original language, is focused on the content of what God has promised; there are precious and magnificent promises we are to know! That is the point of this entire sermon series—to take time to examine the promises of God and then apply them to our lives, so that we can live like champions, which is why we need to understand the second word: “partake” and the larger concept.

 

(2) Partakers of the divine nature. The best way to accurately understand this is to realize that the Greek word for “partaker” shares the same Greek root word as koinonia which means, “fellowship”. Partaking in the divine nature is NOT to become a god, but, rather, to have fellowship with God. Furthermore, to be God’s partners in His divine power to bring about His precious and magnificent promises through Jesus.

 

We are called partners with God through Christ’s Victory, not because of anything we bring to the table, but because of what God has bestowed upon us. As Paul reminds us to clearly in his picture of this truth in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7,
“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

 

Through His divine power, His precious and magnificent promises that were “granted to us”, which, according to the original language means that our status with God has been lavished upon us or bestowed by royalty. And it’s grammar (perfect participle) implies that this granting which was done in the past is still effective in the present and will continue to be so in the future. The promises are based on a past reality (justification) that will find fulfillment in the future (glorification), and is efficacious today (sanctification).

 

John made this very clear in 1 John 3:1,

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed [lavished] on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

 

We have a fellowship with God that will never end; eternal life starts at conversion through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ, and your fellowship in the divine nature becomes more visible and effective as you grow in Christlikeness through the true knowledge of the Son of God and His precious and magnificent promises. This is God’s divine work in you; the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this!

 

Paul said something very similar in Philippians 1:6, 9-11,

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. … And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

 

A commentator explained,

God has given saving promises to his people, so that they will become like God. They will become like God and are becoming like God because they have escaped “the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” Once again, some scholars argue that believers will escape the corruption of the world at death or when the Lord returns. It is more likely, however, that Peter operated with an already-but-not-yet schema. Believers have already escaped the world’s corruption in that they belong to God, but the full realization of such a liberation will be theirs on the day of resurrection.[1]

 

This is the ethical reality of partaking in the divine nature. This is the praxis of the promise! Every promise of God comes with choices of how we are to live: the commissions and omissions of God’s promises!

 

Paul was very clear in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21 that once we belong to Christ, we are to break fellowship with this world and that which has caused it’s corruption through lust:
“but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”

 

We no longer are to have fellowship with the corruption of this world caused by lust. That is our holy omission within the Great Commission! The key to this reality is that every ‘no’ you say to your lusts is so that you can experience the better ‘yes’ of partaking in God’s blessings in your everyday life.

 

The promise that we will partake of the divine nature is not only some heavenly-minded teaching that we get to go to heaven one day (yes, praise God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have escaped the mortality of this perishable body (1 Corinthians 15)), but partaking of the divine nature is also the taking on the life of Jesus Christ—the sharing in the moral qualities of who Jesus Christ was and joining Him in His mission on earth, of why He came and to what He rescued us for.

 

When you share the nature of something or someone, you take on their qualities and character. You become the fruit of that which you are grafted to. You are a branch upon the Vine that bears His fruit (John 15).

 

Peter taught us that we have everything we need, through His divine power, for godliness and life. That’s a promise about the precious and magnificent promises that have been lavished upon you through the Victory of Jesus Christ—IT IS DONE—the promise of resurrection (John 19:30) and consummation (Rev. 21:6), both of which are guaranteed to us through Jesus’s Victory—these are His promises!

 

The promises of God equip us with everything we need to live in victory. They are a both-and, for this life and the next, for salvation and sanctification, for heaven and earth!

 

The promises of God gives us the hope to keep the faith; and the faith to love; and the love to be like Jesus.

 

Allow me a closing illustration of how this works, using a common phrase from Christianity.

 

What would you think if I were to say to you or one of your loved ones after I visited with you, “May you rest in peace”?  It would be heard as a harbinger of death and not appreciated by you or anyone in the family.  

 

Honestly though, if we understood the promises of God, we should pray this for one another every night and every Sabbath day and even, if we are willing to learn, as we work hard in your day-to-day lives.

 

The rest that God promises is not just for heaven, but also for this life! I could make a convincing argument that the greatest evangelist witness we could display right now is to be peaceful and restful, inside and out.

 

Listen to Matthew 11:28-30,
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

 

Every precious and magnificent promise of Jesus comes with a praxis—it’s His yoke! We experience peace by learning to live in the yoke of Jesus, and the yoke is an agricultural metaphor for coming into the Christian life of discipleship, the life of obedience and submission to God, under the power of the Spirit.

 

Let me connect that back to our theme verses. As one commentator explained about 2 Peter 1:3,
“By the divine power evident in Christ’s life, death and resurrection he has called men and women to be Christians, and when they come to knowledge of Christ in Christian conversion they also receive through that knowledge the grace of Christ which will enable them to live a life of obedience to God.”[2]

 

Furthermore, this is your partaking of the divine nature—your “fellowship with the Spirit” as Paul invited us to in Philippians 2:1-2,
“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” (cf. 2 Cor. 13:14).

 

In other words, outside of the yoke of Jesus there is no peace because outside of His yoke there is no relationship with God …so, rest in peace; have fellowship with God; partake of Him and in His nature, walk as He walked, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

To complete this little illustration, “Rest in Peace” is a promise with a praxis, yes for Heaven, but more so for today, just as Paul promised in Philippians 4:7 & 9,
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. [&] “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

 

In conclusion, the promises of God teach us how to live faithfully on a day-to-day basis. This is the content of the promises of Jesus Christ—the same divine power that gives us hope of eternal life, once partaken of, henceforth, directs and empowers how we live today.

 

In fact, that is the exact intent of Peter who book ends his letter with this reality. Listen to 2 Peter 3:13-18, the last verse of Peter’s letter and our last scripture for today’s lesson:

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

 

The promises of God are a both-and! They are your future-hope and your present-faith! God is inviting you to have fellowship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. All of His promises can be yours in Him.
 

Footnotes:

 

[1] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 293–296.

[2] Richard J. Bauckham, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 50, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1983), 192–193.
 
 
 
 
 

You can listen to the message here:

 

You can watch to the message HERE.

 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 298

Hymn: “Hope Has a Name”

1 Peter 1:13  (ESV)

 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

This modern-day hymn was written by Clynt Reddy, Connections Director at River Valley Church in 2017. He points out that our world is broken, and it is hard to ignore. It is his desire that we always seek hope that the best is yet to come, and that it can only be realized in our need for a Savior, Jesus! We have the hope that He will take the brokenness and sin and make them new by restoring relationships, purpose and freedom in our lives. Jesus is the anchor for our souls. In the grand narrative of human history, God invites us to be both partakers and participants in this story we call life. By doing so, He give us the power thru the Holy Spirit to be His people! We must resolve to forgive, to love, to find hope and to take this message to a world in need!

 

“Hope has a name. His Name is Jesus. My Savior’s cross has set the sinner free.

Hope has a name. His Name is Jesus. Oh Christ be praised, I have victory!”

 

Wake up and remember that Jesus is our ultimate hope and we have been commissioned to take this message to the ends of the world. Start in your neighborhood and see the difference He can make in your world! Let’s live our lives with strength and purpose that can only come from our relationship with Jesus!

 

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
 
 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
 

Hope Has a Name

There is a song, I know it well
A melody that’s never failed
On mountains high and valleys low
My soul will rest, my confidence, in You alone
 
Hope has a name, His name is Jesus
My Savior’s cross has set the sinner free
Hope has a name, His name is Jesus
Oh, Christ be praised, I have victory
 
There is a light, salvation’s flame
Christ undefeated, trampled the grave (come on)
See now the cross, be lifted high
The light has come, the light has won
Behold the Christ (sing it)
 
Hope has a name, His name is Jesus
My Savior’s cross has set the sinner free
Hope has a name, His name is Jesus
Oh, Christ be praised, I have victory (we say)
 
Hope has a name, His name is Jesus
My Savior’s cross has set the sinner free
Hope has a name, His name is Jesus
Oh, Christ be praised,…
 
 
To listen to the song on YouTube, click the link below:
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 297

Philemon as a Case Study of Romans 12:1-2

Philemon

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, January 8.

 

Change is hard, but the whole Christian life is about change—we are to be transformed through the renewal of our minds. This is demonstrated radically in the one chapter book called Philemon. The purpose of Philemon is the redemption of a person’s life and the transformation of their story.  

 

When we are saved, everything begins to change—how we view the world and relate to ourselves and other people. In this letter, Paul had to use his friendship and apostolic authority to get Philemon to stop thinking and behaving according to the political and economic patterns of this world and be transformed by the renewal of his mind.

 

In many ways, Philemon is a case study of Romans 12:1-2.

 

Listen to Paul write to Philemon about Onesimus in verses 10-12, 15-16, “I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart . . . For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”

 

For you to truly live up to the radical call of Paul’s letter to Philemon, regardless of whether you are young or old in the faith, you must invite the Holy Spirit to challenge you in what areas of modern life and thinking you need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind and start relating to people and the world around you like a child of God.

 

Seize the moment and remember who you are in Jesus: you are no longer a slave to fear, you are a child of God.

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Seize the Moment – Day 296

A Gospel Reminder in Dark Days!

Titus 3

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, January 7.

 

This morning, it is my privilege and joy to call you in the midst of so much bad news and remind you of the gospel of Jesus Christ , which is the good news of a great joy to all people!

 

Paul reminds Titus of the grace of God in Titus 3:3-7: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

 

The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news: it is God’s saving grace, God’s richness of mercy, God’s goodness and loving-kindness towards people.

 

As we learn from Titus 3, the gospel is light in darkness; it is the “But God…” in any and every situation of our lives (cf. Ephesians 2:4-5; Romans 6:23)

 

I know that you may have expected a phone call this morning to dwell on the political situation of our country, the civil unrest, or the uncertainty of Covid-19. But you have enough people talking about the problems.

 

I am called by God to unapologetically and unwaveringly proclaim the solution of God: “But God…”!

 

Seize the moment today and every time you hear or read a news story, declare to it: “But God…”! My God is bigger!

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Seize the Moment – Day 295

A Gospel Movement!

Titus 2

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, January 6—the Feast of Epiphany. This is a rich day for the Church; so, may the Lord cause you to rejoice in the miracle of Christmas once again, today.

 

God does not call us to build a monument to Jesus, but, rather, a movement of people who proclaim the gospel of Jesus. How are we invited, by God’s Word, to invest in people?

 

Men and women, alike, younger and older, we are all invited to hear the invitation.

 

Listen to Titus 2:3-8, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

 

What do we have that we can invest in other people? Here are a few ideas to help you to start to think about how God is inviting you:

Our time! This is the most limited; therefore, the most precious of our resources.

Our money! Your heart follows your money… So, be careful of where you lead your heart with how you invest your money!

Your heart! Talk about a precious and very limited resource. Love is your greatest enterprise and your greatest risk.

Your mind! Start training your mind with God’s Word so that you can invest your mental energy on what matter most in life.

 

Seize the moment and invest in a movement of the gospel of Jesus today. Pour all that you have into the eternal work of people.

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Seize the Moment – Day 294

Pass the Baton!

Titus 1

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, January 5, 2021, the twelfth Day of Christmas.

 

Moses did it!

Elijah did it!

Jesus did it!

Paul did it!

Are you doing it?

 

Right about now you are thinking, what do these four famous people from Bible history have in common? What did they each do?

 

Moses equipped and empowered Joshua!

Elijah equipped and empowered Elisha!

Jesus equipped and empowered the Apostles!

Paul equipped and empowered Timothy and Titus!

 

They all trained up and passed on authority to younger leaders; they passed the baton!

 

One of my favorite leadership verses in the Bible is 2 Timothy 2:2, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men [“people” because the Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women] who will be able to teach others also.”

 

Paul gave Titus a very similar command in Titus 1:5, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” Paul has passed the baton to Titus so that Titus will pass the baton to others who are qualified to lead (see Titus 1:6-9).

 

If you say that you are not being fed it is because you have not grown up yet! You may have gained a base of knowledge that has given you an insatiable appetite for knowledge, but the reason you are not being fed is because you are not designed to eat and eat and eat; that will only make you sick (the Bible calls it the sickness of being “puffed up” …prideful)! You are designed to pass the baton to others. If you want to grow up, you must do what Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and Paul did! You must pass it on; train up others, teacher others what you have been taught; pass the baton!

 

Seize the moment and pass on your faith to another. Mentor someone in the faith this year.

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

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Seize the Moment – Day 293

“But you…”

2 Timothy 4

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, January 4, 2021, the eleventh Day of Christmas.

 

There is so much going on right now that it is easy to become discouraged by things out of your control or get distracted by all the voices and actions of people around you.

 

Listen to 2 Timothy 4:1-4, some of Paul’s last words to Timothy,

 

I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

 

After very clearly charging and then warning Timothy, Paul says to him, “But you…”

 

You have heard me say that the two most powerful words in the Bible are, “But God…”; that, no matter our situations, we can trust God. As those words, “But God” become the bedrock of our lives, we can then live out Paul’s “but you” in his final words to Timothy.

 

No matter what other people are saying or doing, “but you…”

No matter how out of control current events are, “but you…”

 

You, stay focused on what God has given you to do. Jesus once said this very same thing to a very distracted Peter, “…what is that to you? You must follow Me!” (John 21:22).

 

Seize the moment and remain faithful to God’s call on your life.

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

Read more...