HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Philippians 2:8-11 - And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Romans 14:7-9 - 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
There is a saying that is famous in church circles – Jesus is Lord of all or not at all.
We love it we declare it but the question is do we live it and understand it.
Many people want a Savior but they do not want Jesus to be Lord.
One of the Hebrew names for God is Adonai.
The word “Lord” means “the one who has absolute power, absolute authority,” “the master.” It speaks of supreme authority, controller, ruler. One of the key aspects of Lordship is ownership.
When we say that Jesus is Lord of our life what we are saying is that we are no longer in control we no longer retain ownership and we no longer are our own master. We do not control our own destiny. All of it is in the hands of God.
Romans 14:7-8 - 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
Whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s. – We are His.
How we live or how we die is His choice.
The name Adonai means that Jesus is the boss, the King, the Master, The ruler and has the chief say so in our lives.
~ Billy Graham – “Ninety-five percent of church members live defeated, un-victorious lives because they have never made Jesus Lord.
~ George Sanchez wrote – Ninety-five percent of the problems that people have in their spiritual lives and for which they seek counseling are basically a poor understanding of who Jesus Christ is – He is Lord.
Jesus Christ IS Lord.
When we make a commitment, we are in control.
We commit to win souls because we decide to do it.
We commit to study our Bibles only because we want to.
We can commit to tithe but we retain the option not to.
When we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, we are no longer in control and we are surrendered to a life of obedience and serving Him.
If we are committed to anything, we need to be committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
He is absolute Lord.
We have to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ
Romans 14:9 - For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Jesus Christ is called “Lord” no less than 747 times in the New Testament.
We do not make Jesus Lord; He is already Lord.
Acts 2:36 (NLT) - “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
Isaiah 42:8a - I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another,
He is already Lord of all. Jesus is Lord.
There are only two decisions that we make:
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord? Have you surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Is He Lord of all that you have and all that you do?
Jesus died to claim us as Lord.
When He died for us, He was redeeming us. He is Lord because He died for us.
The Cross of Calvary says that He is Lord.
He has purchased us; we are not our own. He has redeemed us with His blood.
1 Corinthians 6:19 (AMP)- Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]?
If you are a Christian, then Jesus now lives in you; and you are His purchased possession.
If you are saved, then you are under new management.
When we gave our heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, that was the last independent decision we ever made.
We are not our own. We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is wonderful because He knows more about how to manage our life than we do.
He alone can make you what He wants you to be and what you need to be and what you would want to be if you could only see it how He sees it.
The Lord Jesus has made a great investment in us. He died for us and bought us with His blood. His investment in us is such a blessing because it means that He is going to watch over us.
Ephesians 1:13-14 - And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his ownby giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
When we submit to the Lordship of Christ, we are saying that we trust Him, we trust His promises. All of them. We trust Him not only for our Salvation but for everything.
We are taking Him at His Word.
The reason that many people struggle with the idea of Lordship is that they have no idea of what is in the Word. Or they struggle with taking Jesus at His Word.
When we believe, we are then sealed with the Holy Spirit.
A seal, as spoken of here in this passage, is a legal document.
This seal means the following:
If Jesus Christ is not Lord of our life, then we have no right to call ourselves a Christian.
Romans 10:9-10 - that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
We are saved by believing that Jesus Christ is Lord and yielding to that Lordship.
This is more than just saying that Jesus is Lord.
At the time when Paul wrote the book of Romans, to say that Jesus Christ is Lord could cost a person his or her life.
Caesar, at that time, was revered as more than an emperor, but was considered as a god.
The people of the Roman Empire were required to say that Caesar was Lord.
Christians would not do that. - It is not Christ - AND - it is Christ only.
The Bible does not mention receiving Christ as Savior.
He is Savior, but we receive Christ as Lord. As Lord He is our Savior.
Acts 16:31 – So, they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
We give all we know of ourselves to all we know of Jesus. We take Jesus and all that He is, and He is Lord.
We cannot have what He gives unless we accept who He is, and He is Lord.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that - if a convert declares that he knows the Lord’s will but doesn’t mean to do it, then it is our duty to assure him that he is not saved.
Lordship means our entire submission and obedience to Him.
Submission means that any other plans, desires and wants that we have will take a back seat to Him.
MANY people struggle with the idea of submission because we are taught to value our independence and our will and our stuff. We love the idea of ownership and my things.
There is no other ruler or King in our life, including ourselves.
Matthew 6:24 (AMP) - “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord].
When Jesus is Lord of our life we follow His will. Lordship is not simply a matter of what we say but how we live.
Matthew 7:21 - “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Luke 6:46 (NLT) - “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?
There are a lot of people who are into confession but many are not into submission and repentance.
A person becomes a Christian by submitting their life as a fully devoted, committed follower of Jesus Christ.
A follower is no longer in the lead.
There is a great deal more that we will unpack as I preach this message this month.
I want to leave you with a question… Is Jesus truly the Lord of your life?
As we start the summer months know that you are loved by God!
We look forward to what God is going to do here at HCC. Enjoy your vacation. Enjoy some time off. Continue to make the family of God a priority in your life.
Blessings,
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Hebrews 13:4 (AMP) - Marriage is to be held in honor among all [that is, regarded as something of great value], and the marriage bed undefiled [by immorality or by any sexual sin]; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
(NLT) - Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
It is not often that you hear wisdom on what will kill a marriage.
Marriage killers are not about being negative it is about reality that is rooted in the word of God.
Marriage is like taking care of fish in an aquarium. You must take good care of the fish and the environment that they live in. If you neglect either one the fish will die.
You must feed the fish; you must keep the tank as stress free as possible. You must clean the tank often and change the water carefully. You must keep the tank free of pollutants; you must keep out predators or anything that will harass or kill the fish. There are certain other fish you can allow in the tank and others you must keep out. You must treat any sickness and disease. It is important to keep the temperature of the tank within a certain range, too hot or too cold and the fish will die. Sometimes things die in the tank and you must remove the dead things before they begin to affect the living.
According to the American Psychological Association, approximately 40-50% of first marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate for second marriages is even higher, with approximately 60-67% of second marriages ending in divorce with 70-74% of third marriages ending in divorce, often due to carrying unresolved issues, blended family complexities, and less patience from previous experiences.
This means that most families have been touched by divorce in some manner.
No one enters into a marriage thinking – boy I hope one day we get a divorce.
While the Bible tells us that God hates divorce; it does not say that divorce disqualifies someone from being a Christian.
This is not to bring shame or condemnation. The truth is though that divorce as become so common in our culture that the church must speak life into an issue that the devil comes to bring death.
God hates divorce because of how damaging it is to people.
Malachi 2:16 (NLT) - “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So, guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
Notice that God places the responsibility of divorce on the man. In the Old Testament and through most of history it was the man who initiated divorce and, in the male, dominated society it left the women, homeless, helpless and destitute.
While Moses permitted divorce God said that it revealed a heart issue. Divorce is violent and cruel. It is hurtful and devastating. It is violent not just to the two involved but to the children and the families. My prayer is that all who have walked through this trying season will know the healing and restoring power of our loving God.
In our society and in western culture divorce is now actually 70% of the time initiated by the women. This is because of better laws protecting women and the fact that women are now able to provide for a family and able to work.
It is also an indicator that both men and women have a heart issue in our society concerning marriage.
The first marriage killer is the lack of honor and respect given to this union in society.
Hebrews 13:4a (AMP)- Marriage is to be held in honor among all [that is, regarded as something of great value]
I want to address this first.
If a marriage is going to succeed you must see it as valuable.
You must understand the Spiritual value, the personal value and the societal value of marriage.
Today people see marriage as a legal contract and not a personal covenant between God and a man and a woman.
To honor someone is to value them and to esteem them and to love them and cherish them.
Marriage is seen by many today as unnecessary, and most relationships as temporary.
Nothing undermines the value of a marriage in a society as when people lose the understanding of being committed to one other person for a lifetime and the stability that it brings to raising children.
When you stop honoring your marriage and honoring your spouse with words, deeds and kindness you will see your marriage begin to die.
Those who have thriving marriages – prioritize that relationship over every other relationship in their life.
We must understand that marriage is sacred and that God designed it to be the foundation of every society on earth.
When society as a whole does not honor and value the relationship of marriage that society will begin to crumble from its very foundations. If the family is destabilized then the framework of people’s lives crumble, Spiritual, emotionally, personally and financially.
When marriage is killed so is a society’s ability to function as God designed.
Selfishness is a marriage killer.
The Bible clearly says that the two become one.
While each spouse continues to have their distinct identity and personality. The Bible says that they are now one. Unified in everything.
A man shall leave his father and mother and be JOINED to his wife.
Think of glue bonding two substances together.
This is called the principle of permeance. – Unity.
Ephesians 5:31-32 - “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
When we are married, we give up our independence for dependance on each other.
The foundation of every marriage is love. Love is other focused and never self-focused.
The opposite of love is selfishness not hatred. It is selfishness that will kill a marriage.
The Bible calls this kind of unity a great mystery. The fact that two very different people can become one is an amazing thing.
It comes intentionally as we consider the other person in everything. The Bible calls this submission.
Ephesians 5:21-25 (NIV) - Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
To submit means that both spouses consider the feelings, preferences and decisions of the other in everything.
A marriage is unity of body, mind and purposes. Submission doesn’t always mean total agreement. It does means total consideration, respect, understanding and humility.
This independent streak that has dominated our society has killed more marriages because true unity means that we give up our individuality for the permeance of unity.
Love never dominates, humiliates or desecrates. It submits because the other spouse is committed and covenanted to honesty, safety and selflessness that benefits both.
For the purpose of this article, we will look at just one more marriage killer.
Infidelity and unfaithfulness are a key marriage killer.
You would think that this would be self-explanatory.
Sexual sin especially in the context of marriage is harmful.
Hebrews 13:4 (NIV) - Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure,
(AMP) - Marriage is to be held in honor among all [that is, regarded as something of great value], and the marriage bed undefiled [by immorality or by any sexual sin
The marriage bed is to be kept pure and undefiled. Nothing undermines a marriage than unfaithfulness sexually.
Right now, there are trends that are shaking society. They say that monogamy is unnatural and even harmful.
There are things like polyamory that invites other people into the home to become a part of the family and the marriage in all aspects including sexually.
There are other forms of perversion that are sweeping the world through pornography the titles and definitions that we will never mention in church.
Ephesians 5:3 (NLT) - Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.
At the foundation of any marriage is trust.
Anyone who cannot be trusted sexually cannot be trusted in any other area of a marriage.
Marriage is a place of intimacy. Intimacy is more than sexual it is emotional, physical and it is deeply spiritual.
Purity is vital; anytime purity is violated a marriage is defiled.
There are to be no secrets in marriage and that is to be true for the lifetime of the marriage.
Genesis 2:25 (AMP) - And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed or embarrassed.
This is the true meaning of an open marriage.
It was so natural to be naked and exposed to each other and before God that they didn’t even know there was any other way.
The moment sin enter into the world is the moment that secrets and shame entered into the world.
If you are keeping secrets from one another then there is sin in your relationship. Unless it is a surprise for a birthday or anniversary.
Anything you have to “Cover Up” is a problem.
In a marriage there is absolutely no room for lying of any kind. Including omitting certain aspects of the truth.
Everything in a marriage is to be out in the open. Phones, emails, our schedules – everything is our business. This is not to be controlling or over bearing.
The marriage relationship demands trust, honesty and accountability to thrive and without it a marriage will die.
God desires for our marriage to thrive. This is why there is a great deal of relationship wisdom found in the word of God. There are thing that we need to do and then there are things we need NOT to do.
Make a renewed commitment to breath fresh life into the most cherished relationship outside of Jesus that you will ever have.
Know that you are loved and that God has great things ahead for your family.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Loi Tran from Pixabay
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Mark 15:42-47 (NLT) - This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. As evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.) 44 Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. 45 The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. 46 Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid.
One of the most overlooked parts of the Easter story is Saturday.
We focus a great deal of attention on Friday and the Crucifixion- with good reason.
We focus a great deal on Sunday and the Resurrection, with good reason.
Very little is said publicly or in the Bible about what Jesus was doing on Saturday.
Saturday was the day In-Between – It is known as Silent Saturday.
~ Max Lucado - God made himself heard on Friday. He tore the curtains of the temple, opened the graves of the dead, rocked the earth, blocked the sun of the sky, and sacrificed the Son of Heaven. Earth heard much of God on Friday.
Nothing on Saturday. Jesus is silent. God is silent. Saturday is silent.
Remember that just before Jesus died, He declared – It is Finished!
The work of Salvation and redemption had been completed.
Just as God rested when He had finished creation Jesus rested from the finished work of the cross.
Saturday is the day after the cross, but before the resurrection. The day when everything feels silent.
The Pharisees were busy sealing the tomb. The Soldiers were busy guarding the tomb; but Jesus was silent. He was resting. He descended into Sheol to set those who had followed Him free.
Ephesians 4:10 (NLT) - And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
Christ descended from Heaven and became a man. God gave His one and only son to bring us life through His death and resurrection.
Saturday was the day when everything fell silent, it seemed like all hope was gone. It was the day when the people who loved Jesus were left grieving, waiting, wondering if any of His promises were true.
The work that Jesus did on Friday and Sunday was important but just as important was the work that Silent Saturday was doing in His disciples.
Just because it felt hopeless didn’t mean that hope was gone.
God was still working.
While the disciples were weeping, while the world thought that it had won, God was preparing for resurrection.
There is incredible value in the Silent times in our life. While we are called to do, we are also called to be still.
The older I get the more I really like quiet. We all need quiet we all require quiet.
We all need the quiet that allows us to rejuvenate and the type of quiet that allows us to contemplate.
The disciples in the Silence of that Saturday; that Sabbath – were remembering all that Jesus had taught them.
We need quiet to think and to comprehend.
Silent Saturday gives us a time of quiet to really think about all that Jesus work on the cross was about. What His sacrifice really meant.
Quiet is important. As a matter of fact, I have found that in the car I will actually turn down the radio so that I can think and concentrate and focus better.
In stillness there is more focus and greater clarity.
We live in a very noisy society. We always have things that always keep us on – Phones, TV’s, Radios.
Very few people really know how to just sit in silence and stillness.
Many of us have forgotten how to sit in the presence of the Lord and just be silent and just be still. To not talk.
Too often we confuse praying with doing and saying but being in the presence of the Lord also just involves silence.
Silence allows us to really hear what is being said. You really get to know someone in the silent times.
Just because it is quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.
The greatest power moves of God often happen in the silence.
Sometimes in the silence the more serious things are.
I found as a parent that silence was golden in three very powerful ways:
One - just sitting together in the quiet could be very bonding. Some of our best times were when the kids were little and they would just snuggle.
Two – when I was disciplining the kids I found early on that I didn’t need to raise my voice. They discovered that the quieter I became the quicker they better listen.
Third – There were times that people were messing with my children that I would just step in and didn’t need to say much. It was understood that you don’t touch my kids.
On Saturday Jesus was silent– He had said all that needed said on Friday. The message was already sent.
I have found that many times Jesus is silent because He is allowing us to just talk.
There are times, I think, we misunderstand the silence of the Lord. It’s not that He is silent, it is that He is listening. When we talk to God we wind up working many things out while He listens. He speaks without saying a word.
God doesn’t always try to fill the silence. He didn’t on Saturday. It was time to rest.
Quiet is necessary for our peace of mind, it is necessary to think about things and through things. It is necessary to contemplate. It is necessary for rest.
We need to learn to become comfortable with the silence.
God is able to do powerful things in silence.
If you read the Word of God closely you will be surprised to find out how much Salvation and Stillness go hand in hand.
I think that many times we miss out on what God is doing because we don’t get still and silent to notice what God is doing.
Stillness is where we can take in the beauty.
Stillness is where we are able to process life.
Stillness is where we are able to really take in and observe all that God is doing in all of His glory.
We find God, not in the midst of the intensity and busyness, but in the stillness.
I have found that God works through seasons. Including seasons of silence.
Ecclesiastes 3:7 - a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
Seasons of quiet, Seasons of waiting, seasons of stillness.
Silent Saturday was just important as Crucifixion Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
Silent Saturdays. We all have those seasons.
The day between the struggle and the solution; the question and the answer; the offered prayer and the answer of the prayer.
Saturday’s silence is hard. Is God angry? Did I disappoint him?
God knows Jesus is in the tomb, why doesn’t He do something?
Or, in our situations -- God knows our career is struggling, our kids are hurting, our finances are in the pit, our marriage is in a mess.
Why doesn’t He act? What are you supposed to do until He does?
You do what Jesus did. Lie still. Stay silent. Trust God.
After the crucifixion there was a much-needed stillness, after the stillness there is Resurrection!
May you and your Family be filled with the Blessing of the Lord. Know that you are Loved and may you have a wonderful Resurrection Season!
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Matthias Groeneveld from Pixabay