Come to Jesus’ Banquet Table

Part Three: Jesus Prepared Your Place At the Table (Jesus Is Our Great Shepherd)

There are seventy-two psalms and almost half speak about enemies. Enemies are those who oppose not only us, but also God’s ways. David is at the table asking God to keep his enemies from overcoming him because they oppose what God stands for.

David isn’t questioning his faith. He knows that God will triumph. But David did not want his enemies’ success to be an obstacle to the faith of others. When we see a person or a group that we consider to be doing well, keep in mind that it’s only temporary, as we all are temporary. We are here for a moment, but what we do while we are here in the name of Our Lord will carry on.

Psalm 25: 2

O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Perfect Shepherd, promises to guide and protect us through life to bring us into His Father’s house.

John 14: 2

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

God tells us He is our shepherd. Jesus tells us He is going to prepare a place for us, and He will come back for us. We can look forward to eternal life with Him.

Psalm 23: 6

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Jesus has a place for you in His Father’s house, and the banquet table is prepared. Your seat is waiting for you. Jesus paid the ultimate price for your seat when He went to the cross, died and rose from the grave. Jesus gave you the way to eternal life.

John 3: 16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Read the Entire Chapter of the Scriptures Referenced:

Read Parts 1 and 2 of the sermon,

Part one: The Great Shepherd Restores the Soul

Part two: God Is With Me; I Will Fear No Evil

The Great Shepherd Restores the Soul

Part One: Jesus Is Our Great Shepherd

Psalm 23: 1

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

The Lord is my shepherd, maker, Father, protector, the Great Shepherd.

Our needs are taken care of. It’s not what we think we need; what He has for us is all we need.

David is writing out of his own experience as a shepherd to his father’s sheep as a young boy.

1 Samuel 16: 11

And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.

Sheep are completely dependent on the shepherd for provision, guidance and protection.

As God’s children, we are dependent on Him for His guidance and protection. The New Testament calls Jesus the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, and the Chief Shepherd.

Psalm 23: 2

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

When you drive by or fly over farmland, you’ll see the green pastures. What a peaceful feeling that brings. This is the feeling you have when you truly place yourself in God’s hands.

Isaiah 43: 2

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

God will lead you to the path of rightness. If you go your own way, you are going to walk the path Satan has for you. Don’t think that Satan isn’t waiting to lead you. Check out the following verses below.

Job 2:2

And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Matthew 4: 1

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Now if the devil thought he could tempt Jesus, what do you think he can do with you? Without Jesus to protect you, you have no chance against Satan.

When you put ourselves in Jesus’s hands, you have contentment. Psalm 23 does not focus on the animal-like qualities of sheep but on the discipleship qualities of those who follow Our Lord and Savior.

However, when you choose to sin, you go your own way. Don’t blame God for the place you find yourself.

Psalm 23: 3

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

God won’t lead you to a wrong path.

He restores you because He loves you. He loved us before we loved Him.

God sent His Son to pay for your sins. And by sending His Son, He made a way for you to go to Him directly without anything or anyone intervening.

He restores your soul out of love, but if you are rebellious and disobedient, you are going against your own best interest.

Read the full chapters of the Scriptures referenced:

Please return later this week for Part Two of Jesus Is Our Great Shepherd.

Praise the Lord

Sermon: Praise the Lord

Psalm 117

O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.

This psalm uses a few words but says a lot. The message is powerful. Let the world hear you praise the Lord.

Psalm 117 is not only the shortest in the Bible; it is also the middle chapter of the Bible.

At what point are you in your life? Looking at most of you here, I don’t think that we are at the beginning of life. Or are we?

Life truly begins the day you accept Jesus Christ.

If you have just accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and believe He died and rose from the grave on the third day, you are at the beginning of your life.

The new you is reborn; the old you dies. When I say the new you is born, I’m saying that the things you used to do hold no interest for you. You look at the world differently. The partying, drinking, and other things that made you happy don’t work anymore.

Or are you in the middle of your life? You have accepted Christ but haven’t changed how you are living. If that’s you, ask yourself if you’ve given God praise at any time.

Give God the praise.

You’re here today. Give God the praise! He has given you this day as well as every day up to now. You aren’t in the grave.

If you have a place to stay, clothes on your back, and food to eat, give God the praise!

If you are at the end of life, then you know what life has been, and only because of God’s love are you here now.

Have no fear.

Death has no hold on you if you belong to God. You know where you are going because you have accepted Jesus. God’s love and faithfulness endures forever.

We can’t say we’ve been faithful to God all our lives but He loves us so much that He forgives and forgets our wrongs. He is faithful and loves us all.

If God did nothing else for you, He would still be worthy of our highest praise.

And When He Saw Their Faith

Sermon (Part One): And When He Saw Their Faith

Luke 5: 20

(King James Version)

And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.

(New International Version)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Mark 2: 5

(New International Version)

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The words ‘man,’ ‘friend,’ and ‘son’ are written so that we may know that this person is a man that Jesus considered a friend. The word ‘friend’ is used one other time to describe Jesus’s relationship with his disciples.

How would Jesus describe His relationship with you?

If you have a relationship with Jesus, then you are his son and friend.

What are you willing to do to bring someone to Jesus?

In Mark, chapter 5, a paralyzed man is brought to Christ. This person was a grown man, not a child, yet Jesus calls him ‘son.’ This man had the faith that a child has in his parent. His faith was so great that he let nothing prevent him from getting to Jesus.

If you knew someone who needed help, would you help him?

We are all in need of something. For some it’s shelter, clothing, finances, healing. As Christians, we are to do God’s work and that is to help, love and bring God’s Word to those in need.

Read the Entire Chapters Referenced:

Luke Chapter 5

Mark Chapter 2

Please return later this week for Part 2 of the sermon, And When He Saw Their Faith

Would You Curse God When the Pressure Is On?

Sermon: Would You Curse God When the Pressure Is On?

Part Two: Job 1: 11

But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Satan challenges God by saying Job is only faithful because God had placed a hedge of protection around him. Satan is telling God that if He took away that protection, Job would give up under Satan’s pressure.

What about you? Would you give God up?

Consider what you would be giving up. Eternity with God over something temporal and fleeting.

Revelation 12: 9

The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Things will always happen – some good, some bad – and sometimes it is not for you to know why. You must put your faith and trust in God. Experience life as Job did, one day at a time. Thank God for giving you another day to praise Him.

God’s love doesn’t exempt you from life’s challenges.

God loves you but that does not exempt you from life’s calamities. Setbacks, tragedies, and sorrows strike both Christians and non-Christians alike. The difference is in how we deal with them.

Psalms 34: 7

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Satan says that we are fair weather people, only honoring God as long as we get what we want. God gives Satan permission to test Job. However, Satan has no authority other than what God gives him.

God is compassionate toward you.

While God may allow you to suffer for reasons beyond your understanding, He is never caught by surprise by your troubles. There are limits on what Satan is allowed to do; God is compassionate. So do not worry about Satan. Stay faithful to the One and Only God who loves you.

Read the Entire Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:

Job Chapter 1

Revelation Chapter 12

Psalms Chapter 34

Read Part One and Part Three of the Sermon, Would You Curse God?

Part One: Would You Curse God?

Part Three: Would You Curse God When the Devil Is Your Enemy?

Have your iniquities separated you from God?

Sermon: Will You Be Prepared When Christ Returns? (Have your iniquities separated you from God?)

Part Two: Isaiah 59: 2

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Matthew 25:10-12

But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

How will you R.S.V.P? I will attend or I will not attend.

Read the Complete Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
Isaiah Chapter 59
Matthew Chapter 25

Read Part One of the Sermon, Will You Be Prepared When Christ Returns?

Will You Be Prepared When Christ Returns?

Sermon: Will You Be Prepared When Christ Returns?

Part One: Matthew 25: 1-4

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.

This is a story for today, with an emphasis on the question, “Are you prepared if Christ was to come here, now?” God tells us throughout the Bible to prepare ourselves for His coming.

I can pray for you but I cannot live for you.

The parable of the 10 virgins illustrates that each of us is responsible for his or her spiritual condition. I can pray for you but I cannot live for you. I can take you to church, and read you the Scriptures. However, if you don’t accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are the one who is lost.

This parable is about you and it’s about me. Some of us are prepared and are waiting. But some of us are waiting for the procession to start before we think about getting prepared.

Everyone is responsible for his own actions.

Now here comes the bridegroom, Jesus, with the bride. They have made many stops along the way. They have seen family, friends, and well wishers along the route. Those of us who have our oil are prepared to join the procession, and we only have enough for the procession. We have none to spare for those who didn’t do what was required. Each person is responsible for him/herself.

Did you prepare yourself?

Are you ready for the good food, music, wine, and the other fine single people who will be in attendance? Or do you need to run off to buy your oil after the procession has begun?

When Jesus comes, you can’t ask Him to wait because you didn’t take the time to get ready. Spiritual preparation can’t be bought or borrowed at the last minute. Our relationship with God must be our own.

God rewards faithfulness.

The parable describes the consequences of two attitudes toward Christ’s return. There are those who diligently prepare for it by investing their time and talent serving God.

Then there are those who take no time and have no heart to work for God. Those who bear no fruit for God cannot expect to be treated the same as those who are faithful.

John 14: 3

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Jesus told His followers, and He is telling us what we must do to enter the kingdom. First, we are to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Then we are to love one another, and help each other spread God’s Word wherever we can.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
Matthew Chapter 25
John Chapter 14

Return Friday, November 23, for the next installment in the sermon, Will You Be Prepared When Christ Returns?

Confidently Trust the Lord, Your Savior

Sermon: Do You Know the Gift of God: Confidently Trust the Savior

Part Four: John 4: 50-53

Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives!” The man believed what Jesus said to him and started home. As he was already going down [the road], his servants met him and reported that his son was living [and was healthy]. So he asked them at what time he began to get better. They said, “Yesterday during the seventh hour the fever left him.” Then the father realized that it was at that very hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives”; and he and his entire household believed and confidently trusted [in Him as Savior].

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

Do you believe Jesus died and rose from the dead on the third day? If not, who are you praying to?

The nobleman in John Chapter 4 believed that Jesus could heal his son. Therefore, he walked 20 miles to ask Jesus to come to his home to heal him. Jesus looked at the nobleman – a Gentile, a Roman – and said, “Go; your son lives!” And the man believed the words that Jesus spoke to him, and he went home. He didn’t tell Jesus that He had to come to his house in order to heal his son.

When he met Jesus, he addressed Him as Sir, putting himself under Jesus although as a Roman, he had legal authority over Jesus.

The nobleman not only believed that Jesus could heal his son; he also obeyed what Jesus told him to do by going home. He demonstrated faith.

James 1: 6

But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind.

Do you have the faith of the nobleman? Will you listen and do what God says?

When you pray to God, thank Him for everything He has done in your life. Be obedient to Him. And when you ask for God’s guidance, leave your problem in His hands.

God loves us all. Be obedient to God. Have faith. Believe.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
John Chapter 4
James Chapter 1

Read the other parts of the Sermon, Do You Know the Gift of God?
Do You Know the Gift of God? (Part One)
Jesus Offers You Living Water to Slack Your Thirst (Part Two)
Believe the Word that Jesus Speaks to You (Part Three)

Believe the Word that Jesus Speaks to You

Sermon: Do You Know the Gift of God (Believe the word that Jesus speaks to you)

Part Three: John 4: 46-53

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.

Do you have faith in Jesus?

In this scripture Jesus is preaching and teaching the Gospel on his way to Cana in Galilee. He had already turned water into wine at the wedding on His first visit to Cana. Now Jesus has done many miracles, talked to Nicodemus, cleared the temple of people using it as a marketplace and bank, and healed the paralyzed man at the pool.

I could go on but let’s look at this nobleman from Capernaum whose son is sick and dying. He heard that Jesus was coming out of Judea into Galilee and he goes looking for him.

This person is not a Jew. He is probably a Roman officer in Herod’s service. He walked about 20 miles. Was he going to ask a Jew to heal his son? Or did he walk to ask the person he knew to be the Messiah to heal his son?

We don’t know how he knew about Jesus and why he had so much faith in Him.

Do you pray and the leave your cares in God’s hands?

Or do you try to fix everything by yourself? If so, you are saying that you don’t believe God – that you have no faith. If that’s the case, then why ask God for help?

We often go to God and expect an immediate answer. We took our time in going to Him. Why can He not take His time?

If we received instant answers, would we learn anything?

When God answers you, you will know that it is Him.

Hebrews 4: 16

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 13: 5

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Pray. And have faith.

Read the Full Chapters of the Scriptures Referenced:
John Chapter 4
Hebrews Chapter 4
Hebrews Chapter 13

Return Thursday for the next installment in the sermon, Do you Know the Gift of God?

Read the other parts of the sermon, Do You Know the Gift of God?
Do You Know the Gift of God (Part One)
Jesus Offers You Living Water to Slack Your Thirst (Part Two)
Confidently Trust the Lord, Your Savior (Part Four)

Jesus Offers You Living Water to Slack Your Thirst

Sermon: Do You Know the Gift of God: Drink From the Living Water

Part Two: John 4: 6-10

Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

The Samaritan Woman: How can you ask me …?

Jesus asked the Samaritan woman at the well for water to drink. She was startled that a Jew would ask her, a Samaritan, for anything!

She knew the Jews hated her people. They felt that Jews who had married Assyrians betrayed both their people and nation. Add to this that this Samaritan woman knew how her own people felt about her.

When Jesus asked her for water, she asks, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” Jews did not deal with Samaritans.

Jesus’ Response: If you knew the gift of God …

When Jesus refers to the living water of God, He is saying to us to drink of the everlasting God. He is not referring to a physical thirst as she thought, but of a living desire to be closer to God.

When we read His Word, The Bible, we are reading His Living Water. And when we study The Bible, our spirit – the Holy Spirit in us – is being fed.

A Talk with God is a conversation like no other.

No respectable person would have said a word to this woman. But Jesus is having a conversation with her!

In John 4: 16, Jesus asks her to get her husband. She answers truthfully that she has no husband. Jesus responds, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”

When she discovered that Jesus knew her private life, she quickly changed the subject. Will you try to change the subject?

The woman reveals that she knows the Messiah is coming. Jesus then reveals himself to her, and she returns to the city to tell others. Despite her reputation, many took her invitation and went to meet Jesus.

Jesus used her to introduce the people of this city to God. If you think about it, she is the first female evangelist.

Don’t think that God cannot use you because He can use us all.

Read the Full Chapter of the Scripture Referenced:
John Chapter 4

Read the other parts of the sermon, Do You Know the Gift of God?
Do You Know the Gift of God? (Part One)
Believe the Word that Jesus Speaks to You (Part Three)
Confidently Trust the Lord, Your Savior (Part Four)