Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Intro: Scripture indicates that there are sheep (saved individuals) and goats (lost souls) in the world. We are indeed in the world but not of it if truly saved. This theme was the introduction to today's sermon on 2 Timothy 3 where our Pastor preached about avoiding the extremes of living in the wilderness with no contact with the outside world and having too much comfort with the world where we are essentially nomads just passing through.
This passage should give us pause to consider that only a few are saved out of the professing church at large. Another theme today was about how Paul's sufferings showed his qualifications as a TRUE Apostle; so contrasted with those today who are almost aways part of some prosperity Gospel congregation or church. Matthew 19:30 was also mentioned as a sobering reminder that those who may appear publicly as famous preachers may be outranked when rewards are given by relatively unknowns doing the Lord's work in relative obscurity during their earthly sojourn. There was mention of someone who attended our church once who lives out of state who is likely to be martyred if she goes to a certain country on an upcoming trip and is transparent about her newfound Christian faith. Having met this person a few months ago I am glad the Pastor brought it up and the upcoming expected date so that I could keep her in prayer. Such individuals should not go unrecognized; and perhaps the prayers of the saints will give a different result (only God allows the date when someone is allowed to kill us).
As our Pastor greeted us after the service he mentioned how many could be tempted to give praise to another god (in this case Allah) to save their own skin (claiming it is showing respect as a sort of social grace). Not so for this person mentioned above.
Unknown martyrs are more than statistics and will be exalted in heavenly places.
Intro: Scripture indicates that there are sheep (saved individuals) and goats (lost souls) in the world. We are indeed in the world but not of it if truly saved. This theme was the introduction to today's sermon on 2 Timothy 3 where our Pastor preached about avoiding the extremes of living in the wilderness with no contact with the outside world and having too much comfort with the world where we are essentially nomads just passing through.
This passage should give us pause to consider that only a few are saved out of the professing church at large. Another theme today was about how Paul's sufferings showed his qualifications as a TRUE Apostle; so contrasted with those today who are almost aways part of some prosperity Gospel congregation or church. Matthew 19:30 was also mentioned as a sobering reminder that those who may appear publicly as famous preachers may be outranked when rewards are given by relatively unknowns doing the Lord's work in relative obscurity during their earthly sojourn. There was mention of someone who attended our church once who lives out of state who is likely to be martyred if she goes to a certain country on an upcoming trip and is transparent about her newfound Christian faith. Having met this person a few months ago I am glad the Pastor brought it up and the upcoming expected date so that I could keep her in prayer. Such individuals should not go unrecognized; and perhaps the prayers of the saints will give a different result (only God allows the date when someone is allowed to kill us).
As our Pastor greeted us after the service he mentioned how many could be tempted to give praise to another god (in this case Allah) to save their own skin (claiming it is showing respect as a sort of social grace). Not so for this person mentioned above.
Unknown martyrs are more than statistics and will be exalted in heavenly places.
This comment thread is locked. Please enter a new comment below to start a new comment thread.
Note: Comment threads older than 2 months are automatically locked.
Do you have a Bible comment or question?
Please Sign In or Register to post comments...
Report Comment
Which best represents the problem with the comment?