What does it mean to thank God?

What does it mean to thank God? We hear it all the time with Christians and non-Christians alike? All kind people say "I thank God" and yet they don't even believe in Him. Saying thanks to God (for many) is a meaningless thing to say. What does it really mean to thank the One who created all things, and who died for the sins of His people? Christians should be thanking God all the time for just having a loving and caring God. People who are not Christians should be thanking God that He has not sent them to hell forever (at this very moment). What does it really mean to thank God for something? Does it mean to just say “thanks,” like when someone gives you something? No, it is more than that and we need to have a right understanding of the word thanks. The word means to express gratitude for benefits or blessing to thank, thanksgiving, thankfulness. Of course we should thank people for things they do, but we should be more thankful to God and not people. As sinful people we should be on our knees thanking God all the time and showing Him gratitude for what He has done for us. We are so quick to thank God for the good things, but we need to thank God for the bad things too, for all things, even the bad things in our lives. Thanking God should always be on our lips and in our heart. A thankful heart is what we should want to have. We need to expand our understanding of how God is merciful. Thanking God that we all are not in hell right now. If we would understand that we would be thanking God all the time for what He has done for us. Psalms 7:17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High."

DWYL

False Prophets are Everwhere

Our Sermonette (a short sermon, about 8 mins) today is about False Prophets. How do you recognize a false prophet, what is a false prophet? Well, let me first start out by telling you that they are everywhere, even in our midst! Beware, and know what false prophets are like and what they do.

We also want to make sure you know what the marks of a TRUE prophet of God are.

Our Text for today is Jeremiah 23:21-22

21 “I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.

Christ Centered Marriage

Husband and Wife question

Regarding our sermonette today "The Fulfilled Marriage," we have had a couple common questions. The first is (1.) Should a woman literally submit to her husband in everything?(2.) We know that a woman should submit to her husband but doesn't Ephesian 5:21 (the preceding verses to your sermoneete) read "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ," meaning that the husband should also submit to the wife?

These are good questions, one I will address in here in this blog and the other in tomorrows sermonette. Regarding questing one, yes, a wife should literally submit to her husband in everything in every-way except when he calls for her to flagrantly disobey God's word. In Acts 5:29 Peter was faced with the same type of question and here was the response, "But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men." Yet Romans thirteen is clear in verse 1-2

13:1 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment"

Make no mistake about this issue, the husband is the governing authority over his house hold. Therefore, this verse is appropriate for the regulation of a marriage also. Christians must obey all (yes that mean speed limit's too) authority up to the point when the authority is clearly contrary to God's word. (Ex 1:15-17; Da 6:4-10)


Until next time, stay Christ centered!

The Fulfilled Marriage

In our sermonette (a mini-sermon that is about 5-10 min's, listen above) today, we discussed the fulfilled marriage. With the divorce rates at soaring numbers, with the disappearing instatution of the home, with the media imposed idea of marriage, the time is long overdo that we return to a biblical position of marriage. The Bible teaches complementarianism. Comlementarianism is very accurately defined by Ligon Duncan when he said 'God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human personhood, but different and complementary in function with male headship in the home and in the Church.' May this sermonette bless you in your marriage, consider your ways.

Our text today is from Ephesians 5:22-28

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [1] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Are you blameless?

In our sermonette (mini-sermon 5-10 min's, listen below) today, we discussed being blameless or above reproach. Lit." not able to be held" in a criminal sense, meaning that there is nothing valid that can be held onto in order to lay a blame against an overseer. No blatant, flagrant sin can scar the life of a man who is called to be an example to the people of God (Heb 13:7, 1Pe 5:3, Php 3:17, 2Th 3:9, Ps 101:6) Blamelessness (above reproach) is the waving banner for all elders; all the other requirements expound on what it means to live that way.But remember an elder is to be an example for all the people of God to follow. So that means that you too (if you are a lay person) must make these requirements your own. Every believer is called to a priestly type of life, therefore, we all must take pains in the joy of living 1 Timothy 3:1-7, which is truly an exemplary life.