Sardis-Message for this week from Pastor Santos
Hello everyone.
I trust you are well and enjoying fellowship with God.
Last night I was teaching via the internet a Theological College in Brazil. It is such a blessing to be able to share what God is doing.
We certainly serve an amazing and all compassionate God.
God bless
“Let’s do our best to reach the whole world as soon as possible for Christ
With God we can do great things – Daniel 11:32 – 26/04/20
Every year as a fellowship of believers we have a theme for the year. This year’s theme is “Attempt Great Things for God and Expect Great Things from God” the biblical foundation for it is Daniel 11:32 . We are concentrating on the 2nd part of the verse “but the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits”.
The man who coined our theme for the year is called William Carey. Mr Carey was a cobbler and in his workshop he had a map of the world and as he repaired shoes he prayed for the world to be saved. He was the first Baptist missionary, and he went to India and he never returned to Britain again. He gave himself completely to serve the Lord and through his vision and efforts the ‘Baptist Mission Society’ was founded. He accomplished a lot for God and deservedly received the title ‘The Father of Modern Missions’.
The name Daniel means – God is my judge. Daniel was a young Jewish man who belonged to the nobility in Jerusalem and together with thousands of other Jewish people he was taken into captivity in Babylon. When in Babylon, he and some of his friends remained faithful to God and because of this they faced some very challenging times. The verse in Daniel 11 is written later on in his life time. However, Daniel had seen the results of the furnace of fire and how God spared his friends’ lives.
Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den and his life was spared. Daniel had dreams and visions from God and he could truly say ‘but the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits”. Daniel did not have it easy but he remained faithful to God. Daniel was young, handsome, and intelligent; he had dreams of being married, becoming a father and enjoying a family life. All of these things were taken away from him when he became a captive in Babylon. To make life more complicated he became an eunuch and that was a humiliating situation to find himself in. In all the troubles and humiliation he faced Daniel remained faithful and true to the Lord. He could have asked himself ‘what have I done to deserve this?’. He could have become a very bitter person, but instead of embracing bitterness Daniel embraced the grace of God which enabled him not just to survive but to be a real blessing and encouragement. We know that Daniel became very high up in a governmental position within the Babylonian empire. Daniel never went back to Jerusalem even though his heart was set on it. We can sit down and cry at what life throws at us and or learn to stand and make a difference and be blessing.
Daniel had decided that from the very beginning of his captivity that he would not conform but he would make a stand for the Lord. It took great courage and he was just a young man. Age does not come into it, when a man or a woman is devoted to the Lord, He will use them regardless of their age. It is a wonderful thing to know about God, and when studying theology we learn a lot about God, but there is a great difference in knowing about God, and knowing God. It is not the people who know about God that will do great exploits, it is the people who know God that will do great exploits. We are called to be a blessing and a living witness wherever we are. If we work in a hospital we are called to be courageous in that environment, if we work as a teacher or a bus driver, or whatever place we find ourselves in, if we know God we are going to achieve great things for Him. We are not aiming to be heroes but we are aiming to be courageous men and women of God who every day depend upon Him. We are living in a very self-sufficient society but we believers are not embarrass to approach God to ask Him to bless us in ways that we can achieve great things for Him.
You need to have an active faith and believe beyond circumstances that God will see you through. At the present moment I feel like all of us are in a gym – I mean spiritual gym and God is teaching us how to exercise our spiritual muscles. We are getting stronger and at a time such as this we need to focus on Him.
Do not be afraid, trust, and keep going strong.
Cast all you cares on Him – Bible Study 28/04/20
1 Peter 5: 1-10 / 5:7
Peter says something very powerful here in verse 1 ‘a witness of Christ’s sufferings’. He was with the Master for 3 ½ years and he saw how He lived His life and also ‘His sufferings’. Pay attention Peter does not say ‘suffering’ he says ‘sufferings’. The Lord throughout His life faced sufferings – a refugee in Egypt, religious persecution, false accusations, etc. Peter never saw the Lord anxious about what life would dish Him out next.
We are living in a society when many people are suffering terribly with problems of anxiety. Many people are taking tablets for their anxiety and please do not misunderstand me because medically speaking there is room for such treatments. What I am saying is we need to learn to rest in the Lord. In Matthew 11:28 we read about it. The teaching of Matthew 6 about the ‘Daily Bread’ is about us not being anxious about tomorrow. The news today is so bad and scary that I miss the times when it was all about ‘Brexit’ and ‘Brexit’ did get on my nerves.
When looking at the bible there are many verses in which messages are not complete in themselves and we need to read the whole passage to understand it. Nevertheless, verse 7 is a complete verse, it makes complete sense in itself and reaffirms biblical truths about anxiety. Someone went to the doctor and said ‘doctor every time I turn my neck around it hurts me’ and the doctor said ‘do not turn it around then’. In other words you will have no pain but the problem will not be solved either. I could tell you ‘just do not watch television or listen to the news’, however it would not solve the problem, it would just cover it up. I know sometimes we need to be kind to ourselves but we cannot hide from reality.
All of us have plenty of reasons to be anxious about different things in life. It is something that can take over our lives and cause us to live with insecurity and fear. We can get worried or uneasy about something with an uncertain outcome. When these feelings come upon you, you need to cast them over to the Lord. To cast means to throw them over to him and say in an audible voice ‘Lord I cannot control these situations and it is taking over my life, but in accordance to the teachings of your word I cast them over to you asking you handle this situation’. To hand a situation over to the Lord is not a sign of weakness but a clear sign that we trust in Him and also in His compassionate character. The bible gives us so many examples of how caring God is – Caring Father (Psalm 103:13), Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14 Friend (John 15:15) etc. Every day we should pray, and during our times of prayer we should hand the day over to Him knowing that He will do a better job of it than what we would. As the day develops in front of you, you will meet new challenges and anxiety will knock at the door of your heart. Just remember, ‘cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you’. I know Maureen’s favourite verse is Proverb 3:5,6. This passage speaks about trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts. We exercise trust everyday in our lives. When we turn on the light we trust it will work, when it does not we are quite surprised. When we sit down we trust the chair will hold our weight, when we open the fridge door we trust the food would have kept cold. If we can trust in these things that have no brain, no personality, no desire, we certainly can trust much more in God who exceeds in intelligence, kindness, love etc. Instead of listening to the news for comfort, listen to it for information because for comfort and strength we listen to the Lord. If you are frightened because of the news on TV, open your bible and read, and be encouraged in who God is and learn to rest in His love. He cares for you.