Teague Bible Church

WILL I EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH? 7/24/18

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their own life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” Revelation 12:10.

I will have to assume you know a bit about the context here. This is a large,sweeping picture of the activity of Satan toward the end of the age. Within this passage we need to pay attention to the methods of Satan that he may use to try to defeat us. We also need to remember that he acts in desperation as he will ultimately lose all power against us.

The New Testament goes to great lengths to convince us that we are ” in Christ.” We live “inside of” His victory if we have turned our lives over to Him.

What might the devil be accusing you of before God? Would it not be your daily performance? You say you are born again, and have a new nature given to you by Christ, and yet still struggling with the old nature? Should you not be near perfect by now? That is the accusation.

But think about that for a minute. Imagine you are enrolled in a school that goes from 1st grade through 12th grade. Wouldn’t it be silly to scold a child in the 5th grade for not doing 12th grade work? Yet, if the kid really belongs in that school, would it not also be an odd thing, that if he is lazy and does 1st grade work when he should be doing 5th grade work, that no corrective action is taken? Hebrews 12: 1-11.

In this school, everybody graduates because the guarantee of graduation is based on the work of the owner of the school. So, the next time the “accuser” comes to make you doubt your sure identity in Christ you might want to unfurl these choice verses that makes him flee.

Romans 5: 8-10 ( note the past, present , future) ” But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Romans 8:1 ” There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:31-35a ” What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?,,,”

Colossians 3: 1-4 ” Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

Now that eliminates all forms of accusations. You may say, “But sometimes I feel this; or I have this vague feeling that something is wrong; or I just have this feeling that I am not this or that.” Hey, listen to me, tell your feelings where to get off! Jesus is Lord of your life, not your feelings. Got it? How does it “feel,” now that you are believing the truth about yourself. The truth that God himself spoke about you? JWP

The Story I Did Not Want To Tell 7/18/18
When I became a believer I took off like a rocket. I now had the right life of knowing how to live in God’s grace, and things felt like they were moving forward. The one thing I always regretted was my relationship with my dad. He was not a believer at the time I was saved.
He wondered why I spent so much time and money on that religious stuff. He said I needed to get a good job like my brothers. I was really going to tell him “what for” one day and really show him how much I had learned, and how much he did not know!
Well my chance came. I had it all planned out. Of course I ask God to guide my words. I began telling him what he needed to know about coming to Christ.
Then a strange thing happened. I had to stop. I said, “Dad, you deserved a better son than what you had in me!” Wait a minute! This could not be God giving me the words to speak could it? I look so weak now, so needy! I tried again to “educated” my dad, but nothing came out but, “I am so sorry; would you forgive me?”
Well, I felt that the most important thing I could have said to my dad went unspoken. What an idiot I was to say the wrong thing at the wrong time! I cried, and cried, feeling I had blown a rare opportunity to be a witness for Christ.
Then the most wonderful thing happened. I just looked up at this man, who was never able to share his feeling with any of us, and I saw something in his face I had never seen before. He got it! He really got it! He got the message of Christ’ forgiveness, through me asking for his forgiveness. He muttered something about it being ok, but he was too shocked to do much else. In later talks, all this became an open door to talk to my dad !
So the scripture says. ” ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” II Cor. 12: 9-10.
It never occurred to me that I would be humbled in front of an unbeliever and somehow the power and presence of Christ would then become evident. My pride said that I should be honored along with Christ in such moments. But He always has something better. I guess He really knows what He is doing after all. JWP

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

I like these funny home video shows they have now. I recently saw one of a robbery gone bad. A store was almost robbed. I say “almost,” because the young thief was so nervous, that he did not get away. The security video shows the young man unable to even enter through an open door!
He was so focused on how to rob the place, and so focused on getting away once the “job” was done, that he forgot how to do the simplest thing; get the door open!
Imagine the scene; pulling with all his might on the exterior door during a time the store was open. He falls to the ground in defeat as a lady enters the door easily, because she knew it opened “in” and not “out” as he supposed! Of course the delay resulted in his being expedited to the nearest police station.
That is a long way around to talk about Romans 6. Bear with me. “Or ‘do you not know’ that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3).
What you don’t know can hurt you, can hurt your life, and will certainly spread out to hurt many others. You need to know which way the door swings!
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, ‘ knowing this,’ that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that we would no longer be slaves to sin;,,,” (Romans 6:4-6a).
Something drastic has happened to you if you really know Christ. You have a new nature that is able to please God. If you just have the old nature you cannot please God even if you try. Just like that young man was never going to get that door open because of a lack of information, which, under a less stressful situation, he would have figured out. Under the emotion of the moment he assumed that the door was locked.
Believers forget they have a new nature at times and go back to their old default position of the attitudes of the old nature. They have power, via the new nature to not do so, but they get stressed, and emotional, and quite frankly, worldly, then the silly scenes take place.
A royal child of the King of Kings will find herself forgetting who she is! A horrid thing to not know who you are in this confusing world. A pathetic thing to watch a royal down in the mud of the world. Trying to open a door that God has shut. Trying to have the world and the closeness to their Lord at the same time.
” Even so ‘consider’ ( think on it often, avail yourself to the power to do so, know how it works) yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11.)
It would be a cruel thing for God to demand of us something we could not do. We are cruel to ourselves if we refuse to learn how this all works. Learn which way the door swings!
The new nature makes it possible for us to progressively learn how to please God and thus live in the deepest fulfillment possible, right here, right now! Pull on that old door all you want; it will not open into a happy life!
Got it all planned out on how to make yourself happy? How is that going for you? If you really know Christ, when you try to do the old life and enjoy it, you find frustration, and you graciously get caught, you ask forgiveness, find a very fast restoration,and graciously get another chance to enter through the door into the life He designed for you. Did you not know these things? JWP

” I ‘feel’ like I’m Tied To The Whipping Post” 6/19/18

The Almond Brothers produced a song with that above line in it. We “feel” a lot of things as we travel this world. The people who feel the worst are those who stay in shock, most of the time, because they cannot believe things have “turned-out’ like they have.

We are told to dream, and plan; and as far as that goes; I say ok. But you might have noticed that you cannot control everybody or everything while making your plans. Many folks simply go through life, after such discoveries, and the inevitable let down, in kind of a daze. What happens then is that they search for a “feeling” to bring them back to that illusive thing they call “happy.”

If they could see themselves they would know that they have never been truly, non-circumstantially, happy. Not the kind of happy the Word of God talks about. And since the feeling of being ,”Tied to the whipping post” has been allowed to predominate, the Word of God is like a fading whisper.

They go to the only place things feel real; their feelings. To be different, you have to think differently. You will not “feel” your way out of your perpetual sadness. When they read of ,”a joy inexpressible and full of glory ( I Peter 1: 3-9) ,” they assume they know what that means, but truly have never experienced it. And yes it is to be a present-tense reality, in the midst of a fallen world, that is spoken of here in this verse.
That kind of joy comes only after you have given up on self-glorifying dreams and the desire for worldly recognition. That kind of joy is given to the broken-hearted, if, and only if, they move beyond the heartbreak and surrender to God.
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” (Psalms 73:25) I have never, in 45 years of ministry, ever heard anybody pray this as a prayer! Have heard people only read it. I prayed it a lot; but many times, just half-believing it.
The soul-dulling spirit of this present age must be overcome in your life today; not tomorrow, but today!! You are called to walk in joy, no matter what the circumstances.
” My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from you will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works” Psalms 73: 26-28.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m tied to the whipping post; good Lord I feel like I’m dying!”

Well, yes you are dying; dying to self and can now live to God. JWP

I walked into a theatre in Waco, getting no further than the ingress hallway. I realized I had stepped into a movie, but it was not the one I had paid to see. Got the picture? (No pun intended.)
I tried to figure out the story of that movie, based on 2 minutes of scenes. For two more weeks I tried to figure out ,from that tidbit of information, its full meaning. I had beautiful theories build up in my mind, but all those theories were destroyed but a ruthless gang of ugly facts when I actually saw the movie, in its entirety.
Paul’s prayer for believers, Ephesians 3:16-19 states,” That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.” Now that, my friend, is a bit more than a two minute view!
This verse is about a “full, and long experience” of relationship with the Lord. It seems today that the demand is for “sound-bite” theology. It is no wonder believers fold up like lawn chairs at the least temptation. It is obvious that too many believers are trying to, “Work God into their busy schedule!”
When we came into this world we were dropped into the middle of an ongoing drama of eternal dimensions! You desperately need to know how the drama began and how it will end, because all you will ever be is wrapped up in it!
One of the best, “Now, finally I get it , and can do something with it” passages, in all of scripture, is Romans 5: 12-21. We plumb the depths of that tomorrow. You will be convinced that God’s grace is more powerful that all of the forces of hell, when you understand it, ” Everywhere sin increased, grace super-abounded beyond it!”
If you want a vital Christian life, then stop being “played” by your enemy! You have to tell your moods where to get off, and then get onto the living, breathing, Word of God. ” Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” Romans 10:17.
It is more than simply gaining knowledge by seeing the whole movie, it is an experience, soul-deep, while gaining the knowledge. It’s seeing the movie with a friend sitting beside you. You thought you knew the life of that friend, but somewhere, while watching the film, you realized the movie was about your friend, and all He has done for you. You are overwhelmed; you are undone at first, then greatly relieved !
That Ephesians passage ends this way, ” Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, Amen.” Ephesians 3: 20-21.
There is another movie called, “Gladiator.” As Rome’s glory is degraded, this captured and exploited x-general remembers the greatness of Rome and states to his fellow gladiators, ” There was an idea that was Rome, and this is not it!”
There is a vital walk to be had with the Lord today. Nothing about it has faded with time! This “drive-by; please entertain me,” mentality has to stop! There is a ” joy inexpressible and full of glory” but what too many are experiencing is not it, never was it, will not become it.
What is it in the forefront of your mind that has replaced seeking and loving God? Let me encourage you today with this; you will find that the road back to God is not a long one. That ambient sound you heard the whole time you were drifting away was the Lord’s steps.
You turn, expecting a long road home, and realize He was standing right behind you! Could you pray right now and say, “Lord, keep me in the place I need to be, no more games, no more wasting time running and entertaining myself; find me; bring me to a deep place where I see you today; this hour; this moment!” JWP

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

I am pastoring my first church, I am 29 at the time, I am teaching on a Sunday morning, and out of the corner of my eye I see my 2-year-old girl being passed around from person to person until the message was over.
Everybody wanted to hold that little bundle of joy. Romans 5 was the text. When the service was over they hand her over to me and I noticed her little t-shirt which said, “God, If I Run Out Of Love Can I Get A Refill?”
The Word of God says that in the end days, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold,” Matthew 24:12.
We can see why this is the case. Self-protection kicks in and people grow isolated and fearful. It does not have to be that way for the believer, but it is that way for the unbeliever.
Romans 5:1-11 is our text tomorrow, with the focus on 5: 6-11. Romans 5:5 says that, “The love of God has been poured out in our heart,” if we have truly given our whole life to Christ.
To stay with the analogy, we need to stop “holding back” that fullness of God’s love that is in us by the Holy Spirit, by disobedience. Living in isolation and fear is disobedience, make no mistake about it.
In other passages we have, ” Do not quench the Spirit,”
I Thessalonians 5:19, and, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,” Ephesians 4: 30 a. ” Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh,” Galatians 5:16, or Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit.” That last one means to allow Who is already there, the Holy Spirit, to take up the space you make for Him.
We can do it our old way and get isolated, thinking we do not need the strength and fellowship of others, and/or be cold and not give space for the Holy Spirit to work and really love others heart- deep.
Why do we think we are going to run out of the love of God? That’s what it means when the Bible says, ” If you try to save your life; you will lose it, but if you lose your life for My sake you will save it.”
Fear says we will run out of resources, but God says we get a refill. It does not matter what age we may be in. It does not matter how impossible it looks at times. If you try to recover yourself, by running away, or entertaining yourself to death, or dreaming about a better batch of people to hang around; it just gets worst; and colder, and sad.
We have all said something like this, ” Lord I cannot do this, I guess many can do it, but I just can’t seem to get this, I guess I am a failure!” That is not a bad place to be. It is then, and only then, that the power of God can work. You just took your hands off of His workings; you are confessing to Him you cannot do His will in your own effort; you surrendered; and now you get a refill!
No matter what the money-motivated news reports say, we must continue to allow that “poured out” love of God to flow out of us by surrender to God ‘s will, afresh and anew!
How well I remember that little 2-year-old baby of mine; how dependent she was on me for life itself; how she totally trusted me; and how I would do anything in my power to give to her anything to continue the love flowing through her. God wants that for each one of us.

Ephesians 3:16-19, ” ,,,That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.” JWP 6/2/18