Mark 7
Living Inside-Out!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Monday, April 27
When I was an athlete, we used to say, “Fake it ’til you make it!” If you are not feeling confident heading into a competition, then just fake it ’til you make it. Not amped up for a competition? Just listen to the right music and get the adrenaline going—muster it up, fake it ’til you make it. This was very much an outside-in approach to life.
Jesus teaches us a different way in Mark 7:14-15, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Jesus doesn’t want us to miss the point of life—the transformation of our souls to the glory of God. Jesus is not after us trying to be good boys and good girls conformed to the acceptable ways of the moral majority, but faithful disciples who follow Him in the narrow way.
Jesus is calling us to a new way of living, but not from the outside-in through worldly pride and performance nor through religious conformity to rules and customs of man-made traditions. Jesus calls us to live from the inside-out, where our hearts are made clean by the grace of God and His character and good works flow out of us because we have become vessels of glory. Good works flow out of our hearts because God’s Holy Spirit has made His Home in us.
Seize the moment and take time today to pay attention to what is coming out of your heart–in your thoughts, words, and deeds—especially when you are put under pressure or in hard circumstances. Often, it is our unplanned words and knee-jerk responses that will tell us the truth about ourselves.
FBC wants to be there for you personally, so please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone today. We are praying for you!
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Responding to the Plan of God – Week 2
2020: A Year of Celebration!
Freed to Be Agents of God!
Key Verses: John 8:31-39
We are in the second message of a new seven-sermon series called, “Responding to the PLAN of God!”
When I was growing up there was a 1980 musical comedy that became a classic in our household. It was called “The Blues Brothers” and there is a famous one-liner in that movie, “I’m on a mission from God!” I’m pretty sure that was my first introduction to God’s calling… 40 years later, all kidding aside, I can say, “I’m on a mission from God!” That is no longer a one-liner from an 80s movie, it is the truth of my life, my identity.
I have been freed by Jesus Christ to be an agent of God! That is the title of today’s sermon: “Freed to be Agents of God!” based on John 8:31-39.
I preached the big picture of this series last Sunday, and then we premiered it again on Wednesday night. We walked through both the Old Testament and New Testament to show you the thread through God’s Word that we are made in the image of God for a purpose. Listen to a quote from last week’s teaching,
As disciples of Jesus Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you are restored as God’s Image Bearers to join God’s plan to bless the peoples of all nations, to bring them Home to the Father. You have been blessed to be a blessing! Saying that another way: We have been brought back into God’s family to help gather the rest of the family for the biggest family reunion ever! God has made a way for people to come Home because God is a good Father and His love never lets go of His children! It is important for us to know who we are as Jesus’ Church: We are restored to be the Image Bearers of God! We are sons and daughters, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s treasured possession! And to know what it is we are supposed to be all about: Blessing the people of all nations to bring them Home to the Father. To be about our Father’s business! This is our response to the Plan of God: being the Church is all about our life purposes as the representatives of God on earth to all the people. You are a restored image bearer of God! You are an ambassador for Jesus Christ!
In this lesson, I am applying this big picture through Jesus’ teaching in John 8:31-39 Here is today’s big point: I have been freed by Jesus Christ to be an agent of God!
Today’s teaching is essential to our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. As people created to be Image Bearers, we, by design, reflect the image of the god we serve… God has established it this way, as you will see in today’s teaching. Allow me to give you an image to help you understand what it means to be an Image Bearer. We are like a rounded or angled mirror, one where you can see in both directions. God has put humans into His Creation as an angled mirror so that He can reflect His love and care and stewardship of the world through us humans and get this, so that the rest of the creation can see God’s glory through us humans and praise God. We reflect the God we serve to the world! Our lives point to the God who created us and then rescued us (freed us!) through Jesus Christ!
Listen to John 8:31-39,
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.”
There are three things we must be freed from in order to reflect God as Image Bearers, as agents of God’s Kingdom: 1) Freed from slavery to sin, so that we are free to love God (restored back into relationship); 2) Freed from slavery to the world, so that we are free to love those in the world (healthy relationships); and 3) Freed from slavery to false worship (“idols/idolatry”), so that we are free to reflect God as Image Bearers, to be an agent of God’s Kingdom.
The Apostle John taught in 1 John 3:7-8, “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”
John teaches us what we rarely discuss when it comes to the work of the Cross—the victory over the devil that is ours in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven—the rule of God over all the nations, all of which had gone astray to false worship to idols/false gods, which the Apostle Paul described as slavery to the “elemental things/principles of this world”, a technical term used by the Apostle Paul in a few specific texts to speak of spiritually-animated forces in the world (the koine Greek word stoicheia is in italics in the next 2 verses).
Paul said in Galatians 4:1-9,
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world [italics added]. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things [italics added], to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
The Law was a guardian meant to protect Israel from the corruption of powers and principalities… But now that the Spirit of God has come, we can receive adoption as sons, [we are] no longer slaves to sin, [nor need] to be guarded by the Law, but free to act as agents of God! While the Law was meant to protect us from the corruption of powers and principalities, opening the door to worshiping those powers also opens us up to their corrupting influence.
Paul emphasized this same teaching to the early churches in Colossians 2:8-10,
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world [italics added], rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority [including that of the elementary principles of the world that seeks to draw humanity away from reflecting God’s love of creation]…
Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, in verse 38, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father [italics added].” Jesus is saying to those who are not free in Him that their father is the devil, referencing not only the devil, but also the structures and systems of evil that he animates in the world (the “elementary principles”). They were serving the wrong head and their works reflected that to the world! The works of these religious leaders were leading people astray because who you serve determines who you reflect! That is why our works are so important—they reflect (point to) who our true faith is in! We are saved by faith, and the God we put our faith in is put on display by our works! I believe that if you can understand that, then all the controversy around faith and works should fall away…
Jesus further explained His accusation in v. 38 in verses 44-45, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”
In order to free people to be on mission from God, His Father, Jesus actively worked (He did many miracles) and taught with great authority against the grip of the devil on people, the one Jesus said animated the work of the Pharisees; not the Law of God itself, but the “works of the Law” which were legalistic/religious “heavy burdens” that were crushing the people and keeping them in a heavy yoke of slavery to false worship.
This spiritual worldview of the Bible is significant and runs throughout the entire story of the Bible. God created humans to be His Image Bearers to that which He created in Genesis 1:1—to reflect His glory to all of Creation through our love, care, and stewardship of it as His children. We have a sacred status as humans.
Critically, it’s not about what we can or cannot do (it’s not about any attribute we have) because it is from the moment of our conception that each of us is an Image Bearer of God! God formed us from the dirt and then He breathed His breath into us and declared us His image. Later God forbade us from making any other image in His image, because He already gave the world His image—in us, humanity! Remember the angled mirror?!?
It’s our being that matters, but our doings are what demonstrate our being! That is why these issues are so deeply intertwined and to unnecessarily separate them is to miss the whole reason why we are saved by faith alone. You are redeemed and restored to be an image bearer and as an image bearer to make HIM known to all who stand in rebellion to His rightful and sovereign rule over every aspect of His created realm!
You are freed to be agents of God!
To submit to any other authority than the authority of the God who made us in His image is to forsake our sacred birthright as Image Bearers. That is why sin is such a big deal because it is rebellion against the rightful authority of God and the bowing down to elementary principles of this world. That is why we cannot cherry pick loyalties with the world. We are the “church” and by that name Jesus gave us (the “ekklesia”), we are those who have been called out of the world and gathered together as a sacred assembly of God’s family to legislate (bind and loosen) on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 16:17-19). As Jesus says in John 17:13-18,
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
Jesus is praying for His followers (disciples) to carry on the mission for which He came to the world in the first place. When God sent His unique and only Son into the world to rescue us, He took on the form of that which He had created in His image—a human. John 1:9-14 explains,
There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Philippians 2:6-11 further explains of Jesus Christ’s purpose in taking on the form of His image,
Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
False worship is the outward expression of an inward reality: slavery to the worship of idols, false gods. This is a major issue because it means we are NOT reflecting God, but lesser things. This is the issue in the big story of the Bible. In Exodus 20:1-6 the first two of the Ten Commandments express the critical importance of this to God,
Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
This is critical to the church’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic because the greatest hindrance to our ability to work for God is when we work for a god other than the one true God! When we reflect the wrong image and give ourselves to lesser forces… The world needs God right now, not a lesser force, even if a well-intentioned one that is really trying to help alleviate suffering! The only hope is God’s presence!
John’s ever practical first letter ends with these words in 1 John 5:19-21,
We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
Chapter after chapter of practical teaching on how to love God and love your neighbor ends with words about the evil one and idols. While John’s final comment (v. 21) seems out of place because it’s the first place where John overtly mentions idolatry in this letter, but actually the whole letter is about being freed from idolatry so that you can be free to love God and love people through freedom in Jesus Christ! The Old Testament makes it so clear that you become like that which you worship. For those who make or worship idols, listen to the prognosis of Psalm 115:8, “Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.”
But God foreknew our arrogance and self-sufficient pride, and sent His Son Jesus Christ to deal with idolatry in a way that would strike fear into the hearts of every power and principality to free humanity from its bondage to false worship! Jesus’ life and teaching should strike godly fear into every red-blooded American. Jesus said in Mark 10:21, “Looking at [the rich young man], Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’”
Jesus pierced the heart of what kept this man in slavery—He had kept all of the external “works of the Law,” but he lacked this one thing: he was an idol worshipper! He had put His trust in something other than God! He was not free to love God even though He kept all visible practices—He was worshipping the security he thought money gave Him. Jesus saw through to his true heart condition and went after his false worship!
This man was in bondage as surely as he was worshipping an idol made with his own hands. As I have heard said so many times in our culture, “I’m a self-made man.” God sees the true heart condition of America!
You may be asking yourself: “Pastor, why are you teaching me this in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic? This doesn’t seem practical or very helpful to my relevant needs.”
Because God is going after the root issue to free you to reflect His image and His image alone! Because there is no true freedom when your building your life on any other rock than Jesus! And the lie that we Americans have believed, that we are secure in our 1st world health care, our comprehensive insurance policies, money and retirements, and possessions has never been so severely exposed in my lifetime. What a severe mercy of God to expose to us our false worship as a culture, and of the church’s compromises from the mission of God!
I pray that God would bring good out of this horrible situation of the COVID-19 situation; that He would seize this moment to once again call His Church to true freedom through the narrow way of Jesus Christ—who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). It is only through the confession of our sin and repentance from false worship that we are free from all other gods. Then, and only then, are we truly free to love God, free to love our neighbors as ourselves, and free to be agents of God’s Kingdom!
Until you are in the yoke of Jesus Christ, you are still bound up with lesser gods and in their yoke of slavery. I cry out to you today with Paul’s words from Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
I’m on a mission from God! I guess the question for each of us to answer: Which god are you serving? Because you will reflect the image of the god you serve…
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Mark 6
In Rhythm with the Conductor!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Saturday, April 25
I enjoy listening to music. One of the things I have learned about music is that rhythm is not just about what a musician does (playing notes), but also about what the musician doesn’t do (pausing). In an orchestra, there is a conductor whose job is to “stress the musical pulse so that all the performers can follow the same metrical rhythm” (google search definition).
The same is true for our lives. In Mark 6, Jesus is at work conducting the disciples to both work and rest. He is teaching them to live a grace-paced life in His easy yoke, surrendered to the will of His Father so that they will work and rest to His glory. In verse 7, Jesus taught them to work by “[sending] them out two by two and [giving] them authority over evil spirits.” In verse 31, Jesus commanded them to rest, inviting them to “Come with [Him] by [them]selves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Then in verse 37, Jesus pulls them out of rest time saying, “You give them something to eat.” Jesus calls them to work together, to rest together, but He also models the need for some alone time. In verse 46, “After leaving them, He went up on a mountainside to pray.”
Are you in rhythm with the Conductor of your life? Are you focusing on His directions?
Seize the moment and get into a grace-paced rhythm with Jesus. How? By focusing on the great Conductor of your life. We live in a productivity-oriented culture, but what is the rhythm of your life if you are always hitting the next note instead of learning how and when to pause. Who or what is setting the rhythm of your life?
FBC wants to be there for you personally, so please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone today. We are praying for you!
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Mark 5
There is an Opportunity in Every Disappointment!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Friday, April 24
I like it when I get what I want. Who doesn’t? But it is actually dangerous to always get what you want. How do you react when you are not allowed to have something you want? How do you handle disappointment?
In Mark 5, Jesus heals a demon-possessed man. The man then asked Jesus if he could follow Him. Listen to Mark 5:19-20, “And [Jesus] did not permit him but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.”
Denied! What did this man do after Jesus told him “no” to a perfectly reasonable request?
Did the man throw a fit and demand his rights? Anger is a common response to denial, but sinning in our anger only makes a problem where there once was an opportunity for obedience.
Did the man throw a pity party or become passive-aggressive? To devalue yourself or others is such a damaging response to disappointment and it cuts you off from the moment of opportunity.
No. The man trusted Jesus’ love for him. He obeyed Jesus instead of demanding his own way. God then used him to be the first witness to a people who had not yet heard of Jesus.
“And everyone marveled” (v. 20).
Seize the moment and trust God when you don’t get what you want. Who are you when you are disappointed? Are people marveling at what Jesus is doing in and through you? There is an opportunity in every disappointment!
FBC wants to be there for you personally, so please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone today. We are praying for you!
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Mark 4
Gardening People!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Thursday, April 23
Friendship is a lot like gardening! It requires you to cultivate the soil—to work the ground.
And in friendship, just like with gardening and growing plants and flowers, you have to know the person well enough to know the state of their soil and what each person uniquely needs to grow and be healthy because every person in your life is different.
Mark 4 includes the foundational parable of the four soils and it concludes with Jesus’ promise of what His Word and Spirit will produce in a person when their hearts have been cultivated. Mark 4:20 promises, “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
In this parable, Jesus described four types of soil into which the Word of God is sown. These soils represent four conditions of people’s lives: When the ground is cracked due to being dry and hard (v. 15), God’s love is like a spring shower to soften it. When the topsoil is shallow due to rocks (vv. 16-17), God’s compassion is like rich mulch that brings greater depth. When there are thorns and thistles (vv. 18-19), God’s grace uproots sin to heal the land.
God is working in every condition, but not every person reacts the same to God’s Truth.
That makes friendship hard! But just like with gardening, it’s worth it!
Seize the moment and cultivate the ground in the people of your life. We have been invited to work the garden of God’s creation as Image Bearers. Pray and ask God to help you in your friendships…
FBC wants to be there for you personally, so please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone today. We are praying for you!
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Mark 3
Clarity of Call!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Wednesday, April 22
Do you ever feel misunderstood by people? How do you react when people question you or your motives for doing what you do?
Often, Jesus was misunderstood by those closest to Him. Listen to Mark 3:20-21, “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.'”
Jesus’ own mother and brothers thought he was out of his mind. How did Jesus respond? Did He stop his mission or move into a public relations plan so that people would better understand who He was and why He came? Did Jesus get emotionally hijacked by their efforts to stop Him?
No, none of that! Jesus did not react to people’s misunderstandings of Him; rather, He pressed into His mission, His life’s purpose of making His Father known, in word and deed. The good news is that by the end of the story, Jesus’ focused and persistent approach works and his family is won over by His loving resolve to live every day according to His life purpose. I doubt that if Jesus got hung up on their hang ups, that would have happened…
Seize the moment and when you are confronted by people’s confusion, even your own family, don’t take it personal and react defensively. Instead of getting emotionally hijacked, seize the moment and use their confusion as an opportunity to stay on mission to show them the love of Jesus, if not in word, then in deed!
FBC wants to be there for you personally, so please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone today. We are praying for you!
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Mark 2
Stretcher Bearers!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Tuesday, April 21
Last week, a small group of men from church helped a single mom and her kids move. Needless to say, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, this took some hard work and creative thinking. We wore masks and gloves, and to the best of our abilities kept our distance while moving heavy furniture down the stairs, through doorways… you know the drill. As one of the men told me afterwards, the gospel was proclaimed today.
Listen to a small group of friends who used both hard work and creative thinking to help their friend in his time of need from Mark chapter 2, verses 2-4: “So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and [Jesus] preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.”
Sometimes there are obstacles in our way when we want to help someone. Some of those obstacles are God-sized and require of us to pray and fast; to wait upon the Lord. Other obstacles require us to do physical work and think creatively so that we can meet the need. We have to be willing to do either, whatever the situation requires of us.
Seize the moment and pray that God gives you the wisdom to know the difference. If it is time to wait on the Lord, then pray and fast for the person in their time of need. If it is time to get to work and be creative to find a solution, then be a stretcher bearer for your friend and preach the gospel through your love and good works.
FBC wants to be there for you personally, so please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone today. We are praying for you!
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Mark 1
Find a Solitary Place!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Monday, April 20
There is a difference between forced isolation and choosing to be with God alone. One brings life and the other death. There is a reason why solitary confinement is a severe punishment in prisons and why the silent treatment is a strangle hold on a child or spouse’s well-being. Because loneliness is a condition of your soul, and forced isolation is a poison to it.
Jesus pursued a solitary place with His Father. Mark 1, verse 35 describes what I believe to be a reoccurring scene from Jesus’ life, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
I know this is going to sound a bit upside down in days of social distancing, but please, even if you feel that you are being forced into isolation by the COVID-19 pandemic, the best thing you can do for yourself in this time of loneliness is seek a solitary place to be alone with Jesus. Only God can heal your soul from the damaging effects of loneliness and forced isolation.
Seize the moment and make space and time for your relationship with God. Be careful about numbing yourself with TV or other “drugs” of choice. Those are false friends and will not provide you with the intimacy you need in this time. Run into the arms of Jesus by prioritizing a designated time and a set apart place to meet with Jesus, every day. Not just during this forced time of social distancing, but use this time to create a new rhythm of life that you can take with you after this is all behind us. Jesus is inviting you to come to Him and find healing and rest for your soul.
Please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone from First Baptist Church. We would love to pray for you!
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Responding to the Plan of God – Week 1
2020: A Year of Celebration!
The Church is Restored Image Bearers!
Key Verses: Matthew 16:13-19
This new seven-sermon series is focusing on the PLAN of God through His Church!
This week, I listened to a podcast where a couple of big names in church missions said that churches in America are learning a lot about themselves right now. To save you an hour of your life and some unnecessary speaker-induced depression, their bottom-line message was that the church is more than a Sunday gathering and many churches are lost without that gathering. These mission experts are saying that many American churches are having an identity crisis because we don’t know who we are or what we are all about, other than meeting for church services.
Is that true of us, the people of First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana? How about you? Do you know who you are and what you’re all about?
Allow me to quote one of our church leaders who shared her thoughts with me about this point:
This is important. I think our church has been working very intentionally under the leading of the Spirit to stay connected. And I am hearing a lot of encouraging stories about how our congregation is doing this well! But the point here is well-taken: While we are commanded to gather as part of the abundant life Christ promised us, it is still arguably one of the more “selfish” things we do, for a lack of a better term. Sunday morning gatherings are largely for those who already belong to the body. And they are good! But they are rarely the thing about a church that has a direct impact on sharing Christ with the community. The church can equip us through Sunday morning service, Sunday school classes, small groups, and special programs, but without our own volition to BE the church outside of that building, our gatherings could really only be termed as “self-serving.” Our content is not self-serving. The music, testimonies, and messages point to Christ, but I’m referencing our own personal heart attitude here. If we are not willing to demonstrate and apply the good news we are sharing among ourselves on Sunday morning outside the four walls of the church, then our participation in worship is self-serving.
Great insights! I have been studying and praying about what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to have to think differently about a lot more than just how we handle our Sunday services. We have learned that while meeting together is a big part of what the church does, it is not what it means to be the Church!
Over the last month I have said multiple times, “you can close a church building, but you cannot close the Church, because WE ARE THE CHURCH!” Near the beginning of this time of social distancing and self-quarantining due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I read to you from Matthew 16:13-19. We are going to return to that scripture now as we start this new series of messages called, “Responding to the Plan of God!” Please turn with me to Matthew 16:13-19:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it [italics added]. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Let’s look at the context of this passage. I am enlisting the support of a fellow Bible teacher, who provides material for Logos Bible Software. Dr. Heiser teaches of this passage,
The rock which Jesus referred to in this passage was neither Peter nor Himself; it was the rock on which they were standing—the foot of Mount Hermon, the demonic headquarters of the Old Testament and the Greek world. We often presume that the phrase “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” describes a Church taking on the onslaught of evil. But the word “against” is not present in the Greek. Translating the phrase without it gives it a completely different connotation: “the gates of hell will not withstand it.” It is the Church that Jesus sees as the aggressor. He was declaring war on evil and death. Jesus would build His Church atop the gates of hell—He would bury them [italics added].[1]
And that is the heartbeat of this whole sermon series: For you to fully know what it means that you have been redeemed by God, bought at the price of Jesus’ shed blood on the Cross of Calvary and restored into God’s plan—you are now on a mission from God! You are Plan A!
And if Jesus had to pay such a high cost for our salvation, then what cost is His body willing to pay to carry on the work of God in the world?
Personally and as a church: at what cost are we willing to carry on the work of God in the world and do we know what that work is and why we are to do it?
These are critical questions, always, but especially at a time when we are grappling with what it means to be the church apart from our ability to gather in a church building. This sermon series will culminate on May 31, which is Pentecost Sunday—the birth of the Church! The Church has been given God’s power and presence, not just to seal us for Heaven as individuals, but to empower us to fulfill God’s PLAN as His body! This is a call to action, to be a part of something—to align your life with what matters eternally. I am raising your view of the church to higher ground, the priority for which God intended it. You have been saved to be on mission!
So, before I call you to an action point today, let’s understand God’s Plan: As disciples of Jesus Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you are restored as God’s Image Bearers to join God’s plan to bless the peoples of all nations, to bring them Home to the Father. You have been blessed to be a blessing!
Saying that another way: We have been brought back into God’s family to help gather the rest of the family for the biggest family reunion Ever! God has made a way for people to come Home because God is a good Father and His love never lets go of His children!
I am going to take you through a quick overview of this topic that we are made by God, from the beginning, to be His representatives on earth, a.k.a. Image Bearers. I’ll start with a brief overview of the Old Testament that develops this idea from Adam and Eve, through the Flood, to the Call of Abram and then with the choosing of Israel. And then we will look at the New Testament, at how Jesus has restored us and called us to be conformed to His image, individually, but to also collectively, as restored Image Bearers of God to His Creation.
After I read through these scriptures, I am going to show you a five minute video to help you understand and then conclude with an application. Listen to the Old Testament foundations:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:26-28).
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth (Gen 5:1-3).
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it” (Gen 9:1-7).
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:1-3).
‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel (Ex 19:5-6).
And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised (Deut 26:18-19).
Listen to the New Testament foundations, after Jesus’ earthly ministry:
Have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all (Col 3:10-11).
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8:29).
Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:22-24).
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:17-20).
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Pt 2:9-12).
To summarize all this scripture and help make our next steps very clear, please watch this video.
It is important for us to know who we are, as Jesus’ Church: We are restored to be the Image Bearers of God! We are sons and daughters, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s treasured possession! And to know what it is we are supposed to be all about: Blessing the people of all nations to bring them Home to the Father.[2] To be about our Father’s business!
Let’s close with application: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to think differently about a lot more than just how we handle our Sunday services. We have learned that while meeting together is a big part of what the church does, it is not what it means to be the Church!
Listen to Hebrews 10:24-25, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Our gathering is not an end onto itself, it never was supposed to be! We are to gather together to: 1) encourage one another; and 2) stir one another up to love and good works.
The danger of not meeting is not that we are being disloyal to what it means to be the Church, but we are missing out on the opportunity to remind each other of what it means to really be the Church! This is our response to the Plan of God: being the Church is all about your life purpose as the representative of God on earth to all the people. You are a restored image bearer of God! You are an ambassador for Jesus Christ!
But, that can be misleading too. The church is not all about you! We are the Church! As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:27, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
WE are the BODY OF CHRIST—WE are HIS walking and talking IMAGE BEARER!
As disciples of Jesus Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are restored as God’s Image Bearers to join God’s Plan to bless the peoples of all nations to bring them Home to the Father. God is planning a big old homecoming and wants all of His kids home!
That’s going to take a great rescue effort—an invading force that the gates of hell cannot withstand! Good thing Jesus started that effort and He commands us to respond in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
It is my great hope that by the end of this 7-week sermon series that we are back to meeting together, but not to business as it once was, but that we will be gathering in ways that stir us up to love and good works. We will be meeting to encourage one another to get back out there and be the Church. I guess it is my biggest hope that over the time of this COVID-19 pandemic that we will learn the sacred both-and of the church: we do exist to gather and we should not forsake that, but the real reason for our gathering is to scatter us back into our everyday lives to bless all the people. We are blessed to be a blessing!
Listen to the Message here:
To watch the video click HERE
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Michael Heiser, “What did Jesus mean by ‘Gates of Hell’?” https://blog.logos.com/2018/04/jesus-mean-gates-hell/ [accessed April 15, 2020].
[2] One of my early readers wrote, “This might need expanded on in future messages. I didn’t understand the significance of “the nations” in scripture. I was only thinking of the geo-political entities, not the nations that were created at Babel – the nations that God intended to redeem from the day that he disowned them.”
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Matthew 28
People of the Resurrection!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Saturday, April 18
It is no surprise that the Indiana Governor has extended the stay-at-home order, this iteration until May 1. The reality is that this is all taking longer than any of us would prefer, but don’t let yourself get distracted and emotionally hijacked by that, but trust this one thing: there is new life coming!
Listen to the resurrection of Jesus from Matthew chapter 28, verses 5-7, “But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
Do not be afraid: We are people of the resurrection! Our focus is not on the death, but on the life that comes from it. Not on the disorder, but the order we are to bring to it. Not on the brokenness, but on the healing work God has called us to do. We are people of the glorified King—Spirit-filled and born again into the living hope. We are people of the resurrection!
Seize the moment and bring the hope of the resurrection. See, I have told you, now go about your day remembering that death does not have the final word, disappointment in the fallen state of this world does not have the final word. Don’t be afraid and don’t despair, God is with us! Work as ambassadors of Jesus and His Good News—He is our Living Hope!
New life is coming—anticipate it, lean into it…work towards it! Seize the moment!
Please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone from First Baptist Church. We are praying for you!
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Matthew 27
The Power of Faith!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Friday, April 17
We are living in difficult and uncertain days! Some days have been better than others with how I am handling the COVID-19 pandemic, but this one thing I do, whether I feel like it or not, I get up early and I spend time with Jesus so that through time with God in His Word and in prayer, I am strengthened to face the circumstances of this day through the power of faith.
Observe Jesus in Matthew chapter 27, verses 13-14, “Then Pilate said to [Jesus], ‘Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?’ But [Jesus] gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.”
The power of faith strengthens us to remain steadfast and resolute in God’s plan for our lives, especially when our personal well-being and comforts are threatened, even to the point of death! Jesus did not give himself over to His circumstances or His feelings about them. Rather, He went to the Cross resolutely because He knew and trusted His Father’s will for His life and death!
Most Christians have assumed that was easy for Jesus to do. We ignore the Bible’s teaching that Jesus learned obedience through suffering (Hebrews 5:8). The Bible teaches us that Jesus would go off to lonely places to sacrificially invest time with God. We are called to do the same if we are to live like Jesus lived—with trust in God’s will for our lives and our deaths.
The world tells you that your duty is to your heart, but your true duty is to God who speaks to you clearly through the Word and in prayer. Bring glory to God and find rest for your soul by living through the power of faith. Feelings are an important feedback loop in your life, but they are a fickle master. Trust God and build your life on the rock of Jesus!
Seize the moment and prioritize time to hear God’s voice above your emotions and circumstances by spending time in God’s Word and in prayer.
As we head into the weekend, please dial the phone number below if you need any practical assistance or would like to talk to someone from First Baptist Church. We are praying for you!
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Matthew 26
A Fool for Jesus!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Thursday, April 16
I hate it when people judge my decisions or actions as foolish, but the opinions of others—which can so easily control me—can’t be the measurement by which I determine my actions.
Matthew chapter 26, verses 6-10, tells the story of a woman who scandalously pours out her alabaster flask of very expensive ointment onto Jesus. Matthew tells us that everyone in the room, except the One, is upset by her “wasteful” display of worship. They all thought of her as the fool, except the One whose opinion actually mattered!
Jesus rebuked His disciples and praised this woman in verse 10, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.”
This perfume oil was worth over 300 denarii, which is nearly one year’s income. Likely, this was Mary’s wedding dowry, she was trusting her future hopes of identity and security to Jesus alone—she was holding nothing back from Jesus.
Mary’s faith led her to look foolish, but knowing the end of the story, who was more foolish: Mary or Judas Iscariot, her loudest critic? Let’s be careful about calling people fools until we know the whole story! And let’s seek the opinion of the One who matters for our behavior and actions. Sometimes our loudest critics are the people we need to pray for the most…
Seize the moment and live for an audience of One. There is freedom and peace to be found in worshipping Jesus with all that you have. Hold nothing back from Him today…
Are you willing to be called a fool for Jesus?
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Matthew 25
Stewarding Your Life!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Wednesday, April 15
At the heart of so much anxiety and unhappiness is comparison. Comparing oneself with what others have—their abilities, their resources or possessions, their jobs or service to the community… whatever!
This is true because to compare yourself to another person is to miss the whole point!
In Matthew chapter 25, verses 14-15, Jesus starts one of His most famous parables, “For [the Kingdom of Heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”
A primary lesson of Jesus’ Parable of the Talents is that we are not owners of our lives, but stewards—household managers of what God has given us! You may have a 5 talent life, 2 or 1, but that is not the point, so don’t it make it the point! Because, stewards are not owners…
What you have isn’t what should define you; those things are temporary. It’s your relationship with the Giver that defines you; that is forever!
Seize the moment and steward the gift of your life well by growing in your relationship with Jesus! Learn from Him how to be generous with what God has given you. Don’t compare yourself to others, but rather invest what you have into others. And watch the multiplication happen… along with peace and happiness, too.
What are you doing with the gifts God has given you?
If you would like a personal phone call or need some practical assistance, please dial the phone number below and someone will be in touch with you soon.
God is with us!
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Matthew 24
Hope that out of Suffering Comes New Life!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Tuesday, April 14
Have I ever told you that my wife is a rock star? She is and for many reasons… I remember when Kimberly gave birth to each of our three children… natural childbirth with very little to no pain meds. I will never forget the intensity of what she went through as I held her hand, loved her through her suffering, and watched in awe and reverence the miraculous audacity that is childbirth. The full embodiment of pain, the waves of intensity, the sheer determination of creation to give birth to new life. I’ll never forget…
In Matthew chapter 24, verse 8, Jesus summarized His teaching about the signs of the end times, “All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
Jesus’ tells us all these things in Matthew 24 to give us HOPE in the face of it all! Jesus tells us in advance so that we will not be surprised when life is more like a dystopian novel and less like a happily-ever-after Disney fairy tale.
Faith in Jesus allows us to go through the most painful of human experiences with HOPE! Let us look upon all that is happening in life with a victorious mindset, remembering that God is taking painful circumstances and making something beautiful out of them.
Creation is groaning, new life is coming… HOPE in GOD, the GIVER OF ALL GOOD GIFTS!
Seize the moment and keep your eyes fixed on the HOPE of new life that is being birthed through our times of pain and suffering! Consider sharing this message of hope with at least one other person today.
And if you would like a personal phone call or need some practical assistance, please dial the phone number below and someone will be in touch with you soon.
God is with us!
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Matthew 23
Shouldering one another’s Burdens!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Monday, April 13
Here is a true-story scene back from when I was training for the Olympics: I had a heavy load of 625# on a squat bar pressing down on my body, and I was to do a full squat all by myself. But, I had a spot, which means I had a trainer behind me ready to support me under the weight if I were to get in trouble during the exercise. I was not alone!
In Matthew chapter 23, verse 4, Jesus contrasted the lifestyles of the religious leaders with himself, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
There is one other place that Jesus used this specific word for heavy loads and it is in Matthew 11:28-30, in His gracious invitation, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus invites you to a relationship with God that removes that crushing weight of religion and gives you a full-life, full-person rest in the promises of God. Not because God removes the struggles and pains (the weights of this life), but because Jesus is now always there with you, doing more than spotting you, but shouldering the load with you!
Seize the moment and don’t even try to shoulder life on your own. Get in the easy yoke of Jesus and let Him shoulder it with you. Do you know of someone who could use some practical assistance this week? Let’s do more than spot one another, let’s shoulder one another’s loads…today!
If you need anything help in your life or just want to talk or pray with someone, please dial the phone number below and we’ll be in touch soon.
Jesus is with you!
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 6)
2020: A Year of Celebration!
“Finding the Hope we Need!”
Key Verses: Romans 8:37-39
The Resurrection Narrative: Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20
Written and delivered by Pastor Jerry Ingalls from the building of the First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana through an on-line service to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Resurrection Sunday April 12, 2020 (Easter)
COMMUNION MESSAGE
Let us set the stage for communion this Easter 2020, in these very uncommon days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is risen! _______________This is normally where I would hear hundreds of people saying in response: “He is risen indeed!” I am saddened that I am being greeted in person by less than nine people. But, it is for good reason that the hundreds of us who wanted to gather today did not because to not meet is the right thing for us to do.
In addition, I believe that our not gathering is neither a violation of our constitutional rights nor of our biblical mandate to not forsake the gathering of the saints. It’s neither! I directly, yet gently, say that knowing that some of my fellow pastors passionately disagree.
We are choosing to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word, online, because, at this unique moment in our lives, to do anything other than that is a violation of our chief evangelistic deed: To love our neighbors as ourselves! We don’t want our words of love and our deeds of love to cancel one another. Right now, we love our neighbors as ourselves by being the very best partners with our local hospitals and health departments that we can be in order to love our neighbors more than we love our own traditions and practices. We are called to fast these for a few months to actually live out our faith with full sincerity and conviction.[1]
Church, we’ll be together soon. I don’t know when, but be patient and trust God. We are prayerfully making the sacrifices necessary to speed our way through these uncommon days.
Here is the truth that I want you to come to the Lord’s Table knowing: Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
Paul teaches us this mindset in Romans 8:37-39, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Because of this truth, I can declare to an empty worship center the promise of the empty tomb without losing my hope. Because: HE IS RISEN! Nothing changes that! NOTHING changes the victory we have because of Jesus; therefore, let us view the world through these glasses—with hope, a hope that can look upon suffering and death and not lose perspective.
We are not victims of circumstances or chance. We are victors—more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. Our circumstances don’t determine our hope! The hope we need to face our circumstances is found in the empty tomb! HE IS RISEN! Yell it out… Proclaim it!
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
Listen to the word of the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 15:17-22,
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Serve Communion: Let us respond to this truth by coming to the Cup of Grace together. The Table of the Lord is open and all who are have been invited by Jesus are invited to participate with us in the remembrance of Him—our Lord Jesus’ sacrifice, His death and resurrection, for our eternal life. (lead in partaking from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Pray for all who have partaken in this meal and for God’s grace upon all who would receive.
Response Song: “Draw Me Close”
SERMON
That is the perspective we have today, after thousands of years of reflection—time gives meaning to events in history! Events are pregnant with meaning at the time, but it is hard to find meaning in the midst of a major, world-changing event when you are in the middle of it.
This was even true for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even at the resurrection, which we gather to celebrate today, there was unbelief, fear, and confusion.[2] The Bible doesn’t hide the real emotions of the first followers and disciples, we just read right over them.
Listen to some key words from the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
- Matthew 28:5 & 10 “Do not be afraid” and v. 8, “afraid yet filled with joy…”
- Mark 16:6, “Don’t be alarmed” and v. 8 “Trembling and bewildered…they were afraid.”
- Luke 24:5, “In their fright…” and v. 8 “Then they remembered…”
- John 20:11, “crying” and the resurrected Jesus said in v. 19 “Peace be with you!”
The closest followers of Jesus experienced a full range of emotions on the first Easter morning because they did not have perspective, yet! The same is true for those of us who are trying to faithfully walk through the COVID-19 pandemic. We need time and separation from the event to give the event meaning. We have neither—time nor separation—in our current crisis, yet.
Let’s process our current situation and then learn how we can apply today’s teaching to it: Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
A Christian author recently wrote in his blog, “It’s like there’s a dark cloud called COVID-19 hovering over us. It’s generating worry, irritableness, and especially tiredness.” Then he asked, “What is the dark cloud? What is it that is sapping our energy and causing stress reactions?”[3]
The answer is grief. I know it sounds weird, but I have been grieving all week in anticipation of not getting to hear hundreds of people cry out with conviction and hope, “He is risen indeed!” Could you text Ken or me, or FB post, or YouTube comment “He is risen indeed” right now so we can encourage each other? Please…that will do my heart some good. We need one another!
There is a sense of grief that is touching many of our lives in ways that have not been experienced in our well-regimented, orderly lifestyles as 21st century Americans. We are a time- driven culture. We are a people with a plan and have devices or planners to keep us on track. We get upset when things don’t start on time or take too long, by our own standard of effectiveness and efficiency. We are driven, but that leads to us being an intolerant and impatient people! What gets in our way of accomplishing our goals makes us angry…
It’s like there is a dark cloud hovering over us!
There is loss of safety from so many people getting sick from COVID-19, suffering, and dying.
There is loss of jobs, routines, and money.
There is loss of fun events and freedom of movement.
There is loss of opportunities to “touch” friends and extended family.
There is loss of gathering physically and doing life together.
There is loss of the security and safety of the “normal” life; whatever that means to you.
We do not know what to do for such a devastating event as COVID-19, because it is disrupting everything, right here and right now, and it has dangerous potential for the future, so we grieve and we start anticipating in our hearts and minds our worst fears. That is called “catastrophic thinking” and that leads to anxiety today and dread for the future, and we don’t quite know what to do about it or what to think about it. If we are not careful, that becomes depression and our hope bucket gets drained… And without hope, we die from the inside out…
It’s like there is a dark cloud hovering over us!
Like with any grief process, people are dealing with it differently. People are going through the five stages of grief: Denial; Anger; Bargaining; Sadness; and Acceptance.
Some of us are living in one specific state and others of us are oscillating through multiple stages in any given day or in any given conversation. Unfortunately, many Christians are living in denial and call it faith. Then they are controlled by what they are unwilling to recognize within themselves: real emotions revolving around a very real event that is affecting every aspect of life.
In a recent article called “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief,” the leading expert in the study of grief, Dr. David Kessler, stated about our current crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic,
We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air. We’re feeling that loss of safety. We are grieving.[4]
I was talking (via email) to a friend about “anticipatory grief” and my friend said to me,
As followers of Christ, we have the advantage of hope, which may help combat the grief and trauma, but I also think we need to give ourselves some space and remind ourselves that it is okay to not be okay right now. The way we experience spiritual health in this time is that when we feel the need to attempt to escape that we escape into the arms of Jesus and not into the things the world says will bring us comfort.
We do need to cling to Jesus and the victory God has given us in Jesus Christ! His death on the Cross and His defeat of death—the resurrection—do give us a hope that is bigger than our circumstances, but that doesn’t mean we put on blindfolds to our circumstances! We hope in the New Heaven and the New Earth, but we live right here, smack dab in the middle of a broken, hurting, down-right scary world.
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
In 1 Peter 1:3-6, Peter trumpets the hope we have from the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the midst of a broken world with trials and temptations, suffering and grief,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
People are suffering in real ways, people are dying, there is real reason to grieve and we can’t add a layer of Christian guilt for experiencing grief, sadness, anger, or anxiety. Complicating your grief process with layers of guilt for having real emotions, covered by a veneer of self-imposed Christian platitudes does neither yourself nor others any good. Can I just say that this is hard and I want it to be over? I want people to stop getting sick, stop dying, and I want our lives to go back to “normal”, whatever that even means for any of us.
My faith, and even the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, does not stop me from being human—a real person who needs sleep, rest, healthy nutrition, relationships, and emotional well-being. And trust me that I have tried really hard to live a super-human life. It doesn’t work, not for long…
As the leading expert on grief teaches,
There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what’s inside of us. Fighting it doesn’t help because your body is producing the feeling. If we allow the feelings to happen, they’ll happen in an orderly way, and it empower us. Then we’re not victims.[5]
The victory of the resurrection is that I can face today and every day, of not only this COVID-19 pandemic, but of whatever may come in this fallen, broken and scary world, with HOPE![6]
As Paul triumphantly declares in 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57, “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is my deepest prayer that today, this day we call Easter, the Holy Spirit will fill up your own personal “hope bucket” to overflowing! Hope doesn’t come from what’s happening out there (in our circumstances) or even what’s happening in here (in our heads and hearts), hope is firmly established in the fact that the tomb is still empty! Hope is a gift from God!
Yes, grieving the effects of the fall and the brokenness of this creation is a real part of life and our faith does not stop that from being our reality. But we do not grieve without hope!
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Paul teaches us, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep [people will still die], or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him [the resurrection from the dead].”
Suffering and death have always been a part of living in a fallen and broken world. One thousand years before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 43:5 a call and response to God in our grief: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
So let’s try our Easter call and response again: He is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
The hope we have in Christ gives us purpose and resolve to live with hope even when we have not yet found meaning in our suffering, or in the current COVID-19 pandemic. We do not need to wait to find meaning in our own suffering because we can trust that God is with us. This does not need to make sense to us, right now and right here.[7]
Patience in our circumstances and trust in God allow us to remain faithful and not paralyzed by grief, fear, or anger. Let us remain mindful of God’s presence in our circumstances and through these difficult times! That is His promise—God is with us!
Suffering and death are pervasive and intrusive experiences for all people! And in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death has been reframed so that we can see an old picture with a new perspective. Death has been swallowed by the victory of Jesus Christ and it now stands within the boundaries of God’s all-embracing love! We are no longer alone; God is with us!
There is a lot of suffering, here and now, and if the predictions of medical experts are accurate, we are going to see much more suffering in the coming weeks. Jesus never promised us we wouldn’t suffer, but that He would be our Good Shepherd through it and with us in it.
Hebrews 5:7-8 teaches us, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”
And this is why we must remember that Jesus’ suffering did not have the last word, because the Passion of the Christ led to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Good Friday happened but Sunday came!
It may feel like we are stuck in one long Good Friday, filled with suffering, but let us remember that Sunday has already came and death no longer has the last word. May we trust the Good Shepherd and the Hope He has given us. I join in the ancient prayer, written 3,000 years ago, relevant today during this COVID-19 pandemic: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
You can listen to this message here:
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] One of our church’s elders responded to this section with the famous quote of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” The more nuanced quote is actually, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
[2] A friend commented on this statement, “Just as it’s hard for us to see meaning in our current events, it is just as hard for us to have perspective that there was unbelief, fear, and confusion in the time of the Passion of Christ. We know how the story ends, so we view every event through the lens of victory (meaning)! But the people who were living it in real time were questioning their decisions and searching for meaning as their lives seemed to be falling apart around them.”
[3] Bill Gaultiere, PhD. https://mailchi.mp/soulshepherding.org/covid-19-help-for-grief?e=b4a0884ffa. Accessed April 8, 2020. There is a merging of Dr. Gaultiere’s thoughts on grief and my own in the introduction.
[4] Scott Berinato. https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief. Accessed April 8, 2020.
[5] Ibid.
[6] The same elder reminded me of the quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
[7] My friend wrote of this, “This is where the concept of ‘daily bread’ really seems to matter. There’s nothing wrong with seeking meaning, but lacking meaning does not give us license to sit down and quit in this moment. God supplies us what we need for each day as it comes, and we have a rare opportunity right now to live more presently than we have likely ever allowed ourselves to do in our lifetimes.”
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Matthew 22
You Bear the Image of God!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Saturday, April 11
Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, “But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Well, it’s almost the traditional tax day deadline, but in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that was moved to July 15th.
In Matthew chapter 22, verse 21, we hear what Jesus said about paying taxes: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Did you know that in this passage, Jesus is reminding all of his disciples that we are made in the image of God? It’s not surprise that the largest US currency in circulation is the $100 bill and guess whose image is on that: you got it—Benjamin Franklin—the death and taxes guy! Not so subtle, Caesar! So, go ahead and give the government back a bunch of those $100 bills, but never forgot who you really belong to—you’ve been bought at a price, purchased through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary!
I’m so glad Easter is always close to our tax deadline, because it helps me remember that for every believer there is a third certainty that is even bigger than death and taxes and that is HOPE! Hope in the resurrection from the dead and Hope in our citizenship in the New Heaven and New Earth. The price for both has already been paid in full! Thank you Jesus!
Seize the moment and allow God to fill your account with HOPE this Easter Season. Remember, death and taxes don’t get the final word! The God of all Hope does…
How can you practically share God’s hope with another person today?
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Matthew 21
When Fear Wins the Day!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Friday, April 10
Fear causes people to do and say hurtful things. Fear changes the chemistry of your brain as you go into survival mode. Faith keeps us calm and helps us make better decisions—ones that are more right and true for long-term thriving. My advice in the COVID-19 pandemic is unchanging: “Remain Calm and Pray! God is with us!”
In Matthew chapter 21, verse 9, we read this account of Jesus entering Jerusalem, to ultimately find Himself on the Cross, “The crowds that went ahead of [Jesus] and those that follow shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” That is how the people of Jerusalem greeted Jesus—with faith! Hosanna–God saves!
Now listen to those same people days later, after their fears had been agitated by local leadership. From Matthew chapter 27, verses 22-23, “‘What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?’ Pilate asked. They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’” Kill the One we thought was going to save us, but now threatens our way of life.
How do you react when you think something or someone is threatening your way of life or livelihood? Do you go on the attack and let your survival mode take over?
Seize the moment and Remain Calm…Pray! Now is a time for God’s people to be patient and to trust the Lord! Please join us tonight for our online Good Friday Service at 6:30 pm.
How can you practically help other people remain calm today and over this Easter weekend?
God is with us!
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Matthew 20
Thank God for Moms!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Thursday, April 9
I learned a valuable lesson about moms when I was the principal of Sunnyvale Christian School in California. We had over 200 students, which meant that I had a lot of moms to deal with. I learned that moms are designed by God to protect and advocate for their children. As a principal I had to learn how to wisely navigate this reality with truth and grace. I’m still alive and most of my scars from those 5 years are the type you can’t see. So, praise God, I consider that a win!
In Matthew chapter 20, verses 20-21, listen to a conversation between a mom and Jesus about her two sons:
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.”
Great job mother of the sons of Zebedee! Moms, keep protecting, supporting, and advocating for your kids… Pray God’s richest blessings on them!
I love my mom! She’s the best! Thank you mom for giving me life, protecting me, and for being my greatest supporter.
Seize the moment and call your mom today and say, “Thank you!” Say a prayer for your mom and bless her. If your mom is no longer with us, say a prayer thanking God for her. And to all the moms out there: Thank you! You know what to do, get to praying for those kiddos of yours… we never get too old to need your love and support.
If you need anything or just want someone to talk to, please dial the phone number below. God bless you!
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Matthew 19
Be like a Child!
I must confess to you that one of the silver linings of this dark storm is that I am working from home, so I get to be with my three children more than usual. LOVE IT! Earlier this week, I got to be there when Willow, our 6 year old, road her bike without training wheels. It was awesome to be there and to watch the pure JOY radiate from her whole body. That night for dinner, Willow got an extra scope of ice cream for becoming a big kid that day! It was so good for my soul to be with her, to remember the joy of being a child!
In Matthew chapter 19, verse 14, Jesus, the Mighty Physician, gives us a treatment plan for our chronic and terminal adult condition, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
With all that is happening in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, I am going to simply tell you to take this teaching of Jesus literally and not overthink it, so here is my pastoral counsel to you: Seize the moment and do something today that will cause you to come to Jesus like a child. If you are physically able I want you to go outside and skip, play hopscotch, jump rope, or shoot some hoops. If you aren’t physically able, maybe watch or read your favorite childhood cartoon.
I promise you: It will be good for your soul. And… you can get an extra scope of ice cream tonight for doing it.
If you need practical assistance, prayers, or would like a personal phone call today, please dial the phone number below and we’ll connect with you as soon as possible. God bless you!
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Matthew 18
Freedom through Forgiveness!
Many years ago I had to learn in a very personal and costly way that forgiveness is central to the Christian life—the Lord asked me to contact a specific person and confess my sin against them and ask for their forgiveness. Yes, it was scary! Yes, it was humbling! But, more than any of that—it was liberating! There is freedom through forgiveness!
Matthew chapter 18 is filled with Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. Verse 22 says we are to forgive, “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Verse 33 says, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you.” And finally verse 35 lands the plane for us, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
At the heart of our relationship with God is the issue of forgiveness—what Jesus has done for us and then, in response to God’s costly love, how we are to live toward one another. It is scary! It is humbling! But trust me when I tell you how freeing it is! Liberation—it’s V Day!
Don’t let bitterness and resentment get the last word in your life! There is freedom through forgiveness!
Seize the moment and pray about your next step in being set free through forgiveness—of yourself and others. Just as Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who have sinned against me.”
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DIY Sunrise Service
that works best for your family 🙂
- Christ Arose (Up From The Grave He Arose)
- In Christ Alone
- Forever
others what the resurrection means to you personally. If you are
living alone, consider reaching out to someone else by phone to share
the hope of the resurrection with this message.
Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ will come again!
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Matthew 17
A Mustard Seed of Faith!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Monday, April 6
I tried out for the Olympic Team twice—in 1996 & 2000. Sadly, I never got to the Olympics, but I came close once and I had some amazing experiences along the way. I learned how a little confidence in competition can go a long way. It’s amazing how the body follows the mind, especially in stressful times. Confidence leads to a positive cycle of trust and freedom!
More so, this is true with faith and life! A little faith can change your life in unimaginable ways!
In Matthew chapter 17, verses 20-21, Jesus calls His followers to exercise even the smallest amount of faith. Jesus stated, “I tell you the truth, if you have the faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Seize the moment by exercising your faith in small ways and watch God do unexpected things in and through you. Watch God do the impossible!
Earlier, in Matthew chapter 13, verse 32, Jesus said the life of faith with Him was like a mustard seed: “Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
Seize the moment and watch your life become a place where others come and find rest in these exhausting and stressful days. May we each learn to trust Jesus more and in doing so, experience the freedom to love people in practical ways.
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 5)
2020: A Year of Celebration!
“Comfort the Suffering!” (Part 2)
Key Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Crucifixion Narrative: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19
Written and delivered by Pastor Jerry Ingalls from the building of the First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana through an on-line service to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Today is Palm Sunday. On this day we enter “Holy Week” or the “Passion Week”. It is a week normally filled with times set apart for silence & solitude, prayer & reflection, special gatherings and times in remembrance of Jesus and His Passion. During this unique time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are doing our best to both protect you by keeping you home and not inviting you into a situation that is potentially harmful to you and dangerous for your neighbor, while still bringing to you special services online (Holy Thursday & Good Friday at 6:30 pm) and times to take communion in your own home during the Holy Thursday Service at 6:30 pm and Resurrection Sunday Service at 10:30 am this Easter Sunday.
Let’s talk briefly about the opportunity for you to take communion in your home twice this coming week. As your pastor, this is a “seize the moment” opportunity. For me, it is beautiful and empowering, to invite you to the Table this Thursday night and next Sunday morning, for each of your households to learn how to participate in the common cup of Jesus Christ in your own home. I discern that this is an important step for many of us: to bring communion home and to empower parents and grandparents to be the spiritual leaders of their own households. For you to see your home as sacred and yourself as a spiritual leader to your family. God has called you to this and has already empowered you with His presence. So, when you go pick up your eggs and milk this week, pick up some grape juice and bread. Nothing costly or fancy is required. Have them ready for Thursday night at 6:30 and Sunday morning at 10:30. Call the church office or click on the contact us button on the webpage if you can’t shop right now or have questions.
On a personal note: I do miss our gatherings, there is something significantly missing in our lives when we can’t gather together on a regular basis. This grieves me more than you know: We lose so much of what God calls us to be as the community of God’s family when we think we can do church in our own homes, not physically with our brothers and sisters, but there is no other right or reasonable way to face these difficult days, so we must make do and make the best use of technology. I ask you though to allow yourself to anticipate our coming back together, to let the hope of our physical proximity one day to cause you to realize the importance of our weekly gatherings as a significant part of your future life, on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. Until then, please remain home and live in agreement with all efforts for community well-being.
Many of us are praying and hoping we can be together soon, Lord willing in May. I love you and miss you! Your pastors, elders, and leaders honestly hope the daily phone messages, the weekly emails, and the online services through our webpage, FB Live, and YouTube are helping each of you. That the www.rightnowmedia.org resources are helping you grow in Christ. Please also utilize the new google spreadsheet, that we have sent out twice, to ensure every person in our congregation is being connected with personally. I can sincerely say that we are doing our best in these difficult days to communicate with you and to help keep people personally connected. These are difficult times for all of us. Please pray for us, as we pray for you.
In today’s teaching, we are going to continue to learn what I introduced to you last week: Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering! Our primary scripture for this lesson is from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3-5,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
I hope you took time to read through the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 26-27, this week If so, you saw that Jesus was “social distanced”, to the max! In Matthew 26-27 Jesus was:
- Abandoned by people: Matthew 26:69-75;
- Betrayed by people: Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-56;
- Condemned by people: Matthew 27:1-5; 24-26;
and then Jesus
- Died on the Cross for all people: Matthew 27:32-66
This is the extravagant love and amazing grace of our God for the world! Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering!
We are now going to focus on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As I prepared for this sermon, I studied not just the Matthew 27 account of Jesus’ death, but also Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. During this Holy Week, I encourage you to saturate yourself in these four accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion and the immediate events that led up to the Cross of Calvary. Once again, you will find those accounts in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. Please read them and allow the extent of Jesus’ suffering for us to pierce your own heart and mind.
Listen to what the finished work on the Cross of Calvary has made possible for you. Paul’s words from Romans 8:1-4,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
This is the Good News of Jesus Christ: There is no condemnation for those who belong to God in a relationship with Jesus! On the Cross, Jesus faced the horror of taking on Himself all of humanity’s sin even though He never sinned Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21) and in doing so Jesus experienced becoming the curse—He was cut off from God (Galatians 3:13), becoming the forsaken of God in our place (Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me”). Jesus took the punishment for sin; so that, we can have God’s favor and protection in our lives—the blessing of never having to face God’s wrath and condemnation (John 3:18, 36).
Jesus came into this broken world to heal it! In fact, Jesus gave Himself over to death so that we can have life, not just eternally with Him, but also abundantly (John 10:10). The abundant life means our lives are filled with God’s peace and power through His presence in us. The abundant life includes an invitation to join with Jesus in the work of healing by how we respond to our own and other’s suffering: the grief, pain, anger, isolation, and loneliness of these dark days.
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering!
Are you willing to share with Jesus in His suffering, so that you can share with Him in bringing comfort to others? How are you reaching out to people during the coronavirus pandemic?
Jesus knows your suffering and can sympathize with you. You are not alone in your loneliness, isolation, or suffering and in fact, the God of peace is with you. God knows how to care for your needs. I invite you to “be still” and listen to God in this time. Truly listen. Set apart a space in your home and prioritize time every day to stop for 10 minutes to simply “be still”.
Please guard your mind against the lies of the world and your heart from the heavy loads of people’s brokenness and despair. You are not the sum total of your own or other people’s choices—do not be a slave to fear, because you are a beloved child of God!
A friend said to me about this truth,
When circumstances around us change, whether due to our decisions, the decisions of others that affect us tangibly, or things that are legitimately out of our control, it is easy to become defensive, embarrassed, or withdrawn when we can no longer present that image of “The American Dream” or whatever standard we feel we are expected to achieve. But, if our aim is to place our identity as a child of God in the forefront of our minds, then just maybe “the things of Earth will grow strangely dim.”
When we stop and listen for God through His Word and through prayer, He changes our perspective, but we must learn to “be still”—to quiet all the other voices and focus on our minds on God’s promises and God’s ways. We don’t know the ‘why’ of this present darkness, but we can know the ‘how’ of our response to dark days: to live by faith today, with hope for tomorrow! Shine the Light of the Word for all to see the glory of God in and through us (Matthew 5:14-16).
How do we shine brightly like stars in this dark night?
In Romans 12:9-21, Paul teaches us how to live the hope given to us through Jesus Christ:
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty [proud/arrogant], but associate with the lowly [humble/meek]. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering! Your days are in His hands and His hands were spread as the East is to the West on the Cross of Calvary so that you can overcome evil with good, here and now, today. This is the work of the Cross for you, in you, and through you!
Remember, God is not surprised by COVID-19. Never forget, that His Church is His Plan A to bring comfort to those who are suffering in this world! You and me! Bring the comfort that Jesus Christ has given you to the world that so desperately needs comfort in the midst of such horrific suffering.
Don’t let the hurts of this life determine the way you live your life. Here is a testimony from a friend in our church, “This is a thought I have to remind myself of almost daily. Sometimes I truly feel personally victimized by my own life… The nights we have laid in bed and said to the other person ‘did today even really happen?’ But I find resilience in Christ. Not in a trite, cross-stitched platitude kind of way, but in the sense that I wrestle with Jesus about what on Earth He is doing in my life and why things are allowed to happen and what their larger purpose can possibly be; without exception, these times of seeking understanding have driven me closer to Christ and never further away.”
There is a lot of suffering, here and now, and if the predictions of medical experts are accurate, we are going to see much more suffering through April and into May. But Christ never promised us we wouldn’t suffer. We are suffering as co-heirs with Christ.
In John 16:33, Jesus told His disciples to expect suffering and not lose focus, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Praise God for the finished work of the Cross!
Jesus is our Comforter and He can commiserate with us because he has suffered greatly! His suffering gives our suffering perspective! His actions for us gives our actions direction and focus!
I pray for all who are in Christ Jesus: May the Holy Spirit who lives in you activate in your heart and mind the promises of God and cause you to live with faith, hope, and love. May the Comforter lead you as you pray for God’s daily direction through this time of suffering.
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering!
You can listen to this message here:
To watch the video click HERE
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Matthew 16
Dancing in the Minefields!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church. Today is Saturday, April 4
Listen to some of the lyrics from Andrew Peterson’s song about marriage, “Dancing in the Mind Fields”:
Well, “I do” are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another, I’ve heard
Is a good place to begin
‘Cause the only way to find your life
Is to lay your own life down
And I believe it’s an easy price
For the life that we have foundAnd we’re dancing in the minefields
We’re sailing in the storms
And this is harder than we dreamedBut I believe that is what the promise is for.
[Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gs3fg_WsEg.]
These lyrics are inspired by Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. In Matthew chapter 16, verses 25-26, Jesus invites us to the abundant life, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Following Jesus and being in healthy relationships have a lot in common: The willingness to put aside self-interest and egocentric lifestyle for the sake of a right relationship. I also believe this is the way of the Church, right now, in how we can serve our communities and the nations.
You can’t love your neighbor as yourself until self is no longer the motive of your love.
Seize the moment and love a neighbor today in a practical, sacrificial way that demonstrates your willingness to dance in the minefields.
YOUTUBE:
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