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Sermon Notes from Faith Baptist ChurchThe guy who led the Sunday school lesson was basically talking about the difference between darkness and light. Some of the things I made note of were: · Be aware that you can get used to darkness (e.g. media, etc.)!· You can’t have light and dark at the same time (although I maintain that while most of the "room" can be well-lit, there still may be some things hidden in the "shadows")· Our salvation is secure, but you can’t walk in darkness without breaking down your relationship with God.· Is walking in the light easy or hard? Hard when you’re walking in sin, but easy when you’re walking by the Spirit.· The closer you get to God, the more aware of your own sin you are, but don’t let that awareness keep you from God!o Confess it!! (Psalm 32:3-6) You get forgiveness and healingo Beware of Satan’s harassment; he doesn’t want you to be freeo We tend to want to make it harder than it really is· Growth comes from grace flowing into our lives, but it can only flow when we keep "short accounts". There’s power behind confessing our sins to others (although that’s controversial these days).· Grace is the ability to endure whatever situation we find ourselves in.· Look in the "right mirror": Satan wants to show us our faults, but God wants us to see Christ’s reflection in our lives.· How do we measure our faith? By the works that naturally flow out from it. |
Headed in to the worship service after that, which was okay—it seemed like your typical "blended" service that utilized both a big choir, a small orchestra, and a contemporary band, and the music consisted of praise choruses rather than hymns. The anthem was basically a solo which incorporated a filmed testimony, which I thought was not only interesting but quite touching as well (it was a young woman who showed unconditional love for her alcoholic father when no one else seemed to care, and how not only her love but the love of her church made such an impact in his life).
The pastor was doing a series on "Why", and today’s sermon was "Why Don’t I Feel You?" There were three main points:
1. Knowing God personally is better than feeling God
2. Knowing God’s protection is better than feeling God
3. Knowing God’s purpose is better than feeling God
Some of the notes I took included the following:
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God doesn’t let anything in to my life that isn’t ultimately for my good and His glory·
When God is silent, expect to be shown and be taken to a deeper level of relationship with him; don’t wallow in depression and guilt.·
God’s reputation is riding on our problems, so he won’t let me down!The whole sermon revolved around his trimming his trees and inadvertently cutting down a robin’s nest and taking the fledglings to the local rehab place, and he likened what the poor birds must have been going through to what we go through at times when our world comes crashing down around us and we can’t see the end, but God’s still in charge. I told him afterwards that his story was very appropro as I was there birding all that week, and he encouraged me to go visit that little rehab place!