Keeping Salvation Alive Fine Points
Posted on Nov 8, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Keeping Salvation Alive”
King syrup, lard for baking and chitlings were all common food items that could be purchased in nearly every store that sold groceries as their main product when I was a teenager in my small hometown.
Those small grocers were eventually bought out by larger grocers who were bought out by even larger ones or ran out of business because they could not compete with them because of volume pricing.
That meant that items that were not popular with many “mainstream” customers were taken off the shelfs to make room for more culturally refined products. This has left shoppers for these items mentioned above that were once common, scrambling to find them anywhere in the few places they are still sold.
The true gospel of Jesus Christ is following a similar fate as once common foods. And just like them, it is becoming more challenging to find churches that preach this gospel. In attempts to attract and draw people, churches are avoiding language that seems to limit personal freedom or liberty or require someone to live a particular way.
They are designed to make people feel good just the way they are and to give them advice on how they can achieve their goals while continuing to live selfish, inward focused materialistic lives pretending to be or deceiving themselves to be followers and disciples of Jesus Christ.
These types of churches are more appealing, draw larger numbers of people and have more resources than the ones who stay with the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Just like the larger companies bought out the smaller companies or ran them out of business, these alternatives churches that preach and teach an appealing to the flesh form of Christianity are threatening the existence and availability of true gospel churches.
Soon the gospel of Jesus Christ will be so widely compromised, revised and adulterated that it will become ineffective in producing lifegiving and live-changing faith required for salvation.
There are people who think they are followers of Jesus Christ, who think they are doing God’s will, people who are being told they are born-again and are forgiven who haven’t repented of their sins or even been told they need to repent. Repentance isn’t just about being sorry for something, but it is a turning away of all things evil and a turning toward all things good and to God Himself.
Not only are they not repentant, but they still fail to see and love others as themselves by behaving selfishly, greedily and indifferently to the suffering and welfare of others. Many become merchandised for the promotion of other people’s agendas for power, wantonness and licentious lifestyles.
These merchandisers are agents of evil because instead of helping to bridge the divide between people, they help sustain and intensify division because is serves their wicked and lustful purposes. But true believers and followers of Jesus Christ must see through this dilution of the gospel.
We must see that Christ never told us to be at war with the people we are called to help save. Our task is not to force obedience or morality onto our neighbors or the world, but to demonstrate the love of and obedience to God and help them see and come to the same saving faith we ourselves have.
While we who preserve, preach, teach and live this gospel may become hard to find, we must remain in accessible places so that those who seek, want and desire the truth and those whom God has ordained to eternal life can find us and see and hear the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School study. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Reconciling The World Fine Points
Posted on Nov 1, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Reconciling The World”.
Reconcile means to mend, repair or restore a relationship between individuals. Differences and points of contention are set aside, neutralized or removed in order to establish a viable and optimal relationship.
The United States is losing, and some are saying has already lost, its technological, political and economic edges it has held over the rest of the world since the end of the 2nd World War to the People’s Republic of China.
China reportedly successfully test fired the world’s first hypersonic missile – something the US and others have been trying to do but haven’t been able to so far. China was able to contain and control the spread of the coronavirus in a nation of a billion thousands of times better than the United States and has administered over 2.2 billion does of vaccine to its’ population, while the US struggles with daily deaths and infections.
The point here is that the United States, once the undisputed world leader by almost every measure, is in a decline while China is poised to overtake the US as the world’s most dominant power.
Much of this change in global leadership can be blamed at the internal strife now taking place in the US that has only been intensifying in the last few decades. The roots and seeds of racism run deep and they manifest themselves in many places and different ways.
But the main effect is that it keeps preventing the citizens of the nation to see themselves as a common family of humanity which works for the common good of everyone and living out the words in the preamble of the Constitution.
There is a need for reconciliation in America. There is a need for reconciliation in the world. The good news of the gospel is that God has been reconciled with man through the blood of Jesus Christ. He is no longer holding our sins against us when we accept His offer of peace.
That peace offering is contingent upon us doing for others what He has done for us. Forgiving others as He has forgiven us. Loving others as He has loved us. To love others and treat others as if they were ourselves. This is the message the Church is charged with bringing and demonstrating to the world.
Sadly, when this nation and world needs this message as much as ever, too many in the church are sending and portraying a different message than the one Jesus commissioned the church to carry. In many cases, we who claim Jesus as Lord are being drawn in and fighting battles and waging wars Christ never called us to fight.
Our only task is to present the gospel to a fallen world in both word and deed, not make or ensure it heeds it. Yet somehow some of us have gotten the idea that it is our responsibility to do more than that and we are being used to fight against the same people we are sent to reconcile.
Charity begins at home. If we here in the United States, the true church and believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, can get back to our true calling and purpose of reconciliation between God and man and man and man, then this nation may serve as a model for the rest of the world.
If successful, one day our planet may stop spending billions of dollars on ways to destroy one other instead of spending billions on ways of helping each other live the kind of lives we all want for ourselves.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School study. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Investing In The Future Fine Points
Posted on Oct 25, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Investing In The Future”.
Investing can be described as doing something presently for an expected outcome later. Most, if not all, investments carry with them some measure of risk. Why? Because, whatever the outcome it is not guaranteed to happen because no one can guarantee future events. There may be a great deal of certainty involved, but it is almost never 100 percent.
For instance, no matter how well an athlete, a stock, a business, a idea, a person, place or thing has performed in the past, it is no guarantee of future performance. But we invest in them anyway despite the risk which can be called faith in the investment.
Christianity is an investment of our time, talent and resources in the teaching and word of God as we believe were spoken and confirmed through Jesus of Nazareth whom we call Christ. The expected outcome for this investment is an eternal life spent with and in the presence of God. Yesterday’s sermon attempted to parallel our investment in Christ with that Jacob made for Rachel.
He agreed to invest seven years of his life working for his uncle in order to receive the hand of his uncle’s daughter in marriage. There we no guarantees after seven years he would feel the same about Rachel or that something would happen to her or to him. No guarantee his uncle would not break his promise and give Rachel to another man.
No guarantee that Rachel would be all to him he imagined she would be once she became his wife. Yet, the possibility that she would be all he expected and then some caused him to accept all the risk just to obtain that expected outcome.
We too as Christians are assuming similar risk. After a lifetime of obedient service and dedication to God how will we feel toward God. How can we be certain God will and is able to keep His promise? What if heaven and the promise of God doesn’t meet our expectations? But the possibility of the promises will be all we can imagine and then some causes us to accept all the risk. This risk is called faith.
The bible said that Jacob’s deep love for Rachel caused the seven years he worked for her to pass as a few days. The same should be said of us who are anticipating eternity with God. As each day passes, we have less time to serve, to worship, to disciple to work for the salvation of all the souls God has called us to reach.
One day soon and very soon and unexpectedly our time will be up and over and there will still be things left on the table that could be done. In other words, time will pass by very quickly when we are engaged in ministry because our hope and joy rest in the promises of God just as Jacob’s did in the promise of the joy of having Rachel as his wife.
Jacob invested in the future with Rachel as his wife. Christians are investing in a future beyond the limits of space and time and death to be with the One they believe are responsible for their current and future existence.
Even if God was to speak from heaven today in order to allow every person to know He is real and affirm He is the God of the bible and Father of Jesus Christ some risk would still remain. There would still be some unanswered question and a need for faith to invest in the promises of God and a future beyond what is currently known to exist.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School study. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Meeting Divinity With Contempt Fine Points
Posted on Oct 18, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Meeting Divinity With Contempt”.
Life on earth in all of its varieties comes in many shapes, sizes and configurations. From the tiny bacteria and single cell lifeforms to the giant grey and humpback whales and everything in between there is one thing we all have in common. None of us possess what can be characterized as attributes of the divine with one, and only one, exception. That lone exception is the animal man.
The biological features of the animal man are closely related and similar to many other animal species, especially of those we refer to as mammals and primates. But there is one important difference that separates man from all other animals. It is what I call the divine spark. It is the light of God that has been imparted to humanity that elevates us above every other creature and places us on a path to join the eternal Creator.
This light gives us awareness, creativity, speech, reflectiveness, a sense of good and evil, hands and feet and a body suited for divinity and so many others qualities and attributes no other animal has or can ever attain. This is no accident or evolutionary phenomena but an act of God and a birthright God has given to every human being.
God has given us this spark of divinity and it is left up to us to make use of it as the Creator intended or to treat it with contempt and misappropriate it to enhance and fulfill our animal passions and desires.
A birthright is both a privilege and a responsibility. The receiver of the birthright receives more than the others in their family. We, as humankind, have received more than any other species and creature on the planet because we possess divine attributes none of the rest have.
Secondly, we have a responsibility to behave in a way that is worthy of these attributes we have and use them for what is good and just and compassion toward all creatures, both human and nonhuman.
We demonstrate contempt for this birthright when we fail to acknowledge it, when we take it for granted, when we use it for selfish gain and desire, when we use it to hurt and harm others, and when we allow our animal instincts and passions drive our thoughts, decisions and actions.
Our daily prayer should be one of thanksgiving and appreciation to our Creator for making us animals with divine sparks. We should be able to look at every creature and see the wonderful blessing God has given to us that they can never have. It should make us all the more responsible for the power God has given us.
We should pray for the wisdom to exercise it properly and in a manner that is worthy and pleasing to the One who gave it to us. And according to His promise, if we rightly exercise these divine gifts and attributes, their will be more to follow including the one of immortality.
But it all depends on whether we exercise the proper and right reverence for giving us a piece of the divine or if we meet the divine gift with contempt by treating it as something we didn’t ask for, we could care less about and have no responsibility or accountability for possessing. You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above.
You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School study. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Worldly Attachments Fine Points
Posted on Oct 11, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Worldly Attachments”.
Covetousness is a way of defining ourselves and giving ourselves value and meaning based upon possessions especially when comparing them with the possessions of others. It is a primary driver of many of the social, political and economic ills and disparities in human society.
Covetousness disregards the needs and feelings of others and instead focuses on a vain jealousy in acquiring things or attachments that is based on inordinate or excessive need to have and possess to validate one’s feelings of worth in relation to others.
Job is a prime example of someone who had many attachments because he was a wealthy man. Besides sons and daughters, he had houses and servants and much livestock. Yet, he was considered perfect and upright before God.
Why? Because he didn’t allow his possessions to interfere with his relationship with God. After Job lost all he had including his children, he continued worshipping God as he had before. He acknowledged that everything he possessed was a blessing and gift from God including his own flesh and blood.
God gave it all and God could take it all. But it will not alter his devotion and reverence for God. Job realized that it wasn’t his possessions that defined him, gave his life worth, meaning and purpose. But what mattered to him was his relationship with God.
Throughout human history and especially today, people define themselves not by their relationship with God, but by what they own or don’t own. They are constantly looking for the next possession in order to move up the perceived social and economic ladder.
They are constantly comparing themselves with what others possess as a measure of how well or not well they are doing. Instead of just being thankful for what’s on their own plates, they are constantly looking to see what is on the plates of others.
Depending on what they see, they will leave and abandon what they have in order to get what they don’t have often at the expense of those who don’t have and the breaking of the commandments of God.
We become attached to people and things as a substitute of establishing and maintaining a right relationship with God because it is those people and things we allow to define us and give us meaning and worth rather than our Creator and Eternal God.
In the end, all that matters and counts will be our relationship with God. We came into this world naked, without anything and that is the way we will leave regardless of our much we have managed to attach to ourselves.
This is why it is vital that we see everything as expendable, temporary and nothing we must have or need. For when we stand naked before God in the end as we were in the beginning, all that will remain is our relationship with Him, be it right, wrong or indifferent.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Our Debt To Society Fine Points
Posted on Oct 4, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Our Debt To Society”.
A debt to society refers to something owed to everyone in a community. This phase is commonly used to refer to the time served in jail or prison for a crime committed against the laws of society or community.
The punishment is to be removed from participating in that society until it has been deemed long enough to return. Sometimes that term can be forever banned from returning to the society.
Debt is seen as something we owe or are obligated to pay for something that was either done for us or done to us. Most people would probably want to be debt free. By this, we would owe no one anything whether for something good they did for us or something bad they did to us. We would neither be paying debts or collecting debts.
And while that might sound good and appealing, it is something that is very difficult to achieve living in this world. And what makes it more unlikely is that some debts are not of our own making but are imposed upon us.
But the fact is, Apostle Paul tells us to owe no man anything. We are to strive to relieve ourselves of all debts including those imposed and those who have wrong us. The debts we owe to those who have wronged us, we are not to settle. These debts God will take care of.
But there is one debt we can never fully repay and that is to love others as we love ourselves. Even if we somehow managed to pay all of our other debts, this debt will remain and continue into our life to come.
We owe God and are in His debt for giving us life and for sparing that life after death caused by sin. If we were to ask God how to repay the debt we owe, nothing we possess will be sufficient to cover what we owe.
So God says to us to repay Him by loving one another and this will cover our debt. For to love one another Paul says is to fulfill God’s eternal law. As long as there is another person to love, this debt will never be paid.
Our current world is suffering so much pain, sorrow and misery because we are failing to pay the debt we owe for our lives to God. This debt to society isn’t dependent upon others loving us. We can’t wait for other to love us to love them.
God didn’t wait for us to love Him before He loved us. But while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. In the same manner, we are called to love those in our world today. Not that they love us, but we are to love them.
It is hurtful to live in an increasingly loveless society. We see the effects of such a society growing on a daily basis. However, we who are the called of God have a debt to love those in such a society not only to repay the debt we owe, but to doing so someone who isn’t paying their debt may also begin to do so.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
God’s Eternal Elect Fine Points
Posted on Sep 27, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “God’s Eternal Elect”.
I am often thinking about people I knew who have died, how they expressed their faith and wonder how God saw them. I wonder how people over the generations and spans of time differ in how they related to God and how that relationship changes over generations and time.
They lived differently, came from different cultures, had different understandings of God and His will yet they found favor with God and are counted as part of His elect.
The elect are the special group of people who have been chosen and selected as heirs of salvation and life with God. This elect group is for whom God created the world and includes individuals from Abel to people in our present time.
They are not always known of others, but God knows them all. Because of size and distance, it is easy to doubt if God is even capable of knowing us, let alone saving us. And this accounts in part for the widespread idolatry we are experiencing in our time. But I am convinced as much, if not more, as ever that God is able to and knows us intimately, up close and personal.
People are discounting and ignoring God as an influence in their lives. There is a growing reliance on money, material goods and experiences to bring meaning, purpose and joy to life. While this idolatrous trend continues to grow, the true worshippers of God may not be as apparent as in previous generations. But rest assured there are many we don’t know about, but God is aware of all of His elect.
Elijah, God’s prophet who had been very faithful in his calling to turn the hearts of the people to God, saw how idolatry had taken over the leaders and the nation and believed he was the only one left remaining faithful to God. Yet God informed him that there were seven thousand he didn’t know about who had not given themselves over to idolatry.
No matter what it looks like, especially now with a great fall off in church attendance fueled in no small part by the effects of the pandemic, believers cannot, must not and will not become discouraged and give up on the promises of God.
We must live each day as in the presence of God seeking His approval of our thoughts and actions. By doing this we can help to assure we will be considered one of God’s eternal elect.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Unilateral Disarmament Fine Points
Posted on Sep 20, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Unilateral Disarmament”.
When faced with an enemy that has equal or superior strength, one has the option of seeking terms of peace, seeking a way to overcome or neutralize the enemy’s strength or just do nothing and continue the conflict as is.
A very risky and unwise strategy is to lay aside one’s weapons and defenses without any assurances or guarantees that the enemy is going to do the same. This strategy is called unilateral disarmament and it is unadvised when one enemies has no intention of disarming or ceasing hostilities toward you.
But this is precisely what Sampson did when he revealed the secret of his strength to a woman who had previously demonstrated she would use it against him to aid his enemies.
While we can’t know for sure why Sampson would jeopardize his life and freedom by doing what he did, we can see and have observed that people will sometime go against their better judgement and common sense in order to keep or pursue something they want or cherish. And in many cases, this is what happens and did happen to Sampson when we ignore caution in pursuit of passion.
Just like Sampson there are those who have and are conspiring to see our destruction. Death is our common enemy and our other enemies are driving us toward it. But thankfully, we have been given a weapon to use against our enemies including death that will overcome their deadly effects. That weapon is faith.
The Philistines could not defeat Sampson because of his superior strength and had no way of taking it from him. Sampson surrendered his advantage and his enemies took advantage of it. Faith is one thing our enemies can take from us. What they can do, have done and are doing is looking for ways to sow doubt.
Doubt is the enemy of faith. We can surrender our faith to doubt or refuse faith as a weapon against death. Either way we will be guilty of doing the same thing that Sampson did of unilaterally disarming the only weapon known to humanity against death.
Once Sampson was disarmed, he had no defense again his enemies and they captured, tortured, blinded, imprisoned and mocked him. If we refuse or abandon faith, we also will have no defense against death and its consequences.
I can’t go back in time and advise Sampson not to unilaterally disarm by revealing the secret of his strength to someone who could betray him. But I can and I am advising all who will hear and listen to not unilaterally abandon or forsake faith as a means of defeating and combating death. For all who do have given up their only potential way of defeating our last enemy.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Listening Learning Teaching Fine Points
Posted on Sep 13, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Listening, Learning, Teaching”.
Listening is one of our primary ways of receiving information. The sounds we hear, whether words or something else, informs us about the world we live and provides us with information that helps us to keep and maintain the lives we have.
But just as these words and sounds can help us to preserve and maintain life they can also degrade and destroy life. This is why it is important to exercise discretion and caution to who and what we listen to.
People are listening to many things and many people but fewer of them are listening to the words of Jesus. Of all the people one can listen to there is none wiser or intelligent when it comes to matters concerning the purpose and meaning of life and our existence in this world.
Life and the world in which we find ourselves is a mystery. There are many unanswered questions and questions we don’t even know to ask. Yet Jesus has emerged has the purest and clearest source to the answers to such questions.
He informed us to take heed to His word. That means to not only listen but also to seek to know the meaning of them. The effort we place in listening and learning we be equal to or greater than what we receive. But those who fail to do these things will lose what they had or think they had.
And while many things remain a mystery, Jesus said that there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed or secret that shall not be known. Jesus says to listen to Him and learn the meaning of what He is saying. Then do not sit on what you discover and uncover, but share it with others so they too can have the benefit and blessings of the knowledge of life and the world.
This is not to say that others have nothing of value to say or contribute. But there is nothing that eclipse the words and sayings of Jesus. Our nation and world is falling into disarray and contention because people aren’t listening to and learning the words of life which were spoken by Jesus.
Our calling as believers is to first listen and learn the Master’s words by understanding and implementing them. Then He told us to teach them to others. Because His words contain the light of life.
Light is not to be hidden, but place upon a candlestick or platform so that many can see the light thereof. They may reject the light, but that is no reason to deny them the opportunity to see the light.
We are called to make disciples by teaching them what Jesus taught us. Those that believe and are baptized will be saved. Those who believe not shall be condemned.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
Limits Of Liberty Fine Points
Posted on Sep 6, 2021 in Pastoral Messages |
Happy Labor Day and greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Limits Of Liberty”.
Most historians and Civil War researchers and scholars agree that the number of casualties lie somewhere around 620,000 or 750,000. This was a war caused when Americans wouldn’t find a way to peacefully bring about an end to slavery. Today, 650,000 Americans have died and are dying bought about by a failure of a unified response to deal with Covid 19 because the nation is engaged in another civil war.
Political conflict, economic conflict, racial and ethic conflict, social conflict, moral conflict, religious conflict, educational conflict, judicial conflict, ideological conflict and on and on has caused America not to deal with rationality and clearly with a deadly common national enemy and threat.
A democracy allows for liberty and freedom of ideas and thoughts. But a democracy fails when substantial numbers and influential people in that democracy cease to tolerate the differences of others and insist on having things their way or no way. It creates conflict of the different sorts mentioned and not mentioned above.
The problem stems from a lack of limits on liberty by insisting upon doing whatever we want because we believe we have a right to do so. But God placed limits on man’s liberty. There are some things that are off limits. There are some things we are not allowed to do. And one of those things is to insist on doing whatever we want regardless of the impact it may have on others including how they feel or what they thing about it.
America is a melting pot of diverse people, diverse thoughts, believes and attitudes within a democracy where everyone’s voice is supposed to be heard. As the nation evolves and becomes more diverse and those opinions have access to wider and wider audiences, those voices will often disagree more than they agree.
As citizens of this great nation, it is encumbered upon us all to seek out ways to coexist with those who are different from us in almost every respect. We must find ways to define the common good and welfare and work collectively toward that even when we find it difficult to agree on what that is.
There are many who aren’t interest in the common good, but only their own good which is driving and perpetuating this civil war who place no limit on their liberty. As Christians, we must not insist on things being a certain way. God gives everyone a choice. We are called to present the choice, but not to impose, force or manipulate the choice upon those who resist it.
God is the final arbitrator of every choice and decision that will be made as we all must stand before Him to give an account of the life we have lived including how we exercised our liberty. So, let’s seek ways to end this civil war by holding people accountable for disregarding any limits of liberty before it ends democracy in America.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan