Sermons

As Christ's body, the church is called to carry on His mission and ministry on Earth. Jesus showed compassion, mercy and justice — often taking a detour or going out of his way to minister to the needs of others. The secular world and the unsaved have taken these on as humanitarian causes, but as Christians we are also called to preach the Gospel. Demonstrating compassion, mercy and justice alone are not enough to draw people to Christ. We must preach, with words, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul's measure of success was winning as many souls as he can to Christ, by whatever means necessary. He wasn't concerned with reputation, persecution or even death.

Pastor Gary Wilkerson continues the series on 1 Corinthians discussing the relationship between pastors and the church. Both teachers and congregants must be able to discern the wheat from the chaff. Many false gospels are being preached in the church today — ranging from prosperity gospel on one end of the spectrum and a gospel of poverty on the other end. Many church attenders just want their ears tickled. Pastors cannot be afraid that they are going to offend their congregations. There is also a misconception that pastoring is an easy job, when in fact many pastors and ministers around the world are underpaid, overworked, stressed, depressed, struggling with sin and on the verge of quitting the ministry. The work of the church is not to be carried out by one man. Pastors should be raising up leaders and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

This message is for the Christian person who has come to a place in your life and you find yourself thinking, “I just don’t know how to go on, I don’t know how to walk in the future, I don't know how to find strength to go on.” There is an inescapable season in every Christian's life when you will not know how to go forward in your own strength. When that day comes you will hear the voice of the Lord ask, "Can you do it for one more day?" All that' is required of you is to say, “Yes Lord.” God has determined our life to be testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ. There is a time that comes in every believer's life that we must be brought in the strength of God to where in our own strength we just cannot go on. God will bring us to our destiny supernaturally by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is all possible by making a choice to go on with God one more day.

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is addressing the issue of eating food offered to idols. In the U.S. this isn't a topic we really have to face, but many Christians around the world are persecuted because of it every day. As Americans though, there is still something to be learned from these verses. Much of the American church has become idolatrous in that many come to church each Sunday for what they can get out of it, rather than giving their all to Jesus — expecting nothing in return. We put God's blessings in front of God Himself. Also, in wanting to be accepted by the world, much of the church has become like the world, rather than being transformed into the image of Christ. Today, compromise is presented as “Christian liberty” — saying, “We are strong, mature, sophisticated believers. We can handle the temptation.” We should no longer have any interest in our former associations. Instead, we should be living in full obedience to the Word of God — longing to keep our Spirit-led conscious clean, pure and holy.

We as Christians must remind ourselves that we are a blessed people. God has chosen to bless us and all He asks us to do is to be ourselves in every situation and in every challenge. Often times when we put on a persona and choose not to be ourselves it is hard for God to bless us with a special and specific grace. In order for God to bless us specifically we have to be specifically who we are. When we decide that we are not going to be someone else and we simply choose to be ourselves God will begin to draw us into the blessing that He already established for us. God knows our size, He knows our fit. It is not for us to fit into someone else's shoes but to simply be who God has created us to be. Be yourself and get the right blessing.

In 1 Samuel 3, Scripture tells us that Saul got rid of the witches in the land but shortly after invited them back. This is often mirrored in our lives as sin is always trying to find a way back into our lives. We have to understand that we were created to be Christians and we were created to fight for this pure lifestyle. We're in a battle for our lives. Battles, though, will reveal your character and true love. Once won, the battle isn't over, but the enemy is always working on a new way to attack. Our hope is any weapon formed against us will not prosper.

Have you ever gone into an intense trial and reached out for support and fellowship only to find that those who were closest to you have fallen asleep when you needed them most? The Bible says cursed is he who leans on the arm of flesh, mankind will always fail us. There are times of maturity when God calls each son and each daughter in His kingdom to go into their own personal Gethsemane and nobody else can understand or help you. There is a place where flesh won’t do and only the strength of God can take you through. There is a point when God calls us to something beyond what any friend could give us. When we come out of this trial we won’t be looking for strength from others but we will return with strength for them. Nobody but God can take you through, and nobody but God can give you the strength and the power that you need.

God doesn’t ask us to do anything in our won strength, He asks us to let Him help us. We don’t have to work for a blessing that is given to us by grace. There comes a time when in the midst of our struggle a Godly fear comes upon us and we realize that God was moving in our lives and we weren't giving Him the proper credit. We weren't trusting, relying on and resting in Him. God made promises to us and it is our privilege to ask Him to be God to us. God will take us by the hand and walk us through every promise He makes to us. God will fulfill His promises and give us His presence and lead us into the place that He is calling us to be.

There is a plague of modern man which is a growing apathy that is taking over humanity. It's a growing indifference in the heart of man one to another. A growing coldness to those who are suffering around us. The bible says in the end times a gross darkness will cover the earth and part of what will fuel that darkness is an indifference to the suffering around us. In the last days there is going to be a compassionate church who will behold the man and remember a Savior who suffered for all of humanity and entered into every pain and injustice that we would ever go through. AS we behold Jesus we will be given a supernatural compassion to choose not to be indifferent but rather to reach out to the suffering to make a difference in someone's life.