Be on the Alert

Introduction:

The Fallen World

            -Gay Marriage

            -Self-Seeking

            -Civil rights

            -Abortion

            -Drugs

            -Drinking

            -Philosophies

These are the issues we are facing everyday and the reason why our country is falling apart.  It is something that we, the church, need to watch out for ourselves and for each other.  Today’s America is becoming more lenient with governing it’s  peoples, with so called respecting individual rights such as “my body, my right to have an abortion”  or even gay/lesbians civil rights thus allowing same sex marriage. How can we be on the alert to protect ourselves and for our brothers/sisters in Christ? 

First, we must immerse ourselves in the Bible to know/understand what God’s expectations are of us. 

I.                   Know thy Bible

Psalm 119:105 (NASB)
¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Imagine driving on a curvy road in the mountains at night without lights.  Would we be able to stay on the road from point A to point B?  I doubt!  We are more likely to get in a fatal accident. 

It is the same concept with our spiritual lives.  If we do not read the Bible as much as we should and know God’s expectations of us, we are more likely to fall away from God’s grace.  We will become more like the outsiders of this world like “taxpayers”.  Our minds will be transformed by the way of this world, not by the Lord’s way.  Therefore, it is why the king David wrote Psalm 119:105 knowing that His word is the only way to keep him on the right track.  

We, the church, are encouraged to read the Bible and get to know His message on our own time daily instead of depending on Bible classes only.  So, we will not be confused or swayed with people’s opinions/ philosophies on various issues such as sex, drugs, abortion, gay marriage, civil rights, etc.  We always need to be prepared for anything that is opposed to the Word of God! 

It is easier to know the Bible, but the challenging part is to walk the Word! 

II.                Walk the Word

James 1:21-25 (NASB)
²¹ Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
²² But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
²⁵ But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Parents would tell their son to take the trash out before going to bed, and the son responses with “sure, I will.”  But he didn’t keep his word making excuses, and his parents will ask why he didn’t do what they asked him to do.  The parents would then remind him that he said he would do it therefore, walk the talk.

It is the same as for many Christians who are having a hard time to walk the Word after hearing what God says in the Bible, and do what He says.  Yet they fail to walk their talk by not abiding in what the God -breathed Scriptures say.  It is easier to know what God’s expectations are from us, but to do what we say we will do in His word is a challenge for us.  However, we, the church, need to remember that we will always face this challenge and need to encourage one another to walk the Word to keep us from losing our alertness of this world. 

We cannot just focus on ourselves to walk the Word, but we also need to think of our own brothers/sisters in Christ as well. 

III.               Build up our brothers/sisters in Christ

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB)
¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Many of you know that this time of year is football season, and millions of people are crazy about it (I am guilty of this).  Imagine that your favorite college football team’s coaches choose not to teach, train and correct them to prepare for the coming of season.  Do you think they will walk the red carpet to win a National Championship?  They will not be able to win many games. 

As for us, we need to make sure that we are there for each other by praying and building each other up in our spiritual lives through the word of God.  As 2 Timothy 3:16 says clearly that the Bible is inspired by God for the benefits of our spirits!  Hence, we need to keep our eye on each other to protect our souls.  We, then, will be able to prepare ourselves for any threats we may face inside our church and/or outside of church. 

Conclusion:  Now we know that we need to put our heart in reading His word, acting on His expectations and building up our brothers/sisters in Christ to make sure that we stay alert to defend our souls till our time is up or the Judgment Day occurs. 

As Jesus says in Mark 14:38 (NASB) ³⁸ "Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Therefore, we should know that we will always face temptation in our daily lives, and we cannot afford to see ourselves being fall away from God’s grace because in 1 Peter 5:8 (NASB) ^8” Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  Devil will not stop prowling and seeking to devour us if we start to fall asleep and lose our alertness. 

Be on the alert!!!

“Can Oil and Water be Mixed?”

Does  any one of us remember when we took Science class, and we were asked by our teachers to pour oil into a cup of water to see if the mixture could be blended or not.  Did they blend?  No, the mixture divided into two parts in the cup.  In a similar way,  light and darkness cannot be mixed.  In other words, God and Satan’s ways are not mixable! 

How can we know the difference between God and Satan’s ways?  What is the intention for them to encourage us to live in accordance to their ways?  What are the benefits if we choose to follow God or Satan? 

Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
¹ Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

In verse 1 and 2, Apostle Paul used an illustration, which is a sacrificial system that the Jews used for offering blemish-free animals to God for their sins, to help the Roman Christians to understand the importance of offering their bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice.  They needed to make sure that they continued to be transformed by the will of God, so that they would be accepted by God in worship. 

Have our parents ever allowed us getting in their houses with muddy clothes on?  Of course not, they would scream bloody murder, “Get out!”  Their floors, furniture will become dirty and cleaning is not a pleasant chore for most.   It is the same concept with God who cannot stand seeing our filth; He turns His head away from us and rejects us.  He wants His worship service to be kept holy and pure.  He will accept us if we intently do our best to present ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice to Him when we worship Him even though we all make mistakes in our lives.  But we have Jesus Christ who continually forgives our sins, 1 John 1:7.

Therefore, we are responsible to ensure that we are not conformed to this world, but to His ways.  We can renew our minds by reading the Bible and understanding the expectations of the Lord.  And to act on the will of God daily as best as we can!  Remember, we all have gone to school and were required to do homework and exams.  Did we want to reject their required assignments and then as a consequence get flunked out?  If not, then we should be doing the same with God’s word, so that we will prepare ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice to Him to be accepted by Him.  As for Satan, he doesn’t want us to know what is in the Bible that is good hoping that he will take us with him when our lives are done or the Judgment Day occurs. 

 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NASB)
¹⁴ Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
¹⁵ Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

In this Scripture, Apostle Paul emphasized that there is no relation between righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial; and believer and unbeliever!  Imagine that a football player decides to walk and join in his opponent’s huddle.  Do you think that his opponent team will welcome and let him join in with them?  They will respond with, “Go away, and stay with your team!”  Apostle Paul said that there is no way that we can be with those unbelievers who choose to advocate Devil’s actions that are opposed to God.  We are living our unique ways in accordance to God’s will.  Notice that Jesus Christ does not have anything to do with Belial, which is Devil.  It shows evidence that Jesus Christ and Satan are 100 percent different, like black and white.  Jesus Christ cares about people’s lives and their destination after they are done with their lives, but Satan, all he cares about is seeing people being suffered in Hell eternally.  Even though he doesn’t say that at this moment because he is trying to trap our lives and miss the greatest gift from the Lord!  We are encouraged to stick with Jesus Christ’s ways, so that we will not fall away from His grace.

Joshua 24:15 (NASB)
¹⁵ "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Joshua gathered all tribes of the Jews and reviewed Israel’s history.  He reminded them that they only had two choices to make by obeying God’s commandments or worshipping idols.  He himself said that he and his house would serve the Lord.  If they, the Jews, chose to worship idols, they would have severe consequence by losing their privilege to be home with God.  Do we face similar as those Jews who worshipped idols?  We sometimes idolize money, jewelry, fine clothing, sexual immorality, and the likes.  I know how hard it must be for us to face temptations in our daily lives.  We may feel like the temptations are everywhere wherever we are.  In Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”  We should be encouraged knowing that the Lord is always with us and gives us the strength we need to overcome the temptations.  There is nothing impossible with God for He is mighty Creator!  My point is that we only have two choices to make like those Jews thousands years ago.  We cannot serve two masters, Luke 16:13 (NASB) "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."  However, Satan constantly wants us to think that those temptations we are facing are okay and will not harm us at all.  Actually, he, in his back of mind, hopes that we are ignorant and fall in his trap to suffer eternally with him. 

Now we have learned the difference between God and Satan’s ways, their intentions and the benefits to follow one of them.  Which do we prefer to follow?    We need to remember that we will face either good or bad consequences.  We will find a good consequence if we choose to follow God because He wants us to live peace with no sufferings forever in His heaven.  But if we choose to stick with the Devil, then we will face a severe consequence which is suffering pains in his home- Hell- eternally!   If we choose to follow God’s ways, then we should present ourselves as a living and sacrifice to God, be aware that God’s light doesn’t mix with darkness; and worship God only!

If you realize that you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, He is right at your front door waiting for you to get up, open the door and welcome Him into your life.  He will joyfully walk forward and grab you into His arms!  All you have to do is to believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, John 3:16, confess that you have sinned against Him, 1 John 1:9-10; repent and  be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:38. 

But as for some of you may have sinned and haven’t repented, Luke 13:3, you can get u, face the Lord and admit your sins and He will forgive your sins without hesitation! 

“Building the Lord’s Army”

Part 2

First of all, let me ask you a question, “Do you remember what the first three keys to building the Lord’s Army”?  Before we can build a house, it must have a foundation to set which is Jesus Christ.  Once the foundation is set, we now can put up frames.  The frames represent prayer for we cannot do anything without seeking, asking God’s guidance and wisdom for building His army.  Next step is to put up the roof on the top of the frames- the armor of God-for we must wear the full armor of God daily to protect our souls.  Now we are going to focus on the last two keys to building the Lord’s army today. 

In Exodus 18:17-27, Jethro was concerned about his son-in-law who overworked himself in handling all disputes that were brought to him by Israelites.  He counseled him to give tasks to those Israelites who would be honest and responsible in handling minor disputes, and Moses would handle the major disputes.  Moses decided to take Jethro’s advice, and it helped reduce the stresses on him.

Do you have any idea how many Israelites there were at that time?  Millions!  Moses had to handle countless matters.  If I were in his sandals, I would get exhausted and burnt out quickly.  Gladly he took the advice from his father-in-law!  As for our Deaf ministry, the Lord has given the task to us knowing that we will be able to handle His ministry.  I am not talking about just me, but you are also a part of His ministry.  We are one body of Christ; therefore, we are to use His gifts that are given to us.  We have different gifts, Romans 12:4-8, and are supposed to act upon His given tasks.  Some of you may be gifted in comforting others who face adversities, helping with food and clothing, teaching God’s word, taking care of widows and orphans, giving transportation and you name it.  God knows what we need for His ministry because He knows that we cannot do this by ourselves individually.  We have to do this as a team and use our gifts in order to build His army.  Therefore, we are encouraged to change our priorities in the right order which means that we need to devote ourselves to God’s works more than what we are doing that may not be as important as His work.  Time is precious, and we will not be here for very long.  We need to ensure that we take good care of Lord’s ministry, but if we do not, then this ministry will fall apart somehow! 

Bricks have been built on the outside of the house, but we need to finish the inside of the house to secure, protect and build the Lord’s army.  We cannot focus on the inside of our brothers and sisters in Christ only, but we are also responsible in reaching out to the lost souls who are the outsiders.  We have been called by the Lord to bring the needy people to Him; therefore we are not to sit back and do nothing.  We cannot grow the kingdom of God that way.  Let us take a close look at what Jesus says to His disciples, Mark 16:15 (NASB)
^‘And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”’

Don’t you think that His message is crystal clear?  I definitely think so.  All He asks us to do is to get our feet moving and share the Good News with those people who need to know about whom He is, what He has done for us, and His special plan for them.  If we put our feet to work and continue to do so no matter what the circumstances we may face, Jesus Christ will abundantly bless our works by expanding His army!  We need to remember that it is not about glorifying ourselves or the numbers of attendances, but to give all glory to Him! 

If we are putting Jesus Christ as our foundation of faith, praying to seek the wisdom and guidance from God, wearing the armor of God on our bodies, using our gifts that are given by the Lord and spreading the Good News to the outsiders, we will be able to secure, protect and expand His army!  Let us do this together as a family and give the Lord His glory! 

“Do You Trust in the Lord?”

Proverbs 3:5 (NASB)
^“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”

It is amazing to see how my son Nicholas innocently trusts me to catch him before falling down and hitting the floor hard whenever he attempts to stands up.  It reminds me of an activity intending to help people to develop teamwork and trust in each other.  In one of those activities, one person stands at a higher level of a platform while others stand on a lower ground, the person is asked to stand facing away from people behind him.  He is then asked to drop backward and allow the person behind him catch his body from hitting the ground.  This activity often causes most people to doubt others’ ability to protect them from falling and hitting the ground. 

My question is if we have been trusting in the Lord that He loves us beyond our imagination.  Do we trust that He cares about us?  How about trusting Him that He will protect us?  Do we also trust that He provides our needs?  We all face various difficult circumstances in our lives such as illnesses, injuries, stresses, no place to live, jobs, marriage problems, finances, no friends or family- lacking support, and the likes.  We may feel overwhelmed and attacked with problems thus causing us to shift our focus from the Lord to our own problems.  The shift in focus and dwelling on problems tends to be a stumbling block in keeping us from praying and trusting Him that He cherishes us more than those birds that fly about freely.  The uneasy circumstances may cause us to wonder “why me?” and feeling like the Lord is far from us like the planet Pluto is to Earth.  All the Lord asks is for us to trust in Him completely and not depending on our own understanding.  In other words, it means that whatever circumstances we are in, we need to be encouraged to know, trust, and believe that God is full of wisdom and is taking care of us!  God’s Word states this clearly in James 1:5-8 (ERV) “Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind. People like that are thinking two different things at the same time. They can never decide what to do. So they should not think they will receive anything from the Lord.”

Do you doubt His wisdom? Do you trust in His wisdom? Can you doubt and trust at the same time? I think not.

“Building the Lord’s Army”

As you know, our country’s soldiers are in Iraq fighting against insurgents who are trying to corrupt the peace and security of Iraqi citizens for freedom after suffering under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.  Soldiers team up and look out for each other; they need to work as a team to find a better strategy to secure the country of Iraq and protect Iraqi citizens from being stripped away of their rights, unlike the democracy we experience here in the United States.  Imagine if our country’s soldiers chose to focus on themselves and rebel against their commanders’ orders of what they must do in order to execute any types of missions.  Will they be able to protect their mates and the citizens of Iraqi?   

Now we have the Lord’s Deaf ministry here that opened and welcomed by our church more than 2 months ago.  We are so new in Lord’s ministry, and we have many questions about what we should do with the ministry to give the Lord His glory.  Often new ministries tend to go through lots of bumps in the first year.  It is what we are facing right now, so we need to figure out what the Lord wants us to do with His ministry to make sure that it is secured and protected; and how to build the Lord’s army.    

Before we build the Lord’s army, we must lay a foundation of Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:24-25, “²⁴ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.  He is the only One can keep the foundation in sync. Imagine that the soldiers go out into war and battle against their enemies without instructions or direction of what to do in order to defeat their enemies.  They will get confused of what they are supposed to do in whatever the situation that occurs in not having a set goal.  They will not be able to defend themselves against any types of attacks.  Therefore, as for us doing the Lord’s ministry, we cannot afford to go on our own and do what we think should be done to build His army.  I, personally, guarantee you that we will not see the ministry being here for very long!  We have to understand that the word of God is our daily guideline in each of our lives- He wants to make sure that we are protected and secured, and be able to build His army!  We are encouraged to immerse ourselves into the word of God and understand His expectations of us, so that we will be able to glorify Him!  Once we put the foundation of Jesus Christ, we will be able to enact frames upon the foundation, just like you must do when building a house. 

Since the foundation set is based on Christ Jesus, the question is what next?  We definitely need to pray together as one body of Christ in seeking His wisdom and guidance on how to edify His ministry.  Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Our Lord is the only One who knows what is needed to be done in ministry, and what our needs are for His ministry.  Prayer is the most power tool of any type of tools!  Some of you who attended the  “Evangelism Seminar” last Friday and Saturday, the speaker said that he has a group of Christians who are devoted to prayer in specifics before going out on mission work to harvest the lost souls.  It helps a lot!  They brought people to Jesus.  We all are encouraged to pray together for a specific need with a whole and devoted heart, without a doubt that He will bless the ministry.  I am not talking about a one-time thing, but perhaps pray together once a month.  Please be reminded that we are to pray without feeling obligated to do it.  This is a good way to help build a stronger ministry in a cohesive manner. God isn’t interested in our half-hearted attitudes, but with a deep devotion and desire to see the glory of His ministry. 

Prayer cannot be ignored during our time here on earth.  God created us and wanted us to have intimate relationship with Him.  He also wants to bless us with all things He knows that we need the most.  Therefore, all we have to do is ask Him based on His will! 

Prayerfully, we can put up roof on top of the frames which are the full armor of God on our bodies to stand firm against the devil’s schemes, Ephesians 6:10-11, 10“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”  Imagine that a football player goes out on a field with no helmet and pads on against his opponent who has helmet and pads on.  OUCH!  Will he be able to survive it?  I do not think he will.  Do you think that we will be able to protect the Lord’s ministry and build His army without the full armor of God on our bodies?  No, we will not be able without the power of the Lord which is the belt of Truth, breastplate of righteousness, sandals of the Gospel, shield of Faith, the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit (the word of God), Ephesians 6:14-17.  We have our personal struggles in our lives-the devil will take advantage of our weaknesses to attack us so to corrupt our spiritual lives.  Our various weaknesses could be not praying to the Lord with a whole heart, reading God’s word to comprehend, committing to serve, expressing concerns with each other, resenting our neighbors, and anything that we can think of that we are struggling with.  Therefore, we must have the full armor of God on our bodies every day to ensure that we protect our spiritual lives with the help of the Lord.  Once we are persistent in wearing the armor of God, we will be able to protect the Lord’s ministry.  Additionally, we will be able to show Jesus’ light to the lost souls and they will be drawn to that light.  If we are not taking good care of our spiritual lives like we need to brush our teeth or take a bath to keep our bodies clean daily, then we cannot expect to see the Lord’s ministry to grow stronger and mature.  Please remember that if we fail to show light to the needy people, they will not see something different in us and miss the greatest gift of Jesus Christ.   

We have built a house with a foundation, frames and roof, in other words- to put Jesus Christ as our Rock, devote our prayers to the Lord for specific needs and wear the full armor of God on our bodies.  We are beginning to secure and protect our Lord’s ministry, thus be able to draw the lost souls to His ministry.  However, the construction of Lord’s ministry is not completed yet.  I will have 2^nd part of “Building the Lord’s Army” to present when I return here from Jacksonville, FL for the National Christian Convention of the Deaf.  Meanwhile, we are encouraged to begin doing the work of the Lord even though we have recently begun two months ago.  But we now know what we must do to secure and protect His ministry, and start building His army.