Monday, March 27, 2017

A Happy Ending – Part 2 – The Best is Yet to Come


Ruth 4:13-17 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a kinsman redeemer; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi.” And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Continuing Pastor Herk’s Message: Truth (3) We must know our identity in Christ. Those who, by faith, accept the free gift of salvation offered by the grace of God in the atoning and redemptive sacrificial death of His Son Jesus Christ  (our kinsman redeemer) are destined  for “good godly works” here now and Heaven to come. Once saved, forgive yourself of your past sins because God has already done it. Do not allow yourself to be known as a utter failure. The children of God do not wear that name tag because it is a false identity that takes away our potential to serve our just and holy loving Lord God.

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

(4) It’s all about Jesus. We cannot be dragged down by negativity. If God is for us, who can be against us in this negative sin-sick world. The best is yet to come! Even though the God-rejecting world system is growing more negative, we are saved and being heaven-bound is our eternal perspective. It’s easier to endure difficult times in this “fallen” world, if we identify ourselves as a child of God and the citizen of heaven with a eternally glorious future.

1 Corinthians 2:9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Christians that look back negatively on their past and punishingly rerun old wrongs forgiven that are now long gone, cannot serve and minister today effectively. Spiritual revival asks; “How do we reach unsaved people with the gospel?” Answer: With a message of God’s grace that forgives the past and says: “The best is yet to come!” Philippians 3:13-14 tells us, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” A person who rides looking backwards knows where they have been, but does not know where they are going. So forget the bad things behind us and look forward to what’s coming, whether in view or over the next rise; its victory. Know that the best is yet to come and, in the end, we live happily ever after with the Lord in Heaven. Now, that’s a happy ending!

Philippians 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.


In Christ, Brian

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