A Demoniac's Testimony

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

The men who tended them ran off and reported it in the town and the countryside, and people went to see what had happened. Mark 5:14

A Demoniac's Testimony

This verse in Mark comes from a story of a man who was possessed by many demons. Jesus and his disciples met him as they crossed the sea of Galilee one day to the area of Decapolis, a group of ten Gentile cities with a pagan worldview. They were not interested in Jesus and his disciples, or how he could change their lives.  

Jesus and the disciples met the demoniac as they got to the shore. It must have been a terrifying sight. The Bible tells us he was living among the dead, in the tombs. He most likely had ripped all his clothes off and he was dragging chains that he had torn apart with his bare hands. They had tried to chain him up but he broke the chains. He was roaming about, crying out, in what probably sounded like a wild animal. Seeing a human in that shape can be a terrifying thing to behold.

Jesus called the demons out of him and into a herd of pigs, which then ran off of a cliff into the ocean and drown. The herdsmen ran to town and told everyone there what had happened. So they followed him back to where Jesus and the disciples were and saw the man that they had known as demon possessed dressed and in his right mind. The people were afraid and asked Jesus to leave. They believed that the demons should have more power than Jesus, so they did not know what to think. They were okay with the demon possessed man, but not with Jesus. They were afraid of how Jesus would change their lives. 

After Jesus healed him, he wanted to leave with Jesus. It is understandable he didn’t want to stay where he had lived in such oppression by Satan. There were probably no good memories for him from this place at all. He had been outcast, chained up, tormented by demons and probably by people as well – maybe even family that loved him. It makes sense he wanted to go to a new place and start a new life in Jesus. But sometimes Jesus asks us to stay. He sometimes asks us to stay where we were once tormented by sin and bad influences. He sometimes asks us to stay where our reputation is not that of a follower of Jesus. He sometimes asks us to stay in places we would rather forget.

Why would he do that? Why would Jesus tell that poor man that he had to stay where he had lived the most painful life? The answer is simple - he was sent to advance the Kingdom of God. Jesus sent him off to tell them that the Kingdom of Heaven had come.  Those people there knew the worst of this man. Some of them had seen how he was changed by Jesus, and they were afraid and rejected Jesus, asking him to leave. But they knew this man, and they would listen to him, at least out of curiosity of what had happened.  This man could be a light among these Gentile cities in a way that Jesus could not.

At that time, his life and the change that Jesus had made in him would influence those people more than Jesus himself staying with them and trying to tell them about the Kingdom of God. They knew who this man once was, and they saw how he was after he was changed. They would listen to him, ask questions, and he would have a great influence in that area for the Kingdom of God. He was sent by Jesus to be the Kingdom of God to an area full of people who didn’t know Jesus. But many of them would want to know him after witnessing and hearing about this man’s transformation. 

Sometimes we have to stay in Decapolis when all we want is to go somewhere else. Being the Kingdom of God means that we will be uncomfortable at times, and we will be inconvenienced at times. Part of being the Kingdom of God to a lost and dying world means sacrifice.  Being surrendered to Christ means going where he tells us to go, or staying where he wants us to stay, to let as many people know as we can that the Kingdom of Heaven has come!  

King Jesus

 Tuesday, October 7, 2025

I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. Colossians 1:25-29

King Jesus

In Colossae there were false teachers challenging the nature and authority of Jesus. Paul was an apostle sent to deliver a very important message to the church there to beware of the false teachers and to make sure they remembered who Jesus truly is. He understood that, as God's servant, he had been given a responsibility, a stewardship, to "make the word of God fully known" v25.

Paul said he was called to reveal the "mystery hidden for ages and generations." This mystery was the good news that the promised Christ, the Messiah, had finally come! The Kingdom of God had come. 

Earlier in this chapter Paul says a lot about who Jesus is by looking at what He has done. 

He was the firstborn of all creation, he created all things and reconciled all things. He has always existed, before time, and is a part of the trinity - God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He has the highest honor overall. He is the heir of God the Father. He died for us and rose again. His reconciliation redeemed us, making us holy, blameless, and justified. He exchanged our sin for righteousness so we could have eternal life. Others need to know this part - that no matter how bad they think they are, or how much they have messed up, He is waiting to take it from them and wipe it all away.  

Jesus is…

For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17

Creator - as a part of the Godhead. v.16 The whole of creation is His work - all of it. All things were created through Him and for Him - they were created by Him. In Him all things hold together - He created all things, and He sustains all things, preserves all things. He made it all and it is only in Him that it is all held together and still working. He was before all things because He is eternal. 

Head (Lord) of the Church - He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. v. 18 This refers to Jesus’ role as source of the church, like we refer to the head of a river. The starting point - the beginning. Ask-Receive

Savior - through His death.  v.21-23 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Jesus died for one reason and that was our need to be reconciled to God. Our sins were the nails that held Him on the cross. Our desire for salvation should be to be made clean, so we can be presented holy and blameless before God, not just so we don’t burn in hell. 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. v.24-27

Paul says that all he did was his share on behalf of His body (which is the church). Our part is to reveal the mystery and tell the story of Jesus and His glory. As the Kingdom of God we are God's royal representatives in our world today, and the Holy Spirit in us wants to proclaim this great message of victory — the message that Jesus, our King, our salvation, has come!

How will you steward the Kingdom of God in your life? 

Your Kingdom Come

Monday, October 6, 2025

Your Kingdom Come… Matthew 6:10a

We are currently in a series on The Lord’s Prayer, titled “Pray Like This.” The Lord’s prayer is a model Jesus gave us to help us pray in the right way – a way that will help us live and look more and more like him every day. Our key truth for this series is, “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

As we have said, every line of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us something. “Your Kingdom Come,” teaches us that as followers of Jesus we should be praying for his Kingdom to come right now and that we bring the Kingdom of God to all those around us through our lives. The Kingdom of God is the already, but not yet, reign or rule of God over all of life. God’s Kingdom is eternal and is past, present, and future. 

Jesus is the King – Every kingdom must have a ruler, and God has declared Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is over all kings and rulers, powers, dominions, principalities, or governments. He alone will reign supreme as King and Lord of all the earth.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 1:15-17

Jesus is supreme over all creation. Everything is held together by him. He is the king of God’s Kingdom and the king of our hearts, as we were created to know him. 

While he was on earth Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God and we are to keep proclaiming the Kingdom of God until he fulfills the Kingdom on earth with his return. 

The Kingdom of God has come because Jesus has come. God’s presence coming down from heaven to earth through Jesus is his Kingdom come.  

The Kingdom of God will come when Jesus returns, and the Kingdom of God will be fulfilled. He will return to those who belong to him. 

What does the Kingdom of God look like, and how does it inform how we should pray? 

The kingdom of God looks like you and me living our lives in such a way that everyone around us knows that the King is in the house – Jesus is in our hearts. If we have Jesus in our hearts, we will live our lives in a different way. We will reflect his glory with our whole lives – in the things we do and say and the way we treat others. Pastor Jim has said that as followers we are to learn to live and love like Jesus and that is exactly what the Kingdom of God looks like – his followers living like he lived and loving others the way he loves them. 

As followers of Jesus, we should be praying for the Kingdom of God. We should be praying for the Kingdom of God at work today in the world. We should pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ serving all over the world so that everyone can know the Gospel. We should pray for our own service in the Kingdom of God – that our lives will be a testimony to those around us, and that we will have eyes to see those around us who need the Gospel and always be ready to show them the Kingdom of God and share the Good News. Your kingdom come is the desire of Jesus’ followers to see God’s Kingdom broaden and become known throughout the world in the here and now. That happens with you and me. That happens in our everyday lives – the way we live and love others. That happens with the body of Christ working with the Kingdom here on earth.

Praying “Your Kingdom come,” means asking the heavenly Father to help us in our own lives to be faithful, obedient, authentic, and effective followers. 

Have you acknowledged him as your King, repented, and followed him?

If so, are you being the Kingdom of God in your life to those around you? 

Pray Like This... “Your Kingdom Come..."

Pray Like This...
“Your Kingdom Come..."
Matthew 6:9-13 (CSB)

 

- Prayer - “Prayer is a personal conversation with a holy and loving God that reorients our reality and makes all things possible.”

- Key Truth - “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

- Kingdom of God:  The already, but not yet, reign or rule of God over all of life.

Main Question: What does the Kingdom of God look like, and how does it inform how we should pray? 

 

1.        Jesus is the King. 

2.        The Kingdom of God has come.

3.    The Kingdom of God will come.

 

After the Message: 

Participate in the NSBC 70 days of prayer. Download the NSBC App and turn on notifications to receive daily prayer prompts. 

Out Of The Darkness

 Friday, October 3, 2925

But you are a chosen race, A royal priesthood, a holy nation,m A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  1 Peter 2:9

Darkness – the absence of light.  Darkness can mean so many things.  Sometimes it is a feeling or a mood.  Sometimes it is a shade.  Sometimes it is the night outside.  Sometimes it just simply means the lights are off.  Often darkness is associated with fear, evil, scary things.  The darkness frightens us for many reasons, one of the biggest being that you simply cannot see – you don’t know what is there or what to expect.  When you don’t know what is there or what to expect you may begin to completely make it up, not even realizing that is what you are doing.  We can hear a sound in the dark and make up a thousand terrifying things that it could be only to finally turn on the light and see that it was nothing scary at all.  I did that as a kid, and I confess I have done it a time or two as an adult.  

Under the cover of darkness, you can hide a lot of stuff.  That is why so much corruption happens at night.  It is harder to see.  During the daytime, the bright light of the sun exposes things that are hidden at night. It is the same way with our sin. We can hide our sin in the dark places of our heart but hiding it does not make it go away.  We can hide our problems in the dark recesses of our lives, but they are still there.  They don’t get solved by keeping them a secret.  The light of God exposes all these things in our lives – sins, secrets, etc…  We can hide nothing from Him.  

Into His Marvelous Light…Sun. I love the sun for so many reasons. The sun is warm; it is a beautiful color and makes the world sparkle in its light.  A sun-shiny day is so much better than a dreary day, and everything is so much clearer in the bright light of day.  You can see everything that was hidden in the dark of the night.  When you go to the dentist what does he do? He turns on a bright light so he can see to fix the problem.  The same is true with a doctor.  They need to be able to see everything clearly or they can’t help us.  

Light exposes things. Light exposes truth.  All the sin and secrets that we hide away are exposed by the light of God - His marvelous light.  The weight and burden of all the sin secrets we harbor are not really hidden at all.  They may be hidden from the world, but they have never been hidden to our Heavenly Father. We are really just hiding them from ourselves.  When we allow them to be exposed in his marvelous light, we find grace and mercy too. He loves us and does not want us to hide from Him.  He wants us to give it all to Him – strengths, weaknesses, sin, attitudes, wrong feelings, etc…  His love is unconditional and all-encompassing.  He knows everything already and He still calls us His sons and daughters, a royal priesthood, chosen by God.  

Have you ever felt a burden lifted when you had a problem you were worried about and you were keeping it to yourself or when you needed to confess to someone and ask forgiveness?  There is nothing like the relief that comes when the cat is finally out of the bag and you are not straining under the burden of darkness.  Leave the darkness and go to the light.  Allow the burden to be lifted from you by the one who cares more about you than any human being.  Taste the freedom and declare His excellencies!  

 For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, sothat his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.  John 3:20-21

A Living Prayer

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  Philippians 4:6

A Living Prayer

Prayer is conversation with God. It is our time of fellowship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is an open line of communication with our Heavenly Father. No appointment necessary. We have instant access to the creator of the universe. An audience with the King. 

Although we have all been taught to pray like we are talking to our best friend, and that is what we should do, we still need to remember and acknowledge the honor His holiness. When Jesus modeled prayer for us in Matthew chapter 6, He started with Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….  To be hallowed is to be holy, separate, and sanctified. When we start our prayers by acknowleding that He is holy and set apart, we are asking that He listen and act in His soverignty and holiness in response to our prayers, and He will. We have to be willing to surrender to His soverignty and accept the answer He gives. We can trust that in His love for us, He will make the very best decisions in our lives. 

Prayer acknowledges God’s presence in our lives and opens the door for fellowship with Him. A lot of times we approace prayer like it is a one-way street, instead of a conversation between two people. It is our opportunity to speak to God intimately, but it is also His time to speak to us intimately. When we pray, it is important for us to have open hearts and open minds. 

Worship should also be a part of our prayer time – worshipping God’s glory and thanking Him for all He has done. We can get in the habit of thinking that there is nothing good in our lives, especially when we are in the middle of a trial. The hard can consume the good if we are not intentional about finding the things we need to be thankful for. They are there. God has been faithful and good and He deserves for us to remember that always. 

In I Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul tells us to Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  When we have true faith in God, it changes how we do everything. This advice from Paul is a living prayer – a way we can keep our hearts and minds focused on God always, and in everything we do.

Rejoice always… Rejoice always because of salvation. Rejoice always because of God’s promises. Rejoice always because He is our strength. Rejoice always because He works all things for our good. We rejoice always because of what He has done, is doing, and will continue to do, no matter what is happening around us. Rejoice always because one day…we will see Him face to face. 

Pray without ceasing… We can keep the line of communication between us and God open all the time and about everything. He cares about it all – big and small.  

Give thanks in all circumstances… Good and bad, as hard as it sounds, we are to give thanks for everything. It may not feel like something we should be thankful for, but God uses everything in our lives for His glory – and that is something to be thankful for. 

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you…He always, always, always has our best interest at heart. This attitude and rule of living is how we should conduct ourselves day to day. 

He is faithful, trustworthy, and true. He loves us and loves it when we give Him our attention and praise. He also loves it when we lay our burdens down before Him. It gives Him pleasure to carry our burdens and trade our anxiety, fear, and worry with peace. Open those lines of communication, the God of all creation wants to speak with you. 

Is This Ship Going Down?

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat. And other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!” Mark 4:35-41

Is This Ship Going Down?

Jesus was exhausted. He had been speaking to crowds and now he and the disciples were headed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He was teaching from a boat to give some space between him and the crowd and also for good acoustics. He most likely did not go back to the shore but instead told the disciples “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they set out and Jesus, being tired as he was, took a power nap in the stern of the boat. 

As they were crossing over, a sudden storm arose. The wind was crazy, and the water was coming over the side of the boat. But Jesus stayed asleep through it all. The disciples were afraid, and they called out to him “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” The storm did not wake Jesus up. The water sloshing over the side of the boat did not wake Jesus us. The disciples arguing did not wake Jesus up. Jesus woke up when he heard the voices of his children calling out to him in distress. 

He immediately got up and rebuked the wind and the waves. This was not a calm response. This was a forceful show of his power in a new way. This miracle of nature was not as subtle as turning the water to wine and feeding the 5000. The disciples were stunned and questioned who this was that even the wind and waves obeyed him. 

The disciples not only had a promise from Jesus that they would make it to the other side, but they also had God himself in the boat with them – at the stern – the place from which a boat is steered.  What could give them more faith? They did not completely understand who Jesus was even though he had told them. They were still learning and when they saw the wind and waves obey him, they were terrified.

We have God with us in our lives every step of the way and we do the same thing the disciples did. So many times, we are sinking our own boat, dumping water into the boat instead of bailing it out. Circumstances pound away at our lives and water is spilling over the sides, sinking the ship, or so it appears. But Jesus is in the boat, in the stern, in full control. We still struggle with our unbelief as they did. All  we have to do is surrender to him, trust him, and find peace knowing that he is in control and we are not.

Are you sinking your own boat by refusing to surrender control to an omnipotent and faithful God?  

Like the disciples, do you need help with your unbelief?  

Who Or What Do You Adore?

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. Isaiah 55:1-3a

 Who Or What Do You Adore?

In his sermon this past Sunday Pastor Jim preached about the holiness of God. He said that we will worship what we adore. If we are not adoring God we will not see his holiness and then we miss out on everything he has for us – until we get that straightened out. 

The next morning after this sermon, the devotional I listen to every morning by The Worship Initiative was on this song – One Pure and Holy Passion. It is a perfect follow up to the sermon. 

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after you. 

 

To know and follow hard after you 

To grow as your disciple in your truth

This world is empty pale and poor

Compared to knowing you my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after you

This song says it so simply – it is only Jesus, nothing else. As much as we strive in our lives and as hard as we work to accumulate the “treasures” this world offers, it is all in vain. It all goes away in the blink of an eye and is worth nothing. 

As Isaiah says in the scripture above, the most  important thing you could ever need or want is absolutely free. It satisfies our deepest longings and quenches the fiercest thirst as nothing else will. Why is it that we incessantly pour money, time, ourselves, and effort into what will never satisfy us? Because Satan satisfies a tiny little itch with false gratification that only drives us to seek more until we reach the end of it all – the end of ourselves, the end of resources, the end of relationships, the end of our career, the end of the end. These are idols in our lives that we are putting in place of God. 

God gives us so much more that what idols can offer. Idols can never meet our needs but only multiply them.  God gives us sustenance and satisfaction like nothing else can. Isaiah says to listen carefully. We must stay focused, giving our time, attention, and effort to all God has for us. We consume his goodness and find delight and abundance. His offer is grace and clinging to idols forfeits his grace in our lives. 

When we are filled with him there is no room in our lives for idols or things that don’t matter. There is no room for earthly treasures that decay and rot away our soul. There is only room for him and all the good things he gives. 

When was the last time you really took a close look at your heart and what you are adoring?  We often tuck “small” idols into the corners of our hearts, thinking they can stay because they won’t interfere with our devotion to God but how wrong we are. No matter how small we think they are, idols always interfere with our devotion to God. The only pure and holy passion we can have is Jesus. The only magnificent obsession we can have is Jesus. The only truly glorious ambition for our lives is knowing and following hard after him. 

What is your passion? What is your obsession? Your ambition? 

What are you following hard after? 

Know that when we examine our hearts and recognize idolatry he forgives when we turn back to him and repent. There is no room for two on the throne of our heart. Choose God as the object of your adoration and follow hard after him.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive. Isaiah 55:6-7

The Holiness of God

Monday, September 29, 2025

Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Matthew 6:9

The Holiness of God

The holiness of God is something that we, as humans, will never fully comprehend until we get to heaven. We will all come face to face with Jesus someday and one of my favorite songs puts it beautifully:

A million angels fall
Face down on the floor
All to echo, "Holy is the Lord"
My heart can't help but sing
With all of Heaven roar
Forever echo, "Holy is the Lord"

(Echo Holy by Red Rocks Worship)

I can’t even imagine how this will be when we join a million angels echoing “Holy is the Lord!” over and over again, forever. What will that sound like? Generation upon generation will gather together at his feet declaring, praising and worshipping him for all eternity. He alone is worthy of this eternal praise. In the meantime, how can we come before a Holy God with the proper attitude? 

Yesterday Pastor Jim said that prayer is The overwhelming knowledge of God and his presence and place in the world meets with our overwhelming life experience. Then we are put in the proper context to be able to deal with the things in our lives.  When we find ourselves overwhelmed in our life experience, we can take it to him in a humble surrender.  

We are currently in a series on The Lord’s Prayer, titled “Pray Like This.” The Lord’s prayer is a model Jesus gave us to help us pray in the right way – a way that will help us live and look more and more like him every day. Our key truth for this series is, “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

As we have said, every line of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us something. The words your name be honored as holy help us to reflect on and understand more clearly who God is and how we are supposed to honor him.

Most of the time we try to fix our problems on our own. We wait until things completely blow up or we have made it ten times worse by trying to fix things in our own power before we start praying. Pray should be the first thing we do. Our Heavenly Father should be the first place we go. But unless we are adoring God in our lives over and above all, we can’t even come before him in the proper way, or with the proper attitude.  We may try to forget our circumstances by turning to idols to take away the pain or forget the problems we cannot solve. An idol is anything we love more than we love God. We seek answers where only more problems are to be found. There is no answer to be found anywhere other than with God. He is the only answer to everything. As long as we have our eyes on some other object of adoration, we will never see the holiness of God. If we never see his holiness, we will never surrender, and surrender is the only way to come before Holy God. 

We are desperate humans, living in a fallen world who have been given an invitation to God’s mercy and grace. We have a Holy God who cares about us when we are unworthy of even a thought from Him. Yet He, in his perfect holiness, meets us in our mess and takes it from us, filling us with himself. We then take that holiness and share it with the world so they too can understand and experience his love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and salvation – all that can only come from a Holy God. 

Who or what do you honor as holy? 

In the secret places who or what is on your mind? What dominates your thoughts?

Do others see his holiness in your life?  

Pray Like This... “Your Name Be Honored as Holy"

Pray Like This...
“Your Name Be Honored as Holy"
Matthew 6:9-13 (CSB)

 

- Prayer - “Prayer is a personal conversation with a holy and loving God that reorients our reality and makes all things possible.”

- Key Truth - “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

Main Question: What should be our proper attitude in prayer now that we know the proper Object of our prayer?

1.        We will all adore something. 

2.        Adoration frames everything else.

a.         Adoration frames confession.

b.         Adoration frames petition.

3.    Adoration magnifies God in the world.

 

After the Message: 
Participate in the NSBC 70 days of prayer. Download the NSBC App and turn on notifications to receive daily prayer prompts.

Fight for Your Faith

Friday, September 26, 2025

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.  Jude 17-23

Fight for Your Faith

Jude gave some good instructions to the early Christians to contend for the faith and those instructions are exactly what we need for this chaotic time of life we are living in. Because of Who our Heavenly Father is, we can build ourselves up in faith to be able to not only stand up for our faith, but also help our brothers and sisters in the family of God that have strayed from truth. 

How can we contend for the faith like Jude told those early Christians to do? How can we bolster ourselves and build ourselves up so we can contend for the faith in the middle of chaos?  Jude gives us three things to do so that we are always ready: 1.) Build yourselves up in your most holy faith 2.) Pray in the Holy Spirit 3.)Keep yourselves in the Love of God – waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 

Build Yourselves Up in your Most Holy Faith - We build ourselves up in the faith by clinging to what we know about God – what do we know, without a doubt? 

God is unchanging - His word is true and forever. Who He says He is, He is. What He says He will do, He will do. What He says is true is true, and He does not change His mind. His promises are good for all time. No matter how fast our world changes, He does not. He is immutable. He NEVER changes. His word is living and active – meaning it applies to the world the day it was written, and it applies just as much to our lives today.

God has all the wisdom, and we can trust Him – divine intelligence. He sees everything – from beginning to end. The whole picture, while we just get the next step, one step at a time. He wants us to trust Him for the rest of the way. Sometimes He gives us 90% and wants us to trust him for the 10%, but way more often it seems as though we get 10% and He wants us to trust Him for the other 90%. We have faced so much uncertainty this year and the future is still uncertain, but we can trust Him because He loves us, and our best interest is His concern.

God is a God of Order – He has divine power over everything, and nothing happens that He does not know about before it happens, even pandemics and riots and all the other chaos of 2020. He has already been here as the bible tells us in Isaiah 45:2 - I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. He has been here, where we are today. He has been in our tomorrows, leveling the mountains and breaking down barriers for us. He is in control, even in a world that is so out of control. 

Pray in the Holy Spirit - Praying in the Holy Spirit simply means praying according to the spirit’s leading, which we are always to do. Non-Christians are devoid of the spirit. As Christians, we are given the Holy Spirit as a helper who leads us and intercedes for us when we don’t have the words.  

Keep Yourselves in the Love of God - Keeping ourselves in the love of God is simply obeying God and His commands. Jude is saying take care of your relationship with God. Do what you know is right – get your focus back where it belongs – on Him. Get in the word which gives truth. When there seems to be no truth to be found – the word of God is always true. Pray about it all. And Obey His commands. 

We may not be able to control the chaos of the world, but we can have some control over what we choose to focus on. Focusing on God, His truth, prayer, and our relationship with Him is the very best distraction from the chaos of this world. It will strengthen our faith for whatever comes our way, and we will always be ready to contend for the faith. 

The last sentence is one of my very favorite verses and so important to us as members of the family of God. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire… 

Get your relationship with God right where it needs to be, remembering who your Heavenly Father is. Contend for the faith, but do not forget our purpose as the body of Christ – snatching everyone we can back from the brink of fire.

The Only One

Thursday, September 25, 2025

 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Isaiah 55:1

We have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much and has already done so much for us before we were ever born.  But we still often try to replace Him with other idols in our lives.  Eventually we find out that those idols will never do for us what only the One True God can. 

Only He Can Satisfy All Our Longings -  So much time and effort are spent in our lives looking for something that makes us happy, that fulfills us, or satisfies our deepest longings. We believe that whatever it is that we want will make us happy but when we get it, we are still not happy.  Finally, we realize that He is what we truly want. He is what we are craving and thankfully, He is still there when we are done roaming around looking for all He already has to offer. 

Only He Can Rescue You – Only God is able and sufficient to rescue us from any situation we are in.  It is easy to get tired of waiting when He doesn’t answer the way we want Him to or as quickly as we want Him to and try to find something or someone else to rescue us.  We only complicate things that way.  In the middle of our need is where our faith is tested.  God’s promises are faithful and true and if we wait on Him He will deliver you.

Only He Can Take Away Sin and Shame– God alone is able to save us from our sin.  He alone can take away the shame we live in and that keeps us from becoming all God has made us to be.  It holds us back and keeps us down, convincing us that God would have nothing to do with us, that we are unredeemable.  No false God can take this away for you because it is only by the redemption of Jesus Christ that we are free from our sin and able to move beyond it to have new life in Him. 

God is the Only One You Can Trust– One of the big traits of false gods is the false security and false hope they offer.  It is tempting to begin to fill the empty spots and lonely places with all they offer.  When we refuse them, we have more empty spaces, but God is the only one who won’t leave us with more empty places.  Instead, He fills all our empty spaces and He will never leave us empty and alone.

He Promises Much– When we trust God and endure through trials, we will find a blessing somewhere along the way, but we may have to look for it.  Sometimes we may get delivered really quick from something, other times us takes a long time.  But this produces endurance in us and though it is usually unpleasant, it is serving a purpose.  When we look to Him for every step of the way, we are trusting in Him and our faith in Him gets stronger.  He is always faithful and true to His word.  

Trust the One True God and He will not let you down. 

Because of the LORD's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Can We Trust God?

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:1-5

Can We Trust God?

Trusting someone can be scary, especially if you do not know them well. In the world we live in today we seem to be overwhelmed with people trying to scam and steal from us. We trust family and friends and think we they are safe people to trust and be vulnerable with, but they prove us wrong hurting us in some way or betraying us. It makes it hard to trust anyone. 

Trusting God means letting go and relinquishing control. Most of us have a problem with relinquishing control at some level, especially when it comes to trusting God – who we have never seen. How can we learn to trust him? 

Insecurity keeps us from being intimate with people – and God. You will never have a true intimate relationship with someone if you don’t know how they feel about you. If you are not sure about how God feels about you, you won’t draw near to him, you will distance yourself. You have to be absolutely confident about how he feels about you, and if we will believe it, he has proven over and over again how he feels about us. Growing in a relationship with God will bring the confidence and security we need to know God on an intimate level, understanding him and believing he keeps his promises because we have seen it with our own eyes and read the stories. Knowing God intimately also means we will understand his character. 

Attributes of God are characteristics of his nature. The five verses above tell us much about God’s nature and prove why we can trust him. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God is eternal. He has always been since the beginning and will always be. The Word in this verse is God. Jewish Rabbis referred to God as “the word of God.” Greek philosophers believed the Word was the power that held everything in perfect order, controlling all things. 

All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. God is sovereign, supreme over everything. He is over everything because he created all things. There is nothing in the universe that was not created by him. He is sovereign overall. 

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. God is omnipotent meaning he is all-powerful over everything, including Satan. He has overcome darkness for all time and without him we are lost in the darkness, dead in our sin. 

What is it about what God did on the cross that proves how he feels about us?  

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Sonfrom the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Because he loved us, God himself put on flesh as a baby and came to live with us on earth so we could relate to him on a personal level. God came to earth through Jesus to reveal his nature - love, compassion, and grace. Through the life of Jesus God was revealed.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have been redeemed so that we could have a relationship with him and live with him in heaven forever as his adopted sons and daughters. 

The greatest display of his love for us is the cross. He suffered and died in our place and restored and reconciled us back to God. Because of this sacrifice we have peace with God. 

God is immutable, meaning He is unchanging; this in turn means that God is absolutely reliable and trustworthy - the only person we can truly trust. People will hurt us and fail us. He never will. He never stops loving us or changes his mind about us. Our redemption and salvation in him are forever and his love and mercy for us are forever. That equals a God we can trust and a Heavenly Father we can go to, lean into, and call on knowing that he hears and cares about every little thing in our lives. 

Do you find it hard to trust people? God? 

How have you seen his attributes and promises manifested in your life?  

To Be Loved By God

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1a

To Be Loved By God

What does it feel like to be loved by God? Do you ever stop and think about it? If you do, you will feel overwhelmed by the enormity of this concept. Or do you think that God could never really love you because of all your faults and failures? 

God gave His son for the redemption of a world that was full of people with faults and failures. He did not give His Son for those who are spotless and perfect because there is no such thing except Jesus Himself. He loved us so much that, in our worst condition – sinners far away from Him – He took the punishment of our sin for us. His death on the cross paid for our redemption and that is the greatest love gift ever given. He did that before we even acknowledged He existed. He did it for the good and the bad. He doesn’t love one and hate the other.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

There are those of us who cannot imagine that the love of God is for us. We see nothing but our failures when we look in the mirror (and when we don’t), and there is a continuous tape playing in our minds of all the reasons why He couldn’t love us and why we are so far out of the bounds of His grace. The real truth is that none of this is true. He wants the broken and He loves to bring beauty from the ashes of our lives. And He will do it every time if we let Him and accept it. 

As a child of God, there is nothing you can do to make God love you more. As a child of God, there nothing you can do to make God love you less.  

Even when we sin, we do not loose God’s affection for us. He still loves us, but sin deprives us of God’s blessings. He also does not take away the consequences of our sin as far as the world is concerned. Jesus’ sacrifice took away the eternal consequences of our sin and gave us eternal life. But there may be some earthly consequences we still have to pay. (Like a speeding ticket or broken relationships) We can sometimes mistakenly feel that because God loves us, He will take away those earthly consequences as well. That is not true. Truth is that He loves us no matter what but He will allow us to feel the sting of our poor choices, like any good father would. 

Being loved by God also means we belong to God. We are His. He calls us His own and gives us a heavenly inheritance that is greater than any earthly amount of gold or treasure. We are His children and He will never renounce His claim on our lives. We will fail. There have been times when like the prodigal we have felt unworthy to be called His children. But when we turn to the Father, He declares before all of heaven, earth, and hell, "He’s/She’s mine!"

Because we are so loved by Him, we can have confidence to walk in faith in Him. We can know that He will never give us anything except what is very best for us. We can feed our faith by studying the Word of God. His claim on us is sovereign and nothing and no one can take that away from us ever. In His sovereignty we have victory over every battle. We have a safe place in Him whne we cannot find a safe place on earth. 

Sadly, so many never really know what it feels like to be loved by God. We have trouble accepting that He could love us and especially that He would choose to love us. His love is given to us freely and unconditionally but we have to receive it to really experience it and know what it means to be loved by Him. Accept His gift and understand completely what it is to be loved by God.  

Our Father in Heaven…

Monday, September 22nd, 2025 

Our Father in Heaven…

For the Christian, prayer is essential to our growth in our relationship with God. It is direct access to the throne of God – an invitation we have been given to enter into his presence and commune with him. It is communication with the maker and his creation, and he longs to have this time with us. It is a time to connect with him, face to face, with everything else striped away – no pretense between us and holy God.

Last week we started a series on The Lord’s Prayer, titled “Pray Like This.” The Lord’s prayer is a model Jesus gave us to help us pray in the right way – a way that will help us live and look more and more like him every day. Our key truth for this series is, “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

Every line of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us something and the first four words, Our Father in Heaven, helps us to know exactly who he is and what that means for us. 

Praying to Our Father

The name “Father” may invoke many different feelings for everyone. Many children have had the privilege of having a father who loves, cherishes, supports, and is committed to them.  A caring father who nourishes an intimate and loving relationship makes a profound effect on a child's life.  God is more than willing to help make up for absent fathers. As a Christian we have a unique relationship with the Creator of the universe who is our heavenly father as well and we need to make sure our children understand that concept of God. 

The name Father holds position and privilege for his children. It puts us in a position to know him intimately. We are his adopted sons and daughters which means that we share his treasures as an inheritance. Everything that is his is ours as well. It also means that we are under his care as we submit to him by praying to him as “Father.” He comes when we call. He hears when we cry. He listens when we pray.  He never leaves us. Because he loves us, he disciplines us as our Father, as any good father would.

When we pray to our Father in heaven it reminds us of his power and authority. He is over all and all things were made in him. He is the mighty and sovereign creator of the universe, who created, controls, and will judge all things. “In heaven” also reminds us of his holiness and glory, seated on his throne in authority overall. 

We pray to God Our Father as part of God’s family. We are to pray for sinners and our brothers and sisters in Christ. He knows us as our father and as a part of the family of God we share in the Gospel. We pray for each other. We realize we desperately need him and each other.

Whatever your concept is of your earthly father, you have Heavenly Father who loves you and wants the very best for you always. He is a father we can trust and lean into. He is a father we can count on in times of trouble, who will come when we have exhausted ourselves into a heap. He comes and puts us back together again and draws us close to him in comfort. He is the father we have all wanted and the father we all need.  

Are you someone who can call God your father?  Have you trusted Christ as your Savior and entered a relationship with God as your Father that is only possible through Christ? 

Are you tapping into the privilege of utilizing the greatest source of power known to any by praying to the one and only true God of heaven? 

As to your responsibility as God’s son or daughter, have you taken God’s call to pray for one another seriously?  Are you earnest and faithful in your prayers for others?  How might this change your prayer life?