The Shepherd’s Voice
The Shepherd’s Voice is one of our pastor’s communications extension to the Church, our friends and the world. He uses it as a way to reach out to our faith community while providing spiritual insight and perspectives to the sermon messages and events and issues of our day. We are welcomed and encouraged to comment on any of the messages by clicking the “Fine or Main Point” link you want to comment on, going to the bottom of the page and filling in and Submitting the Reply at the end of the message. Most of the blogs have audio playback so we can listen to as well as read them. We hope you are blessed and inspired by our Shepherd’s Voice.
18
Nov '19
Fine Points Monday Nov 18 2019
18
Nov '19
Greetings FB members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me in some Fine Points from yesterday’s service and message. Our Sunday School lesson scriptural text and BTU scriptural text was from 1 Peter 1:13-25 which led me to complete the day with the sermon entitled “Being Holy” from the same text.
The focus verses are 15 and 16 that command Christians to be holy. So the day was spent examining the meaning of holiness and the implications and role holiness has for Christians and salvation. This passage as well as some others rule out holiness as an option Christians can chose to take or leave. For something so central to salvation, holiness and its significance is minimized in today’s Christian conversation.
Jesus is the human embodiment of holiness. God gave us His Son to show us what holiness looks like in man in a way for us to imitate what we see so we too may be holy like God. Holiness addresses behavior and behavior begins with obedience. It informs us on how to behave ourselves in such a way that is pleasing and acceptable to God.
While you may not have anything personally against an uncivilized person, you would not be able to tolerate their presence in a civilized setting. Nearly everything about them would be offensive, disruptive and unacceptable. Without holiness we are that uncivilized person. If placed in heaven, our unholy behavior would have the same effect as the uncivilized person in a civilized environment.
Holiness is therefore required in us on a practical level to enable us to abide in heavenly places. An uncivilized person is uncivilized because he is unaware of what civil behavior is or because knowing what it is choses to not divest him or herself from that uncivilized behavior. The reason therefore a person remains uncivilized is not because of an inability to imitate civilized behavior.
The same is true when this analogy is applied to holy and unholy people. Unholiness is a result of ignorance or a refusal to abandon unholiness in favor of holiness. It is not a problem of being able to imitate holiness we see in God. Unholiness like rabies is dangerous and deadly if it is not checked and stopped because it will spread to others and infect them as well.
Pets and other animal are given shots to prevent them from falling victim, but once infected there is no known cure. Holiness is the only treatment for unholiness and like those who have succumb to rabies, the humane thing is to put them to death. This is what the Bible says will happen to those who refuse to accept the only known treatment for unholiness.
I cried after Old Yeller contracted rabies and had to be put down. Likewise, God has no pleasure in putting down humanity for similar reason. Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
11
Nov '19
Fine Points Monday November 11 2019
11
Nov '19
Greetings everyone in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want to begin by expressing my joy and thanksgiving for the love, honor and respect you demonstrated toward me and mine on the 32nd Anniversary Service as your pastor.
I was so happy to see each of you who came to be a part of this special day for me and the members of the church. All week I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t preaching this Sunday. Even though I wasn’t preaching, I had confidence that our Associate Minister would bring us a good and challenging word from the Lord.
To summarize what I understood the message (Trusting God In Spite of How it Seems) to be was for us to have no fear placing our confidence in Christ, to not trust in earthly things, to understand that we will have some ups and downs and to know that God is preparing us for something greater and that He will be with us every step of the way on our way to spiritual maturity. It was a message of encouragement and something we all need in times like these.
One of the best parts of this day was the fellowship meal. As I walked through the building, I could hardly restrain myself as I smelled the aroma of the food being prepared for us to eat. I want to express my sincere thanks to each and everyone for the food and drinks you brought and especially everyone who helped setup, serve and straighten up afterwards. Everything looked so good, neat and nice in the kitchen and fellowship hall after the service. It hardly looked like we had been in there at all. Thanks for an outstanding job!
The afternoon service was just what we needed. Dr. Blakney and Solid Rock really blessed us with their singing and his preaching. Part of this service was lived streamed on Facebook and Youtube and I have been blessed watching it over again and invite you to do the same.
Dr. Blakney didn’t earn his degree from college courses, but from the years of experience he has working with and among the people of God. There are few men or women with the gift to speak plainly to and in a vernacular which common people can easily understand and relate to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. Blakney is one of those who has this gift.
Finally, allow me to say thank you once again for all of your acts of kindness and gifts you gave to Verlinda and I. I hope and trust you gave from your heart according to the measure of faith you have to give. As I told you before, the size or amount of a gift is not what is important. It is the attitude in which you give that is important and matters. Because the measure (or attitude) you give to others will be measured back to you
Well, this concludes this edition of Fine Points and I hope to be back in to pulpit with another message from our Lord this Sunday. I know you don’t think what you gave or did is going to change my approach to what God has called me to do. I’m still going to call a spade a spade and relate to everyone the way God would have me to do so.
I love you all very much and I am not satisfied until I have done all I know and can do to ensure your entrance and mine into the kingdom of our dear Savior. Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
04
Nov '19
Fine Points Monday Nov 4 2019
04
Nov '19
How disappointing will it be to give a great portion of one’s life to a cause only to discover that you didn’t get credit for what you did because of something you didn’t address but could have addressed and was encouraged to address. So instead of reaping the rewards of eternal blessedness with God and Christ you end up suffering the same fate as those who did nothing for the cause you gave a great portion of your life for.
The sermon “Missing Opportunity” is about how practicing religion is far from doing and being what is required to be saved. The bible records two occasions when Jesus wept. Once at Lazarus’s grave and the other time as He came up on Jerusalem. Jerusalem was and is God’s city and the central location of the Jewish people He called and made. Yet when He came to give them eternal peace and the joy and blessings for which He had called them they failed to see and seize the opportunity He presented to them.
They were so close and even had the Savior in their midst yet missed the opportunity to be saved. Their problem was their failure to see the need to change what they were doing. They were worshiping but not in the way God required.
Paul said that “they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God”. The same identical thing is happening today. People are worshiping today, but not in the way God requires.
People want to worship God and be saved on their own terms. If they were God and someone worshiped them like they worship God they would not be pleased or accept it as genuine or sincere. Yet they are expecting God to accept that same worship from them. And so church folks are missing the opportunity to receive the things God has promised by not recognizing the need to reform their worship.
It seems no matter how many times they are told that what they are doing is not acceptable to God, nothing brings about the needed change. It was so frustrating and disappointing to Jesus that in His humanity He wept because even He could not get them to see.
As a pastor and preacher, it is difficult to see people you love and care for show so little or no spiritual improvement Sunday after Sunday Year and Year, much less the spiritual maturity God is requiring in all His people. But after He dried His eyes, Jesus continued with His mission for He knew while most would not change, there would be some who would.
And it is for those who would and will change and reform their worship into what is genuine and true, that He was willing to suffer and die for to save them from eternal damnation. There is still something or someone most church folk still put before true and genuine worship of God. And whatever those things are is causing them to miss the once in a lifetime limited opportunity God is providing to us all.
Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
28
Oct '19
Fine Points Monday Oct 28 2019
28
Oct '19
Welcome everyone and thanks for joining me for another edition of Fine Points. I feel for the mother and father of the 8-year old student who brought a loaded 9MM handgun to school. I know they, as well as we all, are thankful that the gun was not used and no one was hurt.
We live in a culture that permitted a child to get access to a deadly weapon and threaten another child with death. How could this happen? Part of the reason is the abundance of firearms within the culture. With over 400 million of them floating around, it shouldn’t be surprising that 1 would end up in the hands of a child. After all, many children are killed by firearms every year.
Still more troubling is the notion that an 8-yr old is threatening to kill another person. Some people are running around talking about civil war if the President is impeached. Nearly 110 people a day are dying from gunfire in America. This culture of violence and death is perpetuated by those who are squeezing and profiting from those who have not.
It is cruel and evil for a society to profit on the condition of the poor, weak and needy. They have and still are manipulating the system to keep people divided, envious and in competition of resources they hoard and limit to everyone else. This creates a climate of fear, need, distrust, anger, dishonesty, desperation and despair which fuel crime and drug addiction and abuse.
Those who are mainly responsible do not fear any consequences for their actions. But God is the defender of those who suffer at the hands of the wicked and greedy. He will not allow their suffering to go unanswered. In the meantime, we who are the children of God must comfort people and help them out of their situations by giving them the bread and water of life.
“Fiddling While Rome Burns” is a phase that means doing nothing or something trivial in response to an emergency or crisis. Our world and culture is in crisis and the love and salvation of God in Christ is what God has given us to address the ills of evil. We see what is happening, but if we stand by and do little or nothing to address what’s happening, then we are “Fiddling and Fanning While the World Burns”.
It’s time for us to get serious about our efforts to love people and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them before the whole world is engulfed in the fire of violence, iniquity and greed. Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
21
Oct '19
Fine Points Monday Oct 21 2019
21
Oct '19
Sometime people have a hard time getting over past relationships. They hope that somehow the relationship can be restored even though there is little or no reason to believe it will. Others secretly admire someone who does not admire them. These situations are referred to as “carrying a torch for someone”.
When people carry torches for others, they are not completely free to have an unencumbered relationship with someone else. Many people who profess to be Christians unfortunately love and want to live in this world where evil flourishes than the one God has and is providing for them. In other words, as long as they can get what they want and/or fulfill their own lust, they are prepared to live with, commit and even suffer evil onto themselves and others.
When our primary joy and love is not pleasing God in Christ, then we are attracted to something in Egypt which is symbolic for evil things and idolatry. Though they were no longer in Egypt, many wanted to return stating it openly and longing for it privately. Though many in the church profess Jesus as Lord, yet their love for God is tainted and compromised by a desire, lust or taste for something within this condemned evil society and system God has condemned and is slated for destruction.
Any hesitation or reservation about forsaking any of the things we loved and desired before will distract from giving our full love and devotion to God. This is in effect “Carrying A Torch For Evil” by not letting go of something or someone in order to fully embrace the one when should love.
Paul cited several examples of this idolatry and desire for evil things that prevented many in Israel from entering the land God had promised them. The same holds true for us today. This message is not for those outside the church, but for those who have hope of life with God. Unless we want to end up like them, we should have no longing nor carry any torch for this world or the things that are in it.
Let’s be certain we have left all thoughts of returning to Egypt or an evil infested place behind. Let us put our whole heart, mind, soul and strength into serving and pleasing God first and foremost. And all the other things will take care of themselves.
Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
14
Oct '19
Fine Points Monday Oct 14 2019
14
Oct '19
People who hear the true word of God and make no change in what they are doing are deaf and blind. Yesterday’s message entitled “Preach Anyhow” attempts to explain how God called and sent Isaiah to preach to a nation immersed in sin and idolatry that would not see, hear and understand the word he was preaching.
And while it appeared on the surface to be a fruitless mission, God told him to preach it anyhow because there would be some, though they be difficult for him to detect, God knew would listen and were part of His holy seed or remnant. Without even realizing it, including even dedicated and consistent church members, people are hearing and seeing what God is saying without hearing and perceiving what it is saying.
It is as if a community received an evacuation warning, but behave like they didn’t get it. They heard the warning and understood what the warning meant but still reacted like they didn’t hear it or understand its meaning or it was intended for somebody else. This is similar to how God said Israel would react to Isaiah’s preaching.
This is how people reacted to Jesus’s preaching and how people and church members are reacting to God’s preached word today. People hear and understand what is being said but behave like it doesn’t apply to them because they do not change according to what is being said. So the effect of hearing and seeing is the same as if they are deaf and blind.
The result is the destruction of a nation or community and the people who live there like that of a major hurricane where people failed to heed the warning and took no precautionary steps or actions. The result on Israel was devastating that left the nation in ruins. Devastation is visited upon any people or nation who ignore the word of the Lord as we can see happening in societies around the world and in the US.
Sin is the ruin of any people. The bottom line is for us to begin listening for and looking for what the Word is saying to us, and not our neighbor or someone else, and begin making all the corrections it is telling us to make. It’s timeout for saying so and so should have been there when we were there and did nothing in our own lives about what we saw and heard. Otherwise we will not be among that holy seed that God has identified that shall be redeemed.
Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
07
Oct '19
Fine Points Monday Oct 7 2019
07
Oct '19
“That Terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with, it can’t be reasoned with, it doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop ever until you are dead.” This a line from the 1984 science fiction movie “The Terminator” in which a futuristic cyborg assassin relentlessly pursues a woman in the past and the human protector also sent back to save her from the terminator.
In the sermon “Terminating the Terminator” this description of the terminator can also be applied to Death who is the real-life terminator who stops at nothing to destroy every human being. Man’s sin is what gives Death his invincible power against man and why no man has been or is able to stand again it. But if man’s sin is removed, Death becomes powerless to harm him.
This is what God did by transposing or taking all of man’s sin onto Himself and becoming the victim of death for those sins and thereby terminating the terminator power over man. It amounted to an exchange of sin for righteousness and death for life which resulted in a substitution of persons. Christ became us as Paul said he became sin for us who knew no sin and we have become Him by allowing Him to live His life through us. But because He had no sin of His own, Death could not hold Him in the grave.
Satan has effectively harnessed death and uses it against mankind by exploiting his ignorance and weakness. By taking away man’s sin, he no longer has a reason to fear death nor fall victim to the lies, deception and temptations of the enemy.
Death is God’s way of enforcing order in what He has created. Everything He has made and lives within His realm is subject to His dictates and commands. Death is used as a resort for those for whatever reason refuse to abide by His laws. This is why the scriptures states that there is no escape for those whose sins can be removed yet they insist on their rebellion against God.
In that movie, Kyle sacrificed his life to save Sarah Conner from the terminator. In real life, Jesus sacrificed His life to save us from the real terminator Death. The only thing we have to do to receive this grace and protection is to submit to the Lordship of God in Christ and live the way He created us to live.
Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
30
Sep '19
Fine Points Monday Sept 30, 2019
30
Sep '19
“You know I’ll always be your slave until I’m bury in my grave” is a line from a popular Sam Cooke tune. Some people are slaves by choice and others have it placed upon them. The case with humanity is that slavery was placed upon all the descendants of the first humans Adam and Eve.
The chains of that slavery was and always has been and will be sin. Sin is not something people want to talk about. Many like to pretend it doesn’t exist. Because of sin, all mankind finds itself behind the gates of hell condemned to everlasting separation from God and torment. Yet Jesus Christ has managed to pay the debt for all of humanity and opened the gates of hell. (The sermon entitled “Emancipation” addresses this issue)
So now anyone who wants to be a slave to righteousness can escape and leave hell for an eternal place in heaven. Christians are slaves or servants too, but our servitude is by choice to a Father who made and designed us for eternity. The reason more people don’t take Jesus up on His offer to free them is because like Sam Cooke they have become accustomed to the slavery and imprisonment of sin and have resigned themselves to stay that way until they die.
One of the sad truths is that most people who think like that are blind to the fact that they are poor brokenhearted, bruised slaves and prisoners. Jesus came to emancipate humanity, but no one wants freedom who doesn’t know they are enslaved and in prison to start with. This is one of the great tasks of our Lord. To desire freedom, one must realize one is in chains and bound.
It is the great task of all who have been emancipated or are in the process of being emancipated to help others realize their birthright. We must try to get them to see that they are not paupers, but the offspring and heir of a God with eternal riches that make all this world’s glory and wealth appear as play money.
Jesus is the great emancipator. He has brought the light or knowledge of who we are and the means to leave the slave planation and prison of sin, the domain of the evil one, and set us free to enjoy the eternal blessings of God our Father.
Why would anyone in their right mind choose to remain in prison, eating prison food, wearing prison clothes, living in prison housing never being able to accumulate any wealth or go anywhere outside the prison walls? Maybe it’s because prison and slavery is all they know and they can not see or believe that there is anything besides it, or if it is, to them it can’t be better than the prison and plantation of sin they are in now.
It is the calling of all those who were blind and now see to help those who still are as we once were to see and receive the light of God’s grace as we have. Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
23
Sep '19
Fine Points Monday Sept 23 2019
23
Sep '19
Activities that display scorn, hatred or contempt for our Creator, for His creation and for His plan and purpose for our life are evil. Jesus said man in no uncertain, ambiguous or unquestionable way prefers darkness over light. In the sermon “Decidedly Evil” the choices mankind makes in regard to God is compared to the choice the central character in the 1934 movie “Imitation of Life” made in rejecting her mother, all things black or negro and any life that involved her living as a negro.
This central character named Peola was born negro or black in a world designed to benefit those who are white and stifle those who are black. But because of her skin complexion she had the choice of passing and living as a white person. By living as a white person, she could bypass all the obstacles and barriers to success faced by negroes. But that choice would require her to deny who she was born as, to deny her mother, to withdraw from all negroes and to bypass any life she may have had as a negro.
Mankind was created in the image of God to be good like his Creator. In order to be or do good, man is required by His Creator to deny or delay for himself some things he needs and desires. Evil is a method of bypassing or transgressing the way God has ordained to meet needs and desires. So like Peola, man is born or created with obstacles and barriers to meeting his needs and desires like negroes but also like Peola man has the means to bypass these restrictions if he denies his heritage by choosing evil like Peola chose whiteness.
In choosing evil, people fail to acknowledge the place of their creator in the life. By choosing to pass as white, Peola would no longer acknowledge the role of her mother in her life. In choosing evil, people disassociate themselves with the church and people of God in favor of other groups of people who don’t acknowledge or obey God. By choosing to pass as white, Peola abandon the negro community in favor of another community who had no love or support for the one she left.
In choosing evil, people reject the purpose and life God designed for them for a life of their own choosing and making. By choosing to pass as white, Peola refused to fulfill her purpose and destiny she had as a negro for a life she would make for herself. People have been taught and led to believe that being evil is better than being good. And in the short run, the good suffer while the wicked seem to prosper.
As a result, people tend to shy away from goodness as they see it more as a liability than as an asset. In a similar way, negroes wouldn’t embrace their blackness because society makes black seem bad. In 1969, James Brown led negroes into saying and believing they are black and proud and black people began to embrace their blackness and heritage.
Jesus is a type of spiritual James Brown in helping man to be good and proud. So now that we know, we have a choice. We choose to be decidedly good and be what God created us to be or Negro or we choose to be decidedly evil and someone God didn’t make us to be or White. The condemnation or judgement is that now men know the truth, they choose evil or whiteness anyway because they prefer it to blackness or goodness.
Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
16
Sep '19
Fine Points Monday Sept 16 2019
16
Sep '19
A profile provides a basic description of defining characteristics of an individual, group or entity. People within a certain profile, which can be called the Profile of a Believer, are more likely to become Christians while others outside this profile are less likely.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Apostle Paul noted that certain types of individuals were not among them because they lacked the ability to see beyond their own intellectual arrogance to receive the simplicity of the gospel message. There is a group of people who are more receptive of God’s message who have several things in common that place them into a profile of those who may become believers.
The identification and alleviation of suffering is one of the appeals of the gospel for people who have suffered, are suffering or know something about suffering. They can relate to a suffering savior who not only stands ready to help them with their own suffering, but promises to relieve all suffering by and by.
Then there are those ready to admit their lack of knowledge who do not close their minds to the possibility of the unknown and unexplainable. Jesus is reported to have performed many feats and acts that can be described as miracles. Miracles are unexplainable, but not impossible. The profile of a believer includes those who accept the miraculous because they acknowledge their knowledge is too limited to say what is and is not possible.
Common sense reveals that people are no accident of nature, but the product of design with a purpose. People who fit within the profile of a believer do not accept the ridiculous claim of some people that we are a collection of cosmic particles or dust that randomly came together to form complex organisms such as themselves. This is why they are ready to listen to someone who can explain their existence and purpose in a way that makes sense to them.
Then there are those who are not satisfied with what this world has to offer and are willing to hold out on the possibility that there is much more than what is here and seen. This is another appeal of the gospel that draws the interest of someone who may become a believer. While there are many things that can bring temporary joy, satisfaction and fulfillment, the possibility of eternity is much more appealing than any of the other measures this world has to offer.
While these are not all the characteristics that are included in the profile of a believer, they represent a starting point for those who are more likely to believe the gospel and become Christians. How do you fit within this profile? Does this sound like anyone you know? If so, share the gospel with them.
Look for our Sunday School preview that comes out on Thursday of this week on our Facebook page and mobile app. You can also enjoy the SS Daily Bible Readings anytime and anywhere at our website. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments
Pastor Jordan
