Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

There is a certain pride we have in being able to work hard, make our own way, and build ourselves up into something great. But there’s a problem with this mentality. We weren’t designed to live that way. God created us to be dependent on things outside of us to meet our needs. He did this so that we would ultimately look to Him as our source of every good thing in our lives.

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

The example of Jesus is amazing. As the crowds grew larger He preached the Truth harder. As people became more confused and offended He did not back down. When people started walking away He didn’t beg them to stay. In fact, when the crowds had left and only His closest disciples remained He offered them the chance to leave too! But their relationship with Jesus kept them close.

The reason it is so hard for most of us to believe that God wants to use our anger and that anger does not have to be a sinful thing is because few of us have ever seen righteous anger modeled.

It is important to see that there is a place for anger in Kingdom work. As we talked about last week, not all anger is sinful. However, it is one of those emotions that can very easily slip into sinful action if we are not careful.

Whenever I communicate the idea that it is possible to be angry and not sin I am usually met with surprise or disbelief. That’s because so few believers have examined anger from a Biblical perspective and even fewer have ever seen Biblical anger modeled. If you are a person that is naturally prone to anger I want to float an idea to you; God may very well have wired you that way for His glory.

There are 16 different nations and regions that were present when Peter preached the Gospel. The fact that God founded the church as a multicultural church tells us everything we need to know about His heart for what His church should be.

How we love our God will be revealed by how we love our neighbor. -Our flesh rises up against the command to love our neighbor as ourself. That’s because loving ourself is the root of all our sin.

Having been reconciled to God and given a new identity we can now venture out and begin to be reconciled to each other. It takes listening. It takes hard conversations. It takes commitments to community. It takes humility. It takes asking for and receiving forgiveness. And all that takes courage.

We can teach tolerance in all our workplaces. But only the Kingdom of God made manifest through God’s people in the power of the Holy Spirit can solve the racial divide in our nation right now.

“You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides Him, there is no other.” Clearly this plague is a wake-up call for our world. God has either sent it or allowed it to come so that this world might wake up to the reality of who He.

In the middle of the uncertainty, we have been living in the past days. The Word of God brings comfort and peace.

We cannot lean on our experience, our past victories, or our knowledge of the landscape if we are going to be successful for the Lord in the future. We must learn to lean on Him in faith instead.

Jesus said that Peter was able to make that confession because it had been revealed to him by the Father. This challenges us with a powerful truth: Facts are not enough! Tradition is not enough! What others tell us about Christ is not enough! We must have a revelation from God.

If you read 1 and 2 Samuel you’ll see that the battle with Goliath was the turning point for David as a warrior and Israel as a nation. Israel slowly gained more and more of the upper hand and David became more and more powerful as Israel’s leader. The Giants must fall because we want a better future for our friends and family. They have to fall because they oppose the expansion of God’s Kingdom. They must fall because our victories can be the fuse that ignites the victories of generations to come. Are you willing to stand and fight not only for your well-being but for the benefit of all those who will come behind you?

David wasn’t Saul. He wasn’t a warrior and he didn’t wear armor. But his unique skill set was what God used to defeat Goliath. If we desire to be used by God like David was we must learn to embrace our uniqueness and submit it to the Lord’s plan for us.

When the challenge of Goliath came Saul was paralyzed to lead. He was so absorbed in himself that fear of loss kept him on the sidelines. What a powerful warning to all of us! It does not matter how we start out in leadership; we can often lose our way. Dependent connection with the Lord is critical to long-term faithfulness and victory as a leader

God’s plan was that Israel conqueror the Promised Land completely. He was raising up David to eventually bring that plan to culmination. But Goliath stood in the way. That’s what giants do. They oppose the move of God among the people of God. But that’s why they must fall! Listen to the message and consider if there are any giants opposing the movement of God among His people in your region.

Self-annihilation! A call to humble ourselves.

It is critical to acknowledge God at the beginning of things. But we must continue to acknowledge God throughout those things as well.