Sermon Notes

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

Laban is manipulator: Gave Leah instead of Rachel. Changed Jacob’s wage 10 times, not in a good way

Always took the best for himself

Jacob is a manipulator: Stole Esau’s blessing. Used almond branches by a stream that sectioned off a portion of the flock so that they would mate and he would get the best of the flock..

Divided a family using deception (lying)

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Jesus was called a wine-bibber, as translated in the King James Version in both Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34.  Of course, this is an accusation made about Jesus by the priests.  While Jesus most definitely drank wine and so did his disciples (think Passover), he never was a drunkard or a glutton.

Spiritual Abuse, Part Two

Jesus said, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

This is Paul’s letter of encouragement to Timothy, who is both a young man and a young pastor at a church that Paul planted in Ephesus.  It may behoove us all to read the letter that Paul sent to the church just after he left after his first missionary journey.  Timothy is struggling and Paul understands why. 

When you are following the Way of God, under conviction of the  Advocate Holy Spirit, and someone  treats you unkind, or claims to be a follower of Jesus but wants to exclude and hate, recognize that they do not know God!  They instead hate you, which means they hate Jesus, they hate the Father, and they hate the Holy Spirit!  They are of the WRONG spirit! 

“If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

Submit to Who is good, be Overcome and Overshadowed:
Mat 17:5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.