REVIVALTALK

          The media is filled with advertisements encouraging people to plan for the inevitable. Funeral homes encourage individuals to pre-plan and to pre-pay for their funeral services.    Financial planners will encourage families to have a will.    Life insurance companies spend heavily advertising the fact that we need to provide for our loved ones in the event of our death.           Many in our society have pre-paid their funeral expenses, purchased life insurance to take care of their loved ones, and have drawn up a will. They have made the necessary physical preparations, but they haven’t made spiritual preparations for eternity.    The Bible teaches in Hebrews 9:27, “And it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”     The words, “after this,” are very important.    They reveal that there is something beyond the grave that we must be pre...

  Matthew 6:33 – “ Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”             The key to spiritual growth and maturity is to make your relationship with God a priority.  Jesus encourages you to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  To prioritize your relationship with God is to put God first in your life. First things in the Bible are very important.  Proverbs 3:9-10 teaches, “Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.”  At the beginning of each month the Jewish people practice “first fruits.”  This is a time of celebration and worship to celebrate the new month.  The Jewish people would bring an offering to recognize that God was their source and to sanctify and cele...

  “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many” (Hebrews 12:15, NLT). A healthy tree has a healthy root system.  Roots anchor the tree and provide a storage and distribution system for nutrients. When tree roots are injured, the tree becomes stressed and is subject to fall.  Psalms 1:3, Isaiah 55:12, and Hebrews 12:15 compare a person to a tree. Hebrews 12:15 gives a specific warning about the root of bitterness.  A bitter root develops from a hurt that has not been forgiven and healed.  Bitterness is compared to a root because it is often hidden under an ill nature of ungratefulness, grudges, jealousy, and criticism, stemming from a judgmental mindset to blame others in order to justify the bitterness. Bitterness results in anger, slander, and malice.  To avoid a bitter root, we must be willing to acknowledge that people are hu...

  We are living in exciting times.  The Apostle Paul described our days in 2  Timothy 3:1, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.”  The word “perilous” means dangerous.  We are living in very dangerous times.               To quote Charles Dickens, “There are the best of times and the worst of times.”  Our society is increasingly becoming more perverse and violent.  We are inundated with news of shootings, violence, and drug related crimes.  Many times this violence is directed toward the most innocent of our society.               How do the people of God respond to a society that continues to spiral out of control?  We must be diligent to fulfill the Great Commission.  The times we live in demand a response from God’s people.  This is a “s...