God’s Word is awesome.
God’s Word is true with absolutely no error.
God’s Word is eternal.
God’s Word is directly from God.
The thing that I love most about God’s Word is how is reveals who God is and who we are.
In James 1:16-18 we are told three things about God and one thing about us as His children.
James 1:16
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.
The first thing James says is that we are not to let ourselves be deceived.
We are told in John 8:44 that Satan is a liar. One of Satan’s most powerful weapons is deceit. James warns us not to get trapped by Satan’s lies and deceit.
James 1:17a
Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights
First, all the good gifts we have come form God.
Everything we have comes from God.
Every physical blessing
Every emotional blessing
Every spiritual blessing
Comes from our heavenly Father
One of the characteristics that God desires in us as His people is gratitude. Gratitude is recognizing that all we have comes from God and expressing thanksgiving and praise to Him.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that all of our blessings come from God and expressing thanksgiving to Him for them.
James 1:17b
Who does not change like shifting shadows.
Second, God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The big theological term for the fact that God doesn’t change is immutable.
Everything in life changes. I scroll through many of my Facebook contacts, many of whom were students I worked with as a youth pastor, who now that have children in high school, graduating from high school, and in college. They have changed.
The fact that everything in life changes mean we need something that does not change. We need a foundation that doesn’t move.
The foundation that doesn’t move is God.
Who God is in Genesis, He is in Revelation, He is now.
I can depend on God to always be who His Word says He is.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God completely because He is faithful and does not change.
James 1:18a
He chose to give us birth through the word of truth
Third, God chose to give us life through His Word.
God chose.
We didn’t make it happen.
God didn’t have to.
He chose to give us life.
God is the life-giver.
God gives us life in all its abundance.
Satan kills, steals, and destroys.
Our eternal life is given to us by the truth that is God’s Word.
The life that Jesus gives is a sovereign work of His grace. The life is abundant and eternal.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving from God an abundant and eternal life by His grace.
James 1:18b
That we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created.
In the Old Testament God commanded that His people were to bring Him the firstfruits of the field and flock. They were to bring the very best of all that God blessed them with.
James says that we are the firstfruits of all creation.
We are the best of all that God created so we are to present ourselves to Him.
In Ephesians 2:10 Paul calls us “God’s workmanship”. That word workmanship means masterpiece. We are God’s masterpiece made to do what pleases God.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeing that we are the firstfruits of all that God created and living based on that truth.
We are living in a time when as a culture we have turned our backs on Jesus because He is not politically correct.Jesus says that He is the one and only way to come to know God and experience His presence and love.
We as God’s people in America need to trust that God is:
The Provider of all we need physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
The Faithful One who will full all this promises to us.
The Savior who saves us and gives us a new birth into His kingdom.
The Creator who created us.
The Lord who we are to yield the authority to rule our lives to.
The old answers based on humanity’s resources and wisdom will not answer the questions we have today. They will not solve the problems are facing today.
God and His resources and His wisdom will solve what we as individuals are facing and what our nation is facing.
We have to choose to yield our individual lives as people and our corporate life as a nation over to the rule of Jesus.
With Jesus as Our Hope, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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