Whiter than Snow

"Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
Psalm 51:7

After preaching this past Sunday, I descended from the platform to sing the last song with the congregation.  As I did so, I looked out the window and saw a beautiful snow falling- the kind with the big white flakes sticking together to form clumps of snow that hit the ground with a gentle heaviness.  As I saw the snow fall, I was reminded of this verse.  I shall be whiter than snow. 

When we think about this verse, we must note that being whiter than snow is conditional.  It is conditioned upon being washed.  We cannot cleanse ourselves.  We cannot wash ourselves in a way that will create this whiteness.  We have no purity and so we need to be purified by another; We are dirty and need to be washed by hands cleaner than ours.  This is another reminder of how much we need Jesus.

Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. . . " 

We need the blood of Jesus to save us and when He saves us, He washes us and makes us clean.  Think of it.  The red blood of Jesus changes our blackened hearts to purest white.  That is a color scheme worth praising God for.  A color change that is impossible apart from grace.  And every time I am reminded by the snow of this truth I rejoice!  I am cleansed by the blood of Christ and when God sees me he sees the purity of Jesus standing in my place.  What a joy!  What an encouragement to live in praise of His glory! 

Rejoice today that if you have Jesus you are cleansed by His blood and you are white as snow!  Praise be to God!

Why You Need a Church

During the course of the next year or so we will be focusing in our Sunday Morning Worship on the Power and Spread of the gospel in the book of Acts.  This study will focus on the fledgling church and its humble beginnings and exponential growth due to the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  As we do this, I know that there are some people out there who wonder about why they need a church.  Have you ever asked the question, 'Why do I go to church?'  Perhaps you go out of some feeling of religious obligation.  Perhaps you go because your parents always went.  Perhaps you think that in going to church you are performing some duty before God that will earn you heavenly brownie points.  Perhaps it is merely a social gathering and you go simply to be with friends.  Why should we go to church?  The simply answer is that we need church.  Allow me to outline just a few points in the New Testament that illustrate this point.

1 Corinthians 12 - you need a place to use your spiritual gift(s) and there is a place that needs you!
     God gives to each of us a spiritual gift at the moment of salvation and these gifts need an outlet!  They need some place to be used.  You cannot use the spiritual gift of encouragement without someone to encourage.  You cannot give without a recipient.  You cannot serve with out someone to serve.  You need a place to use your spiritual gifts in a way that brings honor and glory to God, and God's chosen place for you is in the local church. 

James 5:19-20 and Galatians 6:1 - you need a place where you can be corrected!
    If you live your relationship with God in singularity with just you and God I promise you that you are going to go easy on yourself.  We never tell ourselves just how bad we really are, especially when we don't want to change.  Instead, you need a church where you build relationships that will tell you when you are doing something that is inconsistent with the Word of God.  You need people who will boldly correct you when you are wrong. 

Ephesians 5:19 - you need a place where you can speak the Word of God to others and hear the Word of God through worship. 
     We need to worship.  We were created for worship.  We were created to live in a community of people who worship together.  You cannot speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs without having someone to speak to.  This goes for all of the other "one anothers" in the New Testament to.  We need each other.

So, if you don't have a church family would you consider finding one this week?  Perhaps it could be ours, but find someplace and some group of people with whom you can worship God together.  And in doing so you will be a blessing and be blessed. 

The Power of the Spirit of God

This Sunday we started a new series on the book of Acts.  I am personally excited by the series, not just because of the fact that I am preaching it, but that I am learning from it.  One of the first things that is promised to the disciples is this: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. . ." (Acts 1:8, NASB)  I have always known that the book of Acts is about the transitional time between Jesus ascension and the start of the church.  I have always known that the beginning is the reception of the Spirit of God.  What struck me as I studied this particular time is that the promise that is made is not the promise of the Spirit.  The promise of the Spirit happened earlier in the gospels.  Here the coming of the Spirit is not promised, it is assumed.  It is a "when the Spirit has come."  In other words, the Spirit coming is going to happen - what you need to look for when it happens is that you will gain something that the Spirit is going to bring.

Interestingly enough, what this text says the Spirit will bring is precisely what most of us are missing in our walk with God.  The word is a simple, 5 letter word - POWER.  Christ promises that the disciples will have power when the Spirit comes.  This power will go out and transform the world as they knew it for Christ.  This power will give them boldness even in the face of death.  This power that they would have came from the Spirit of God.  We have that same Spirit.  We have the same Christ.  We have the same salvation, resurrection, mediator, High Priest.  We have the same promise of God's presence, the same assurances, the same Father, Son and Spirit.  We have the same power.  The difficulty is that we chose to live in this world as though every thing around us is stronger than we are.  The homosexual agenda will not overcome the Word of God.  The political environment will not conquer the Spirit of God.  The difficulties we face cannot overcome the Love of God.  We are overcomers.  We have power. 

Perhaps we should start to live like we are powerful!

The Conclusion of Nehemiah

Over the course of 2016 I had been preaching on the book of Nehemiah.  While it was a longer study - taking the whole year, it was still worth it in many ways.  I wanted to condense what I learned while studying and preaching the book.  If you are interested that last 52 weeks of sermon audio is available through our website www.whitelakebaptist.com. 

Nehemiah is about obedience.  Nehemiah has one source of authority in his life and he seeks approval from no other.  He has a sense of what God wants him to do and he pursues it regardless of the consequences from the outside world, regardless of what his peers think.  Nehemiah is not distracted by the events going on around him, he has singular focus on accomplishing his God-given purpose.  I desire this kind of singular focus.  It is so easy to be distracted away from our God-given purpose and focus on what others want from us.  It is so easy to be drawn away to seek after things that really do not matter.  Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." (NASB)  So often we think of this in terms of seeking His kingdom and interpret it to be an issue of salvation, or we connect it to worry in the context before it.   But note that the corrective to worry is two-fold - to seek first His kingdom but also to seek first His righteousness.  We are to live rightly for our Savior.  We need not worry about anything if we are pursuing the task that God has given us because we know that God will give us all we need to accomplish the task that He sets before us. 

Nehemiah struggled.  He faced obstacle after obstacle in his pursuit of God's design on his life.  Sometimes we think being a Christian and doing what God desires will make our lives better and easier.  Most often it will not.  Instead, God promises us trials that will mature us.  God promises us tribulations that will grow us into the likeness of Christ.  And James tells us that we are to count it all joy.  Do not be discouraged if your obedience leads to deeper struggle.  It likely will.  Instead, like Nehemiah, simply continue to pursue that which God has called you to do. 

If we can focus on these two things in the days ahead - obedience and perseverance - I think we will all grow to be more like Christ.  May we encourage each other toward this goal. 

A New Beginning

A new year has begun.  New things always seem cool.  I remember getting new toys as a kid and thinking how awesome they were.  I would play with them for approximately 10 minutes and then move on to the next cool thing.  After all of my new Christmas gifts were exhausted I would usually go back and play with the boxes all my new stuff came in.  And when those boxes were destroyed I would go back to playing with my old toys.  A new car seems great until you think about the fact that it loses a huge chunk of its value the moment it drives off the lot. 

Each year we come up with new ideas for how we are going to make this year better than the last, but at the end of the day we realize that there is really not that much different in this new year.  The one thing that new things bring is hope.  That is why we like new things.  They represent hope that this thing will be better than other things.  It is the hope that really gets us excited.  The hope that we will do better on this year's diet.  The hope that our relationships will be better this year.  The hope that we will have more disposable income.  It is hope.  And the letdown is when the hope disappoints because it is misplaced.  We have placed our hope in things, in events beyond our control and in people who are destined to disappoint us. 

This does not mean however things are hopeless.   There is something we can place our hope in that will never disappoint.  In fact, the Bible is clear that in the midst of our difficulties, in the midst of trials and tribulations, that we can have a hope that will not disappoint. 

Romans 5:5-6 says:
     ". . . and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

We have hope because of the salvation offered us in Christ and Christ alone.  So this year what may be missing from your life may not be a new car, or a new diet, or a new idea.  What is missing is that you need to be made a new creation in Christ. 

If you would like to know more about this, please contact our church at 231.894.2686.  If you have already placed your faith and trust in Christ than praise God for the hope that we have regardless of what 2017 throws at us!