From Promise to Prize

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, praise God, my dear friends. It's a wonderful morning and uh I'm happy to see everybody here this morning and we're going to be praising our King and we're going to be learning his word and I learn more because I study and I'm like, man, wow. Thank you, Lord. It just shows once again how not flawless I am, how flawed I am, and I need him every day. But these beautiful words that Paul says in Romans 8:18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Once again, I want to read these words. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And on this earth we suffer and on this earth we go through through pain and on this earth people do harm to us and we suffer and we suffer. But my friends, when we give our life to Christ, the hope for the eternal paradise we are all longing for will one day come. It will one day come. And no matter what people do here on earth to us, all the evil that is roaming around And we might be tired and weary, but like I say, soldier, do not take off your belt. Do not remove your sword. Keep on fighting. Keep on fighting for God's kingdom because his reward will be much greater than anything we are going through. all the hardships that we're going through today. And sometimes I think to myself, when I'm going to be in heaven, would I wish that I did more for God? Would I wish that I was not as say lazy making excuses? Oh God, it's so hard. Send somebody else. I knew I know that if I don't serve him with all my life that I'm going to regret because I'm going to feel like I should have done more. The sufferings on this earth are nothing compared to the glory that is awaiting for you and for me. Let's pray. Amen. Lord God, we thank you for this beautiful morning that you have blessed us with and for the time that you have given us. Lord, Holy Spirit, I pray that you come down, that you come down on this place and that you teach us, God. You stir our hearts, Lord God, to serve you, to to to go after you, and to follow you, God, because the glory that is waiting for us is much greater than what we are going through right now. just help us to not give up. Help us to to march and not grow weary because you promised us something better in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. If we rise to our feet, we're going to be singing here I am to worship. [Music] Light of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes. Let me see. [Music] Beauty that adore you. All of the spirit with me. Here I am to worship. Here I am to here. I am to say that you're my God. You're all together loveying. All together worthy. All together wonderful to me of all might [Music] glorious in heaven. The way you came to the earth you created all for the sake we came. [Music] Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together loveing, allto together worthy, allto together wonderful to me. I'll never know how much she cost to see my sin upon the cross. I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together loveying, allto together worthy, allto together wonderful to [Music] [Music] Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you. [Music] Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you. To see you high. You lift it all up. Shining in the light of your glory forever power above as we sing. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you. To see you high and lifted up [Music] shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. I want to see you. [Music] Praise God. Good morning, brothers and sisters. Let us all open up our Bibles to Psalm 11. And that's going to be if you have this Bible uh provided by our church, maybe you'll look in the in the pews. Um it might be in there. It's going to be page 779. Page 779. And it's Psalm 11. And uh the title of this uh psalm is faith in the Lord's righteous. Sometimes we see um David using this type of words or his type these type of words to sometimes even ask the Lord why do the wicked sometimes receive blessings in their life yet the righteous suffer? And sometimes when we look here on earth, we look as we're striving for God in our lives that um we go through tribulation or through hard times in our lives and then we look over to the brother who might not be pursuing God and it seems like his life is perfect. But David, he um brings hope and clarity in uh faith in the Lord's righteous. And here he says, "In the Lord I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain, for look, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string? They may shoot that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids test the sons of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked. And the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Upon the wicked, he will rain coals, fire, and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright. And here David brings clarity. It doesn't say that automatically your life becomes great and amazing and sunshine and rainbows as soon as you give your life to Jesus. But there is hope. Hope in the things that are unseen. Faith. And in that we look to be righteous. Yet maybe we might not experience here the blessing, but we most surely will receive a blessing in heaven for our hard work and for our uh perseverance and persistence to every single day be righteous and be faithful before God. And so today's uh program I will be singing a song um and then uh brother Tim will continue his message. So God bless. [Music] When I am weak, that's when you are strong. When I let go, I fall into your arms. When I am weak, that's when you are strong. When I let go, I fall into your arms. I take up your yoke. I know that it's so easy. I take up your burden. That's life. I take up your yoke. I know that it's so easy. I take up your burden. That's light. I look into your eyes of mercy. I look into your eyes of love. I remember that your arm is for me, Lord. It's for me. I'm holding on to your divine love. I'm holding on and I'm not letting go. No, it's not my zeal, it's that your love is strong. It's not my strength, it's that you're faithful. [Music] When I am weak, that's when you are strong. When I let go, I fall into your arms. When I am weak, that's when you are strong. And when I let go, I fall into your arms. I take up your yoke. I know that it's so easy. I take up your burden. That's life. I take up your yoke. I know that it's so easy. I take up your burden. It's life. I look into your eyes of mercy. I look into your eyes of love. I remember that your arm is for me, Lord. It's for me. I'm holding on to your divine love. I'm holding on and I'm not letting go. No, it's not my zeal. It's that your love is strong. It's not my strength, it's that you're faithful. God, I look into your eyes of mercy. I look into your eyes above. I remember that your arm is for me, Lord. It's for me. I'm holding on to your divine love. I'm holding on and I'm not letting go. No, it's not my zeal, it's that your love is strong. It's not my strength, it's that you're faithful. I'm holding on to your divine love. I'm holding on and I'm not letting go. No, it's not my zeal. It's that your love is strong. It's not my strength, it's that you're faithful. Praise God. Praise God my dear friends. That was a really beautiful song talking about how he is strong when we are weak because when we are weak we have no one to rely on but God. We realize that nobody has the the power to help but God. Uh before we go into James chapter 2, let's take these few minutes to introduce each other, shake each other's hands, and um give give hugs to each other. So let's take these few minutes to do that. [Music] [Music] [Music] verse verse 18 and below. And below no verse 18. So James chapter 2 18 and then we're just going to read down. Yeah. [Music] How was that? [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay. Well, we're going to be like starting here in a few. So, everybody please take your seats. And we're going to open up to James chapter 2. That's page 1,748. James chapter 2. And we're going to be reading from verses 18 and below. James chapter 2. Verses 18 and below. And I named my sermon from promise to prize because what we'll see here is when God makes a promise and when we obey what he has promised us then the prize will come. Okay, I'll be reading verses 18 and below. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Over here, I'm going to stop real quick. Show me your faith without your works. We might came across people and sometimes it could be even us where we say that we believe in Christ but the works that we do in our life show the opposite. And over here James is talking to his church. You say that you love Jesus. Show me with your works that you love him, not just with your mouth. And as we spoke uh last week about works and Jesus gave us two things. He said, "Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. And there's some in the church that come that praise and that worship God, but yet their brother is their enemy. And the brother is not necessarily their sibling or their literal brother, but a believer in Christ. And Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." And over here in 19, it says, "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. Yes, we believe that there is God. Yes, we know that he exists. Even the demons know that he exists." And when they hear his name, they tremble. And when we hear his name, we might be afraid. But James is turning to his church. And he's saying, "You tremble when his name is mentioned." But do you live how he taught us to live in holiness and in righteousness? In verse 20, but do you know, but do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Faith without works is dead. Faith and works have a very, I would say, close relationship. Genuine faith will naturally produce good works. And I don't I don't know if you remember that that example that I brought up from last week, but I brought up that example of the frog that one day becomes a prince. The frog. That's it. That's his nature. He's the frog. His house is the the pawns. He eats bugs. But there came a time like in that cartoon where that frog becomes a prince or a princess. That's it. That's a different nature. They This prince no longer goes and lives in his old nature in the pond of his life eating the dirt of this world. He has a new nature. He's a new man. He's a new woman or she's a new woman because that's a new nature. And my dear friends, if we believe in Christ, our life will naturally produce good works and we will naturally want to obey Jesus because he sets into us his heart. His heart. And over here what we see is that the story kind of shifts to the story of Abraham. 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works? And by works faith was made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. over here. James brings up the story of Abraham. And maybe some of us here today don't know that story. Well, I'm going to share a very short summary of it. And I want you to put yourself in the shoes of Abraham and see if God told you this, if you would somehow doubt. So there was this man who loved God and before his name was Abraham, it was Abram and he had a wife and his wife's name was Sarai. Before it was Sarah and Abram loved God and he walked with God. And God said, Abram, I will make your seed like the stars of the heaven, and I will change your name from Abram to Abraham because you will be a father to many. You will be a father to many. And what's so interesting is that from the seed of Abraham came Christians, Jews and Muslims from the seed of Abraham. But God says, "I will make your nations prosperous." But you have to be patient. you will have a son through whom I will save the generations. And Abraham that time was 75 years old and his wife was not any younger, maybe in her 60s, so about nine years apart. She was 66. He was 75. And she laughed when she heard that she was going to have a baby. She laughed. There were three angels that came to to Abraham and they said, "From you I will bless a generation." And Sarah then God changed her name also because she was going to be a mother for many. She laughed. How can I have a baby 66 years old? Come on. But nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is impossible for God because he is our creator. He can make things from impossible to possible. And so Abraham believed he's waiting, waiting, waiting for his child. And his child is not coming. He's waiting one year, 2 year, 3 year, 5 year, 10 year. No child. Sarah is not pregnant. And at 99 years old, when Abraham was 99, 24 years he waited. 24 years he waited. And he finally got his baby boy Isaac. And Abraham was excited that the descendant is going to come from Isaac. the seed. God says, "Look at the heavens. Those stars. Count them. Count all those stars. There's too many to count. Your seed is going to be just like these stars. There's going to be too many of them to count." But Abraham believed in God's promise. And at 99 years old, he believed. And finally, he had a son, Isaac. A beautiful little child was born. And he knew that from this child, there's going to be generations of people serving God, loving God. And about 25 years later, God tells him,"Abraham, I know you love your son Isaac, but you need to do something for me. You need to bring him as a sacrifice." Wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Did I hear that right? I mean, I'm putting myself in his shoes. I'm a Christian man. I love God. But if I hear that Tim sacrifice your son, I'll be like, "Okay, I'm I'm hearing something wrong here. Something is not right." God would never ask something like that of me. But Abraham believed. Why? Why did he believe? Because the Bible says that because he knew that God would resurrect Isaac if he were to die. Because the promise that God made to him had to be fulfilled. And so Abraham is taking his son, his son that time is about 25 years old. He's taking his son to this mountain. And his son is asking his dad, "Dad, where are we going? Where are you taking me?" And he was saying that, "Son, we're going to bring a sacrifice to God." And Isaac is walking with his branches in his hands and he's asking God, where's the or Abraham, dad, where is that lamb for the sacrifice? Where's that lamb? And Abraham tells his son, God will provide us that lamb. And if we look, this is a resemblance of what Christ did for us. that path that Christ had to go for you and me. And so Isaac is walking with his father and they come to this mountain and they lay out the wood and there's no lamb. Then Abraham says, "Son, lay down." And as he takes the knife to sacrifice his only only son, he hears a voice. Stop. Stop. God spoke. Abraham, there's a sacrifice. There's a ram in the bushes. There's a ram that's stuck in the bushes. That's the sacrifice you will bring. I'm just thinking, what if during that whole process, Abraham trembled? What if during that whole process, the faith of Abraham was shaken and he said, "I couldn't do it. There's no way that God would ask for such a thing." Then the promise through Abraham's seed would not be fulfilled. But Abraham believed. He believed that God had the power to resurrect Isaac because he knew that the seed, the blessing, the promise is going to come through him. And you can see the close relationship that Abraham had with God. The faith, the faith that Abraham had in God, he did the work all the way to the end. And God saw that Abraham loves his creator more than the creation. And that pleased God. And of course, there was a ram that was stuck in the bushes. And Abraham and Isaac took that ram and sacrificed it to God. My dear friends, the reason why James is bringing up this story is to show that God is true to his promise. And if we don't turn our backs on him through the process, we will receive the prize. And the promise that Jesus has for all of us is eternal life. That's the prize. Something that you and I didn't deserve. something that you and I had no chance of receiving. But Jesus says, "If you will accept me, doesn't matter what your past is, what you did in the past, the most wicked things you have done, I will forgive you. I will take your sins upon myself and I will give you my righteousness to you. So when my father looks at you, you you and me, he looks at us through the lens of Christ, not through the lens of our sins. And this is a big promise, but there's a process. There's a fight. There's a path. How strong is our faith? How strong is our faith? And Jesus says, "Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." But he also left us with something else. He said, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." If we know a person who's dying from cancer and we have the remedy for that disease, we have the cure. We hold it in our hands not even knowing that that person would we want to help him knowing that he is dying and only you have the remedy to his salvation. Would we be silent? Would we keep it to ourself? Let him perish. or would we want to give it to him? I think all of us sitting here would want to help him out or help her out, right? Because we don't want to see anybody die. And if we are truly saved, we cannot be silent the same way. Our faith will produce works. If we are truly saved, we have the remedy. We have the the ointment to this dying world. And if we see this world dying and we're doing nothing about it, it's the same thing as us having the remedy for the cure and we're keeping it to ourselves while other people are perishing. We are keeping that remedy to ourselves. But if we truly want to help the lost, we are to do what Jesus teaches us. Go and make disciples of all nations. Not of just one nation, not of two nations, but of all nations. A disciple is a student. There were 12 disciples with Jesus. Go make students of all nations that when they learn that they are perishing and that we have the cure, they can accept Christ and they can be baptized in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit because that is the greatest gift that we can give anyone on on earth. There are some people that we want to help and everybody needs food, so we help them with food. Clothing, we help them with clothing. Sometimes they need money, we'll give them money. Shelter, we'll try to help them with that. But it's all perishable. It's all perishable. We are not taking none of that with us. But the greatest thing we can give them is to have them give their life to Christ. Because that is something that is going to be forever. Not for 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years. It's going to be forever. and God our father and Jesus Christ his son. They're going to look after all those who said yes to him. They're going to provide. They're going to provide the shelter there. They're going to provide the peace, the comfort, the joy, the things that all of us are longing for on this earth. How many times I hear, "When is peace going to come? When is peace going to come? There's so much pain. Oh, peace is not going to come on earth. Actually, in Revelation, it reveals when peace does come to earth, when people are going to say, "Oh, finally peace came." That's the time when the church is going to be persecuted around the world. and a little story James mentions about Rahab. Have a few minutes, but I'll be closing off. And Rahab, she was just a an ordinary woman, an ordinary woman living her day-to-day life. But God, he promised the land to Israel. He promised the land to Joshua. And he said that land is going to be yours. But the issue is that on that land there was living a nation. But that nation was doing a lot of wickedness. It was doing a lot of evil. They were sacrificing to their gods. Not the god of heaven and earth, but to their little gods. Sacrificing babies. sacrificing children. And God says, "I'm going to destroy that nation and I'm going to give you that land." And Joshua sends out two spies to spy out that land. And these two spies come into that land and there's a woman and they knock on the door and she opens the door and there and they tell her the whole story. And she believed. She said, "You know what? I believe that God is going to give you this land. I believe that." And then she sees a band of soldiers coming to her house because they saw those two men enter. And they're demanding, "Bring them out." But she hid them. She hid them. And after those men went away, they searched her entire house. They couldn't find the two men. After the soldiers went away, the two men, they told her, "If you take this scarlet string and put it down over your window, when our soldiers are going to come, they're going to conquer this whole kingdom. They're going to destroy everyone. But this house with the scarlet robe will say do not touch. So bring all your relatives, all your friends. And that's what she did. And when Israel came and they destroyed that entire wicked kingdom, they left that little house with with all the people that were in there. And my dear friends, how did she she have such faith? How did she have such faith? Over here, James says that when we are obedient to God, our faith is unshakable. And it's funny because we were talking about obedience on the bus on the way here and one of the brothers mentioned, "Oh, that that word obedience, it's kind of like it's it's too strong." And I explained it to him and he's like, "Oh, obedience to God only benefits us. It benefits you and me." Because when we obey our creator, everything he has planned for us, it's only for the good. And over here in these two stories, we see that these two people had such strong faith in God that their faith delivered them and blessed them. Maybe there are some of of you sitting here that are not fully understanding why you're here. Maybe you came here because it was too cold outside. But I don't believe in coincidences. I believe that God has a message for all of us. You know, maybe we have heard about Jesus but haven't made him our Lord. And God, he promises his promise to to each one of us is that he will save us from our sins. And this salvation requires obedience and faith to the end. Yet our faith when we truly accepted Jesus Christ, it produces good works. In seeing this dying world, if we are staying silent, if we are keeping all this to ourselves, we haven't fully understood the calling of Christ in our lives. And it doesn't matter where you are. If you're in the sports field, if you're in the entertainment field, if you're a businessman, if you're just a regular person working your regular job, well, we are all regular people. Doesn't matter where we're at. But let the things come from our tongue, brother. God has something for you. Something better than what this world can offer. If you accept him today, he has promised eternal life. That you will not perish, but you will live with him forever. Let our faith be more than just words. Let it be visible through love. And we talked about that. and obedience to what Christ has called us to do is to go and make disciples of all nations. For the Bible reminds us that by faith in James 21:17 that we read thus also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. faith by itself if we believe but there's no action in our life our faith in God is dead we have to accept his call of reaching out and saving the lost and what you see is that this was the message of James to his church because in his church there was a lot of benchwarmers and in So many churches today, there's a lot of benchwarmers. They come, they warm up the church pews. They make them nice and warm. But when it's time to go and tell people about the good news of salvation, they don't want to do that. They don't want to play on God's team. Well, my friend, if you are saved, if you are saved, you're going to tell everybody. You're gonna tell everybody because you love God. Let our faith produce good works. Let our faith in Christ produce good works. Let our faith in Christ produce good works. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for loving us, God. for loving us so much that you gave your your life for me and for all the people here God and all those that believed in the promise of eternal life. Lord God, may you give us the strength to fulfill what you have asked us to do to go and to preach and to save the lost because they have no remedy in this world and you have us to bring this remedy to them, the good news of salvation. Use us, Lord God, to honor your kingdom that your kingdom can expand. That we don't just take it for ourselves, but that we spread it to our neighbors, to our friends, to where we work, to who we talk to, that you are the only way for us. Lord God, bless our church, Lord, that we work for your kingdom, not for ours. that your name can be praised and glorified, not ours. And that we can when we see you receive that reward that you have promised to all those who stayed faithful to you. Bless each person here in Jesus' name. Amen. And all rising to our feet will sing power of your love. [Music] Lord, I come to you. Let my heart be changed, renewed, flowing from the grace that I found in you. Lord, I've come to know the weaknesses I see in me will be stripped away [Applause] by the power of your love. [Music] Oh, [Music] let your love surround me. [Music] Oh, I rise up like you so your spirit leads me up in the power of your love. [Music] Lord, my eyes. Let me see your face to face the knowledge of your love as you live in me. [Music] Lord, renew my mind as your unfolds in my life. Every day [Music] I'm powerful. [Music] [Music] Draw me to your side. As I wait, I'll rise up my and I will soar with you. Your spirit leads me on in the power of your love. [Music] Well, praise God. Our service has come to the end and um well, I guess brother Greg had something to share, but but he's not here. Um but does anybody have any needs? So, as you can see, oh, there he is. Hi, Greg. I know. You want me to say something? Well, no. I I just said if you want. I mean, I don't want to talk about it, but after my father, I didn't know where I was going to go. So, I decided to come to know what I expect. I rescue mission. I was in there on a Friday and I met this guy named Kyle and we went to Bible study on Tuesday. I said, "All right, coffee and food." I changed after after the Bible study and then I started doing stuff to get myself set to nice people and built myself. I didn't I had doubt but after the Bible study nothing so I knew what I had to do and so I did all that met people and after three weeks there I got a job at Amen. Amen. And they are really great people there and I love it there and I'm keep a praise God and I don't want to go any further than that but I was Amen. Amen. Thank you for your testimony and uh God provides and I remember about a few weeks ago we were praying for people because they were asking for jobs and um God has answered the prayers and uh Greg was one of them. So, Greg wanted to share that testimony. I don't know why you said I wanted you to say it, but uh it's okay though. Amen. Amen. But God is good and he answers prayers and that's and that's our God. Um but as you could see, there was a lot of the people on this side missing because one of our brothers is getting married. Um, so praise God for that. And there's a lot of people involved in that wedding, so they didn't show up today. And next week, uh, Brother Mark is getting married. Yeah. And, uh, we're going to bless Vlad and Mark that, uh, God, you know, that the Holy Spirit guides these weddings and that he blesses them. Um, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. You know, these young men are are getting married to the ones that they love and I just wish the best for them because I'm married and I would not change that for anything. So, praise God. Um, does anybody have any needs or any thankfulnesses? You can say it now. Okay. Well, you know, yeah. What? Or Wow. Praise God. Amen to that. God is good. Okay, we'll pray for that and we'll pray for brother Michael's need. God will provide. So, don't worry about that. Uh, anybody else? Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yes. For sure. Okay. Church, let's bow our heads and pray. Lord God, we're so thankful, Lord Jesus, that that you hear our prayers, Lord God, and that you answer prayers, Lord Jesus. We're so thankful for uh Greg's testimony, how you provided him a job, Lord God. And he came here not knowing anything, Lord God. and you are blessing him here, God. You're giving him friends that love him and a job that will take care of him. Thank you, God. Also, God, we uh pray for um Vlad and uh Brother Mark. God, may you bless their marriages, Lord God. And may our Holy Spirit guide them like in their lives that they were so happy and joyful um with the blessings that you have given them, Lord God. And we're and we're also uh praying for Michael's need. Lord, you see his payment is coming up for his rent. Lord, may you bless that situation, resolve that situation, Lord God, and send Pip people to help, Lord Jesus. We're uh like also praying for Vasil's uh request Lord God that all those who are still waiting for their loved one Lord God may you bless them with that Lord God may you bless them with their loved spouses Lord Jesus because that's what you ordained us to do Lord God and also we pray for a brother's thankfulness Lord God that he hasn't talked to his parents and siblings for 20 years, Lord God. And just this week, he was able to, Lord, you like you're so good, Lord God, that you were able to reconnect them, reconnect them after 20 years, Lord God. Bless him and his parents and his siblings that they love each other, Lord God, and bless each other and bless the rest of this day, God. Lead us in your spirit and in your truth. Help us to apply this word to our life, God, that we go out and reach to the lost that still need to be saved. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.