We are excited to announce some new features to the blogsite. As more and more readers are viewing from foreign countries we have added the translate feature to the site. Our readers can also now choose to have the blog emailed to them, and they can search the blog by keywords on various topics. We hope that this makes the site more manageable for you. God Bless.

Hear current audio messages by Pastor Scott Burr at:
http://sermon.net/dayspringchurchag

Friday, December 19, 2014

It's All about Jesus: From Everlasting to Everlasting (Pt. 1)

(Pt. 1 of 2)

“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”-John 21:25

Jesus Christ is distinct from any other person that has ever lived on the face of this earth. From His birth to His resurrection, Jesus distinguished Himself as being uniquely different from every mortal man and every false god. When we study who He is, His life, and ministry we discover that He is at the center of creation, the author of salvation, and will one day establish His kingdom in the earth and all men will bow before His throne.

Most people’s knowledge of Jesus typically begins with the season we are celebrating with their first exposure to Christ being the story of His birth. However, Scripture teaches us that Jesus was on the scene long before Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men made His coming legendary. In Revelation 22: 13 Jesus made this very telling statement:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

Jesus’ declaration communicates that He didn’t simply emerge out of the blue, but rather has eternally existed. Moses, the great man of God from the Old Testament, declared in Psalm 90:2:

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

It is interesting to read in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John how the writers choose to introduce Jesus to us. Matthew and Luke introduce us to Jesus at his birth. Mark introduces us to Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry. John introduces us to Jesus according to his eternal nature:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”-John 1:1-3.  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”-John 1:14.

Before he came and made his dwelling among men, Jesus was intimately involved with creation:

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together”-Colossians 1:16-17.

 You and I are a part of that creation. We were not a byproduct of creation, but rather we were a planned part of His divine plan; chosen by Him to be His people before anything else was formed:

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”-Ephesians 1:4-5.

Knowing we would be created with the free-will to either accept Christ or reject Him, God also planned out our redemption. His plan to save us was not something He thought up on the fly; rather Jesus coming to die for our sins was planned out at the very foundation of the world. The Apostle John describes Jesus in Revelation 13:8 as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”

Jesus did not become the Lamb of God at Calvary; He has always been the Lamb of God from everlasting to everlasting.

 

Monday, December 15, 2014

This is War! Putting on the Full Armor (Pt. 10)


(Last in series)
 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”-Ephesians 6:18-20.
The key to taking a stand against evil is to understand how we must be equipped to enter the fight and then showing up where the battle will be won.
Ephesians 6 tells us that the battle against wickedness does not begin in the classroom, the boardroom, or in the legislature. The battle is fought in prayer. In order to stand against evil, without attacking people, we must take the fight where the actual battle can be won. Rather than belittling one another, attacking each other personally, and allowing our differences to devolve into shouting matches; we must take our struggle to the rulers, authorities, and spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:11-12 declares: “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
However, before blazing into prayer; we must be equipped with the full armor of God: the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes fitted with the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit.
Our enemy knows the power and effectiveness of a praying man or woman of God. In fact, he will do all that he can to distract and dissuade us from praying. If he cannot busy us or devalue the importance of prayer in our lives; then he will attack us personally.
That is precisely why we must be fully equipped before stepping into prayer. Each piece of armor provides an important layer of protection; additionally each piece of armor that we put in place enhances our ability to pray effectually.
Effectual and effective prayer is rooted in truth, righteousness, peace, salvation, and faith. It is deployed from our mouths like a mighty sword to accomplish the will of God.
However, the battle will never be won if we do not show up where the battle is being waged. We must show up in prayer if we are going to take our stand on the piece of ground we have been assigned to defend.
Pastor Scott Burr
Lead Pastor
Dayspring Community Church

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

This is War! Putting on the Full Armor (Pt. 9)


(Part 9)


 “Take the helmet of salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”-Ephesians 6:17.

The sword carried by the Roman soldier was the one piece of armor designed to be an offensive weapon: a double-edged sword designed to penetrate and slice causing both external and internal damage.

To understand the application of the Sword of the Spirit we first need to distinguish it from the Belt of Truth. Both articles of the armor are heavily associated with the word of God.

The Belt of Truth deals with our understanding of God’s Word. It is an intimate knowledge of the entirety of scripture that our whole value system is built upon. The Word of God is described for us in the Bible two ways: as the logos and the rhema. Logos is the entirety of God’s written word. Rhema is the spoken word of God, which is living and active. Both of these are seen in action in Matthew 4:5-7:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Notice how Satan takes scripture and uses it out of context in an attempt to entice Jesus off the path of obedience. In each instance, Jesus recognized that Satan was mishandling God’s Word and maligning the truth because he had an intimate knowledge of God’s Word in its entirety-the belt of truth. Upon recognizing that the Word of God was being misused; Jesus utilizes the Sword of the Spirit when he responds to each attack by speaking “It is written” and proclaiming the Rhema-spoken Word of God into that situation. Rhema, as the word of God, is not that which is simply believed; but that which is spoken. In fact, Rhema is a Greek word that describes something that is spoken. Therefore for the word of God to accomplish the will of God it has to be released:

 

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”-Isaiah 55:10-11.

It is when we speak the word of God that we begin to wield the Sword of the Spirit. We can believe what His word declares; but it takes faith to begin to speak out what we have accepted as truth.

It is important to remember however that the spoken word must be rooted and birthed from a consistent diet of the logos (written entirety of scripture). 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we must study to show ourselves approved; rightly dividing the word of truth. Doing so prepares us to address wickedness without attacking people.

Notice when Jesus confronted Satan; he matched him with the word of God. He did not attack his character or reduce himself to name calling. When you have rightly divided truth you can speak it with authority and power without being demeaning or abusive. In this way we employ the word of God most effectively.

 eHeHHHHHHDDDhh

 

Pastor Scott Burr

Lead Pastor

Dayspring Community Church