We have 5 excellent songs in store for our Sunday Services at Eagleville Bible Church this week! I am so blessed to be able to join together with my Church family and offer up our praise and worship as we sing:
This week’s songs
Battle Belongs
- Key Scriptures:
- Matt 17:20,
- Ps. 32:10,
- 2 Chron 20:17,
- Exodus 14:14,
“Almighty Fortress, You go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God!” I love this declaration from the bridge of this song. Even this morning in my devotional time I was reminded of this truth as I read in Jeremiah 32.
“The Lord answered Jeremiah. “I am the Lord, the God of all humankind. There is, indeed, nothing too difficult for me.
Jeremiah 32:26–27 (NET)
Some of us need a reminder today that God is still in control and that He loves to fight for us! It is Him that told the Judeans in 2 Chronicles 20:
“You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”
2 Chronicles 20:17 (ESV)
It is God who told the Israelites through His servant Moses when they were fleeing Egypt:
“The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
Exodus 14:14 (ESV)
And it is God who is telling you that it is best for you to stop your striving and to enter into the rest that is reserved for His children!
Hebrews 4:9–11 (ESV) “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”
Allow God to battle whatever it is that you are warring with as you choose to stay in the posture of worship, just like they did in 2 Chronicles 20! It was by worshiping God and obeying His commands that they experienced victory, and so it is with us!
Reckless Love
- Key Scrpitures
- Jer 1:5,
- Zeph 3:17,
- Ps 119:105,
- Luke 15:4,
- Rom 5:8,
This song can sometimes be misunderstood to say that God is reckless in what He does, but I want to reassure you that God is not and never has been reckless in anything He does! Our God is intentional. Our God is determined. Our God is relentless. Our God is LOVE!
Love is not our God, Our God is love. We must be careful that we do not get caught up in the wrong view of love, doing everything in the name of love and allowing that to make us tolerant of unrighteousness and other works of evil. We do things in the name of Jesus Christ, and that ensures that we do everything for the sake of Holiness and Righteousness!
1 Corinthians 13:6 says that love, “…does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”, and unfortunately in our culture today it is celebrated to be in a lifestyle of sin, and yes even encouraged. Love does not do this! God does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but He pursues us until we submit to Him through repentance and trust Him for transformation in our lives! This looks reckless sometimes. This looks like God made a mistake sometimes. This tempts us to judgement that does not belong to us! We need to allow for God’s work to transform lives, and this will require a surrender of our record of wrongs kept in our sub-conscience over a person.
I believe the best posture for us to assume is the one pictured in Luke 15, a helpless sheep being carried on the shoulders of our Savior who came after us and found us after we chose to go astray. It says that it was the Shepherd who rejoiced at the reality of a found sheep that was lost, it wasn’t the sheep! God rejoices more than we do when we come to Him in submission and repentance. That is reckless love!
If we want to be like Jesus in all of our actions, then we must start learning how to love recklessly, abandoning our human ways and allowing the God of all humanity to change lives as we love the people around us. Love is not toleration, love is pointing them to the Savior – Jesus Christ.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 (NET)
I’m Listening
- Key Scriptures
- Job 33:14-17,
- John 10:27,
- Luke 16:31,
- 1 Kings 19:9-13,
- Isa 55:9,
We are introducing this song for the first time this week, and I am glad we are! There is nothing more comforting then to know that God is with me, and that He longs for me to hear His voice. Last week I shared my testimony with you, and I told you that it was John 10:27 that was the main Scripture God used to turn my heart back to Him. Here is what it says:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
John 10:27 (ESV)
Isn’t that what we all want as God’s children, to hear His voice and to follow Him? We have the Spirit of God crying out inside of us, “Abba, Father!”, because we are His children and want to know where He is and how He is leading us.
Unfortunately for most of us, we just don’t shut up long enough to hear Him! Being still is such a hard discipline to fit into our busy schedules, but I want to exhort all of us to be still before God and to learn how to recognize His voice throughout the day. You might say, “Yeah, but how does God speak today?” To which I will respond, “Yes!”
There is a great danger in trying to put God in a box. We do not know the ways in which God will speak to us, and I don’t think that is what is important anyway. It is important that we are listening for His voice no matter how He chooses to speak. There are many examples of God speaking in the Scriptures, like to Elijah for example in 1 Kings 19, but that does not mean that God is limited to only audible speech, does it? In Job 33 we see that God speaks in dreams and visions, God speaks through His written Word (2 Tim 3:16), God speaks through people (Acts 21:10-11), God speaks by His Spirit (John 16:13-15), and any other method He chooses.
His voice creates clarity. His voice gives us peace. His voice is wisdom. God’s voice gives guidance. He is specific. God loves to speak to us if only we would listen.
I also love the encouragement in the bridge of this song to acknowledge that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and that all we need to do is to trust in Jesus! This comes from Isaiah 55:9, where it says:
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)
Choose to listen for God’s voice, and determine to obey it when you hear it! You will never regret that decision.
Hope Has a Name
- Key Scriptures
- Ps 71:5,
- Ps 116:7,
- Rom 15:13,
- Rev 21:4,
- Heb 12:1-2,
- 1 Cor 15:57,
We always view hope as an idea, but I love how this song points us to the truth that Hope is a person and His Name is Jesus. Jesus personifies hope for us, and helps us to more fully apply it (hope) to each situation.
Take a look at the definition of faith:
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NET) [Emphasis mine]
Being sure of what we hope for! Isn’t our hope rooted in Christ? His death, burial, and resurrection are the means by which we have access to God the Father and eternal life! Jesus is the only hope we have not only in this life but the life to come as well.
The second line of the chorus says that “my Savior’s cross has set the sinner free”, and I know that the sinner he is referring to is me! This gives me great confidence and hope to have victory over the penalty and power of sin. I agree with the Psalmist who said:
“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.”
Psalm 71:5 (ESV)
I also pray along with Paul:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Romans 15:13 (ESV)
Hope is living in expectation of what is already yours! It is not a wishful thinking, it is living with certainty! That is Biblical hope, and that hope is available to all who call upon the name of the Lord for Salvation. Do you live in hope, expecting that God is going to care for you and reveal Himself to you in this life? If not, why not? This is His promise to you if you call upon Jesus to save you:
“…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV)
Your Grace is Enough
- Key Scriptures
- Lam 3:22-24,
- Gen 32:24-30,
- Ps 74:2 (NET),
- Ps 40:10,
- Ps 89:14,
- 2 Cor 12:9,
I absolutely love this song and its cry to the Lord to remember His children. The Psalmist in Psalm 74:2 asks the Lord the same thing:
“Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.”
Psalm 74:2 (ESV)
It is not that God ever forgets anything, but there are times when it seems like it from our perspective, right? Have you ever been there in your times of prayer, when you cry out for God to remember you and your family? What this is really saying is for God to show up for us in our times of need. For God to shower down His grace upon our lives as we seek Him.
I think this is what happened to the Apostle Paul when he was asking God to remove “the thorn in his flesh”, in effect he was asking God to remember him and to heal him. I love the response God gives him though:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
“My power is made perfect in your weakness!” What we see as weakness opens up God to move by His power! When we cry out to the Lord for help, this is exactly what brings about His power in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have God’s power at work in my life then my own so-called power.
Finally I will end this post by pointing us to the first line that we sing from this song, and one of the most comforting doctrines in all of the Bible – God’s Faithfulness! We sing, “Great is your Faithfulness, Oh God,..”. here is the text that is taken from:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”
Lamentations 3:22–25 (ESV)
I pray that this will increase your hope in the Lord, as you remember His faithfulness towards you at all times!
Summary Statement
I pray that as you entrust the battles of your life to the Lord, that you would experience His reckless love as you recognize His voice and discover the hope that comes through submission to the Name of Jesus Christ and the grace that He gives us!
God bless you!