Who Do You Fear?

Isaiah 8:13 “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”

The people were afraid of a confederacy. They were afraid of people, but God said “neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Most people fear other people or things that can happen on this earth.

God tells us that we should not be afraid of the things that make others afraid. We should fear only One – the Lord of hosts Himself!

We are to sanctify the Lord of hosts. He is to be “set apart”, to occupy a special place in our heart, and to be the One that we fear more than any other person or thing. He is to be our fear and our dread.

Who do you fear? Are more concerned about what men think or what God thinks? Do you let the fear of man bring you into a snare? Or does your fear of God cause you to do what is right no matter what others may say or think?

Calvary Quartet Cancelled on 21st February

I wanted to let you all know that we have had to cancel the Calvary Quartet date because the group is actually disbanded for now.  I just got off the phone with the head of the group, and he said that it all just came to a head yesterday.

He does sing with another group, and we are going to try to get this group booked for another date, so the Gospel Concert on 21 February is off for now.  As soon as we get another date, I will let you know.

Thank you so much for understanding.

Sunday Video Report

I recorded a 3 minute video with an update of what the Lord did yesterday in the service, prayer requests, and some exciting upcoming events.

Will We Answer the Call?

Isaiah 6:8 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.“

There is much confusion among Christians about “THE CALL.” “The Call” can range from a dream to a desire, from God hunting a person down and nearly killing them to gradually moving up in the ministry.

Isaiah 6 gives “the call” (if we want to call it that) of Isaiah. Isaiah sees a vision of God and at the conclusion of the chapter he hears God saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah says, “Here am I send me.” Notice several things we learn about the call from this passage:

1. The call to service is preceded by a call to worship. In Isaiah 6:1-4, Isaiah sees the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, with great glory, power, holiness, and majesty. He sees God for who He really is – the supreme Lord over all. If we can get a true vision of who God is, we will have no problem serving Him. Our service flows out of our worship. People who are madly in love with the Lord are willing to serve Him however He sees fit. If a person resist service, it is a good sign they are not truly worshipping God.
2. The call to service is preceded by a call to salvation. Once Isaiah sees the holiness of God, he immediately recognised His own depravity. He says in Isaiah 6:5 “Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Upon this confession, God proceeds to send a seraphim to take a coal from off the altar to purge Isaiah’s sin. You cannot serve the Lord properly until you have recognised your own sinfulness in the sight of a holy God, confessed your sin, and been made clean by God’s own power.
3. The call to service is extended to everyone. God is not just asking a select few to serve Him; He desires that everyone serve Him. In Isaiah 6:8, the call goes out to everyone, “Whom shall I send, and who will for us?” God is saying, I need someone that I can send, someone who will go for us. He did not mention Isaiah’s name; he just put it out to everyone.
4. The call to service is heard by those who are listening. Isaiah said, “I heard the voice of the Lord.” You may think that God is not calling you to service, but the problem is that you are not listening. He wants you to serve Him. His call is going out. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said the following, “‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”
5. The call to service is about a heart of gratitude volunteering to serve a wonderful God who has done much for us. Following the vision of God and the work of God in Isaiah’s life, he heard the cry of God for labourers and willingly said, “Here am, I send me.” God directed his call to all that would listen. Isaiah heard it and volunteered. When he did, God did not turn him down; God said, “Go, and tell this people.” If you tell the Lord you want to serve Him and use your life to take God’s message to the world, he will not turn you down. As a matter of fact, we know He will not turn us down because He has already commanded us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). How could God not want you to be obedient to His command?

Will you volunteer for service? Are you listening? The call has gone out and continues to go out for people who will love the Lord enough to obey His command to “Go!”

Grapes or Wild Grapes

Isaiah 5:1b-2 “My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”

God has been so good to us. We are like the vineyard in these verse. He has put fences up, taken the stones out, given us the choicest vine, and built a tower to protect us. He has saved us, changed us, given us power, given us His Son, His Spirit and His Word. He has done so much for us.

Now He is looking for fruit. He is looking for us to bring forth good works. This is why He has saved us – to please, glorify, and work for Him. What will He find? Will He find grapes or wild grapes? Will He find us selfishly taking his blessings and consuming them upon our own lusts? Or will He find us carefully investing every blessing into the work of God?

I am afraid that many times I have wasted and carelessly handled the blessings of God. God I repent of my selfishness and carelessness. Help me today to be a vineyard that brings forth good fruit for You and for Your glory.

My Beloved & Friend

Song of Solomon 5:16 “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”

Marriage is a picture of the love that Christ has for the church. As Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, so husbands are to give themselves for their wives. In the Song of Solomon, we see the beautiful love of King Solomon for the Shulammite woman.

The whole book is a challenge to any couple to love one another the way they should. It is also a challenge to any believer to fall deeply in love with God. The verse above talks about a beloved and friend.

I want to encourage all those married couples to work at developing their love and their friendship. Marriage is not a contract or a business agreement; it is to be a love relationship. When is the last time you kissed? When the last time you went on a date? When is the last time you wrote a love letter to your husband or wife? When is the last time you thanked your wife for alls she does and commented on how beautiful she looks? Wives, when was the last time you showed your husband that you respect him and told him how much you admired him?

Marriage is to be a friendship. Many marriages appear to be more like the arguments of a brother and sister rather than the friendship of a husband and wife. Do you enjoy just spending time with your husband or wife? Are they your best friend?

In conclusion, let me apply this to single people. Are you developing a deep love for the Lord and learning to walk with God on a daily basis? Is He your best friend? You have been given the gift of singleness for the time being. This is not a time to indulge in selfish pleasures, but rather an opportunity to devote your whole life completely to the service of the Lord Jesus. Don’t want your single life. If you can’t serve the Lord as a single person, how will you serve if God allows you to be married?

The Conclusion of the Whole Matter

Ecclesiastes 12:13 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

The wisest, wealthiest, most powerful man who ever lived is telling us “the conclusion of the whole matter.” He has tried it all, heard it all, and done it all. Now he is summing up everything he has experienced and learned in his life!

What conclusion would he give to everything?

1. Fear God. Live in reverence and respect of a holy God before whom we will stand one day. Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
2. Keep God’s Commandments. Life lived in obedience to God’s commands is a blessed, happy, and peaceful life. Life lived contrary to His commands leads to destruction and judgment.

This is the whole duty of man. If we fear God and keep His commandments, we have kept our duty. There is nothing else to think about, nothing else to experience, and nothing else that we need to do in life. The is our whole duty.

All Go to One Place

Ecclesiastes 6:6 “Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?”

Ecclesiastes is the work of man who tried it all and found no satisfaction in what the world has to offers. He is looking at life from the perspective of a men who tried everything and was only satisfied with serving God.

If we are wise, we will learn from his experiences, so that we do not end up empty and bitter at the conclusion of our life. Notice how empty this life is:

• God will bless a man with riches, wealth, and honour. The man will not, however, have the power to enjoy them, but rather someone else will get to enjoy them. He will die and leave it all for someone else to enjoy (6:2).
• A man could have 100 children, live many years, and have much good, yet he is worse off than the one who dies at a young age, because the one who dies prematurely has more rest than the man who lives a long time (6:3-5).
• If a man could live 2000 years, he will not find any real, lasting good on the earth, and he will still die and go to the grave (6:6).
• Men labour their whole life to provide food for their mouths, yet the appetite is never satisfied (6:7).

What is the moral of this chapter? Live for God and His pleasure. Lay up treasure in heaven. Labour not for the meat which perished. Life is short and all of us will die, so do something with your short life to invest in eternity and glorify God!

Businessmen Seminar: Priorities, Decisions and Balance?

Do you desire to serve the Lord but find that many distractions in your life shift your focus away from Him? Do you have a difficult time wanting to know God better but find that there’s not much time to do so? When you’re with family and friends who don’t know Christ, do you find yourself distracted by their priorities?

Join Vision Baptist Church on Saturday, March 6th from 9AM to 1PM as we discuss the answers to some of the following questions:

• How can pastors believe that my life should revolve around God when I do not have the luxury of time that a pastor has?
• How do you keep focused on God when your life is consumed with business and worldly distractions?
• How do I keep from focusing on my needs, concerns, ambitions, and allow God to use me?
• How do I balance my time between family, friends, God, and business?
• How can I increase my ability to draw close to God and remain close to Him when I am consumed by business and work?
• How do you love God when your life is filled with unsaved family, friends, coworkers, etc?

Come hear from the personal experience of John Pearson, a businessman from our church, on how he has focused on Christ and avoided distractions. Hear what God’s word says about balance from Austin Gardner our pastor. Come with questions.

Who: Businessmen, Professionals, Career People and all others who are interested.

What: Businessmen Seminar: Priorities, Decisions & Balance Seminar with John Pearson and Austin Gardner

When: Saturday, March 6th, 2010, 9 AM to 1 PM (Lunch to be served at noon.)

Where: Vision Baptist Church, 1125 Alpha Drive, Alpharetta, Georgia 30004 | P: 770-456-5881 | E: info@visionbaptist.com | W: www.visionbaptist.com

Why: To learn what would be a biblical answer to your questions!

We look forward to spending some time together discussing how we can keep our focus on Christ and avoid distractions in our lives. Please RSVP by Monday, March 2nd to help us adequately prepare for lunch

Better Is a Handful with Quietness

Ecclesiastes 4:6 “Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.”

According to Solomon, it would be better to have just a handful and quietness than to have both hands full of possessions and be full of problems and worry. We often think that happiness will come when we have tons of stuff, but the truth is happiness does not come from things.

If we really believed this verse, how would it affect our life? I think, we would:

• Stop striving so hard for more things.
• Be grateful for a quiet life of few things.
• Understand that the more we get the more worries we have.
• Be content with such things as we have.
• Take time for quietness and thankfulness instead of always running around trying to accumulate more.

What would you rather have? A quiet, simple life with few possessions or a worried, troubled life with many possessions.

Let us seek first God’s kingdom, and let Him take care of the other things.