Episodes
Tuesday Aug 13, 2019
Becoming God’s Broken Vessels to Serve the Needs of Others
Tuesday Aug 13, 2019
Tuesday Aug 13, 2019
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Feeding of the 5000 (St. Andrews Episcopal Church; Ft, Worth, TX)
After John the Baptizer had been beheaded by King Herod, the Apostles that told Jesus of this news and suggested that they get away from the crowds of people into a desolate area in which they could rest and pray. Jesus and the Apostles went by boat. However, a large crowd of people followed Jesus and His Apostles onshore so that when Jesus arrived at the area in which they wished to rest. Jesus had compassion on the people that had followed Him. Therefore, He began teaching, in Mark 6:34, to a very large group: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”. When Jesus’ teachings carried on late into the evening, His Apostles suggested that Jesus send the crowd away into the villages to buy food. Rather, Jesus asked His Apostles to determine how much food was on hand in the crowd; and they determined that they had five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus blessed this food and, in Mark 6: 42-44, all the crowd ate from this food: “And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.".
In Mark’s teaching regarding the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, we see that Jesus’ compassion for the people over road His personal need to grieve for the death of John the Baptizer and to rest when Jesus began to, immediately, minister to the people. Like Jesus and in order to receive what God knows that we require, we need to move our focus away from our personal desires and perceived needs onto the real needs of others. When we move our focus away from ourselves and to a “outward focus”, we become free to hear and to receive from God. As in Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, God desires that we look to Him; to take what He has given us; and to give to those in need. No matter where we are or in what context of life’s involvement, we find ourselves, we need to be willing to be broken vessels for use by God for His purposes.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that, because I am in Jesus Christ, I will live as Jesus would. (Philippians 1:27). “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”. (Philippians 4:14).
Scripture Reference (ESV): Mark 6:31; Mark 6:34; Mark 6:41; Mark 6:43; Psalms 10a:1-9; Psalms 11:1-7.
THIS SUNDAY’S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “Following Jesus – Jesus Calls Us to Follow Him Without Reservations", at our Website: https://awtlser.podbean.com/.
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB
Sunday Aug 04, 2019
Marriage – A Current Assessment
Sunday Aug 04, 2019
Sunday Aug 04, 2019
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Marriage – A Current Assessment (Christ the King Anglican Church; Birmingham, AL)
Marriage and the family, in current decades, have been under attack to the degree that marriage is now losing its value in our culture. In Mark 10:6-9, Jesus speaks to God’s plan for marriage: “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’”
In our culture’s attacks on marriage and the family, we see ten ways in which marriage and the family have been and are being perverted: 1) US Supreme Court’s decision on same sex marriage – as followers of Jesus, we don’t believe the courts have the right to define/redefine marriage as established by God; 2) sex before marriage is becoming the norm; 3) sex outside of marriage has become acceptable; 4) the prevalence of divorce; 5) acceptance of cohabitation; 6) birth of children out of wedlock; 7) multi-spouse marriage; 8) escalation and the acceptance of pornography; 9) the acceptance and practice of abortion on demand; and 10) the acceptable “choosing” one’s own gender by some people. These perversions of marriage and the family are chipping away at the value and importance of marriage and the family in the US – even among Christians. Too many of our Christian young people don’t know why they should get married -- this diminution of marriage’s value is a failure, mostly, of the Christian Church.
Many Christians, today, are being deceived and led away from God’s Word by the Evil One (e.g., John 10:10). Therefore, we need to read and understand God’s Word, especially as it relates to His plan for marriage that Jesus posits in His quote from Genesis in Mark 10:6. Throughout history humans have corrupted God’s beautiful plan for His Creation. In Mark 10:7, we see God’s pattern for marriage. In Mark 10:8, we are provided with God’s purpose for marriage; and the product of this “one flesh” is children. By becoming “one flesh” in marriage, the man and women become a “new trinity” – husband, wife, and the Lord. In this “marriage trinitarian relationship”, each child is brought into this family relationship in the same way that we, as followers of Jesus, are brought into our personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the Gospel. In Mark 10:9 we see God’s expressed permeance of marriage.
God’s design and plan for marriage, as presented by Jesus in Mark 10, is ideal for us as humans, our nation and our culture; but His plan is being increasingly perverted. Therefore, what should we do, as followers of Jesus, about these “attacks on marriage”? We can: 1) stand up, speak up and speak God’s truth – Christians need to stop be trampled upon by this divergent culture; 2) model good and Godly marriage and family life to the culture; 3) you teach your children, you not the church/school/government, about God and His plan for marriage and the family; and 4) pray and ask God to intervene in these attacks and to support our seeking to achieve His plan for our own marriage and the family – prayer does change things, and it brings the power of God.
We are blessed to live in an incredible time in history, but the plan and fabric that God designed to keep us together and thriving – marriage and the family – is being perverted. However, we, as followers of Jesus, hold the key to stopping this perversion though getting our own family and marriage in line with God’s plan and then witnessing and voting to stop this perversion – the time is now.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13).
Scripture Reference (ESV): Mark 10:6-9; John 10:10; Genesis 2:21-25; Psalms 4:1-8.
THIS SUNDAY’S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “Following Jesus – Jesus Calls Us to Follow Him Without Reservations", at our Website: https://awtlser.podbean.com/.
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB