Balancing Ministry N' Work

" 11  So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands.  12  At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” – Ephesians 2:11-12 Before we started to follow Jesus, before we learned to Praise our Lord, before we humbled ourselves, before our eyes were open to the Wisdom our Lord is offering, before we were Convicted of the sin in our lives, before we were made Innocent in God’s eyes, we were sinners. Before we knew Jesus, we were lost. Before the awesome gift He has given us, we had no Hope. Without Hope a person has no direction and some even lose the will to live. “ 13  But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” – Ephesians 2:13 As sinners we are wit...

The Things We Need… Conviction is one of the ways the Holy Spirit works on us and in some ways drives us to our next Things We Need… Innocence. “ 19  The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil.” – Romans 16:19 We spent time looking at this verse with Things We Need… Wisdom, so let’s just focus on the end of it. Paul is saying we should be ‘innocent about what is evil.’ Paul is not telling us to be ignorant of what is going on around us. We are not to ignore the abundance of sin in our cities. We are not to turn a blind eye to those in need because of the sin in their lives. That would be counter to the teachings of Jesus in that we are to care for those who are in need. When Paul is telling us to be Innocent of evil, he is stating that we need to do our best to avoid practicing sin. We are not saved by avoiding sin in our lives as salvation only comes by the Grace...

 No traditional notes this week as it was not a pre-manuscripted sermon, but here are some of the notes I had jotted down. I have also included some stuff that I did not share this morning.  2 Chronicles 7:14 Our responsibility is to Humble, Pray, Seek God, and Turn from evil. The rest is up to God.  Romans 12:1-2 Do not conform to this world, instead look to the perfect will of God.  John 17:13-16 Jesus and we are not of this world.  John 18:36 Jesus' kingdom is not of this world.  Colossians 3:1-2; 11 We have been raised with Christ and need to seek the things from above.  There is no Jew or Greek, there is no Republican or Democrat, we are all one in Christ. Psalm 121:2  My Hope comes form the Lord.   Matthew 5:13-16 We are the salt and the light. If we are getting caught up in the emotion of any political movement are we being the light that Christ wants us to be? Ephesians 6 We need every piece, the FULL armor of God for whatever the fut...

So far in the Things We Need List Two series we have seen that we Need Jesus, Excitement, Simplicity. Praise, Humility, and Wisdom. Our last Things We Need… Wisdom will help us to understand that while we may not really want or like our next Things We Need… Conviction, it truly is something we cannot live without! Without the Things We Need… Conviction we would never know that we need a savior. We would never be able to identify the sin in our lives. Without Conviction we would spend our lives living as the world lives and not living the life our Lord and Savior desires for us. “ 8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—  9  for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth—  10  testing what is pleasing to the Lord.  11  Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.  12  For it is shameful even to men...