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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.
Note:
We realize it isn’t easy to always find what you are looking for, so we are in the process of organizing these blogs. Click HERE to go to an index of blogs that reference our YouTube channel in order to get you where you need to go…
To find a particular book and chapter, use the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of this page. Type the name of the book and the chapter. It should appear as one of your choices. (ex: John 2)
05
Jan '21
Titus 1
05
Jan '21
Seize the Moment – Day 294
Pass the Baton!
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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04
Jan '21
2 Timothy 4
04
Jan '21
Seize the Moment – Day 293
“But you…”
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.
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03
Jan '21
Live Like a Champion (Week 1)
03
Jan '21
Victory Through the Promises of God!”
“The Promise of Precious and Magnificent Promises!”
2 Peter 1:1-4 (NAS95)
Communion Devotion:
At the end of 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained a critical truth in his “Christus Victor” address:
In our lives we don’t speak readily of victory. It is too big a word for us. We have suffered too many defeats in our lives; victory has been thwarted again and again by too many weak hours, too many gross sins. But isn’t it true that the spirit within us yearns for this word, for the final victory over the sin and anxious fear of death in our lives? And now God’s word also says nothing to us about our victory; it doesn’t promise us that we will be victorious over sin and death from now own; rather, it says with all its might that someone has won this victory, and that this person, if we have him as Lord, will also win the victory over us. It is not we who are victorious, but Jesus.[1]
The key to all of the promises of God are found in these words, “if we have him as Lord, [He] will also win the victory over us.” The Bible teaches us that the victory we have and the victory we live is a vicarious one. That means, it is a victory that is not of our own making or doing, but a victory that has been given to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is something we get to “partake” in or share.
All that we have is by God’s grace and that is what we remember and rely upon in our daily lives and that is why we regularly come to the Table of the Lord’s Supper: to remember the victory of Jesus Christ and to learn that we have nothing apart from Him and that in our daily lives we must “partake” of His victory.
This is the essence of our salvation and this is the purpose of communion: to remember God’s grace and to be reminded to live every day of our lives in God’s grace—as completely dependent on His gifts!
Let us now partake of the elements—the Bread of Life and the Cup of the New Covenant: Paul teaches us how we should participate at the Lord’s Table in 1 Corinthians 11:23-28:
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. [Pause to pray.]
We are invited now to take in Christ, His Victory over sin and death, so that we, too, can walk in victory through the strength that can only come through God’s grace. It is God’s grace that qualifies us to partake and it is God’s grace that strengthens us through our partaking. It is all gift, all grace, all Christ, whose body was broken and whose blood was poured out, so that we can receive forgiveness of sins and redemption of life into the divine nature of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are invited to partake. Partake and Pray.
This week’s message:
“The Promise of Precious and Magnificent Promises!”
2 Peter 1:1-4 (NAS95)
[Play Sermon Bumper Video]
As you saw in the video, our theme verse for the 2021 sermon series is 2 Peter 1:4. Listen to God’s Word from 2 Peter 1:1-4:
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 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.
Today’s message is going to provide a big picture for this sermon series and the four BIG IDEAS of how God is inviting us to live the Victory that Jesus Christ has given to us. We are invited to live like champions because our victory is through the promises of God.
Never forget what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:20-22,
“For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”
You hear this truth from Paul at the very beginning of Peter’s second letter: your faith is a received faith, not a created one. You have received a faith as the same kind as Paul’s.
How? By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace are multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord because He has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through His divine power.
Are you hearing this? Peter made it very clear from the very beginning: God has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises—they are all of grace!
And why has God given us His grace through His Son Jesus Christ? Peter continues: so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption (death) that is in the world by lust.
God has given you Victory through His precious and magnificent promises and that victory is your fellowship in the Trinity—you are alive in Christ, no longer cut off or dead in sin! You have been delivered and rescued and now, God is calling you to live through His divine nature—to live in the victory of Jesus Christ—the victory that is found in every promise of God that has been lavishly poured out upon you through you adoption as sons, the children of God with right of inheritance.
Listen to Paul explain this miracle of grace from Galatians 4:4-7, a scripture we looked at thoroughly in our Christmas messages over the last month,
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
You are an heir to all the promises of God! You will be His people and He will be your God!
As Paul proclaims of our rich inheritance in Ephesians 2:4-10,
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
You already have been fitted for your super bowl ring, now you just need to trust that the victory is your’s and live like a champion and wait for the day when the ring is put on your finger.
We are now going how to do this through the framework of being a part of a Superbowl winning team. For a NFL team to win the Superbowl, every player has to play like a champion.
Each player must do the following:
(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) We are God’s team and we need to know God’s playbook to run the right plays at the right time. God has given us everything we need to do His will for His glory.
Paul exhorts his disciple Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man [athlete] of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Do you know the promises of God? They are found in the Bible and they are your victory in Jesus Christ. We will be learning them throughout 2021, but each of us must commit to hiding them in our hearts.
Psalm 119:11 states,
“Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”
(2) We are God’s players and we need to exercise our faith and work together to win the victory! We are called to train ourselves for godliness and to be ready at any time to run God’s play!
Paul teaches us in 1 Timothy 4:7b-10,
“Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”
Are you in spiritual training? I remind you that grace is not opposed to effort, only to earning.
I can testify to you that physical training does have a season of glory, whether that season ends in high school, college, in the NFL, but there is a day where even the most celebrated athlete’s career must come to an end.
The good news is that when we train ourselves in godliness, the fullness of the victory is always yet to come!
The glory days are never behind us, but always before us! When we train ourselves according to the Word of God, the living God sets before us a future that has the truest and highest honor of being welcomed into the Victor’s Circle of Heaven. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27,
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
That leads us to the third big idea of how we are to live like champions…
(3) We are God’s players and we need to learn the Coach’s voice so we can play the right play at the right time! We are God’s players and when the Coach calls us into the game, we must be ready to obey even if we don’t understand exactly how God is going to use us!
Listen to how Jesus explains the importance of knowing the Coach’s voice in John 10:3-5, 10b,
“But he who enters by the door is a shepherd [coach] of the sheep [players]. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep [players] hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep [players] by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep [players] follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. … I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Do you know the Coach’s voice and trust Him so well that you respond without hesitation?
Jesus promises that His Victory is the “abundant” or fullness of life that can only come through your fellowship in His Trinity—the Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, let’s be clear, that the victory I am calling us to live and the championship I am calling us to win is not always health and wealth, worldly success and prosperity! That is not the gospel I preach or we have been given by Jesus.
The abundant life that God promises through Jesus Christ is the fullness of His Presence—your partaking of His divine nature. Because it is only then that we can have the fullness of joy, the sufficiency of grace, the perfection of love, or the rest that comes through His peace guarding your heart and mind.
That leads us to the final big point that will thread throughout this sermon series on the promises of God…
(4) We are God’s team and the victory is God’s! The championship celebration is in our future; we are invited to live like champions, as one team, today, knowing the Victory is already ours in Christ Jesus!
Paul explains to us in Romans 8:37-39,
“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Do you trust and live like God’s victory is secure for you, as a member of His body—His Church?
I invite you on a journey in 2021 that no matter what may come in the circumstances of our lives, God is inviting us to live like champions by partaking of His divine nature. Jesus is our victory and He has given us the precious and magnificent promises of God so that we may learn to live with Him—in His victory!
Footnotes:
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 75.
You can listen to the message here:
Communion (at beginning) Message (10:27)
You can watch to the message HERE.
Communion (at beginning) Message (10:27)
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02
Jan '21
Today’s Final Christmas Hymn: Joy to the World
02
Jan '21
Seize the Moment – Day 291
Today’s Final Christmas Hymn: Joy to the World
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!” (ESV)
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!” (ESV)
“Joy to the world” is perhaps an unlikely popular Christmas hymn. First of all, it is based on a psalm, and, second, it celebrates Christ’s second coming much more than the first.
This favorite Christmas hymn is the result of a collaboration of at least three people: English poet and clergy, Isaac Watts, composer of Handel’s Messiah: George Frederick Handel, and Boston music educator, Lowell Mason. These men lived almost a century from each other, yet their work brought about this glorious song.
As we approach a new year, we need to look for opportunities to bring this message of joy to a world that is in desperate need of it. Yes, we can pull from the past, but we must make the most of the present to ensure that we are looking forward to the future that God has in store for us.
Wake up and be determined each day to seek God first and start the day with remembering that no matter how dark the night was, JOY comes in the morning!
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.
Joy to the World
1
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive its king;
let ev’ry heart prepare him room,
and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.
Let earth receive its king;
let ev’ry heart prepare him room,
and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.
2
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let all their songs employ
while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
Let all their songs employ
while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
3
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.
nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.
4
He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
If you would like to hear the melody played, click on this link:
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01
Jan '21
2 Timothy 3
01
Jan '21
Seize the Moment – Day 290
The Word of God!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, January 1, 2021, the eighth Day of Christmas and New Year’s Day. Happy New Year!
Paul exhorts his disciple Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Over the years of the hard and messy hands-on work of helping people in their very real situations in a very broken world, I have been deeply converted to the power of God’s Word: not as a propositional truth, but as a living truth. When my words go dry, there is a deep well of wisdom in the Bible. When a situation presents itself with no hope, there is still reason to hope in Jesus.
The Bible accurately diagnoses and effectively treats us. We each need the right kind of help and we each can get world-class care from the Wonderful Counselor and Mighty Physician. Turn to Jesus today, open His love letter to you (the Bible), and find rest for your souls. As He quiets the storm inside of you, you will see a new way through your circumstances. The Word of God does not return void—it illuminates the Way to peace and wholeness!
Seize the moment and start the New Year right, by recommitting yourself and your family to daily time with Jesus by opening your Bible to read and pray God’s Word.
Lord, you teach us that your word will never return void so I pray that you will plant the good seeds of your word deep into the hearts and minds of each person listening. Bear good fruit in them, deliver and rescue them, heal and transform their lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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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31
Dec '20
2 Timothy 2
31
Dec '20
Seize the Moment – Day 289
Pursue the Deeper Life with Jesus!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, December 31, the seventh Day of Christmas. Enjoy your last day of 2020 and let’s welcome in the new year with prayer and fasting for God’s grace to pour down upon our church & families, communities and country. May God lead each of us into the deeper life with Jesus.
You have heard of “stop, drop, and roll” when you are on fire. Well I say to you: “stop, turn away, and run into the arms of Jesus” when you are finding yourself struggling in life.
Paul teaches us in 2 Timothy 2:22-26, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
The Bible diagnoses us as having been given over to our passions and desires and that “breeds quarrels” within us! When you desire for something/anything more than God, there is war! When you desire to break your promises with others in hopes of finding personal fulfillment, there is war! When you struggle to love and trust, there is war!
There is only one hope for victory and He is the living hope—our hope is found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!
Decide today: (1) move away from what “breeds quarrels” (STOP!); (2) flee from all immorality (TURN AWAY!); and (3) Pursue Jesus Christ—righteousness, faith, love, and peace (RUN INTO THE ARMS OF JESUS)!
Seize the moment and make it your all-consuming ambition in the New Year to live a victorious life for God by pursuing the deeper life with Jesus Christ.
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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30
Dec '20
2 Timothy 1
30
Dec '20
Seize the Moment – Day 288
The Priority at Home!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, December 30, the sixth Day of Christmas.
What are the priorities of your home life?
Listen to 2 Timothy 1:5-7, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
Paul is reminded of Timothy’s sincere faith; a faith that now dwells in him, but started in his childhood home. Even though Paul and Timothy grew up in very different circumstances and cultures, Paul praised Timothy’s upbringing because it was one of faith.
Timothy’s preparations for ministry began in the home.
So often in American culture, we are expected to fill kids’ time with new experiences and activities, ensuring they have every opportunity now in hopes they will be successful in the future.
But do we neglect the simple things that our children really need: a home that is a sanctuary of faith, hope, and love. A home that is a safe place where they feel secure, where their souls can find rest, where their minds and hearts are guarded by the peace of God. A home that is filled with the care and concern that comes from God through our healthy relationships.
I often say to couples I work with, the best thing you can give your children is a healthy marriage.
If you desire to give your kids the very best, then make your home a safe place of refuge and protection. Not to hide them from the world, but a place of intentional preparation for what is to come: a life of service to Jesus Christ.
Children learn by watching the adults in their lives.
Seize the moment and prioritize Jesus in your life and home today.
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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29
Dec '20
1 Timothy 6
29
Dec '20
Seize the Moment – Day 287
Godliness with Contentment!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, December 29, the fifth Day of Christmas.
Are you content?
Paul states in 1 Timothy 6:6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
When you look at the context of this verse, we learn that we are to pursue “godliness”, which is Christlikeness—the work of the Holy Spirit in us to conform us into the image of Christ, restoring us as the Image Bearers of God to the world, while remaining content in the midst of both religious (vv. 3-5) and worldly power plays (vv. 7-10), both of which lead to discontentment.
Then, Paul writes in verses 11-16, “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.”
Seize the moment and pursue a growing relationship with Jesus with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the great gain of godliness with contentment in all things. When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, Jesus promises to lead us into His abundant 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.
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28
Dec '20
1 Timothy 5
28
Dec '20
Seize the Moment – Day 286
The Basics of the Christian Life!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, December 28, the fourth Day of Christmas.
When I was in the Army, we would conduct the basic infantry “battle drills” all the time. The battle drills are the building blocks of individual skills and responsibilities on the battlefield—how to shoot, move, and communicate. Battle drills were drilled into us because people tend to forget how to do the basics well when under stress.
As your pastor, I need to lead you through battle drills of the Christian life, so that we do the basics well, like the golden rule of Jesus, even when we are under stress.
As I read my Bible this morning, I am reminded of the simple wisdom of getting back to the basics. Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:1-2, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”
Here are a few basics for us to remember on how to do life:
- Do not “rebuke” (be harsh with) the elderly, but rather “encourage” them (advocate for them and build them up). Treat older men as you would your father and older women as your mother. In other words, honor the elderly in our midst for their wisdom and life experiences.
- Treat people who are your own age and younger as your brothers and sisters: ”in all purity.” In other words, do not objectify and use one another, but see the value and worth in one another as human beings and treat each other accordingly.
- We are to practice these basics continuously in the church, but we are to extend these graces to others. What a great witness that would be to our world today!
Seize the moment and get back to the basics in 2021. Practice the golden rule in every part of your life so that when stress comes, it is only love and the fruit of the Spirit that come out of you in word and deed.
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.
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27
Dec '20
The Promises of Christmas (Week 5)
27
Dec '20
Happy New Year!
“The Promise of God Making All Things New!”
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 & Revelation 21:1-8 (NAS95)
One of the promises of Christmas is that God is actively working to make all things new. It is His work!
In Luke 1:30-33, a messenger from Heaven announced a kingdom that will have no end:
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 bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
This will be the kingdom of the Messiah and the angel is referencing the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 9:6-7:
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of these promises of Christmas during some of the darkest days of world history when a tyrannical empire was attempting to destroy all that was good upon the earth:
The authority of this poor child will grow (Isa. 9:7). It will encompass all the earth, and knowingly or unknowingly, all human generations until the end of the ages will have to serve it. It will be an authority over the hearts of people, but thrones and great kingdoms will also grow strong or fall apart with this power. The mysterious, invisible authority of the divine child over human hearts is more solidly grounded than the visible and resplendent power of earthly rulers. Ultimately all authority on earth must serve only the authority of Jesus Christ over humankind. With the birth of Jesus, the great kingdom of peace has begun. Is it not a miracle that where Jesus has really become Lord over people, peace reigns? That there is one Christendom on the whole earth, in which there is peace in the midst of the world? Only where Jesus is not allowed to reign—where human stubbornness, defiance, hate, and avarice are allowed to live on unbroken—can there be no peace. Jesus does not want to set up his kingdom of peace by force, but where people willingly submit themselves to him and let him rule over them, he will give them his wonderful peace.[1]
What was Bonhoeffer’s hope in the midst of Hitler’s regime? It was the Christ child and His kingdom of peace. As Paul says in Philippians 2:10-11,
“every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess…” .
Through Christmas, God promises to make all things new, but as Bonhoeffer noted, this something new actively opposes the old order of things—diametrically opposed to human stubbornness, defiance, hate, and avarice, which is greed and covetousness. This new thing that God promises will require each person to choose for themselves if they want Jesus’ kingdom of peace to be birthed in them.
One of the great promises of Christmas is that Jesus came to bring something new to the world—in us and then through us. Listen to Paul explain this in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21,
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. [emphasis added] Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
This morning, as we prepare to enter into the New Year of 2021, I invite you to find your peace, hope, love, and joy by becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus and then learning to live in union with Him as a new creation. No longer entrust your peace or hope, your love or joy in the counterfeit promises of the world. After the chaos and emptiness of 2020, do not expect anything but Jesus to bring order to and fill 2021. If there is anything we should have learned in 2020 is that there is only One who can give us peace and hope.
To experience the promises of God given to us in this kingdom of Jesus, you must be born again, as Jesus states in John 3:3,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
To be born again means we must be converted, through faith and repentance, into something different than we were—born into something new, something other than we were. Paul teaches us in Titus 3:3-7,
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (cf. Ephesians 2:1-10).
It is good news to know that we can have a new beginning when we come to Jesus Christ and are filled with His Holy Spirit—the presence of God in us, eternal life, here and now. Being born again is just the beginning of this new life, which is eternal life—Jesus Christ is the “doorway to all the promises and blessings of God.”[2] We are now called to live in them as citizens of a new kingdom. We are to repent and believe.
Just as Jesus preached in Mark 1:15,
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Jesus ushered in something new—the fulfillment of God’s promises. Paul explained Jesus’ words in Galatians 4:4-7,
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Jesus knew that His coming, the first Christmas, was the ushering in of the fullness of time when the Old Covenant would be fulfilled with the institution of the New Covenant between God and humanity.
Listen to Ezekiel 36:26-27 point to the New Covenant 600 years before Jesus,
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (cf. Jeremiah 31:33–34; Ezekiel 11:19–20; 18:31–32).
Jesus has done this! We are now living in the New Covenant with Jesus Christ as the only means by which any person can enter what He has made new. As Jesus proclaimed of Himself in John 10:9-10,
“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Acts 3:18-21 recorded this as the message of the early New Testament church:
“But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time (cf. Acts 10:38-44).
What is this “period of restoration of all things” that the earliest preachers of the gospel focused their message? It is their very hope—the fulfillment of what Jesus ushered in that first Christmas 2025 years ago in 4 or 5 BC—the rule of God on the earth itself in what the Bible calls the New Heaven and New Earth. This is our hope and our message. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:19,
“If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
It is God on His throne in Heaven who has given us these magnificent and precious promises of His fulfilled kingdom in Revelation 21:3-8:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Never forget the words of the angel spoken to Mary, “His kingdom will have no end.” And in this kingdom Jesus promises, “Behold, I am making all things new.” This begins in you at your conversion, but it is not completed until His consummation. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this!
Jesus invites you to be a part of it! Jesus taught us to pray with these words from Matthew 6:10, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” This is the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. May it be done in us and through us, now and forevermore, in and through 2021 and until that Day.
Footnotes:
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 68.
[2] Mike Beaumont and Martin Manser, The Handbook of Bible Promises, 2020, 75.
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