Tim Hawkins has been blessed with a great gift of humor.  Hope you enjoy this clip.  Yes, that verse is in the Bible!

Romans 12:4-6a “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:” NKJV

Life Lesson: We all play a different part in the Body of Christ.

On occasion, it is essential for me to communicate in “Christianese” to make a point and this is one of those times.  When I say “Body of Christ,” that is Christianese for “the church.” I am not talking about the building, but the assembly of individuals in the building and in an even wider sense, all Christians in the world.  Just as a nose is a specialized ingredient to the whole being, so is each person uniquely gifted to fill a certain role in this “body.” When all the parts of your own body are doing their job well, we say your body is “healthy.”  Likewise, when each individual is using his/her gifts to the benefit of the whole body, the church is healthy.

Discord within the body is detrimental.  Let me explain.  Do you realize that every time you eat a meal, you hold a potentially deadly weapon in your hand?  What if you were eating a meal and your hand staged a coup against the brain?  Well, obviously your hand is not suited to manage all the processes of your body like the brain is, so your body would die.  In that case, it would be better to remove your hand – as it has become cancerous to the rest of the body. In this manner, God, in His divine wisdom, established an order within the church that enables each one of us to minister our gifts in the manner best suited for us and for the body.  If you operate outside of your gifts, you are going to be frustrated.  If you do not use your gifts at all, it will not only be frustrating, but you will also be in sin.

James 4:17 “Remember, It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” NLT

When everyone uses their talents and gifts to serve one another, it is a beautiful thing.  The body functions the way it should and the gospel message of Jesus Christ goes forth.  I am thankful for everyone who so generously gives of their time and their finances here at Calvary Chapel of the Triad.  We have been extremely effective in reaching the world, and I look forward to engaging even more people as effective parts of this body.

Dear Father,

Thank You for blessing me with Your Word. I want whatever You want to do in my life. I desire to use the talents and gifts You have given me for the purpose of edifying others and building up the church. Lord, I want to put off the fear of man, insecurities or whatever else would keep me from obeying and serving You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,
Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com
twitter.com/ccot

2 Kings 23:3-4 “Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.” NKJV

Life Lesson: We need to be acting on the Word of God.

I’ve met many Christians who know the Bible inside and out. They can quote scripture after scripture, word for word with verse references and even comment on the meaning. I’ve met fewer who actually do the Bible. This astounds me. What if a 16 year old kid memorizes the driver’s exam study book and aces the exam, but then goes out and runs every stop light he comes across? He’s going to get hurt and will probably hurt someone else in the process. The same is true with the Word of God. Think of the Christians on street corners with sandwich boards and megaphones hardening the hearts of everyone around them. They have the “head knowledge” but they have not made the “heart application.” To the other extreme are Christians who use church as a social club. They nod their heads and “amen” the pastor, but their day to day life speaks nothing of following Jesus. Solid biblical teaching assigns the hearer the responsibility to act on what they learn. Someone who goes to Med School but begs on the street is not really a doctor. They may carry the title, but they don’t do the work. So, where do you fall in this? Are you a Bible doer or just a Bible hearer?

Dear Father,
Thank You for loving me. Please forgive me for times when I have failed to live by Your Word. I thank You for giving me Your Bible. Help me to make doing what You tell me the priority in my life. Help me to love You and to love others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,

Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com
twitter.com/ccot

Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” NKJV

Life Lesson: Jesus died for us so we should live for Him.

In this verse above, Apostle Paul pleas with us to be fully devoted to God in our lives because He gave Himself fully for us.  Jesus died for us; therefore, we should live for Him.  You know that…right?  Are you doing it?  Wisdom is knowledge put to work.  To know the Bible is to do the Bible.  Worship, service and sacrifice are things all Christians should be engaged in.  The word for reasonable, in this verse, is the Greek word logikos, which means logical.  It is logical that since Jesus gave His life for us, we should be willing to devote our lives to Him. That word service?  It is latreia in Greek or avodah in Hebrew, which means service in the temple.  To sum it up, service is worship.  Worship is not just the music before the teaching at church. Worship is a way of life.  Worship is a pattern of living.  It is serving and giving.  It is being a steward of the things God has given you and leveraging them to produce good things for the kingdom of God. This is the work that Jesus wants to perform in you. He wants to change you from the inside out – if you will let Him.  This is Paul’s wish in the first couple of verses of Romans 12 and it is my prayer for you as well.  Will you allow Jesus to transform you from the inside out?

Dear Father,

Thank You for loving me so much that You would send Your Son, Jesus to die for my sins.  I give You my life.  Please transform me from the inside out that I may have the mind of Christ to worship You with all that You have made me a steward of.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,

Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com
twitter.com/ccot

2 Kings 22:1-2 “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” NKJV

Life Lesson: Christianity offers you the power to make a free choice.

Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, and his father, Amon, were two of the worst kings of Judah.  They killed prophets, sacrificed their children, and rebuilt places of idol worship – even placing them in the house of the Lord.  Josiah chose to do differently.  He chose to walk in the ways of the Lord.  That is just it, friend.  We get to choose.  People will say that you are doomed to follow in the sins of your father. Josiah proves that is not the case.  You may be predisposed to those sins, but you get to make the choice.  Maybe you watched your father get drunk every day of his life – that does not mean you have to. Even when you choose not to walk in the sins of your mother or father, you will still have to deal with it just as Josiah did.  You will have to make the decision of whether you follow or choose something better.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” NKJV

Maybe your father followed Jesus and lived his life for the Lord.  If so, what an awesome privilege; those are great footsteps to follow.  For others, their childhood was full of parental failures and disappointments.  The trail blazed was bleak.  Be encouraged. You may face the temptation my friend, but God has provided the means by which you can overcome and choose a better way.  It would have been easier for Josiah to continue in the way that was paved by his father and grandfather; instead, he chose a better path.  What path will you choose?

Dear Father,
Thank You for loving me even in my failures.  Thank You for forgiving me.  Help me to make wise decisions by looking to Your Word to receive Your counsel and instruction.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,
Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com

Romans 11:30-32 “For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.” NKJV

Life Lessons: God is a merciful God.

God offers all mankind His mercy.  Who are we to put limits on His mercy? When we choose not to minister the gospel to another, we do just that.  The definition of mercy is that you do not receive what you deserve. On this day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us remember that in no way did we deserve God’s merciful action.  By no means did we merit for Jesus to suffer at the hands of the unrighteous…that He could bear the tremendous weight of our own sin on that cross.  Through no power of our own, these events unfolded through the benevolent and merciful loving-kindness of a Father of which many want to push away.  Let us commit ourselves this day to making sure that everyone hears God’s message of mercy to the broken.  May all mankind hear the gospel and make their choice.  This Resurrection Sunday we did not have a sunrise service. We had a Son-Has-Risen service.  On the other side of that breaking dawn, let us brace ourselves to our God given duties and make sure that the whole world hears.

Dear Father,
Thank You for being my God of mercy. I believe that Jesus is alive and accept Him as Lord of my life. May I live only for You. Purify my heart with Your truth and guide me in the way of Your will for my life so that I may always do what is pleasing in Your sight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,
Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com

Here’s the end times timeline from the teaching last week.

Self-made pot

2 Kings 21:8-9 “and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers — only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.”9 But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.” NKJV

Life Lesson: Desire God’s best for your life and don’t demand your own way.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have looked at the reign of Hezekiah in Judah. In this chapter, we see some of the fruit of his pride. God had sent the prophet Isaiah to tell him that God’s plan was for him to die. Hezekiah then appealed to the Lord to let him live. God heard his prayer and allowed his request to live. As a result, a series of events began that led Judah to destruction and its people carted away. Had Hezekiah accepted God’s will, all this would have been averted.

From our perspective, God’s will seems harsh at times. Sometimes, it may even seem absurd or impossible. Friends, that is from our limited perspective. God’s perspective is not limited. He knows what the best is for us and it is His desire to give it to us; but He will not force it on us. When you pray to God, make your requests and then go with God’s flow of what He is trying to do. Then, you will know the goodness of God’s will in your life.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” NKJV

Dear Father,

Thank You for loving me. In all things, Your desire toward me is good and perfect. Sometimes, I want my own way and I try to force it. Please forgive me and when I do it again, please send a reminder to me that Your way is better than my way. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,
Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com

Romans 11:25 “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” NKJV

Life Lesson: Things will not be as they are now forever.

“The fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”  The New Living Translation puts it this way, “this will only last until the complete number of Gentiles comes to the Lord.” So, there are a fixed number of Gentiles who will come to the Lord and then that is it…no more.

Genesis chapters 6-8 is the record of Noah building an ark as God commanded, which spared him and his family from God’s judgment on the whole earth.  The Bible says that once the ark was loaded with animals, Noah and his family were inside the ark for seven days before the flood waters came upon the earth.  Now, think about this…Noah, over the course of a hundred years, built a giant covered barge on dry land in preparation for a world-wide flood.  “Where’s the flood, Noah?”  “Looks like rain, Noah, you better hurry!” “You’re crazy, Noah!” Can you imagine the ribbing he was taking?  Those who mocked him were the same people banging on the door when the floods hit. Unfortunately, the door to ark had been closed by God.  They had made their decision, and God honored it.  Things, as they are now, will not last forever.  The door is open now.  There will come a day when that door is shut.  Don’t wait until it rains friend, it may be too late.

Dear Father,
Thank You for the gift of salvation through Your Son Jesus Christ. Your love is clearly revealed to me by the prophetic truths of the scriptures. Thank You for Your infinite grace and mercy toward me. Lord, through Your Word, you have reminded me afresh of the importance of living ready. I am surrendered to Your will to do the work of the ministry.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,
Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com

2 Kings 20:1 “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ” NKJV

Life Lesson: There are things worse than death.

What if God told you that you were going to die?  People every day are informed by doctors and juries they have only years, months, days, or even moments left to live.  Those could be moments of regret or moments of satisfaction…it all depends on what we ‘make’ of moments God allots to us.  Make?  Yes, God has given to each one of us creativity, time, a sense of right and wrong, and free will.  What we do with these raw materials is up to us.  Most of us dole out the moments on frivolous, self-centered activities. Sometimes, it takes moments of shock to make us change course.

Do something for the Lord or do something for the world?  The first is a path leading to satisfaction and the latter is a highway leading to regret. It has been said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Life is much more than just a measure of our days.  It is what we do for the Lord and that, my friend, will last forever.  What if God told you that you were going to die?  Well…He has.

Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” NKJV

What are you doing with your moments?  Are they going to last?

Dear Father,
Thank You for Your love.  Thank You for the moments You have given to me.  Please forgive me for times when I have selfishly squandered the moments.  Please give me the courage to make the most of the time and abilities You have given me.  I want to go to Your kingdom with no regrets over the time I have here.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Living to tell what He died to say,
Pastor David McGee
Senior Pastor
Calvary Chapel of the Triad
reachthetriad.com
336.996.6880