Ezekiel 4
Willing to be Uncomfortable!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, June 6.
You’ve heard it said that you aren’t supposed to lie down on the job, but what if God told you to do it. Ezekiel was commanded to lie down on his side. While that may not seem like a big deal, listen to God’s divine directives to the prophet in Ezekiel 4:4-8:
As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year. Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
I can’t imagine how exhaustingly difficult this would be, not to mention how mind-numbingly painful. God called Ezekiel to not only speak a message that would not be received, but to act it out. In addition to being tied down for 430 days, he had to eat food that was defiled, having been cooked over cow’s dung (9-17). God had a purpose in instructing Ezekiel to do all of this; he acted out the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, providing a prophetic sign of God’s judgment. To do so, he had to be willing to become uncomfortable.
Seize the moment and be willing to be put in uncomfortable positions to serve God.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Ezekiel 3
Mission Impossible!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, June 5.
God sent Ezekiel on what appears to be an impossible mission. The prophet received his divine directive in Ezekiel 3:4-7, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. … yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me.” How would you feel if God asked you to do something that was impossible? In Luke 18:27, when the disciples were feeling overwhelmed by the mission of God to save souls, Jesus bolstered their faith, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”
When God asks you to be a part of an impossible mission, He is not entrusting to you the results of His divine directive (those are His!), but the process of being faithful to the task. The Lord told the prophet that his only criteria of success was fidelity to Him and His Word, as He explained in verses 17-19:
Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.
Seize the moment and trust God to do the impossible – to save souls. Your job is to be faithful to the mission of God, proclaiming the gospel in word and deed, so that one day you may hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
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Ezekiel 2
Gain a Right Perspective of Fear!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, June 4.
Fear is about perspective, because, as a primal emotion, it is designed by God to alert us to prospective danger. Fear is intended to assist us in this life, not rule over our hearts and minds. Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” By emphasizing the eternal danger inherit to disobeying God, He diminishes the mortal danger that can come from disappointing people. Jesus elevates our personal ambition from merely surviving in this life to living forever with God in Heaven, which then causes us to see threats differently, ultimately, bolstering our courage to remain steadfast in difficult circumstances. God gave the prophet a right perspective of fear when He called him in Ezekiel 2:4-7:
“I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ As for them, whether they listen or not – for they are a rebellious house – they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions; neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house. But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.”
Seize the moment and gain a right perspective of fear – “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:17-18).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
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Ezekial 1
Trust the Hand of the Lord!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, June 3.
The call narrative of the prophet Ezekiel covers the first three chapters, and it began with a time stamp and location ping in Ezekiel 1:1-3:
Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. (On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the Lord came upon him.)
First, we learn that Ezekiel is a priest who had been living in exile, probably for five years assuming he was a part of the first wave of exiles with King Jehoiachin in 597 BC. Second, we learn that Ezekiel was thirty when he received this initial vision of God’s glory in 592 BC. This is important, because, according to Numbers 4:30, that was the age a priest began his official service in the temple.
The kings were being punished, but God was still calling forth priests and prophets in exile. Even though the temple would not have been destroyed yet, as that was still six years away, this was a declarative statement that “the hand of the Lord” could reach His people in exile, and, in fact, He would rescue them from captivity, like He had done from Egyptian slavery. Just like at the Exodus, the vision of Ezekiel invoked the fear of the Lord because of its explicit supernatural reality – “such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezekiel 1:28; cf. Exodus 24:16). This would have given them great hope because God was with them.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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The Call to the Great Community 6
Lesson #5:
The Engine of the Church is Multigenerational Discipleship!
Why did Jesus take three years to do what he could have done in three months, maybe even three weeks? Jesus came to not only die on the Cross for our sins, which He could have accomplished quite quickly in the powder-keg political and religious environment of His time, but He also came from Heaven to Earth to show us the Way to live the Spirit-led life. One of the lessons Jesus taught His disciples came through a practical illustration, found in Matthew 19:13-14, “Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” The Spirit-led life emphasizes the importance of children, giving value to most vulnerable in our midst.
Later, when Jesus restored Peter to his position of leadership in John 21:15-17, He passed on His responsibilities as a shepherd to His sheep, which included the lambs:
So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.
The resurrected Jesus commanded Peter that the right response to loving him was caring for and tending to His sheep, including the most vulnerable lambs. You see, Jesus the Good Shepherd, was raising up disciples who could properly care for and feed the next generation of disciples. This was effectively done by the apostles, as they passed on to others what was fist given to them, often through women, children, and households. Paul said to the next generation of the faith in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful [people] who will be able to teach others also.”
In the same way that Jesus walked with His disciples to show them the Way, we are to do life with others. Timothy learned how to live the life of discipleship by being a first-hand witness of Paul’s ministry. Paul expressed this point to him in 2 Timothy 3:10-11: “Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!”
Timothy learned directly from Paul in real everyday life, on the mission field. He learned not only through words, but through actions. Timothy was more than an eyewitness; he partook of Paul’s words and deeds, and He adopted Paul’s unwavering missional focus through demanding circumstances, including suffering and persecution. Here are three passages that demonstrate how Paul and Timothy became yoked together:
1) Acts 19:21-22. Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
2) 1 Corinthians 4:15-17. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
3) 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3. Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.
To pass on your faith to the next generation is to entrust something precious to you. Never forget that you can only entrust to others what you yourself first have obtained for yourself. Paul used the same word, “entrust,” in a special admonition to his protege in 1 Timothy 1:18-19, “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.” Paul taught the next generation how to walk in the Way of Jesus, in word and deed – when you remain focused on the task of multigenerational discipleship, you are protecting your life from getting shipwrecked! This principle can be applied to marriage and raising children.
The final part of 2 Timothy 2:2 emphasizes the entire point, Paul expressed that the faith must be passed on to those who will be able to teach others also. There must be a multiplication of laborers for the harvest, as Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” This is for you and me, all of us – men, women, and children – the whole family. You are called by God, and it is His grace which qualifies the called. It is the Spirit at work in you. Listen to Paul teach the church this in 2 Corinthians 3:2-6:
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Think of your life, your marriage, and your household as a small group, an outpost of the Kingdom of God to your neighborhood. Jesus Christ calls every believer to live on mission for Him in Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Once again, the emphasis is on passing on to others about what you first received yourself! Just like with Paul and Timothy, this is a call to discipleship relationships between the generations like a teacher to a student, a parent to a child, a master to an apprentice. Multigenerational discipleship involves entering relationships with others to learn and to teach, to share life while living on mission for Jesus. We are to yoke with Jesus, then with one another as the one body of Christ. We are to pass it on, this is the engine of the church, fueled by the Holy Spirit; it’s what keeps us going from generation to generation.
Who, what, when, where, and why? I just gave you the why? Are you aligned with the mission of God? Now, you need to prayerfully determine the who, what, when and where. I want every individual, couple, and family unit to pray about it this summer. In the same way that two dozen adults are investing time and energy into 29 children over the next week, intentionally doing intergenerational discipleship at our Next Gen summer camp, how are you intentionally investing your time and energy into multigenerational discipleship? Think of one practical thing you can do today.
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Hymn: He Was Nailed to the Cross for Me
Today’s song focus :
He Was Nailed to the Cross for Me
Colossians 2:13-14 (NASB95)
flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our
transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees
against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having
nailed it to the cross..”
Born in 1856, Frederick A Graves was raised in a Christian family. His father passed away when he was 6 and his mother passed when he was 9, leaving him orphaned. While being raised by family friends, he was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 14. He left home at 21 and was a talented musician. He studied Bible and music in Chicago and Northfield, MA where he met his wife, Vina.. After hearing evangelist John A. Dowie, he experienced a permanent healing of his epilepsy which provided the backdrop for his writing over 43 hymns and gospel songs.
He was nailed to the cross for me,
He was nailed to the cross for me.
On the cross crucified, for me He died.
He was nailed to the cross for me
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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He was nailed to the cross for me
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Lamentations 5
Day 1536
Restore us O Lord!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 31.
Is there any hope for a nation under judgment?
Jeremiah’s final appeal to Yahweh is found in Lamentations 5:19-22, “You, O Lord, rule forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long? Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old, unless You have utterly rejected us and are exceedingly angry with us.” The prophet oscillates between faith and fear, fluctuating between hope and despair. In this final chapter, the weeping prophet highlighted the chaos and anarchy of Judah’s plight: water and bread were costly, the land and property were seized, the women were raped, and the children were enslaved, the leaders were executed, and the people were humiliated. What hope did they have if God was righteously judging them for their sin and rebellion?
Their hope was found in the promises of God, specifically, the promise of Jeremiah 29:14, “‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’” That’s why the despondent prophet cried out to God, “Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old.” This faithful man, in his forlorn state, invoked the promise of God, which had been written in a letter for the exiles in Babylon, but was just as pertinent to the remnant left in the ashes of God’s judgment.
Seize the moment and plea with God that He would restore to us the joy of His salvation (Psalm 51:12), transforming the ashes of God’s judgment into something beautiful for His glory (Isaiah 61:3).
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
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Lamentations 4
Day 1535
Thrive!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 30.
The familiar historical account of the Donner Party has struck fear into the hearts of American history students for generations. In the winter of 1846-47, a caravan of Midwestern migrants became stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where, in their fear and desperation, they resorted to the heinous act of cannibalism to survive. What are we to think when decent people turn to desperate measures?
Lamentations 4:9-10 capture the painful reality of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, “Better are those slain with the sword than those slain with hunger; for they pine away, being stricken for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of compassionate women boiled their own children; they became food for them because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.” Such historical accounts are not for the faint of heart, but they serve as reminders of what people can do. Are you aware of your own depths of depravity?
Take time to contemplate your innate survival instinct: What are you capable of doing in the name of survival? When people scoff at the idea that they could do such a heinous act themselves, and start talking about how civilized we have become, I not so subtlety suggest that there has been no progress made in the human condition. We are still self-centered sinners in need of a Savior! Remove a community’s clean water source and within a few days, hours even, you will see how much progress has been made. None! Whether it’s the horrors of Lamentations 4, or that of the Donner Party, we must learn from Jesus’ example at the Cross, until we have faced our own death, we cannot live wholeheartedly in this life (Romans 8:35-39).
Seize the moment and seek to do more than survive your circumstances, thrive! It’s two competing mindsets, so choose today whom you will serve – God or your own life!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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Lamentations 3
Day 1534
Climb out of the Pit of Despair!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, May 29.
Lamentations 3 is an expanded sixty-six-verse acrostic poem dealing with the universal topic of suffering. There will be suffering in this life, and, at times, it may feel like the end of the world, as Jeremiah expressed in verses 17-18, “My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, ‘My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.’” Jeremiah was despondent over his circumstances, finding himself in the pit of despair. How do you climb out of such dark places?
Denial doesn’t help! You can’t whitewash despair; it’s real and no amount of spiritualizing your suffering will change that fact. You can’t ignore your emotions if you intend to live in the victory of Jesus Christ. The first step is naming that what you are going through is real. As you validate the reality of your situation, you then take the necessary second step, you invite God to join you wherever you are. From experience, I’ve learned that it’s best to do this without throwing yourself a pity party. Because, if you are anything like me, a pity party just digs the pit of despair deeper, catapulting you into a dark season of the soul. If you are there currently, I have good news for you, God specializes in meeting people at the bottom of the pits, so invite Him wherever you find yourself in the process. God showed up for Jeremiah, returning to him the gift of hope, as the prophet recorded in Lamentations 3:21-24, “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I have hope in Him.’”
Seize the moment and climb out of the pit of despair by remembering the hope you have in Jesus Christ – “Call to Me and I will answer you” (Jeremiah 33:3).
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Lamentations 2
Day 1533
Trust God to Keep His Word!
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Lamentations 1
Happy Memorial Day! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 27.
The first two chapters are alphabetic acrostic poems, meaning that the first letter of each line begins with the next consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which contains twenty-two letters. While this will be hidden from English readers, it was a common poetic device of Hebrew poetry, which is also found in the Psalms. Such poems were written for their aesthetic value but were also used to aid in memorization. Another purpose for this poetic device was how it clearly expressed the comprehensive nature of its topic. The intent of Lamentations was to capture the sheer horror of the total devastation of Zion’s fall, with the first of the acrostic laments beginning with verses 1-2, which personifies Jerusalem as an abandoned, destitute widow:
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Hymn: Child of Love
Child of Love
1 John 3:1 (NASB95)
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Released originally in July of 2020, WE THE KINGDOM’s female lead singer Franni Rae Cash said this song “was a breakthrough back into the child-like place in her heart.”* It reminds us of the power of God’s endless love to bring about transformation and redemption in each of our lives. Because of that, we can hold fast to the promise the nothing can separate us from His amazing love! That is why we can declare with confidence that we are His child!
I’m gonna climb a mountain,
If you would like to hear this hymn, click HERE.
Child of Love
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Jeremiah 52
Day 1529
Put your Hope in God!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 24.
Where do you put your hope? As I wrote in my devotion on 2 Kings 25, the last chapters of Jeremiah and 2 Kings end with God giving the people a seed of hope through the preservation of the Davidic line.That’s an important conclusion because the last chapter of Jeremiah is depressing, describing the utter hopelessness of Israel’s situation as Jerusalem was sacked, the people exiled, and the temple destroyed. Everything and anything that the people could possibly put their hope in was gone. The prophet described the destruction in detail, starting in Jeremiah 52:12-15:
Now on the tenth day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with fire. So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the artisans.
The prophet made it clear that everything was gone except for their faith in God’s promises through the line of King David. The people in exile had one hope left and that would have to sustain them for seventy years. Would it be enough?
Seize the moment and put your hope in God! When God is all you have, God is all you need!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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Jeremiah 51
Day 1528
Trust the Judge!
Jeremiah 51
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 23.
When a judge strikes his gavel, it declares that his judgment is final. At the end of a two-chapter, one-hundred-ten-verse oracle of judgment against Babylon, God strikes His gavel through a prophetic action,described in Jeremiah 51:60-64:
So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon. … And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’”
The prophetic action was done vicariously through Seraiah, the brother of Baruch and royal quartermaster. He read the scroll aloud to Babylon, containing the disasters that would befall them, then cast it into the Euphrates River. This symbolized that not only would the list come true, but that Babylon itself would sink, never to rise again due to the judgment of God; it was His gavel strike.
In Micah 7:19, the prophet proclaimed a similar prophetic image, “He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” In the same way that Babylon would sink to never rise again, so our sins will be cast away from us forever. That is why Jesus Christ came, to defeat the domain of darkness by striking the gavel against the law ofsin and death so that all who trust Him for forgiveness of sin shall be set free (Colossians 1:13-14; Romans 8:1-2).
Seize the moment and trust the Judge for the forgiveness of your sins – “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 50
Crucify your Arrogance!
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Jeremiah 49
Rescue those Living under Satan’s Rule!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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Jeremiah 48
Strive for Excellence!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
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The Call to the Great Community 5
Lesson #5
The Church was Born on Pentecost!
It’s Pentecost Sunday and today we are going to learn about the importance of not only the historical event of Pentecost as read in Acts 2:1-13 earlier in the service, but also of the ongoing promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ gave us. Before I share this teaching with you, I want to share a personal word that God admonished me with in 2015, based on Galatians 3:1-3, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Let us learn from today’s teaching how to be wise when it comes to the things of the Spirit and why learning about the Spirit is important. Do you see how Paul connected the receiving of the Spirit and salvation through faith, as well as the ongoing sanctification of your life unto the glory of God? Just as the church was born by the Spirit, so it grows in its maturity and unity as witnesses of the gospel by the power of the Spirit.
Listen to Jesus’ clear teaching on the Holy Spirit so that you can hear this promise in the fullness of Jesus’ teaching. From John 14:16-31 Jesus taught, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.”
Jesus gave us this clear teaching, along with other teachings, on the Holy Spirit. From Acts 1:4-5, immediately before His ascension to the right hand of the Father (please listen to last week’s sermon if you have not yet listened to that important teaching on the Ascension of Jesus Christ), Jesus promised that His followers would be baptized in the Spirit: “Gathering them together, [Jesus] commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’”
This is not the first time the followers of Jesus heard this invitation to be baptized in the Spirit because the baptism of the Spirit is not a secondary event to salvation itself, it is the very nature of salvation itself – the Spirit of God is our inheritance – the presence and power of God dwelling in us, the Giver of new life transforming us into a Temple of the Holy Spirit and inviting us into the eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by allowing us to participate in His divine nature, as Peter taught in 2 Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” This is what it means to have salvation and being baptized in the Spirit should never be reduced to some secondary work of sanctification in our lives. The Son removed our sins from us through His sacrificial death on the Cross so that God could live in us through His Spirit!
From the beginning of the New Testament, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was distinguished apart from the baptism of John. John the Baptist’s baptism was a means of preparation for the coming of the Lord, a purification of oneself in preparation for the coming of the Lord in Christ Jesus. Listen to John the Baptist make this distinction in Matthew 3:11, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (cf. Mark 1:7-8 & Luke 3:16).
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the baptism of Jesus, which is the only form of New Covenant baptism that Jesus commanded His disciples to conduct immediately before His ascension to the right hand of the Father when He gave us the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This is how we are born again; at the moment of our salvation we participate in the event that birthed the church in the first place.
This issue is often confused by people misapplying the early church history book of Acts. The early church leaders dealt with this confusion, making a distinction between the baptism of John and the baptism in Jesus’ name. Acts 11:15-18 is a powerful illustration of the importance of understanding how yoked our justification in Christ is with the baptism of the Spirit. Listen to Peter give a first-hand witness of the work of the Spirit after Pentecost and in the early church among non-Jewish people, called Gentiles, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”
Why am I talk about all this? Because Pentecost is both a one-time historical event recorded in Acts 2 and the birth of the church – the promised fulfillment of Jesus Christ who ushered in the New Covenant. For which the baptism of the Spirit is a fulfillment of God’s promise to His people from Joel 2:28-32, “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.”
We will be in the age of Pentecost until we experience the fulfillment of God’s Word and the return of Jesus. Until that Day, we are to walk by the Spirit. As we learned last week, the ministry of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, right now, is to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father until He returns. Simultaneously, the Father and Son have baptized us with the Spirit so that our eternity would be secure in His covenant faithfulness, and we would carry in our very person the same anointing that the Messiah Himself had: the Spirit of the Living God! The same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in you and me – the resurrection power of God is in us!
Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:16-26 what it means to live our lives in the Spirit, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”
When the power of the risen Christ comes upon the members of His body through the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is keeping His promise to His followers that He will always be with us and that we will become like Him. Jesus’ ascension did not leave us alone in this world. He promised to not leave us as orphans, and He kept His word! God came upon His church at Pentecost in a new and different way than Jesus’ incarnation at Christmas. We don’t live in the age of Christmas where Jesus’ uniquely incarnated God’s presence on earth; rather, we live in the age of Pentecost where God now incarnates (I’m using this word figuratively) in each of us through His Spirit living in us. Jesus has ascended and will come again, but until that time, the Spirit of the Living God indwells the Church of Jesus Christ in fulfillment of the words of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ and the earliest church teachings. Just as Acts 2:32-33 taught us, “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”
God is with us through His presence and power living in us. May God be exalted in and through His church. Let us never forget that this only can happen through the Spirit. I close with the same admonishment to you that God has given me, from Galatians 3:1-3, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
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Hymn: Holy Spirit
Today’s Hymn Focus :
Holy Spirit
Acts 1:8 (NASB95)
“but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you
shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even
to the remotest part of the earth.”
Bryan and Katie Torwalt wrote this song inspired by the Book of Acts chapter 2, celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples on the day of Pentecost. Sung as a prayer asking God to send the Holy Spirit to comfort, protect and guide, it encourages us to trust in the third person of the Trinity to take us through the struggles of this life by finding our strength and peace in God’s amazing love.
Holy Spirit, You are welcome here.
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere.
Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for
to be overcome by Your presence, Lord
We need to wake up and realize that the Holy Spirit is gentle, never forcing His way into or upon our lives. We have to surrender daily to listening to God’s heart that can be heard through the Holy Spirit’s voice and leading. That is where we find the hope and peace that God provides along the way.
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:
Holy Spirit
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Jeremiah 47
The Sword of the Lord!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 17.
Do you know how seriously God takes sin, and not just sin as a general concept, but your personal sin as rebellion against His rightful rule of your life? At the end of the oracle of judgment against the Philistines, in Jeremiah 47:6-7a, the prophet asked a series of rhetorical questions, “Ah, sword of the Lord, how long will you not be quiet? Withdraw into your sheath; be at rest and stay still. How can it be quiet, when the Lord has given it an order?” The prophet was essentially crying out, “How long, O Lord? How long will you pour out your wrath upon the nations?”
In addressing the “sword of the Lord,” Jeremiah was speaking to the means of judgment God was utilizing, which was associated with the concept of the destroyer in Jeremiah 12:12, “On all the bare heights in the wilderness destroyers have come, for a sword of the Lord is devouring from one end of the land even to the other; there is no peace for anyone.” Regardless of whether the destroyer being addressed was Babylon or Egypt, the prophet’s words indicate that it cannot rest until it has fulfilled what God has ordained for it to do as His means of judgment; it must act until God is satisfied!
The good news (gospel) is that God poured out His wrath upon Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary! That is what John described when he used the word propitiation in 1 John 2:2, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” Jesus took on Himself God’s wrath for sin, satisfying judgment and forever extending to us God’s rest, which Jeremiah had requested of God’s sword in Jeremiah 47:6, which is why only Jesus can offer us “rest for our souls” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Seize the moment and find rest in Jesus, “who rescues us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 46
Do not Fear!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 16.
One of the most frequent commands in the Bible is, “Do not Fear!” God knows we become afraid when life isn’t going the way we think it should, so He reminds us that He is sovereign, assuring us of His presence in our difficulties. Jeremiah 46 is an oracle of judgment against Egypt, yet it concludes, in verses 27-28, with a word of hope to Israel:
“But as for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear, nor be dismayed, O Israel! For, see, I am going to save you from afar, and your descendants from the land of their captivity; and Jacob will return and be undisturbed and secure, with no one making him tremble. O Jacob My servant, do not fear,” declares the Lord, “For I am with you. For I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, yet I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you properly and by no means leave you unpunished.”
Twice, God commanded His people, “Do not fear!” He acknowledged that He was punishing them, but He clarified that His intent was to correct them. Ultimately, He promised to not destroy them, but to return them to a place of peace and rest after their long season of exile. This is the intent of all godly discipline, as explained in Hebrews 12:11, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Whether for a short time or a long season, embrace it as an opportunity to learn from God, because His desire for you in His discipline is to “share His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).
Seize the moment and do not fear the discipline of the Lord! It is for your good!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 45
Serve your First Love!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, May 15.
The personal care God has for His children blows my mind. Even during a time of national disaster for Israel, God took the time to lovingly speak to one of his chosen servants, to both admonish and encourage him. We’ve already met Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah, and in Jeremiah 45:2-5, God spoke directly to him through the prophet:
“Thus says the Lord the God of Israel to you, O Baruch: ‘You said, “Ah, woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.” ’ Thus you are to say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.” But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I am going to bring disaster on all flesh,’ declares the Lord, ‘but I will give your life to you as booty in all the places where you may go.’”
We don’t know what it was that Baruch was doing, in “seeking great things for [himself]” but we know that he had become weary and heavy-laden in his pursuit of it. In response, God invited him to find rest for his soul by remaining focused on Him in the coming calamity. One of the greatest challenges in ministry life is to not make it more than God intends it to be, subtly making it about our own ideas of doing “great things” for God, instead of simply working side-by-side with God. The good news is that God has built in a test for His servants so that we know when we’ve lost focused – are you growing weary and heavy-laden in doing good works?
Seize the moment and return to your first love and you will find rest for your soul!
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 44
Discern Cause and Effect!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, May 14.
Cause and effect is the relationship between two events or situations where the cause is directly responsible for creating the effect. The ability to accurately discern cause and effect is essential in coaching. For example, if a baseball player closes his eyes, he will most likely miss the ball when he swings the bat. It would be unwise of the coach to tell the batter to choke up on the bat when the main issue is obvious. How often in life do we miss addressing the main issue of our problems, but dilly dally around with ancillary issues?
Moreso, it’s devastating when we misdiagnose cause and effect. An example of this is in Jeremiah 44:15-18, when the remnant in Egypt misaligned the cause and effect of their former happiness in the Promised Land:
As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you! But rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, … for then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune. But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine.
Even as the prophet tried to address the true cause and effect relationship of their suffering, they wouldn’t heed God’s Word. Instead, they attributed their forsaking of pagan worship for their ruin, rather than acknowledging that it was their forsaking of God through their pagan worship of the Queen of Heaven that led to their disaster. Their twisted logic led to their downfall.
Seize the moment and discern cause and effect in your life! How you think about life shapes the decisions you make, so gain a right perspective on your situation.
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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Jeremiah 43
Choose Wisely Your Next Step! (Part 2 of 2)
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 13.
The prophet faithfully gave the Word of the Lord to the officials in Jeremiah 42:7-22, laying out for them the right next step. There could be no possible confusion about the will of God for the people, but the officials were not happy about God’s direction for them. The prophet told them that if they went into Egypt, they would suffer even greater hardship, but if they remained in the Promised Land, God would work through their enemies to bless and preserve them. But it got worse, in Jeremiah 43:2-3, the officials accused the prophet of being complicit in a conspiracy against them, “You are telling a lie! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to reside there’; but Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon.” Essentially, they said to Jeremiah, “This can’t be from the Lord; you are conspiring against us!”
As a herald of the gospel of Jesus Christ and teacher of God’s Word, I can only imagine how frustrating this must have been for Jeremiah. He had been timely and accurate with his prophetic ministry to them, indominable and incorruptible in His fidelity to the Word of God. He demonstrated his fierce loyalty to the people by remaining with them in hardship, even after he was promised travel protection and a better life elsewhere by a Babylonian official. But the remnant wouldn’t walk in the counsel of the Lord because it didn’t line up with what they had already decided was right in their own eyes (4-7).
Seize the moment and walk in step with God when He gives you clear guidance, remembering to treasure God’s Word in your heart, so that you may not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11).
God bless you!
If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.
YOUTUBE:
If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.
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