SERMON SUMMARY
Sunday, September
22,
2007
The Year of the Invitation : Prepare the Way of the Lord
Sermon given by Senior Pastor, Dan Tabolt
Jer 1:9- Then the
LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:
"Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 See, I have this day set
you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant." NKJV
Isaiah 40:1 God's People Are Comforted
"Comfort, yes, comfort My people! "Says your God. 2 "Speak comfort to
Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her
iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD's hand Double for
all her sins."
Illustration of the Folded Debt.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be
exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall
be made straight And the rough places smooth; 5 The glory of the LORD
shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of
the LORD has spoken." NKJV
The Message is: "Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. As that day, just as in our day when someone of
great importance was going to be coming into the area there were great
preparations made. People were sent out to pick up garbage, rocks and
sticks to make the way easy and beautiful for the coming person. We see it
today, when the president is coming to a town, there are great
preparations made to prepare the way for him. The voice sent by God to
prepare the way of the Lord is identified in the Bible as the spirit of
Elijah, the prophet in the man called John the Baptist.
I. The True Nature of Repentance:
A. Recipe for Life.
1. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
2. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low;
3.The crooked places shall be made straight
4. And the rough places smooth;
5 The glory of the LORD shall be revealed
Repentance what does it really mean? = to feel sorry for, to feel such
regret over something, as to change one’s mind.
B. What does real repentance look like?
Luke 3:7-15 John Preaches to the People
(Matt 3:7-12; Mark 1:7,8; John 1:24-28)
Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him,"Brood
of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear
fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We
have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up
children to Abraham from these stones. 9 And even now the ax is laid to
the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire."
10 So the people asked him, saying,"What shall we do then?"
11 He answered and said to them,"He who has two tunics, let him give to
him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise."
12 Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him,
"Teacher, what shall we do?"
13 And he said to them,"Collect no more than what is appointed for you."
14 Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, "And what shall we do?"
So he said to them, "Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be
content with your wages." NKJV
1. Bear fruit [right action] worthy of repentance.
2. Don’t trust in just associations [sons of Abraham].
3. What must we DO!... 11-14
So we see that repentance is not just feeling sorrowful or having regrets
but true Bible repentance that will bring about new life in combination
with Godly sorrow and personal choices.
2 Cor 7:9-11For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might
suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance
leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world
produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a
godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of
yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal,
what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this
matter.
II. Seeing and understanding the great opportunity.
Matt 9:2When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of
good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." NKJV
Forgiveness! An illustration of a twenty dollar bill.
One of the final songs that Johnny Cash wrote was filled with regret,
remorse and sorrow for many of the things he’d seen and done in his
lifetime. In this song he called his empire an empire of dry and would
have gladly turned it in for just one more chance at life. But alas his
time is up.
Crisis = trouble and opportunity. We talked a lot this morning about
repentance which would be the tearing down part of Jeremiah. But let’s
look for a moment on the building and planting.
Building and Planting.
1. Equipping of the Christian:
Eph 4:11- And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the
saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and
fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men,
in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the
truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ
— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every
joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part
does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in
love.
The Nature of the Christian church is to train or equip a believer in the
mission of the Christian faith. But as the old saying goes, “you can lead
a horse to water, but you can not make him drink”. We all must submit to
the process.
Acts 2: 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that
day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of
bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders
and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were
together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and
goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. NKJV
Position is everything.
Psalm 1
Psalm 103
We need to know that the Bible teaches us that our salvation has two
qualities to it. It is both positional and progress. In this, I mean, that
once we honestly give our life over to Christ we become one with Him. All
he has is now mine and all I have is now His. We are seated in Christ and
with Christ in Heavenly places. It is also progress in that God, through
His Son and Spirit is building us as we walk with Him.
Phil 2:12-13 Becoming Light Bearers
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to
do for His good pleasure. NKJV
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