My Sermon

Here is the sermon I preached last week hope you enjoy :)


TEXT: 26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.[a] 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Story Hook: A man who was newly married was on his way back home with his wife in a boat, traversing a river. Suddenly a storm arose and the wife trembled with fear as the man sat calm and composed, unmindful of the calamity that raged around them. The wife asked, "Are you not scared? You seem to be least bothered about the storm. Are you aware that the boat may capsize and we may drown?" The man, who was a warrior, pulled out his sword and pointed it close to the wife's neck and asked, "Are you not scared?" The wife said, "Why should I? The sword is in your hand, but I am not frightened as I am aware you love me" The man replied, "Why should I get scared then? For the sword is in God's hand and so is the storm. Whatever he does I take it to be for my good. If we survive or if we die in the storm, I believe it to be for our good because I trust him".

Why: Jesus is telling us to proclaim the word of God boldly out into the world. We are all called to be preachers. You could find yourself here on stage or just preaching to a friend.No matter where you preach or who you preach to it is important you have confidence and are fearless to those who would persecute you. We aren't to have fear because God will take care of you. you have to trust God that he will come to your rescue because he always will.

Verses26-27: The people who we should not be fearing are the men that persecute christians. Trust God that he will deliver you. When God speaks to you, you should share the news! Remember Samuel when God called him in the night and he thought it was Eli calling him? The next day he shared everything that God had told him. No more, no less. Which is exactly what we should be doing when God speaks to us. We aren't meant to keep the word of God to ourselves but to share it. The word proclaim means to announce publicily and thats what jesus is calling us to do.

Verse28: Here we are told another reason why we shouldn't fear those who persecute us for our faith. Those who persecute us are only able to kill our physical body. And if they do, you'll be up in heaven partying it up. Ephesians 6 says that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil. Which is why you should start everyday by putting on the Armor of God so you can stand up to the inevitable attacks from Satan. Instead of fearing men, Jesus tells us to fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And no he's not talking about Satan. God is the one who sends a person to heaven or hell. In proverbs, we are told that the fear of the lord is the beginning and essence for wisdom. I think a lot of the time we get caught up in the love aspect of God that we don't fear him. But God should be feared. If not for the sheer purpose of wisdom, we should fear God because he is all powerful, the creator of the universe, and literally holds your life in his hands.

Verses39-31: I love this section. A penny is pretty much worthless and back then you could buy two sparrows with one. Which shows how insignificant sparrows are. But God cares for something as small as that. And if he takes care of something so small in the universe, he will take care of you and me. Especially if you are following his word and bringing glory to his kingdom. He says he will never leave or forsake you so trust God that he will help you through problems in life.

Verses32-33: The people who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior will have Jesus letting them into heaven through God the Father. Because the only way to get into heaven is to accept Jesus to be your savior. Jesus tells us that he is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one gets to the father, who is in heaven, except through him. Verse 33 confused me for a long time because it seemed to be saying that even if you believe in Jesus you can still not make it into heaven if you denied your religion to others. That isn't true. Because like Keith preaches: faith plus nothing equals everything. I asked Sean about this verse and he thought that it was talking about being denied rewards in heaven, not your salvation. Otherwise Peter would be in hell because he did deny Jesus three times.

Conclusion: The way I take this whole passage is that we need to trust God when going through difficulties in life. Sometimes we just get so caught up in everything happening around us that we forget to focus on the one thing that can get us through those problems. I myself am going through a tough situation right now and I think all of us have gone through hardships in life. When those times come you need to be willing it give it over to God. The best example of this, at least that I know of, is Heather and Aaron. Last year they weren't even allowed to be friends but they relied on God and trusted him with their lives and now a year later they are able to be in a relationship. If God cares for us so much he knows the exact number of hair we have on our head, then you know he'll be there whenever you need him. Three ways I thought of to start trusting God more are: 1. Pray, 2. Put yourself in or identify situations where the other way to succeed is to trust God, 3. Read bible stories on people who did fully trust God such as Jesus, Moses, Samuel, Joseph, and David.

Small group questions: 1. What areas of your life do you need to hand over to God?
2. What is a past experience where God came to your rescue?
3. How can you start to proclaim the word of God BOLDLY?
4. How can you start to not be fearful of those who would persecute you?
5. What's a goal you're willing to make to either be more confident in your faith or to trust God more with your life?

Give it over, dude.

It seems the hardest thing to do is to hand God your problems. At least for me it is. I am an incredibly independent person which makes it harder. I like to do things by myself and alone which makes me sound really pathetic :p But recently God has been showing me that the best way to get through something is to hand it to him and let him take over. You have to learn to let go of things and trust him. Psalm 34:7 says to delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. The definition of delight (according to google) is great pleasure. Find great pleasure in God and he will give you want your heart wants. This means not to get caught up in the bad things happening in your life but to focus on delighting yourself in the Lord's presence. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. So that's what imma do. Seek first God's kingdom and delight myself in him. If I don't get the things I want, the girl I love it doesn't matter because I will have God and what can compare to the creator of the universe?

worship leader to song writer?

Just over the past couple of weeks I have been getting into song writing. I like to have multiple ways of interpretation for my lyrics, for example, these two songs could be your average love song or they could be worship music. They were primarily written to be sung to God but I think making it so it could be a love song could be a way to outreach to nonbelievers through music. Since I doubt any nonbelievers would want to listen to christian or worship music. I wish I had some way to record some songs besides a digital camera so i'll be accepting donations for recording gear :) Song 1 is all done (except for a name haha) and song 2 is coming together quite nicely.

Song 1:
There is nothing I want
There is nothing I need
Other than your love
Other than you near

'Cause when I try to live
without You I fall apart
You alone are my only reason
To live and to breathe

And when I failed you
That day I left
The pain and sorrow
Washed over me

How many times with I miss the mark?
How many times will I fall short?
How many times will I wrong the right?

Song 2:

The war is won but the battle still rages
Lies of every kind are thrown at me
But still I fight with your unrelenting power
I will never give up, never back down

Through every season I will not lose sight of you
Such beauty cannot be forgotten
Though I struggle please don't leave me
This stumbling man will rise above

It is your love that fuels me through battle
My will to fight is for you alone
Anything between us will be destroyed
Nothing will keep us apart

To see your face I would climb mountains
For only a glimpse I would fight through hundreds
You alone give life meaning
Without you my life has no worth  

It Requires Patience.

It's been awhile since the last time I posted on here and it's either blog or do homework so naturally I chose this haha. My walk with the Lord is at an up right now. Last week I had a good study on patience and will continue to dig deeper on that topic. I've learned that patience is an expression of love, not only to those around you but also it's showing love to God. It also requires trust in God that he isn't just ignoring you but if you let him he'll put his perfect plan for your life in action. We must not lean on our own understanding but our lives are in the hands of the maker of heaven. I'm reading a book called I Kissed Dating Goodbye and it is really opening my eyes that for right now during my singleness I have an opportunity to grow closer to God and build relationships with my brothers and sisters in christ without the burdens of worrying about that "special someone". That being said, it requires patience. I can't go out looking for relationships because that would ruin my gift of singleness. I must put my trust in christ alone and that he will bless me with a wonderful wife if I remain faithful to him. And if he doesn't, then I can continue to serve him with my singleness and be thankful for the opportunity to give my all to him.

Fight Your Way.

So I decided to make a blog to share what I am learning in my faith and to help others who are struggling in theirs. But in reality, I'm the one struggling. It is way harder to climb out of that pit than to fall into it. I am on the worship team and will be preaching later this month and I need to get my head straight for both to happen. Because I don't want to be one of those fake leaders in the church that fall away in the faith. Lately having some good study time in the word and prayer has been incredibly hard for me. I know what I have to do, but my flesh (Dark Passenger) seems to get the hold of me. Function is a product of identity. That was Sean's big idea in his sermon called "Identity Crisis". You have to know who you are before you know what you are supposed to do. I am a christian. A follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. A warrior for the kingdom. A man of God has to know where he stands and when he does, he needs to stand there no matter what (Wild at Heart). My king, I will stand for you. I will surrender my life to you. I am so sorry for the disappointment I have caused you. Please help me to be strong and to stand for you as a man of God should. Please forgive me for my trespasses and please help me next time trouble comes. You always do provide a way out. I pray that you'll help me see that. I love you and will live my life for you.Your will, my hands. Amen.