The Limits Have Been Set

Today’s Bible readings are Ruth 2:1-4:22, John 4:43-54, Psalm 105:16-36, & Proverbs 14:26-27

Psalm 105:16-22

¹⁶ He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food: ¹⁷ and he sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. ¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, ¹⁹ till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true.
²⁰ The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. ²¹ He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, ²² to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom.

Did you know that God has a plan & a purpose for your life? It is true. He desires to do great things through you for His glory. The awesome thing about God is He can do it!

There are a lot of things that try to keep you from achieving your God giving potential in this life. I recently talked to a friend who is going through some major tests in his life. He has made a commitment to follow Jesus & it just seems like everywhere he turns things come crashing in all around him. It is one thing after another for him.

It reminds me of this story of Joseph’s life. The enemy tried so hard to keep Joseph from being able to fulfill the dream that God gave him. Yet, in the end, the Word of the Lord ALWAYS stands firm.

You may be at a place right now where the enemy has you in a position like he had Joseph in. He may be trying to shackle your feet & put irons on your neck. The enemy may be doing everything in his power to try to get you to walk away from God. Here is what you need to do—SHOUT AS LOUD AS YOU CAN “IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LET ME GO IN JESUS NAME!”

I have always found strength in knowing that God sets the boundaries to where the oceans starts & ends. He is the One who tells the tide where to stop.

Job 38:8-11

⁸ “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, ⁹ and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness? ¹⁰ For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. ¹¹ I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!’

God is not the author of the storms in life, BUT HE IS THE ONE WHO TELLS THEM NO MORE! He has set a limit on what can be done. It may feel like:

1.      The waves are going to crush you.

2.      The shackles are going to cripple you.

3.      The irons are going to defeat you.

4.      The storm is going to swallow you.

5.      The test is going to break you.

 

BUT…

1 Corinthians 10:13

¹³ The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

This is a promise from God to us. It is just not true when the thought comes that this is going to destroy us. The Bible makes it clear that God, Our Father, would NEVER let that happen!!! He will ALWAYS make a way of escape so that we can STAND & ENDURE the weight of the trial. How does this happen???

Hebrews 4:14-16

¹⁴ So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. ¹⁵ This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

God has made a way for us to come to His throne of GRACE to obtain the strength, patience, & ability that we need in EVERY situation & test in life. His throne of grace has every gifts needed to endure in this life. It is a place of supernatural resources. It is a place of endless possibility.

We have access to that throne through the blood of Jesus. His blood covers our sin & makes us holy so we too can enter into the Holy of Holies to receive what is needed. All we need to do is access it by faith.

Stop letting the enemy distract you with all his crazy tactics. Stop letting the thoughts of defeat control your mind. Take authority over those thoughts & go to the throne of grace to get what you need to endure his attacks & come out on top!

Pastor Richard Schlotter

Addition Through Subtraction

Today’s Bible readings are Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalm 104:24-35, & Proverbs 14:22-23

John 3:27-30

²⁷ John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ ²⁹ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. ³⁰ He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

What is it that needs to happen in order for us to grow in Christ? What is the main thing that we must make sure we aim to remember if we are to ever reach the height that Christ has called us to? We must decrease so He can increase in our lives.

I love the message that John the Baptist is sharing. He is making it clear that in order for Christ to be glorified in us, we must decrease so He can increase. This is not an easy process. It can be very difficult to for us since we struggle so much with pride. Pride robs us of growth. Pride makes us think that we are good enough. Pride makes us think that we are strong enough. Pride makes us think we smart enough. Pride is very dangerous.

Proverbs 16:18

¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

Before every failure, before every lost opportunity, before every fall; pride was present.

John is making it clear that we must die to self so pride will lose its power over us. If pride doesn’t lose its power, we are bound to be overtaken by it. We will fail in our ministry. We will not accomplish our purpose.

We must always remember that Jesus is the One who is supposed to increase. He is the One who is supposed to be magnified. He is the One who is supposed to get the glory. He is the One who is supposed to be famous.

We all know that those statements are true. Every believer knows that Jesus gets the glory. Yet, many times our hearts still can get full of pride. The answer:  “Die to self.”

Here are some things to remember:

•        Servants aren’t thinking of their wants, they are focused on fulfilling the wants & desires of their Master.

1.       How can I please my Master.

2.       What does my Master want?

3.       What would make my Master happy?

4.       What would bring joy to my Master?

This is what John was trying to get across to us. We must decrease so He can increase. This is the path to greater life. We must die to live!

Pastor Richard Schlotter

True Transformation

Today’s Bible readings are Judges 17:1-18:31, John 3:1-21, Psalm 104:1-23, & Proverbs 14:20-21

John 3:1-4

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. ² After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

³ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴ “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

What is it exactly that the gospel is intended to do to our lives? What is the purpose of the good news? We start to see the plan of God unfold in this exchange between Jesus & Nicodemus. Jesus begins to explain the purpose of the gospel.

He says: “unless a man is born again”.  This shows us the intent of the gospel. It is to bring TRANSFORMATION into our lives. The gospel is meant to change everything about our lives & cause us to become new creatures.

Many people hear the gospel, & even respond to the gospel, but never experience true transformation. This is not the way that it is supposed to work. I want to make one point very clear; IT IS NOT THE GOSPELS FAULT!!!

The gospel still carries the same power that it did when Jesus preached it when He walked the earth. The problem is that many don’t let that gospel into their lives the way that it is meant to work. We want the good news that will make us feel better. We want the good news that we like. But we tend to blow off the rest of the message that can really lead to changed hearts & changed lives.

The gospel is an entire message. It teaches us to love, live, & forgive. It also teaches us to walk in victory, power, & truth. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness, evil, & wickedness. It teaches us of grace, mercy, & faith. When we take these things in their entirety we experience transformation.

Transformation occurs in our families, our relationships, our finances, our emotions, our minds, our attitudes, our bodies, etc… It begins to affect every area of how we live. This is the TRUE intent of the gospel. It is meant to transform us into new creatures!!!

How does this occur? It starts by taking in the Word. The Word is a seed that will produce God’s plans in us.

Isaiah 55:10-11

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God’s Word puts in us the things that are needed in order for us to experience transformation. As we receive His Word it gives life & truth to us so we can see the way life is supposed to be in Christ. This leads to us living that life by faith. This is transformation.

If there is an area of your life that has not experienced transformation, open up your heart to the Word of God. Begin t search the scripture to see what it says about your situation. As your get the GOOD NEWS about that area, let it transform you in to the new creature that you truly are. Le the gospel affect every area of your life in Jesus Name!

Pastor Richard Schlotter

My Sins Are Gone

Today’s Bible readings are Judges 15:1-16:31, John 2:1-25, Psalm 103:1-22, & Proverbs 14:17-19

Psalm 103:11-12

¹¹ For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. ¹² He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

How many times have you stood feeling condemned? How many times has something from your past come up to accuse you? How many times have you beat yourself up over a mistake that you made? How many times have you thought that something in your past is unforgivable? How many times has the thought came that God could never forgive you for something that you have done?

These are the kind of thoughts that plague so many in the body of Christ. We all are way too familiar with our past failures & sins. The memory of past failures & sins keep us stuck. They even keep us sinning.

I want to clarify that last statement. Some people may wonder how that is possible. When we continue to carry the past sins & failures around with us in our minds, it kills our right standing with God. As long as we see ourselves as failing sinners, we don’t think we have the right to go to God for help. This kills our confidence. So we live in a defeated state of mind. This leads to us being weak & defeated in life, which is where sin gets it power. All this leads to a cycle of us failing & sinning continually.

The Good News is this: 

 1.      God’s love is greater than any of our failures.

2.      God has removed our sins from us.

 

This is so awesome when we get a revelation of it. God has truly removed our sins from us. When He looks at us He doesn’t see our past failures & sins. He sees us clothed in the righteousness of His Son Jesus, in whom He is entirely pleased!  There is no hint or trace of our past in God’s mind. He has cast it into the sea of forgetfulness. He remembers it no more. Our problem is not that God remembers our past, it is that we do.

Satan is a master at bringing up the past. He does it in such a way that we don’t even realize it is him. As he sets those thoughts of the past up in our mind, we have to make sure to cast them down. We MUST confess that we are removed from our sins & sin is removed from us. It is like my pastor, George Edgerly, use to say, “When satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.”

There is this old song that we use to sing in church when I was younger that speaks about this topic very well.

When Satan comes to tempt me and tries to make me doubt,
I say, "My sins are gone;
You got me into trouble but Jesus got me out,
I'm glad my sins are gone."

Chorus
They're underneath the blood on the cross of Calvary,
As far removed as darkness is from dawn;
In the sea of God's forgetfulness, that's good enough for me,
Praise God, my sins are gone.

God wants you to know that you are released from your past. You are released from sin. Now go & be the new creature He has saved you to be. You no longer have to believe the accusations that come about your past. God says:  “Your sins are gone!”

Pastor Richard Schlotter