Seize the Moment – Day 533
The Holiness of Food!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 1.
Is food important to you? How do you view food?
Leviticus 11 records a significant part of the Levitical Law—it’s dietary restrictions. Listen to the LORD’s purposes as He finished giving the dietary restrictions in verses 44-45:
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.
A significant part of the people’s holiness in the Levitical Law was focused on food. God prescribed for them dietary restrictions as a part of their spiritual life. A major part of covenant faithfulness was demonstrated by who was invited to the dinner table and what was eaten. These became major points of contention between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day.
In today’s culture, most people I know have a very different view of food consumption. We have either a utilitarian or hedonistic view of food, not a holistic one. Many have lost their connection with the rhythms of working the earth and raising animals for food. Today, we simply go to the store and purchase what we need and find no relationship between that and our worship of the Sovereign God.
God calls us to a larger view of food and even though Jesus has freed us from the dietary restrictions (ref. Matthew 15:11; Acts 10:9-16), we are still called to view our time around the table as a central and holy part of our lives.
Seize the moment and reconsider the importance of food and your time at the dinner table to celebrate God’s work of deliverance so that we can be His set apart people.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 532
Responsible Living!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, August 31.
Is there anything in your life that keeps you from being available to the Lord’s service?
Leviticus 10:1-2 makes a sudden transition from the inauguration of the sacrificial system to the tragic deaths of two newly ordained priests:
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Were the two sons of Aaron not authorized to offer the incense or did they make a mistake by offering an unauthorized incense or offer it at the wrong time or maybe the fire they used came from a wrong source?
Prior to this horrific event, alcohol was not mentioned and now, God makes it clear that while drinking alcohol was not wholesale prohibited for His people, it was forbidden while fulfilling priestly duties. This would be emphasized again in Ezekiel 44:21.
Ephesians 5:18 discusses alcohol for new covenant believers, who are all God’s priests today: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” The prohibition is not against alcohol usage, but against drunkenness and irresponsibility. The Bible calls us to being of sound mind, body, and soul, not intoxicated by anything so that we can live our lives holy and whole.
Seize the moment and live a sober and responsible life! Be available to serve the Lord effectively at any time of the night or day.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 531
Confirmation from God!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, August 30.
Have you ever received a confirmation that you were doing a good job? A simple example would be when your boss praises or rewards your work.
Leviticus 9 narrates the inaugural sacrifices for worship at the tabernacle by Aaron and his sons after their seven-day ordination service. The sacrificial system of God’s people has begun.
Leviticus 9:22-24 records God’s confirmation to the leaders that they sacrificed to Him correctly and to the people that they were now walking in His ways:
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he stepped down after making the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
Seize the moment and worship by giving yourself to God as a living sacrifice. May you experience the confirmation of God’s consuming fire through the activation of His Holy Spirit in you.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Live Like a Champion – Week 35
The Promise of Belonging!
Luke 15:11-32 (NAS95)
Reader #1: Luke 15:1-7:
Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Reader #2: Luke 15:8-10:
“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? “When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Reader #3: Luke 15:11-32:
And He said, “A man had two sons. “The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them. “And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. “Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. “And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. “And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. “And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ “But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. “But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ‘But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”
The promise of the week is “The Promise of Belonging!”
Last week, we learned from the promise of membership that we are knit together as members of the one body of Christ. This week, we are learning from Jesus’ famous parable of the prodigal son that we are intended to belong one to another.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son can also be called the Parable of the Lost Son. Its placement in Luke 15 is essential because it comes after the parables of “The Lost Sheep” and “The Lost Coin”, which are straight forward parables, but this last one has an important twist in it.
Did you hear the twist as you listened to these three parables, back-to-back?
God is the central character of each parable: God is like the good shepherd who goes to great lengths to find the one lost sheep; God is like the woman who goes to great effort to find the one lost coin; and God is like the father who eagerly waited to receive back the one lost son.
Listeners of these three parables are being conditioned by the Master Teacher to expect someone in the third parable to seek and find! But the twist in this parable is that, unlike the other two, no one went looking for that which was lost. The Father stayed home and eagerly waited for his lost son to come home, back to the family to which he belonged.
Who was supposed to go looking for the younger son?
It was the older brother and Jesus’ original audience knew that to be true. When the older son doesn’t go after his younger brother, we are left confused and hurt! Something is wrong with this story! Something is terribly broken about this family!
Jesus did this on purpose because Jesus’ audience was a bunch of older sons who saw themselves as faithful to the Father but embittered to the Father’s lost children who were not faithful like they were. Listen again to Luke 15:1-2, “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus’ parable invites our hearts to yearn for three things at once:
- We yearn for our true elder brother, Jesus Christ, to come search for us. As Luke 19:10 explains of why Jesus came, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
- We yearn to join with Jesus in His work—to go out from this place and invite all who are lost to come home to the Father. As Jesus commands in Luke 14:23, “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.”
- We yearn for our true Home, where God the Father is waiting to have all His children with Him, as one big forever family. John teaches us of the Father’s love in 1 John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”
From the beginning, God designed us to belong, and He is jealous for us to come Home. This is the mission of Jesus Christ and the perpetual mission of His body, the church. Several times we see this in Jesus’ life. Jesus’ ministry reflects the heart of God as Jesus was “moved with compassion” (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 6:34; 8:2-3; Luke 7:13; etc.).
Are you moved by compassion to help God’s lost children find their way home?
We were created to have a relationship with God—to belong as members of God’s family, to be His Image Bearers (Genesis 1:26-27), but our sin separated us from Him (Genesis 3:22-24; Romans 3:23). That is what it means to be dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 2:13), it means we are cut off from the Family of God and from Home, our inheritance of eternal life.
God loves us so much that He did something about it—God sent the Elder Son to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10; John 3:16)! This truth is why we listen to these three parables in a row and know deep down that something is wrong at the end, and we are disturbed!
Jesus did what the elder son in Luke 15 would not do—Jesus restored the Father’s lost children and brought them Home. In Jesus’ parable, neither son, younger nor older, was being faithful to their Father. They were too busy focusing on their current entitlements and future inheritances, on what they can get from the Father, rather than knowing their Father’s heart for His family.
God’s greatest desire for all of us, regardless of age, because this really has nothing to do with whether you are older or younger, but with whether you are struggling with the sin of sinfulness or the sin of self-righteousness, is that we would come Home to Him and belong.
You belong to the Family of God, and we hope that First Baptist Church can be a safe place for you to belong, regardless of whether your issue is that you ran away from God a long time ago and lived a life of sin or that you’ve been in the church your entire life and have become focused on your entitlements and inheritance.
Don’t let either your morality or immorality be a barrier to belonging! Jesus came to give you a new life in Him, the life of God through the Spirit!
You are invited to come Home as the Father wants all His beloved children to belong to Him and to one another. This is the body of Christ, and this work is why Jesus came, once and for all.
You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message below:
You can watch the service by clicking the link below:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 529
Today’s hymn focus will be “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”
Isaiah 41:13(NLT)
“For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.”
Thomas A Dorsey wrote this song out of his brokenness after losing his wife and newborn son. He wrote the song while at Ebenezer Baptist Church in South Chicago, and had the choir sing it on Sunday. He was quoted as saying “It tore up the church!”
Through the storm, through the night, Lead me on to the light
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
Dorsey said “My business is to try to bring people to Christ instead of leaving them where they are…What I share with people is love. I try to lift their spirits and let them know that God still loves them, still saving and giving them that power.”
YOUTUBE:
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When my light is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand
Guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 528
Filled Up for God’s Work!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, August 27.
Have you attended an ordination service in your faith tradition?
I will never forget my own ordination. I served in full-time pastoral ministry in various areas of ministry responsibility throughout my seminary Master of Divinity degree program, while walking through the ordination and mentorship process in my local church and denomination.
I was filled up and ready to be poured out. The ordination service was more than an acknowledgement of that nearly six-year process, it was the seal upon it. When the stole was placed over me and hands were laid upon me, the Holy Spirit filled me up to overflowing.
The Hebrew translated, “he will ordain you” literally means, “he will make full with a sufficient quantity.” To ordain the priest was for God to fill up that person to sufficiency! Through an intricate process, the people set apart their priests as consecrated and purified vessels and then God filled them up for His ministry. The ordination is God’s work, not man’s work!
In Ephesians 5:18, Paul invites all new covenant believers to “be filled with the Spirit.” As a follower of Jesus, you, too, like the priests of old, are ordained to be a vessel of God’s glory, filled up with the Holy Spirit to walk in God’s good works. This is God’s grace!
Seize the moment and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Trust God to pour out your life for His glory!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 527
A Worker’s Wages!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, August 26.
Every generation seeks to apply the Word of God to our contemporary cultures in timely and practical ways. One such discussion is that of the role of paid church workers.
God’s Word is the foundation for all church discussions, including this ongoing conversation. Leviticus 7:7-9 communicates that a priest is worth his wages:
The guilt offering is like the sin offering, there is one law for them; the priest who makes atonement with it shall have it. Also the priest who presents any man’s burnt offering, that priest shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has presented. Likewise, every grain offering that is baked in the oven and everything prepared in a pan or on a griddle shall belong to the priest who presents it.
The sacrificial system was essential to providing for the priests and the tabernacle (temple) workers because these people were without land allotment to farm and subsist. Since God chose them to focus their work efforts on tending to the faith and practices of His people, He built into the Law that their wages came from their work.
In the church today, there are men and women—priests, pastors, ministry leaders, church and parachurch workers, and missionaries serving around world—whose chosen vocation has the same exclusive purpose of tending to the faith and practices of God’s people. These people work hard and are worthy of their wages. Those wages are no longer through the Levitical sacrificial system, but they are still flowing through the sacrifices of God’s covenant people.
Seize the moment and give generously to God’s work. Pray for and financially support the laborers you know who are tending to the faith and practices of God’s people.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 526
Earthen Vessels!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, August 25.
What is the purpose of our bodies in this life?
Leviticus 6:28 describes what happens to the vessels used to prepare the offering to God: “Also the earthenware vessel in which [the sin offering] was boiled shall be broken; and if it was boiled in a bronze vessel, then it shall be scoured and rinsed in water.”
Anything the animal sacrifice touched became holy. Everything that it touched became set apart for God. The priestly garments had to be cleansed from any blood defilement, the fat and blood had to be completely consumed in the fire, the meat portions were specifically allocated to the priests, and even the cooking vessels had to be either destroyed or thoroughly cleansed.
What struck me was that the temporary vessels made from clay had to be broken after being made holy, whereas the permanent vessels made from metal had to be scoured and washed thoroughly. While there are lots of practical reasons this was commanded, the connection with our bodies being the temples of the Holy Spirit is unmistakable.
Paul spoke of our bodies as earthen vessels in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” Again, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:20-21, “Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 525
The Power of Words!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, August 24.
Have you been in trouble because you made a promise you couldn’t keep?
Leviticus 5 discusses the guilt offering and gives practical examples of the kinds of sins that would require it to purify the person. Listen to a very relevant example found in verses 4-5:
Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these. So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned.
Thousands of years ago if you made an empty promise, regardless of your intent being good or evil, and it was brought to your attention, then a sin offering was required for your purification.
Perhaps the person simply did not realize the implications of their promise or maybe circumstances changed, and the person could no longer fulfill it. No matter because the law said that an unfulfilled oath caused a person to be guilty.
Words have power! Words flow from a person and carry the power to build up and to tear down, to bind together or to loosen apart. Therefore, we must be wise with how we use our words, especially when making commitments and promises to people and communities.
Proverbs 18:21 teaches, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” The Bible is filled with wisdom for our words, and we should listen and obey to God’s Word with how we use our words.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 524
Ignorance is No Excuse!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, August 23.
Have you ever heard someone say, “ignorance is no excuse”?
The law is an objective standard by which our actions are measured. If a police officer pulls you over for speeding and you say you didn’t know that the speed limit on I-70 went from 70 to 55 in the Indianapolis area, the police officer would still hold you accountable to the law.
Leviticus 4 teaches about the sin offering, specifically for sins that were committed unintentionally by the people. Listen for this truth in Leviticus 4:2, 13, 22, and 27:
If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done … Now if the whole congregation of Israel commits error and the matter escapes the notice of the assembly, … When a leader sins and unintentionally does any one of all the things which the Lord his God has commanded not to be done, … Now if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done. [italics added]
Unintentional sin is a real issue. Sometimes we sin without intent. We simply fall short in our thoughts, speech, activities, and relationships. Sometimes these unintentional sins are not even things we do, but things we don’t do.
While it is true that ignorance is no excuse, praise God that even when we don’t know to ask for forgiveness of a particular sin, Jesus’ blood “cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). This is God’s truth and grace!
Seize the moment and seek God daily. Be at peace with God and with yourself because you are forgiven and set free from sin to live for God!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...