Anchor Of Hope Christian Reformed Church

A key aspect of God's grace to us is when he wakes us up from the slumber and death of the desires of our sinful flesh and makes us aware that without Him we have nothing. Though the world, the devil, and our sinful flesh makes endless promises of pleasure and fulfillment to us, they are nothing but empty and destructive lies. Let us pray that God will graciously remove all obstacles and road blocks between us and Him through His son Jesus Christ and the sanctification process of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray that God will build an impassable wall between our new self in Jesus Christ and the sinful desires of our old fallen and dead flesh. We are always better off with God! Amen!

As we enter into Advent 2017, let us consider what it means that God so loved, had so much mercy and compassion, on His elect, His vessels of mercy, that he sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into human flesh. Hosea teaches us that we are sinners, unfaithful, law breakers, idol worshipers... who deserve God's wrathful judgment. Yet, God shows mercy on who He will show mercy and any of us who have received and believed in this mercy, grace and love of God can do nothing but give Him all the praise, glory, and honor. As we approach again this celebration of the coming of "God with us" let us boast in a God who is always faithful, even when we are unfaithful! Amen!

How gracious is God? How loving is God? How just is God? How holy is God? How merciful is God? Answer- "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" This is the life changing, pride removing, new life giving, reconciling, joyful, peaceful, glorifying truth of the cross of Jesus Christ. This is good news! Amen!

How great is the power of God for those who believe in Him? Immeasurable! How great is Jesus Christ? Immeasurable! If we repent and place all our hope and faith in Jesus Christ we die with Him and we will be raised with Him. We are absolutely secure in Jesus Christ! He is above all and the church is His body. Let us trust our all powerful, loving, gracious, holy God who is our all and all.

We need new hearts! The good news is that God gives new hearts to his children through Jesus Christ by the work for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes us alive to believe, gives us the gift of faith, and grows us in wisdom and understanding as we come to know God in all His glory, power, and love. Let us pray for an ever-greater knowledge of who God is, who we are in Jesus Christ and a hope fixed on the glorious work of Jesus Christ on the cross! Amen!

There are few things we can absolutely count on in this world. In Jesus Christ we can find everything that comes with an eternal guarantee. Eternal life, peace with God, forgiveness, love, all of God's promised blessings are in Jesus Christ and we long for he day he returns and we can enter fully into all that is in Him. Until then, the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers assures them of this guarantee. God is faithful, all the time and we can always count on Him!

How precious to me is the Blood of Christ? How much does "redemption through His blood" fill my thoughts, feelings, words, actions? Everything is in, through, by, and for Jesus Christ and we are His if we have been bought out of our slavery to sin, death, the devil, and the world through the price of His life on the Cross. Our salvation cost Jesus His life on the cross and He paid the price of being forsaken by His heavenly Father so that we could be forgiven and loved. Thank you Jesus for willingly shedding your blood for me!

In Jesus Christ we become God's adopted children. Our Father is the sovereign creator, sustainer, and redeemer who is all powerful, all knowing, holy. With such a Father who loves us so completely we need not fear any creature, circumstance, difficulty. Our Father knows. Our Father Cares. Our Father is able! Amen!

Where your hope, desire, love, and thoughts are is where the true allegiance of your heart is. God blesses us by giving us a new heart by making us alive to receive His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is our greatest treasure, our greatest treasure is in heaven, and that is where we are to direct our thoughts, desires, hopes, life. God blesses us before the foundation of the world. Amen!

Paul was sent out by God to be a servant and witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ. As we begin a new sermon series going verse by verse through the book of Ephesians, I hope that we will grow in the knowledge of the priceless riches of grace, salvation, hope, peace...found only in Jesus Christ. I pray that we will be faithful and gain a better understanding, through the work of the Holy Spirit, of the peace we have with God through the gracious gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Lord, open our eyes to see your power and forgiveness! Amen!

(message file truncated this week sorry!) God is gracious to us saved sinners! When we are naked and exposed in our rebellion and hatred of God He clothes us in the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ. God makes it very clear that the only way of eternal life is in His son Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, putting on Jesus, dying and living in Jesus, eating Jesus is the only source of life. Having faith that Jesus took our sin, paid the debt for our sin, satisfied God's wrath for our sin gives freedom and life. Thank you Jesus! Amen.

The wages of sin is death. We need a savior! Because of rebellion and disobedience there are curses, pain, suffering, sweat, and all of us will return to the dust in death. In the midst of this God brings the gospel. Romans 5:8 - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Though we die in Adam we can be made alive in Christ through faith by God's grace. Amen!

Because of sin, so often rather than loving nurture and loving respect -- marriages become torn through the desires of subversion and oppression. Marriage is to to be a living expression of Christ and His Church as Ephesians 5:22-33 makes clear. Jesus did not oppress, exploit or abuse the church, He gave His life so that it could have life, love, and forgiveness. The church is not to try to make itself more powerful than Christ or manipulate the Scriptures for it's own earthly desires. O Lord, let our marriages lift up this truth through your grace! Amen!

Jesus, motivated by love, suffered. Jesus, the Holy One, only begotten Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords suffered on behalf of God's elect. His heel was "bruised." Yet, Jesus won the victory over sin, death, and the devil, and paid the full penalty of our sin by bearing the full just wrath of God for our sin! The devil's head is "bruised." Believe in Jesus, receive His victory, be set free! This is the good news of grace God speaks of in Genesis 3. Amen!

Let us, through the grace of God, the new life we have in Jesus Christ, and the empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit stop hiding from God. Let us stop hiding behind excuses and blaming. Let us stop hiding behind shame and anger. Let us stop hiding behind lie's and deceptions. Let us live in the light of Christ in His truth, in obedience to Him with forgiven hearts. Amen!

Why do we not trust God? Every time we sin, we are putting our hope, trust, and desire in something other then the God who made us, saved us, and graciously give us us all things that are good and life giving. Why do we continue to listen to the lies of the devil, the world and our own fallen flesh and continue to be deceived by these lie's? Help us Jesus! The Holy Spirit enables believers in Jesus Christ to work out the process of saying no to the lie's and yes to God's truth. Thank you God for your grace! Amen!

The Scriptures teach us about one God in three persons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is eternally in perfect relationship within Himself. Of all the other kinds of living creatures God brings to Adam, he cannot find a helper to fit him perfectly. God is making clear by making woman from man that true, fitting, and helpful marriage can only be between one man and one woman united until death would separate them. Marriage points us to the ultimate and eternal union between Christ and His bride- the church. Amen!

When God makes Adam He places Him in a perfect garden with abundant food and work without toil or struggle. In the midst of all this perfect beauty and peace there is a test. Genesis 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Will Adam be content with all God's goodness, or will he chose to abandon it for something he thinks is better than the best? We all face these tests every day. Will we be thankful for God's best, or will we disobey God thinking we can do better? Help us Jesus!

The seventh day is a set apart day to remind us that God is the perfect creator who created everything that exists "very good" and begins a rest on the seventh day until sin enters the creation. The only way we can enter into the "rest" that God provides is to trust and believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that provides the forgiveness we need. Salvation is a gift, it can not be earned by us. To enter into God's rest is to acknowledge that there is not work that we can do to save us and that we must rest in our faith that we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only source of life giving rest. Amen!

God created the first man and woman "very good." Adam and Eve are given dominion over all the kinds of other living things in the universe. There is peace and life, no conflict or death. We are all born into sin and death because of the fall, yet God has made a way of peace and eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ, the new perfect Adam who does everything very good. All things that are "good" can only be found in Jesus. Amen!