Magnifying the Lord by Remembering His Grace in My Step-Dad’s Life

In a recent message entitled, Forsaking All and Following Christ, I shared the testimony of my stepfather, Thomas V. Decker.  He went from being a rebel against God to being a follower of God!  I had the privilege of preaching his funeral message in April of 2004.   He made it easy for me. He had written the following poem with which I put Scripture to challenge all who were there to put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So in awe of the grace of God and in honor and  memory of my stepfather, Thomas V. Decker (1930 – 2004), I once again share his poem.

Why You Love Me

I don’t know why you love me

I don’t even care.

I just know you love me

Cause, Jesus, you’re always there.

 

Life without you, Jesus

Would be no life at all

Cause you’re always with me

When I stumble and fall.

 

Jesus, you are always there to help me

You reach down with your hand

You pick me up so gently

And once more I can stand.

 

If it wasn’t for you, Jesus

The light would shine no more

But through your precious love

You open up the door.

 

Now, Father, don’t ever leave me

And think that I can stand

For I may be made in your image

But, Father, I’m only man.

 

So, Father, please stay with me

‘Till all the sheep are in

And, Father, I’ll give you all my praise

And all I have within.

Download the message Forsaking All and Following Christ by clicking on the title.

Magnifying the Lord from Matthew 19:16 through Matthew 20:19

I now have been preaching through the book of Matthew for nearly 3 years. Yesterday I preached my 94th message in the book.  What an adventure as I have beheld my Savior in new and wonderful ways.  What a challenge to bring accurate, challenging, and practical message to God’s flock.  The last three messages really hang together as a mini-series on The Reward of Eternal Life for Forsaking all and Following Christ which is all of Grace:

Text: Matthew 19:16-26
Title: Eternal Life

Text:  Matthew 19:16-30
Title:  Forsaking all and Following Christ

Text:  Matthew 20:1-16
Title: A Story of Grace

Click on the title to download the message for a listen.

Magnifying the Lord Through True Discipleship

Are you following Christ or are you just playing church games?

This past Lord’s Day I preached from the same passage as last week ( Matthew 19:16-26) with a different focus and included the last few verses to close out the chapter (Matthew 19:27-30).

The general outline to the message is as follows: The Call, the Response, and the Reward for Forsaking All and Following Christ. Click here to download the message for a listen.

Magnifying the Lamb of God our Savior!

November Pastor’s Chat

God is worthy! The things of which God are worthy, from Revelation 5:12, have challenged us this year: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” Thus far, we have focused on what God is worthy of, but have not focused on the name of God in this verse. In this coming month of Thanksgiving let us focus on our God who is the Lamb.

This Lamb is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ whom John the Baptist identified as such in John 1:29 when he saw, “Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  Thanksgiving and love should well up in our hearts toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who bore our sin on the cross of Calvary as the Lamb of God ( I Peter 1:18-21).  We who have been forgiven much should love much (Luke 7:47).  But do we?

Do you sometimes sense a lack of love and thanksgiving in your heart toward Christ?  My friend, I call you to remembrance!  Remember your sin before a Holy and Righteous God. Remember the times you unwittingly and wittingly broke his commands. The Lamb, Jesus Christ, died for your sins.  O praise Him! Thank Him! Stand in awe of the Lamb of God. It is by looking to our Savior that we can be delivered from the penalty of sin and the practice of sin.  Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” May God richly bless you as you look unto Jesus as the Lamb of God this coming Thanksgiving season!

With love and prayer, Pastor Mark

Selected Bible Verses on “The Lamb of God”

Genesis 22:8, “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”

John 1:36, “And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”

I Peter 1:18-21, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”

Acts 8:30-35, “And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

Revelation 21:22, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”

Revelation 21:23, “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Revelation 22:1, “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Revelation 22:3, “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.”

Links to Recent sermon downloads from FBC

Title: The Foundation of Marriage
Text: Matthew 19:1-6
http://sermon.net/download.php?c=18884-count_audio_download-2254256

Title: The Enemy of Marriage
Text: Matthew 19:7-9
http://sermon.net/download.php?c=18884-count_audio_download-2258073

Title: The Alternative to Marriage
Text: Matthew 19:10-12
http://sermon.net/download.php?c=18884-count_audio_download-2266639

Title: The Blessing of Children
Text:  Matthew 19:13-15
http://sermon.net/download.php?c=18884-count_audio_download-2270870

Title: Eternal Life
Text: Matthew 19:16-26
http://sermon.net/download.php?c=18884-count_audio_download-2275000

 

Magnifying God through loving God and our neighbor

Love is the fulfillment of the law!   The law teaches us how to love God and our neighbor.  We can only do it by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Evening Sermon: Lessons from the Ten Commandments Text: Exodus 20:1-17

1 ¶ And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 ¶ Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Magnifying God through bringing Children to Christ

Morning Sermon-  Title: The Blessing of Children

Text: Matthew 19:13-15   Can you see the three attitudes displayed toward children in this passage?

“Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.  And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”

Mini-Series on Marriage from Matthew 19:1-12

The response from these messages have been encouraging.  I have tried to preach the truth from Matthew 9:1-12  in love and compassion.  One dear lady said after sermon two, “Pastor, I almost did not come to church today because I knew you would be preaching on the divorce passage.  But boy am I glad I came; you preached a message of encouragement and hope even for us who have been divorced.”  Praise God! It is only by His grace!

Sermon one: The Foundation of Marriage. Matthew 19:1-6

Sermon two:  The Enemy of Marriage. Matthew 19:7-9

Sermon three: The Alternative to Marriage. Matthew 19:10-12

You can down load the messages by clicking on the titles. Please feel free to share these messages  with others  if they have been a help to you.

Magnifying the Lord by Bringing Pleasure to Him

This year our church theme has been “God is Worthy!”  It has challenged us to think more about our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. To help us in this endeavor we have been focusing on Revelation 5:12 which says, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” God is all this in superlative abundance. He is our supreme authority. He has all riches. He is all wisdom. He is all powerful. He is all honorable and glorious. He is worthy to be praised, worship, and reverenced.

The amazing thing is that when God created mankind in His own likeness, He gave us a measure of His authority, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, and glory. All these blessings and gifts are entrusted to us and come from God. Therefore, we must conclude that God is worthy of everything in our lives. Our God is worthy to receive them back from us in the form of thanksgiving, praise, and the dedication of our lives to Him. He created us for His pleasure (Revelation 4:12).

The fact that God created us for His pleasure might seem a little odd to us until we realize that there is not one speck of selfishness in God. His pleasure is always right. He is kind and loving, pure and holy. In His pleasure we will truly experience the pleasures for which He created us. The paradox of life is that when we selfishly seek pleasure for ourselves, it is only for a sinful season (Hebrews 11:24-25); but when we seek to bring pleasure to God by loving and obeying Him, we experience pleasure in Him for eternity. This is related to what Jesus was saying in Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” What are you doing with your life?

Selected Bible Verse on Selfish Pleasure

Hebrews 11:24-25, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

2 Thessalonians 2:10 -12, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Selected Bible Verses on God’s Pleasure

Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Ephesians 1:5-9, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.”

Hebrews 10:38-39, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Magnifing the Lord through Marriage

My adventure in preaching through the book of Matthew has brought me back to the topic of marriage.  That is what I love about preaching through books.  It forces me to think through the difficult passages.  It makes me get on my face before God and cry out for help, illumination and wisdom.   Last Sunday I preached the first sermon from verses 1-6, entitling the message– The Foundation of Marriage.  Today I worked through verses 7-9, entitling the message– The Enemy of Marriage. We will take a break from the series for a morning communion service next week and the following finish out the series with a closing message entitled, The Alternative to Marriage. You can down load the messages by clicking on the titles. Please feel free to share these messages  with other if they have been a help to you.

In the message today you will learn that the enemy of  marriage is not divorce but what leads to divorce.  If you are having difficulties in your marriage you need to be aware of this number one enemy of marriage.

Magnifying the Lord while preaching on sensitive subjects

Preaching through the Gospel of Matthew has challenged me to examine the difficult issues.  We have now come to Matthew 19 and the topic of “Marriage and Divorce.”   This Sunday we examined verses 1-6.  The title of the message is The Foundation of Marriage. May the Lord help us to get back to God’s foundation for marriage.