Tag: Message

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday May 05TH 2024, 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.

Today I begin my 9TH month with my Sebring Florida church family. Just like with my longtime Homestead Florida church family – we observe and celebrate Communion on the first Sunday of every month.

I was honored to lead Communion 79 times from 2016 to 2024. I believe it to be an integral part of the church experience. It should be a special observance – never an ordinary routine. Next month I’m looking forward to seeing how my successor leads Communion back in Homestead.

I like how my Pastor here in Sebring leads Communion. It’s done a bit differently here. As you enter the building you pick up the elements (packaged together) and take them to your seat. He leads Communion before his sermon and right after Praise & Worship.

(At Homestead – Communion is done near the end of the service after the sermon. As part of the ceremony – the church body walks forward to the altar to receive the elements from the plate to take back to their respective seats.)

For the next several months – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Here’s Part 5:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

The Bible tells us to preach the Word. Be prepared. Pastor Bob said – “Chris. I want you to preach for me.” I’m here. I’m prepared. I’m prepared at all times. I’m prepared here in Homestead. I’m prepared there in Sebring. I’m prepared in-between. When I’m asked to preach – I accept the call. I will correct. I will rebuke. That means that when I hear something that’s touted as being Biblical, but it is not in the Bible – I will check it out. I will call it out. I hope that you will do the same. I hope to encourage you – with great patience and careful instruction. That means preaching the whole Word. That means even the fire and brimstone part of God’s Word.

You know – our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ – He was a fire and brimstone preacher during His short 3-year ministry here on Earth. We must preach like Christ.

I read this online, and I said to myself – “That’s good right there. I need to use that in my sermon.” So – from another minister, he writes:

“God’s Word is not an ‘either-or’ book. It is an ‘all-or-nothing’ book. It is not a dingy all-you-can-eat buffet, but a glorious full-course meal. It all comes down to whether or not we are willing to consume it all.”

Isn’t that good ? You can’t pick and choose what to believe in the Bible. It is all God’s Truth. That includes the uncomfortable parts of the Bible. That includes the horrific parts of the Bible.

Those people that we know that don’t believe and follow our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Those people that we know who say and do what the world tells them to say and do. That was me over 17 years ago. Those people – they believe and follow Satan – the god of this world around us. The Bible says that Satan has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ – who is the exact likeness of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT)

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 28TH 2024, 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.

I’m in Homestead Florida this morning – my home for 36+ years from 1987 to 2023. I’m just here to visit for a few days and take care of some errands and tasks. I’ll celebrate my Lord + Savior Jesus Christ with my longtime church family, and we’ll enjoy fellowship together at a nice restaurant after service.

For the next several months – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Here’s Part 4:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns – which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s (what ?) judgment. (Jude 7)

Wow. There’s a lot there to unpack. Let me see if I can explain this, so that I understand this. Jude is reminding the Christians who are reading his letter (just as we are now) that God’s judgment awaits each and every one of us. His judgment is in our future. I believe that, and I believe that when my time is up here on this temporary land – I am going to Heaven to be reunited with my Creator – if – I continue to believe and follow Him – and move closer to Him with each new day. I pray that this entire church family – and each of your respective families – graduates to Heaven. I pray that my entire family in North Texas graduates to Heaven. In order for that to happen – I have a lot of work to do with them. I want to see my little brother, and his wife, and their two daughters – my nieces – I want to see them in Heaven. I want to see my Mom in Heaven. I believe that my Dad is already there. He acknowledged His Lord + Savior Jesus Christ just hours before he passed on in his hospital bed.

You know. I never really considered myself as a “fire and brimstone preacher”, but the Bible says to Preach the Word. Be prepared in-season and out-of-season. Correct, rebuke, (I say rebuke), and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead – to suit their own desires – they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:2-3 NIV)

Well that sounds like the world that we live in today. There are a lot of “teachers” out there that don’t work in schools. They teach their own agenda. They teach what they believe. They teach what they want you to believe. They teach what they heard from someone else. They teach it and proclaim it. They preach it.

One of my very first supervisors in the Air Force – some 37 years ago – she had a whole bunch of catch phrases. One of them was – “Your mouth opens and shuts like a prayer book, and it ain’t the Bible !”. I didn’t understand that as a 20-year-old. Now I do.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 21ST 2024, 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.

I’ve finally returned home from my recent retirement road-trip. You can read all about that on #TravelThursday. It was good to reconnect with a small group of my Highlands Community Church family this past Friday night at Bible Study. This morning I get to corporately worship with my full church family for the first time since Easter Sunday.

For the next several months – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Here’s Part 3:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches – saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord – Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)

So you say that you can do whatever you feel like doing because your God has already forgiven you for it. No ! That’s not the way it works. Sadly – a lot of Christians live that way. You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it over the course of my nearly 17 years as part of a church family. They come to church, but they live immoral lives. They hide much of it from their church family, but they can’t hide all of it. And they can’t hide any of it from our God.

You see – God’s grace is power – power that He has given to each of us believers as a gift, and that power – that power allows us to overcome every sin. It allows us to overcome every sin – should we choose to accept His gift. He (or she) who intentionally sins is not living in God’s grace. Now – none of us is perfect. None of us is close to perfect. We are all sinners. We are all probably going to sin somehow someway today. We’ll probably do so unintentionally. (That’s the enemy at work.)

And if we have God’s grace – which we do – we should instantly realize that we’ve sinned, and regret it, and repent it. We can tell God that – “I know what I did right there during that weak moment was wrong. That was a barrier that was placed between You and I. Thank You Lord for forgiving me for what I’ve done. I ask that You give me the strength and the wisdom and the guidance and the direction – so that I don’t do it again. Thank You God for Your grace and mercy. In Your powerful name I pray to You. Amen.

Sin must not have dominion over us. We can’t use God’s grace to justify our sin.

So I want to remind you – though you already know these things – that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later He destroyed those who did not remain faithful. And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness – waiting for the great day of (what’s that word ?) judgment. (Jude 5-6)

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 14TH 2024, 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.

Last Sunday morning I was invited by my brother to go to church with him, his wife, and their two children. My brother and his wife associate as Catholics, so we went to the local Catholic church a couple of miles away from their home. We went to the 10:30 AM service. I believe that it was my first Catholic church service in nearly 40 years (since USAF Basic Military Training in San Antonio Texas). It was interesting. Lots of recitations, rituals, traditions, stands, sits, and kneels. I mostly observed.

For the next several months – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Here’s Part 2:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

So – like his brother James – Jude did not follow Jesus during His 3-year ministry here on Earth. James and Jude thought that Jesus was a crazy guy. “He is out of his mind” – they said. Imagine that – James and Jude lived with Jesus during His ministry, but they did not really know Him. They did not understand Him. They definitely did not believe that He was the Messiah. You know – it’s kind of like today. People all over the world know of Jesus, but they don’t really know Him, or understand Him, or even believe in Him as God. Oh – and that includes a lot of self-proclaimed Christians too. They don’t really know Him.

It wasn’t until after Christ died and rose again – that James and Jude – His own brothers – became believers and followers of our resurrected Lord. They saw the light. And they traveled around the region. And they spread the message of their brother – of their risen God – Jesus Christ.

So Jude writes:
Dear friends – I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. (Jude 3a)

That would be a good letter to read from Jude – all about salvation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but – it’s one of my favorite topics. Every sermon that I preach includes salvation as a central theme. It’s that important to me. It’s why I’m alive today. It’s why you know me today.

But notice that Jude writes I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. You know – it sounds like he’s not going to write about that now. It sounds like he’s going in another direction with his letter.

It sounds like a lot of my sermons. I think I’m going to write and preach about one thing, and then God leads me in another direction with my sermon. And I love when He does that.

But – now I find that I must write about something else – urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people. (Jude 3b)

You must defend – or protect – your faith in Christ both in and out of the church. I don’t know if you know this or not, but – the enemy is lurking. He’s lurking in everything you do – and everywhere you go. He’s looking for your vulnerable moments, so that he can exploit them to his advantage. That’s what he does. And the enemy – the enemy even works on Sunday mornings. And he’s not afraid to walk right through those doors and into this sanctuary. We must defend our faith in Christ. That means being His hands – and His feet – and YES – even His voice – here on Earth.

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

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.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp