Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Dec 11th, 2023 Grow Up

Today’s Passages – Ephesians 4 – 6 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 51 – 55; Proverbs 11)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Psalm 55:17

Read the “1211 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” (Ephesians 4:13-15)

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:1)

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” (Hebrews 5:12)

One of the many problems with the modern concept of Christianity in our world today, is that it is producing very immature Christians. At one time the churches of America understood that they had a responsibility to teach and preach sound Bible doctrine. Unfortunately, in most of our churches the Bible has been replaced with entertainment and in some cases the Word of God has been almost removed altogether. If you were to travel back in time to the first half of the 20th century you would see that mostly all Bible believing churches had multiple opportunities for the people to come to the House of God in order to learn Truth. Gradually, as the years passed, sermon lengths became shorter and whole services were eliminated. It is rare to find an evangelical church with Sunday School for adults or evening services on Sunday, or Bible studies / Prayer Meetings during the week. It is no wonder that our country is rapidly deteriorating when God’s people are feeding sparsely on Jello and Tapioca, instead of meat. It is also not surprising that Christians are dropping like flies into all kinds of immorality when they are not taking in enough spiritual nourishment to strengthen them against the wiles of the Devil.

This lack of Bible can also be seen in our homes. There used to be such a thing as “a family altar” and family devotions. There was a time when it would not be uncommon for Christian fathers and mothers to read the Bible with their children. It was not at all unusual for a mom to insist that her children get up out of bed a little earlier so that they could spend some time in the Word of God before they faced the day. Now, we are too busy finding out what all our friends are doing on Facebook, or perhaps we are engrossed in the latest immoral sitcom on television. Shame on us. We are producing a bunch of weak, baby Christians who could not possibly be strong enough to carry the torch to the next generation.

In our passage today we see that God gave us all that we need in order to grow and mature in the faith. Notice vs. 11 – 12:

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” (Ephesians 4:11-12)

God gave us pastors and teachers but unfortunately they are too busy trying to please a carnal group of people instead preaching the Word of God. I heard recently of a pastor of a church (that was once a fundamental Baptist church) who went to a football game on a Sunday morning instead of going to his pulpit. He got his wife to fill in for him. Shame on that pastor, and shame on that church for not firing him.

We need to get back to the basics, back to the Bible. We need to get rid of all of the technology that is supposed to be helping us so much, get rid of the social media, the filth on television, the mindless video games and internet surfing, and get back to “study[ing] to show [ourselves] approved unto God, [workmen] that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” And our churches need to get back to filling their services with sound doctrine, and lots of it. We are losing the battle. Few are getting saved today because our lights are too dim and our salt has lost its savor. We need to wake up and go back to what worked before we completely lose this generation.

Dec 10th, 2023 Saved to Good Works – Not By Good Works

Today’s Passages – Ephesians 1 – 3; (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 46 – 50; Proverbs 10)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Isaiah 40:31

Read the “1210 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” – (Ephesians 2:8-10)

These verses in Ephesians are perhaps among the most familiar in the Bible. We often use vs. 8 – 9 to convince people that salvation is not through our good works but solely though the grace of God, which is available only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace has been defined as unmerited favor, or more simply put, it is receiving something that we do not deserve. What a wonderful truth it is to know that our salvation is not dependent upon our good works, which are totally insufficient and fall miserably short of the mark. As the verse teaches, salvation comes solely through the free gift of God’s grace. Jesus paid the total price for our sins when He died on the cross and now makes salvation available to anyone who will simply receive Him by faith.

However, just because works are not acceptable as payment for our sins, it doesn’t mean that we should not “work” for the Lord after we are saved. Verse 10, which is not quoted nearly as often as vs. 8 & 9, teaches very plainly that God has ordained that we should work for Him after salvation. God has a specific plan for each one of His children. He has something for all of us to do. Our job is to determine what God’s will is for our lives and then do it. There are lots of opportunities for service within a local church.

Are you working for the Lord doing His ordained tasks? If not, you need to get busy:)