Seize the Moment – Day 582
The Danger of Legalism!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, October 20.
Are you familiar with Jesus’ famous Parable of the Good Samaritan?
In Luke 10:30-37, Jesus answered a lawyer’s question about the Law with this parable. Jesus taught who our neighbor is by describing how it was a Samaritan, a person hated by the Jewish people, who showed God’s love to the dying Jewish man. To emphasize this point, Jesus’ story included two Jewish elite, a Levite and a priest, who avoided the dying man.
Yes, there was a deep racial tension between the Jews and Samaritans that informed this story and to this day, very relevantly, that gives Jesus’ parable the profound impact of teaching us to “love your enemy” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
But there is more to the story and that’s the scandal of Jesus’ parable!
These religious men, like the lawyer who was trying to trap Jesus with his questions, were putting the letter of the Law before the heart of God. Jesus came to return God’s people back to the heart of God and the purpose of the Law—to deliver God’s people from sin to live as God’s image bearers.
Don’t let your religion blind you to the heart of God—Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10)!
Seize the moment and return to the heart of God by loving your neighbor as yourself, not allowing racism nor religion to prevent you from being an image bearer of God.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 581
The Gift of Service!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, October 19.
Serving others is a sacred gift, not a job description!
In Numbers 18:5-7 God gave a sacred gift to Aaron and the Levites:
So you shall attend to the obligations of the sanctuary and the obligations of the altar, so that there will no longer be wrath on the sons of Israel. Behold, I Myself have taken your fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel; they are a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord, to perform the service for the tent of meeting. But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service …
The priesthood was a bestowed service—a gift from God! Aaron and his sons were given the gift of the priesthood, as well as the gift of the Levites to serve in the tabernacle system. Their very lives were given as a gift to the service of God.
Do you see opportunities to serve others as a gift from God?
I was recently talking to a friend who trains employees in customer service at a restaurant that is famous for their service. Many people learn to say the right things, but it is obviously not coming from their heart—they have the appearances of good service, but not the heart of a servant! They are fulfilling a job description, not accepting the divine gift of service.
Do you have the heart of a servant or are you just going through the motions of your ministry?
Seize the moment and “whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Colossians 3:23-24).
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 580
Stop Grumbling!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, October 18.
Did you know that grumbling is no small matter to God?
Grumbling is an easy way to give the devil a foothold in your life, but the good news is that God has given us a way of victory to overcome it!
Numbers 17 narrates God’s effort to silence the grumbling of the Israelites against Moses and Aaron by clearly declaring His chosen leaders over Israel. Verse 5 implies that our grumblings aren’t just against the people or circumstances themselves, but against the Sovereign God, Himself: “It will come about that the rod of the man whom I choose will sprout. Thus I will lessen from upon Myself the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.”
God directed each tribal leader to turn in their rod (staff) which was their sign of authority to rule over their tribe.
God determined that the staff that sprouted would belong to God’s chosen leader over Israel. The conclusion was abundantly clear, as described in verse 8: “Behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.”
For dead wood to bud, blossom, and bear fruit was an articulate sign from God! God shouted from Heaven that Moses and Aaron were the appointed leaders of God and in doing so, was declaring that they should be trusted and followed.
Grumbling has always been a big deal to God because it prevents God’s people from living on mission. The answer for followers of Jesus is clear: STOP GRUMBLING!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Live Like a Champion – Week 42
The Promise of Peace!” (Part 2)
Philippians 4:6-9 (NAS95)
Last week I started a three-week sermon to teach you how to live victoriously in God’s promise of peace. It is my desire that you will experience the power of the promise of peace in your everyday life, to the glory of God!
This promise is one of the most relevant promises we can manifest in our composure and speech to our culture that would be attractive and impactful in today’s world situation and our current national panic attack (or is it a temper tantrum?). We, the people of God, have the solution; so, let’s bring the peace of God that transcends all human understanding to the world, by first experiencing it for ourselves and allowing it to make us both holy and whole.
- Last week, I taught you about the promise of peace with God (vertical) from John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
- Today, I am focusing on the promise of peace within yourself (internal) from Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- Next week, I will conclude with the promise of peace with how we are called to pass the peace to others Ephesians 2:14: “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.”
These three aspects of the promise of peace are a cord of three strands (Ecclesiastes 4:12) for us to experience the joy of the Lord and to fulfill His Greatest Commandments for our lives. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There are three directions in the greatest commandment that perfectly align with the three-stranded cord that is the promise of peace:
- Peace with God is your salvation with God—it manifests as your holiness as you learn to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind!
- Peace with yourself is your mental health or peace of mind—it manifests as your wholeness as you learn to love yourself as God first loved you … through the grace which saved you and from which you draw all life and godliness (2 Peter 1:2-4).
- Peace with others is a peaceful heart—it manifests as your ministry of loving your neighbor as you have learned to love yourself remembering God’s love as taught by Paul in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” As we will learn next week, the “us” in this passage is critical to our ability to pass the peace. It’s not a “me” thing!
Paul practically teaches us about how to walk in this peace. Mental health comes from this internal peace of God, by which we learn to live in God’s grace—not an earning, but a receiving of acceptance by Jehovah Shalom, who sent His Son Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, to give us new life so that we may experience His holiness as our wholeness. This is our transformation through the renewal of our minds that Paul promises in Romans 12:1-2. This promise comes with practices that invite us to participate in God’s work of sanctification in us: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Philippians 4:6-9 teaches how to participate in God’s work of transforming us through the renewing of our minds:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 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.
The spiritual practices of peace are very similar to your dental hygiene habits: they require the discipline of habit making so that you no longer think about doing them, you just do it!
In the same way that you brush your teeth twice a day, morning and night, so I encourage you to practice 1 Peter 5:7 morning and night: “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” Did you hear that? This is not a harsh command, but a loving invitation—BECAUSE HE CARES FOR YOU! God is saying, “I love you and you can trust me … Come to Me …”!
This is the work of the Spirit through our times of Bible intake, prayer, silence and solitude, worship to Christian music … during our times of devotion. This is the example of Jesus throughout the Gospels as we see in Mark 1:35: “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”
When we intentionally attend our hearts and minds to the presence of God through daily and weekly rhythms of grace, then we are putting ourselves directly in the authorized way of experiencing the promise found in Philippians 4:6-8 because we are responding to the real anxiety of our day with practices of intentionally attending ourselves to God’s presence:
In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Let’s straight talk for a minute—mental illness is real! For some, their fight is like that with cancer (clinical depression or a personality disorder), for others like that of seasonal allergies (seasonal depression), and for others it is an acute trauma that requires immediate care and follow up therapy. Mental health comes with real illnesses and life issues that shouldn’t be minimized. Please go see your primary care physician if you think that you need the assistance of medical science to help you in this conversation. I am advocating for you to remain faithful in the habits of grace that will wash over your heart and mind so that you are not taken hostage by your medical situation. In many ways, these are the same principles I tell people going through any medical crisis. Each crisis comes with its own challenges, but all are opportunities for you to grow in God’s grace and mercy—to be closer to Him; hence, experiencing rest for your soul and peace in your heart and mind, even when these temporary dwelling places (our bodies which includes our brains) are experiencing the brokenness of the fall.
With that understanding, Paul commands in 2 Corinthians 10:5b, “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” In the same way that we must remain positive and hopeful in our treatment plans for other medical issues, we cannot surrender ourselves to the anchor of anxiety or the grip of fear or the paralysis of paranoia. We are invited to be vigilant to capture our thoughts, shatter the old broken tapes, stop the stinking thinking, and cease the catastrophic thinking to give ourselves the best chance possible of experiencing God’s freedom in this fight!
We are invited by God to walk in the ancient paths of Joshua 1:8-9:
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
This ancient practice of biblical meditation is the foundation of Psalm 119’s promises:
- “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word” (9).
- “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (11).
- “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (105).
Brothers and sisters, this is biblical maturity, it is the discipline of good mental hygiene, just like good dental hygiene. You brush, you floss, you gurgle because you don’t want stinky breath, nor do you want tooth rot or gum infection. We are invited to care for our souls and our bodies, our hearts and our minds! All of this belongs to God, and we are but stewards of it!
In the same way, you take in God’s Word, you meditate upon it and memorize it, pray God’s Word, and apply it to your life so that at the right time you can seize the moment. No one wants to be face-to-face with you if you have either stinky breath or a stinky attitude. A mature Christian is characterized by their wholeness, which flows from their holiness.
Setting apart times with God that bookend your day helps you experience being the person of peace. These inform and influence the discipline of walking in the ways of Jesus by learning to take on His yoke and learn from Him how to be gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:28-30).
Learning how to walk in the promise of peace as daily mental health practices is a key spiritual discipline to our living out the Greatest Commandments. We represent Jesus the best—passing the peace—when we are both holy (peace with God!) and whole (sound mind!).
We need to realize that the Bible teaches us good mental hygiene practices that are fundamental to our well-being just as the many good dental hygiene habits are ingrained in most of our daily lives. As this becomes more normalized and less stigmatized in the church, then mental health practices and check-ups will be as common as dental health practices and check-ups. When there is an illness or acute crisis that occurs, we support the person and help them through it.
This promise of peace not only restores us back into right relationship with God, but because of the love of God working in us we can now have peace with ourselves, then with others. It is through this peace that we can ultimately put on display our holiness through our wholeness. The way this happens is by passing the peace through living out the Greatest Commandments.
We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves—by the grace of God and the peace that He has bestowed upon us by the work of the Cross and empowered us to live in through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit!
You can listen to the message here:
You can watch the video by clicking HERE.
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 578
Today’s modern day hymn focus will be
“His Mercy is More”
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness..’”
“The more you know Him, the better you will trust Him: the more you trust Him, the better you will love Him; the more you love Him, the better you will serve Him…Remember, the growth of a believer is not like a mushroom, but like an oak, which increases slowly indeed but surely… Our sins are many, but His mercies are more: our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater: we are weak, but He is power.”*
Boswell & Papa wanted to create a hymn that was a truth for all time, all places and for all generations and it is worth the effort to sing that truth.
Praise the Lord, His mercy is more.
Stronger than darkness, new every morn
Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more.
YOUTUBE:
His Mercy is More
Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
What Father, so tender, is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness, new every morn
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Praise the Lord, His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness, new every morn
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 577
Being Consumed!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, October 15.
What is consuming your emotions and your thoughts?
In Numbers 16 we find Israel stirred up like a hornet’s nest after they were denied entrance to the Promised Land! The people were restless, irritable, and discontent! Their living conditions were rustic, the menu was monotonous, and the leadership just promised them forty more years of the same.
A perfect storm was brewing!
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled and in response God consumed them and their households by opening the earth (1-34). Immediately, fire from heaven consumed the 250 men who had joined with the rebellion (35-40). The people were so stirred up that they even blamed Moses for these supernatural judgements and continued to grumble against him and Aaron (41-50). In response, God told Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the congregation so that He could “consume them.”
How would Moses and Aaron respond to a rebellious people so consumed with their circumstances that they had lost all perspective?
Numbers 16:45-48 narrates their faithful response:
They fell on their faces. Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put in it fire from the altar, and lay incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague has begun!” Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. He took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked.
Seize the moment and remain calm in the consuming storm! I call all of God’s people to prayer so that God “will hear from heaven, will forgive [our] sin and will heal [our] land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 576
Memory Jogs!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, October 14.
Have you ever tied a piece of yarn around your finger to help you remember to do something?
We all need memory jogs or well-placed physical reminders to help us remember to do something. For example, a friend gave us a beautiful gift to put in our home as a reminder to pray for them. We associate that small sculpture with them and every time I see it I pray for them.
Numbers 15:32-36 tells the story of a man who was punished for forgetting the Sabbath. In response, the Lord gave the Israelites a new command so that they wouldn’t forget Him and His Law. Listen to God in verses 38-40:
Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God.
God gave them a memory jog!
- Where was it located? Memory jogs must be visible, and the blue tassels were located on the four corners of their garments (Deuteronomy 22:12).
- Why were they blue? Memory jogs work by association and blue was used in the priest’s wardrobe (Exodus 28).
- What was their purpose? These blue tassels reminded them that they do not belong to themselves, but they are a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).
Seize the moment and use well-placed physical reminders to remind you of who you are in Jesus–a dearly beloved child of God!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 575
Remain Faithful to God’s Call!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, October 13.
There are many Christians who need to pay attention to this important story found in Numbers 14 and not make the same mistakes as the Israelite congregation. In the same way, there are many pastors who need to learn from Moses’ example on how to remain faithful to God in their calling to the people.
Moses and his associate went to prayer together! Caleb and Joshua tried to intervene, but the people picked up stones to kill them (10).
Moses responded in faith! Numbers 14:17-19 records Moses’ faithful petition to God on behalf of the people even while they were in rebellion against him:
But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, “The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.” Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
Amen!
Seize the moment and remain faithful in your daily walk with Jesus Christ. Don’t bail before the blessing!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 574
Confirmation Bias!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, October 12.
Do you listen to reports with faith or with fear?
That is an important question because of “confirmation bias.” People naturally prefer and process information that confirms or strengthens their existing beliefs or values.
The nation of Israel was on the border of the Promised Land and in Numbers 13:1-2 God commanded Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land. After forty days they brought back their report.
“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Two contrasting reports based on the same observations:
- Caleb’s report confirmed his faith that God would do what God promised to do—make the way into the Promised Land!
- The other spies’ sight was distorted by fear (33) and their report confirmed their fear that the giants of the land were too big to defeat.
Both were right! The giants were too big for the Israelites to defeat, but God … God is bigger than any giant and God always makes a way for that which God promises!
Seize the moment and let your faith in God confirm the way of victory!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 573
Humility in the Face of Hurt!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, October 11.
Have you ever experienced a deeply hurtful betrayal from someone you love and trust?
Numbers 12:6-8 reports God’s words to Miriam and Aaron when they spoke against Moses:
If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?”
God came to Moses’ defense not only in these words, but also in a dramatic judgement against Miriam—she was struck with leprosy! God, being moved to compassion by Moses’ prayer, healed her, but insisted that she experience a public consequence for her betrayal and sent her out of the camp for a seven-day quarantine.
Why was God lenient with Miriam and Aaron?
I don’t think it was for their benefit, but because of Moses’ character. I say this because verse 3 makes an important comment about Moses: “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)” This is possibly one of the most important things that can be said about a person in the Bible.
What will be remembered about you when you or your family are attacked, betrayed, or ridiculed?
Moses is remembered as the humblest person who ever lived. King David is remembered as being a person after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Jesus described Himself as being “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).
All character statements!
Seize the moment and remember that it is your character that is being put on display by how you handle difficult circumstances—show the world Jesus!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...