Monday, May 25, 2015

THE SPIRIT OF PENTECOST - SERMON IN A SENTENCE + YOU-TUBE SONG



PRAYER REQUEST - FINANCIAL NEED.
We are so thankful for those who attended (the attendance was up over 100), and those who gave (the offering was $1573) yesterday.  That leaves us $876 short of the amount we need to pay our mortgage this week, and nothing to cover utilities and other bills.   PLEASE JOIN US IN PRAYING ABOUT THIS URGENT FINANCIAL NEED.  If you can give anything to help us pay the mortgage we would be so thankful.  I would love to come pick up your offering if you're in driving distance.  If not you can mail a check to 2969 N Lindbergh, St Ann, MO 63074, or send it via PayPal on our web page. Thank you for your love and prayers and generous support of this mission. No gift is too small or large.  We thank you so much.
 
IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE SENDING A GIFT, WE WOULD THANK YOU FOR CALLING, E-MAILING OR TEXTING (314) 607-1424.
 
THANKS AGAIN!
 
 
IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT - YOU-TUBE RECORDING
GOD IS STILL GOOD!
 
Pastor Rick Jones
FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH + A CRUSADERS USA CONGREGATION
2969 N. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Ann, MO 63074   Cell Phone (314) 607-1424; Fax (314) 298-7442
BLOG:
www.PastorRickJones.blogspot.com ; WEB: www.FCCStLouis.org
PREACHING SERVICES SUNDAYS 11AM & 6:30 PM

MEMORIAL DAY POEM



MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION
 Yesterday before sounding TAPS we read this poem by Kelly Strong.  It was a touching and fitting tribute to those who have given the last full measure of devotion to defend America and American virtues.
 
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

 

Sunday, May 10, 2015

THE ESSENTIAL SPIRIT


JESUS said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."  (John 3:5,6)
 
JESUS invited those who were thirsting, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)  (John 7:37-39).
 
JESUS promised, "I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."  (John 14:16,17).
 
JESUS breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."  (John 20:22)
 
THE HOLY GHOST IS SO ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION THAT THE BIBLE PLAINLY SAYS, "IF ANY MAN HAS NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS."  (Romans 8:9).

OH HOW WE NEED A FRESH OUTPOURING, AND INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

It is the SPIRIT who invites us to God. (Revelation 22:17)

It is the SPIRIT who convicts and convinces sinners of their sin.  (John 16:8)

It is the SPIRIT who breathes spiritual life into those who are dead in sin. (John 6:63, Romans 8:10).

It is the SPIRIT who empowers the believer over sin. (Romans 8:6)

It is the SPIRIT who enables the believer to witness. (Acts 1:8)

It is the SPIRIT who fills our hearts with love. (2 Timothy 1:7)

It is the SPIRIT who comforts us in all our trials. (John 14:16)

It is the SPIRIT who teaches us. (John 14:26)

It is the SPIRIT who guides us. (Romans 8:14)

It is the SPIRIT who makes us disciples—disciplined (2 Timothy 1:7)

It is the SPIRIT who bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. (Romans 8:16)

It is the SPIRIT who gifts God’s people to do God’s Work. (1 Corinthians 12:4)

It is the SPIRIT who graces God’s people to walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22).

It is the SPIRIT who sanctifies, and purifies the heart. (2 Corinthians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2)

It is the SPIRIT who hallows worship. (John 4:23)

It is the SPIRIT who satisfies the heart of man.


The Jews celebrate Pentecost as the day that Moses received the 10 Commandments, written by the finger of God on tablets of stone at Mt. Sinai. (See Exodus 20)

The Christians celebrate Pentecost as the day that God baptized the disciples in the Holy Ghost and wrote His Commandments on their hearts as they prayed in the Upper Room.  (See Acts 2).

Filled with the Holy Ghost, the first Christians testified, “God purified our hearts,” (Acts 15:9), and with great grace and great power (Acts 4:33) they went everywhere speaking the Word of God with boldness, to everyone both Jews and Gentiles.  Pentecost changed them.  Pentecost created the Church.  And Pentecost changed the world. 

Pentecost changed the disciples inside and out.  Human hearts—or human wills—are incomplete, incapable, and impure without the Spirit of God. 

Without the Spirit we cannot clearly see or understand God’s will. 

Without the Spirit we tend to resist God’s will—even though we know we shouldn’t. 

Without the Spirit our love is self-centered.

Without the Spirit our judgments are biased and we are unteachable.

Without the Spirit our lives are intemperate and sense driven.

But when the Spirit of Holiness is welcome into our hearts we are altogether different.  We sing, “I once was blind but now I see.”  We gladly testify, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”  We love selflessly, judge lovingly, and walk in the Spirit joyfully.


Those who are filled with the Spirit,

led by the Spirit,

and sanctified by the Spirit are truly free to do what they please

—and what they please is

to please the Lord.

Without constraint, demand, mandates, or rules—the Spirit filled, Spirit-loving people of God, hunger for holiness, crave Christ-likeness, and live prayerful and careful lives without regard to what the world is doing or saying.  They are, “Filled with His goodness, lost in in His love!

Surely this is the need of our day—people who will do what they ought to do and love doing it. 

We ought to forgive—and when the Spirit reigns we love forgiving.

We ought to give—and when the Spirit abides we love giving.

We ought to obey God—and when the Spirit rules we love obeying God.

We ought to love everyone, our friends and enemies—and when the Spirit has filled our hearts we love loving our friends and enemies.

We ought to live holy and separate from the world—and when the Spirit prevails we love living holy and separate from the world.

We ought to be teachable—and when the Spirit leads we love being taught.

We ought to be disciplined—and when the Spirit corrects we love being disciplined.

We ought to be led by the Spirit—and when the Spirit prompts we love being led by the Spirit.

We ought to live as citizens of heaven—and when the Spirit satisfies we love living as citizens of heaven. This world is not our home.  With reckless abandon we reject the expectations and demands of this world’s culture and we joyfully embrace Christian culture.

But how can this be?  How can we who are born with a self-centered, prideful, sensual, and sin-loving nature be so changed that we not only know what we ought to be, but can truly be what we ought to be? 

THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO THE UPPER ROOM. 
I have often wondered why so many years passed from Adam’s fall to Abraham’s call.  Why was it that so many generations  passed before Moses walked down Sinai with the Commandments?  And why did God wait more than a thousand years after King David before sending that notable “Son of David”— “His only begotten Son into the world,” paying the price so that whosover will could be “born of the Spirit?”

The answer must lie in our Creator’s omniscient understanding of human nature.   God knows people.  He knows our abilities and our capabilities.  He knows that we are spiritual beings, created in His image, having a physical experience.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s law1 they died.  They didn’t die physically, but the Spirit of God which brings life to the spirits of men was withdrawn.  They died spiritually.  Before the Spirit of God could be fully restored to the sons and daughters of Adam they would have to know the wage of sin.  Tragically, their sin metastasized immediately.  By the 4th chapter of Genesis we have the first murder.   We need to experience and understand the depravity of lielf wrote them to us.  We need Sinai—to know God’s law. 

Before the Spirit of God could renew a right spirit within us, we needed to loathe the wrong spirit that is within us.  So the Prophets were sent to expose sinful hearts and to exalt a day when God would, “…give them one heart…put a new spirit within them…and take the stony heart out of their flesh.”   We need God’s perspective and we need God’s promise.

Before the Spirit of God could perfect our sin ridden souls, we needed a spotless Lamb who would not only show us the face of God, but show us the heart of God.  We needed a perfect Savior who would shed His perfect blood and rise again in His perfect body.  Then Jesus came!  Oh the glory of His Presence, Oh the beauty of His face!  We need a Savior.

And then, we need an upper room!  In Acts 2 at that first Christian Pentecost, the disciples were in one accord in one place—in the Upper Room!  We need a place where we resign to do God’s will in God’s way.  We need a place where we are at one with Him—where we love Him without any reservation.

Then the day of our personal Pentecost will come.  A day when “the Spirit answers to the blood and tells me I am born of God!”  A place where “His Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am the child of God.”  A place where we “receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon us.”  A place where our hearts are “purified by faith.”

We need a personal Pentecost.  THIS IS OUR NEED. THIS IS OUR PRAYER. AND THIS IS OUR EXPECTATION.


 
 


 

Pentecost can be repeated, for the Lord is just the same!
Yesterday today forever, glory to His precious name!
Saints of God can be victorious, over sin and death and hell,
Have a full and free salvation, and the blessed story tell!
 
Pentecostal fire is falling!  Praise the Lord it fell on me!
Pentecostal fie is falling, falling!  Brother let it fall on thee!
 

GOD LONGS FOR US TO COME INTO HIS PRESENCE - AND HIS PRESENCE TO COME INTO US

https://youtu.be/COqdZIdi4pE

This link to a Sunday Morning Message at FCC on April 26, 2015 is a passionate plea for those who seek the LORD to come as He calls.  The invitation is universal, but it is formal--that is, God has a form that we are follow.  His ultimate purpose is not simply that we would come into His presence, but that His presence would come into us!

www.fccstlouis.org
 

Saturday, May 9, 2015

MOTHERS, HOLD ON!


Her children arise up, and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
P  R O V E R B S   3 1 : 2 8 – 3 0

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND!  We certainly are grateful for our good and godly mothers.  Some will wander down memory lane this weekend as their mothers are today safe in the arms of Jesus.  The rest of us will want to express our deep love and gratitude with a nice letter or a card, a special gift, and if time and distance allow—a warm hug.

One of our first memories is of our mother’s loving touch.  Indeed there’s nothing like the personal touch—especially the touch of mother.  Research proves what we know by experience, touch is crucial to social bonding and individual development. 


I’ve recently read that the children raised in the isolation of Romanian Orphanages, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, did not grow and mature as they should and were notable for compulsive rocking, and other self-soothing behaviors.  Their lack of touch produced disorders of mood, cognition, and self-control.

Children who were rescued from those cold orphanages and held for an hour a day showed amazing improvement.  “Touch,” writes one researcher, “is not optional for human development.”

This kind of touch hasn’t always been appreciated.  In fact in the 1920’s Psychologist John Watson cautioned parents against spoiling their children with physical affection.  He wrote,”Let your behavior always be objective and kindly firm.  Never hug and kiss them.  Never let them sit on your lap.  If you must kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight.  Shake hands with them in the morning.  Given them a pat on the head if they have made an extraordinary good job of a difficult task.” 

How grateful I am for mothers who love God’s Word and His Way! I love the tenderhearted, compassionate, kind, caring, correcting, warm ways of godly mothers.

 
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME UNTIL I WAS READY TO BE BORN!
Life begins at conception.
 
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME AFTER I WAS BORN!
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME WHEN I WAS HURTING!
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME UP WHEN I STUMBLED!
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME TO DISCIPLINE ME!
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD BEFORE ME A GREAT EXAMPLE
OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE!
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME TO A HIGH STANDARD!
I’M THANKFUL FOR A MOTHER WHO HELD ME UP IN PRAYER!


Not only am I grateful for the touch of mother, I’m blessed by the touch of the Master! 

It’s not surprising that Bill Gaither’s Gospel song has, well, touched so many hearts.

He touched me!  Oh He touched me!

And Oh the Joy that floods my soul.

Something wonderful happened, and now I know!

He touched me, and made me whole!


It’s the Master’s touch that brings life.

It’s the Master’s touch that brings healing.

It’s the Master’s touch that brings peace.

It’s the Master’s touch that brings meaning.

It’s the Master’s touch that brings assurance.

It’s the Master’s touch that brings comfort.

It’s the Master’s touch that floods our souls with the love of God!
 

I hope you’ll take a moment now to reach out to Jesus.  He’s reaching out to you.