Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday January 15TH 2023, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Starting with this #SundayScripture and continuing for the rest of the month and into February I’ll present my New Year’s Day sermon in its original written form. It’s based on the Matthew West song of late-2019 / early-2020 – “The God Who Stays”. Here’s Part 1:

Well Good Morning again – church family. Happy New Year’s Day ! You all look wonderful in this brand-new year – 2023. 2022 was a good year for many of us, but I just know that our God will lead us to a greater 2023.

It’s good to be able to stand up here at the pulpit, and serve our Lord, and preach our very first sermon of the new year. You know the very first time I ever stood on a stage – to preach a full sermon – was also on New Year’s Day – 11 years ago today – as 2012 began. That was over at the former Flagship Cinemas movie theatre – where my previous church family met at that time. I preached on “Jesus & Abraham” from the Gospel of John – Chapter 8.

You know I used to have stage fright. I used to be afraid of dealing with a crowd of people – even a small group of people. This went all the way back to my childhood in the 1970s. I did not like it when the focus was on me. I used to be very shy and reserved. I’m still a little bit shy and reserved, but our God – our God – He has made me bold and outspoken – when it’s appropriate to be such. Our God wants us to listen twice as much as we speak. That’s why we have two ears and one mouth. You know I’ve always been good at listening, and God has taught me to speak. Speak – when you have something important to say. Speak – to brighten someone’s day. Speak – to glorify our God.

The Bible says that we must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (James 1:19)

Proverbs 18:13 says – Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish. (That’s from the New Living Translation.)

I kinda like the Good News Translation of that verse – Listen before you answer. If you don’t – you are being stupid and insulting.

So today I want to talk to you about the God who stays. “The God Who Stays” – sounds like the title of a song. That’s because it is. It’s the title of a song that’s sung by Mr. Matthew West – one of my favorite Christian pop singers. (He also co-wrote the song.) It’s a former # 1 hit on the Christian pop charts from 3 years ago – late-2019 into mid-2020. K-LOVE played it a lot during the onset of COVID in March and April of 2020 – when we were all told to stay home, and not go outside, and not associate with people. We all became introverts during the COVID lockdowns.

This is just my own personal opinion on this, but hopefully we learned our lesson from 2020, and no matter what global pandemic may be our next one – there will be no lockdown for everyone. Those lockdowns did permanent damage to humanity that will last at least a generation.

That was a truly a bleak time in our life. We had never seen anything like it before. A pandemic basically shut-down the entire world. As believers and followers of Jesus Christ – our Lord + Savior – we got closer to Him – a lot closer. We got closer to Him via His Word (the Bible), via His lyrics (music – whether contemporary or traditional), and via our conversations with Him (prayer). You know the onset and peak of COVID certainly felt like the definitive beginning of the end-of-days.

When Jesus spoke about the future – He said “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from Heaven.” (Luke 21:10-11)

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.