When life is out of control, you can pray to the one in control.

Someone once said, “The reason many people in our society are miserable, sick, and highly stressed is because of an unhealthy attachment to things they have no control over.” 

This past week was one where I felt life was out of my control. I felt stressed, sick and miserable because of all that was happening. It started Monday night when our 11 month old daughter got sick. Any parent can attest, when your kids are sick you feel helpless. On Tuesday we watched as violence broke out in Kiev, Ukraine. For the previous six months me and eight others had been planning to go to Ukraine to teach English to university students. It was heart wrenching watching everything go down, not knowing if we would still be able to go to Ukraine, and knowing we have friends over there who were close to the violence. On Thursday night we received the call that English Club would be cancelled and that we shouldn't come to Ukraine anymore. 

My mind started thinking what can I do, what should I do. "Would we be able to get our money back for the plane tickets we bought? Would we be able to return gifts and supplies for the trip? How are my friends in Ukraine? Can we help them by taking a special offering - because we all know money is what they need….

That night, my four year old and 2 year old daughters both got sick. Everything was spiraling out of control. That is when God brought a verse to my mind that I memorized as a teenager. Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV) 

We may feel out of control, but God is in control. His plans are perfect and even though we may not understand them or like them we can trust them because God is good. God loves Ukraine and the people there more than I do - He died for them. He can reach them with the Gospel with or without me. And that is when it hit me: The best thing I can do is pray. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing" - I can do that. I can pray. I can pray for the people of Ukraine to come to Christ and for the country to be united and peaceful again. I can pray that God will give guidance to the 7 missionaries that work with college students. I can pray that God would reach the 230 students that signed up for the English Club. I can pray for Ukraine. I can pray for my girls to feel better. As I prayed my girls started getting better and the stress started going away. Don't forget to pray! 

Good Friday 2012

Lou Gehrig said in his retirement speech, "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." I echo those sentiments today. I often get to hear of peoples pain and struggles in life as a pastor, and I even start to feel guilty. I have a beautiful family, home, and three meals a day. This past year I have seen God work in my home and in our church and I have tried to hold on and enjoy the ride. But that is why really hard to hear of many in my congregation and in my world that are hurting. They come to me for answers to their questions and often they ask me Why God would allow the tragedy in their life. Sometimes it is poor decisions, but other times it is just that they are victims of a sinful world. It is probably the most difficult part of my job (Trying to find the right words to comfort someone during the trials of their life).

I am grateful for the cross. The cross shows us that God is perfect in His love. The cross shows us that God loved us enough to come and suffer for us so that we will not have to suffer forever. Without the cross, we have a heartless God, but with the cross we can trust His infinite wisdom, complete sovereignty, and perfect love.

Wrecked Week 3

I am very excited about what God is doing at OCBC. Our worship team continues to grow as well as the excitement in the church. We are seeing new people come every week, and people are starting to show up for church on-time! God has given us a great mission and vision to reach Ocean City, Maryland. Currently we are in the process of moving our services to our downtown location. Our ministry leaders have been diligently working to prepare us for this move. Personally, I feel like it is a fresh start for our church. Those who have been at OCBC for five or more years knows that we have been through a lot together. God has continue to bless us despite many mistakes and numerous attacks from Satan. I have yet to hear of a church with no problems and those that say that they don't have problems just show that Satan is not really worried about their effectiveness. But as I write this I am encouraged with what God is doing in OCBC and I am proud to be a part of this great ministry.

I have been preaching a series on wrecked and am constantly being reminded by the Holy Spirit that God is sovereign, God is infinite is wisdom, and God is perfect in His love. He has a plan for His people and for His church, and His plan is perfect. In this weeks sermon we concentrated on God's infinite wisdom and I was encouraged to know that we can do nothing that God can't use to bring about good. (Romans 8:28) It was also encouraging to be reminded that God foolishness is wiser than man's wisdom. (1 Corinthians 1:25). No plans that man tries to do will succeed without the Lord's wisdom. . There is no agonizing with God, no hoping He made the right decision, and no wondering if everything is going to work out.

As Christians we are encouraged to ask God for His wisdom. James tells us to ask for wisdom and God graciously gives to all without finding fault. (James 1:5-6) We also should pray for our leaders that they will seek God's wisdom instead of questioning all their decisions. God’s ultimate plan is to bring us to Him, and He will do whatever it takes to get us closer to Him. His divine wisdom will always bring the best for us, and glory to Him. So when life is tough and we wonder why God is taking us through something, we need to trust God. He is good and all-powerful and He is in control. Habakkuk 3:17-18 says this, "Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
 And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation."

Wrecked Series

Hey guys,

I started preaching a new series last week called WRECKED! The series has been challenging to say the least. We are attempting to bring clarity to the age old question, Why is there pain and suffering in the world. It seems like every where we look today there is tragedy, pain, heartache, grief, and disaster. The Bible does not ignore suffering. In fact, the Bible says the source of suffering is Sin in the world. We also see that we should not ignore the suffering that is around us. As Christians we are called to be the salt and light in this world. This means we are called to relieve the suffering in the world while God still has us on earth.

In week one we looked at Paul who encouraged us to rejoice always. He encouraged us to be Christians who suffer well. He showed us that we can suffer with a purpose. When we suffer we have the opportunity to love Christ more, to become more like Christ, to speak to others about Christ, to watch others become Christians, and to make Christians more bold in sharing their faith.

This week we looked at suffering being under the Sovereign hand of God. When we realize God is in control then we can trust Him in all circumstances. In Acts 12 we read about the death of James in the church and consequently the deliverance of Peter. The passage tells us that the church was amazed at what happened to Peter, but I ask the question why not James. Where was God when James was beheaded. The answer is God was in control and He had a plan. As insensitive as that sounds, we must learn to accept those two truths if we are going to trust God. If God is not in control of every situation and circumstance in life then He can't be Sovereign.

The truth is that God warned James that He would drink the same cup as Him in Mark 10:39. We also see that Peter would eventually suffer a similar fate years later. But in both circumstances God was in control.

To listen to this message you check out the church's website @ www.ocbaptist.org.

I have also placed notes and passages of Scripture below from the sermon for further study.

From Jerry Bridges book "Trusting God"

1. God is completely Sovereign

2. God is infinite is wisdom

3. God is perfect in love

Passages of Scripture to read this week

The Book of Esther

Lamentations 3:37, “Who can speak have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?”

Ecclesiastes 7:13, “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked.”

Proverbs 21:30, “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.”

Isaiah 45:7, I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.”

The story of Joseph - Genesis 40-50

Warnings about the doctrine of Sovereignty

1. Don’t ever use God’s Sovereignty to be excuse for your shortcomings. If you choose to be lazy and then expect God to get you a job because He is Sovereign then you don’t understand this doctrine.

2. Don’t allow the doctrine of God’s Sovereignty to cause us to respond passively to the actions of other people that affect us. We should take all reasonable steps within the will of God to protect and advance our situation.

3. Never use this doctrine to excuse your sin. Well I made a mistake, but God is Sovereign. God can indeed use our sinful actions to accomplish His Will, but He will still hold us accountable for our sin.

Celebrate Reason

Hey guys,

I really love snow. I love the uniqueness of each snowflake and how it covers everything in site. It reminds me of Isaiah 1:18 which says, "Come let us reason together, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow." This is a very appropriate verse for this weeks sermon. I entitled the sermon "Celebrate Reason" because it is based on a billboard that the atheist put up with a picture of the nativity scene. It said, "We know it's a myth. This season celebrate reason." Here is a picture of it in case you would like to view it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334040/You-know-myth-Atheist-banner-causes-storm-entrance-New-York-tunnel.html

I found this quite intriguing that an atheist group would call Christians unreasonable. For I believe that we have more reasons to believe in God then they have reason to believe in a Big Bang theory. Since we were unable to meet together this week at church, I decided to embrace technology and preach the sermon to my computer. You can listen to the sermon at the church's website.

www.ocbaptist.org

Below I have put the main points from the sermon, so that you may be able to have these arguments when debating with non-believers as to the existence of God.

a. David Hume is probably the most famous atheist who argues against the possibility of miracles. Hume argues that is impossible to prove that a miracle has occurred. He gives four reasons why miracles are false.

i. No miracle in history is attested by a sufficient number of educated and honest men, who are of social standing that they would have a great deal to lose by lying. In other words, the only people who claim to have witnessed a miracle are those who are poor, uneducated and stupid. These people need to draw attention to themselves and would stand to lose nothing if they were caught lieing.

ii. People crave the miraculous and will believe the most absurd stories, as the abundance of false tales of miracles proves.

iii. Miracles occur only among barbarous peoples.

iv. Miracles occur in all religions and thereby cancel each other out, since they support contradictory doctrines.

b. Each of these arguments are based on false information.

i. First and foremost, the miracles in Scripture had several witnesses by both abundant and qualified people. The fact, of the matter is historians of every culture could not argue with the idea that many people had seen Jesus do miracles. Even Muslims do not argue with the idea that Jesus was a miracle worker. Also, every apostle who claimed to witness the resurrection lost their life. Seems to me that they did have a lot to lose. Many of the disciples were called uneducated men because they were fisherman. But the gospel of Luke was written by a doctor, how much education do you want? The disciples also each died giving testimony of the resurrection.

ii. His argument here only proves that people don’t tend to believe miraculous stories without proper scrutiny. When you see a special on TBN about miracles happen, all you really do is question the veracity of the event.

iii. Jesus miracles occurred in Jerusalem, not amongst barbarous people.

iv. Hume argues that all religions have miracles. This is not true. Christianity is the only religion that claims to able to prove its teachings through miracles.

Finally, Here is three reasons why we can believe in an Intelligent Designer as opposed to a Big Bang theory.

1. The Origin of the Universe – The fact of the matter is that almost every scientist and rational thinker today believes that the universe had a beginning. Some would call it a big bang. But what was the cause of the Big Bang? You cannot take something from nothing and the universe beginning had to start from something. If we heard a big bang outside and then walked out and saw a tree. We would ask where did that come from. If I said It came from nothing and just fell from the sky. You would laugh at me, because no rational person would accept that answer. Something had to create the universe and it’s not beyond reason to believe in an Intelligent Designer.

Now the logical question to this would be, “If everything has to have a first cause then who created God or where did God come from? The answer to that is, God doesn’t have a beginning like the universe does. “The premise is that whatever begins to exist must have a cause. In other words, ‘being’ can’t come from nonbeing’. Since God never began to exist, he doesn’t require a cause. He never came into being.” Now the Big Bang theory says that cells were the things that were uncaused. So the faith is in a God or cells. Either way it is faith. This leads me to the second rational thought to the existence of God.

2. The Complexity of the Universe – If cells came together and created our complex universe over billions of years then you have more faith than I do. In fact, scientist today say that the Big Bang was not some chaotic, primordial event, but rather a highly ordered event that required an enormous amount of information. In fact, from the very moment of its inception, the universe had to be fine-tuned to an incomprehensible precision for the existence of life. In other words, this planet had to have the perfect amount of oxygen combined with hydrogen and other gases to sustain life. And this points to an Intelligent designer makes more sense then coincidence. If you just took the complexity of the human body, you would have to come to the conclusion of an Intelligent designer.

3. Our Morals point to a God – If God does not exist then neither do morals. Try asking an atheist who determines what is right and wrong in a society. For one religion says it is ok to kill anyone who is not a blue-eyed blonde and another person says it is wrong to kill. What is right and what is wrong? The truth is we all know deep down that there is a moral value system. We know it’s wrong to lie, steal, murder, and cheat. Why because God put those values in us. Next time you meet someone who doesn’t believe in God ask them what determines right and wrong. You will probably get the answer well its relative to each person. At that point, punch them in the nose. They will you can’t do that. And you say, "says who?" (btw, please don't punch anyone in the nose, we are just making a valid point here that we know it is wrong to just punch somebody in the nose.) We have a moral value system that points to a God.

If you like to study this subject more I would like to suggest two books.

1) The Reason for God by Tim Keller

2) Reasonable Faith by William Craig

Sunday, December 12

This past Sunday we continued our series "Advent" and we looked at the Christian virtue of Joy. Joy is contentment, rejoicing and continual happiness. Joy is not a personality trait or an emotion. The Bible calls us to be joyful always. We learned that there is no circumstance or event that should steal a Christians joy. We are able to be joyful because of the work of Christ, the character of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, the blessings God has given us, and the privilege that we have to share the Gospel. If you feel like your joy is not full in Christ it is probably because 1) you are not really saved, 2) you are being tempted by Satan and you need to give the temptation to the Lord, or 3) you have false idea of who God is. You think you deserve more than you truly deserve. You can listen to the sermon at

http://www.ocbaptist.org/media.php?pageID=21.

Just click on the sermon entitled Joy and I hope you enjoy!

Btw, don't forget that this sunday we will be meeting at our East Campus - 102 North Division Street in Ocean City. We will have a fellowship breakfast at 9:30 and then the service will start at 10:30 where the children will present the Christmas play. Hope to see you there! Have a great week.

Sermon series: Advent - Peace

Today, we continued our Advent series. Advent is a Christian tradition that helps us look forward to the coming of Christ. Many liturgical churches celebrate Advent by lighting a candle every Sunday until Christmas. The emergent church has recently strayed away from this tradition. The celebration of Advent does not make us more spiritual. And a church is not more relevant when it chooses not to celebrate Advent. This year, we are celebrating this tradition by looking at what the Bible can teach us about each of the virtues remembered through Advent. This week we looked at peace.

Our sin has caused us to be at war with God-- it separates us from the Holy God. But, God offered a peace treaty through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we admit we are a sinner and give our life to God we begin a relationship with God. God then gives us peace in our hearts.

The angels sang about this peace when they announced the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-14. They sang a chorus of glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

You can listen to this sermon on the church website - http://www.ocbaptist.org/#/ocbc-tv