…This brings us to our final sermon in our current series “God’s Way”. As your pastor I hope you have received this series well. More importantly I hope you are spiritually healthier and stronger. God wants us to give us things. God knows we need things. Thus, God gives us everything beginning with your life, blesses you within your family, provides you a church, grants you success, prospers you in your community – ALL for His purpose. God knows His plan for you. God’s plan involves lessons from failures, faith from doubts, forgiveness from sins, light from darkness, healing from sickness, and life from death. We cannot experience anything God intends when we do it our way...

. . . Let’s catch up on our latest sermon series, “God’s Way”. We are in the middle of a series with several New Testament passages focused upon the things that are “mine”. Things God has gifted to me, blessed me with personally, and in His infinite wisdom, God has granted me full autonomy to use throughout my life. Now, all these same things God as also graciously provide to unbelievers. Every healthy minded person wants to be successful with God’s gifts in life – They just aren’t!!

There is a mystery to achieving the success we all desire. The only right answer is divine, and it is exclusively Biblical. Beloved, it is not enough to want all the good things in life…

Beginning on July 9th: Our next sermon series will consist of individual sermons from various New Testament passages joined by the same theme. Prepare your hearts for our upcoming sermon series from this perspective.

Almost everyone in America is familiar with the legendary actor and singer Frank Sinatra. You don’t have to be a Sinatra fan to know the closing line in each of the four verses of, “My Way”. The lyric is, “I did it my way.” Sinatra’s famous song is a compilation of how a person calls his own shots, charts his own course, takes life’s blows, and stands tall throughout all life’s difficulties. This sounds good, but your way and everyone’s way is terribly flawed. Make no mistake, God gives us incredible freedoms and liberties to live our lives and make decisions, but God protects us from our own way.

. . . In these recent weeks, we have been examining the life of Daniel. Remember the overall series theme: “God Has a Plan.” Within God’s plan are incredible applications of faith covering the lives of obedient servants. Daniel demonstrated a life of faith was more important than a life of fantasy. Do you recall, the introduction to our Daniel series? It is displayed on the screens in the sanctuary, and it is the introduction displayed on our website. It reads: “Daniel lived nearly 2,500 years ago in a time where all he knew and loved was stripped away. Daniel was forced to live in a foreign culture where people refused “sound doctrine” and had turned “aside to myths”. What do you do in such a culture? How do you live in such a culture? You PRAY!! Your strength to fight temptation and resist sin comes from prayer. Daniel will show us how PRAYER empowers us to thrive in this world.” . . .

. . . This coming Lord’s Day, we will complete the celebration of our parents as Bethel Baptist recognizes our fathers. If you recall: Last month we celebrated our mother’s and those special women in our lives. Daniel came to the point in his service to King Nebuchadnezzar where pride crept into the heart of the king. It took a godly man, like Daniel to impact King Nebuchadnezzar’s life for the good and to bring him to the truth about God. Most godly relationships do not take place at work, but through our godly mothers showing us who God is. Showing us what God can do. And showing us what God says. On Mother’s Day we saw how a godly mother can CHANGE another person.

This Father’s Day we will see how the life of a godly father can STRENGTHEN a person. God uses people directly and indirectly to influence our lives. The greatest influencer of our lives is God, and God’s greatest title is not, king, ruler, or sir; It is “Father”. None of us had the perfect father, and none of us are the perfect father. Those before us did the best with what they had. And today, we fathers are doing the best with what we have. If you feel you are not doing your best. If you feel you are falling short in your responsibilities. If you feel that something is missing in your heart. What your are missing is a healthy relationship with your Heavenly Father. . .