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Join Dr. Matt Homeyer, D.min, Senior Pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio Texas.
Episodes
Saturday Jan 06, 2018
Wednesday Apr 19, 2017
Wednesday Apr 19, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Oscar Wilde wrote, “a happy ending depends on when you end the story.” Today’s passage comes at the end of Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. Not only is this where Jesus chose to end this sermon but within it is the pathway to a “happy ending” for all who “hear and do” His message. He is the “beginning and end, the alpha and omega” of our story. And that if we allow Him to be “the author and finisher of our faith” then our lives culminate with a purposeful ending on earth and the ultimate happy ending in heaven.
How will your story end? Worthy lives are built with these building blocks:
1) Words matter.
Speak truth in love. Holy words are obedient words to God’s Word. Let your words be noble and true. Our words & actions reveal what we are allowing God to do or not do in our lives. (Mt. 7:21-23)
2) Hear Jesus. Really hear Him.
Apply Jesus’ message. Wise people will. What we do and say must be built upon God’s foundation (Mt. 7:24-27). Foolish people build from their own egos. Whatever we build on the foundation of our own egos carries a fatal flaw and cannot last. (Mt. 7:24-27)
3) Live in God’s authority.
No one else has the eternal authority to make happy endings come true. Let God’s legacy determine your legacy. (Mt. 7:28-29)
Happy endings require our partnering with God. Avoid the following: If we stop believing in the middle of life’s storms then we allow the storm to write an unhappy ending. If we only pretend to believe then we crumble under stormy pressures. If we try to hedge our bets by trusting our character to competing “authorities” then the impure building materials of our character will falter in the storm.
Live in Christ’s Kingdom and know the happiness that is built to last.
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Develop 20x20 Spiritual Vision so you can see the prize, the pathway, and the purpose that leads you away from destruction and into life eternal.
In eye vision, 20x20 vision is the ideal. I’ve never had 20x20. Stigmatism. Near sightedness. Couldn’t see the board work in first grade. And by the middle of my second grade I was four eyes, wearing glasses. Then all of a sudden I was able see what was there to be seen all along but couldn’t see until I wore corrected lens. I was converted to a better way of seeing by getting the help I needed.
Jesus transforms our life vision, enabling us to see what we cannot see without being in a living relationship with Him. We notice in Jesus’ teachings that He frequently said if “you have eyes to see then see”. That is why seeing with eyes on the prize focuses us on the path that fulfills our life purpose. Faith eyes allow us to see more than what meets the naked eye.
As a hiker, I keep my destination in mind. As a disciple, I do the same. Daily I remember Jesus’ call “COME, FOLLOW ME and I will MAKE you fishers of people”. Here are 3 takeaways:
1) Focus on purpose. By visualizing your purpose it is easier to head in the right direction. Keep putting one foot in front of the other.
2) Stay on course. With limited energy and time, don’t get knocked off course. Avoid distractions and daily stay headed toward your destination.
3) Keep alert. Danger and/or opportunity can show up at any time. So stay aware of your surroundings and remain open to surprises.
Jesus said, “Focus on entering through the narrow gate. You will then avoid the way to destruction. Most people will choose differently than you. But stay on the narrow way and you will find life.”
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Let’s turn to Jesus to see how His famous saying, “Ask, Seek, Knock” (A.S.K.), relates to your life. Jesus promised us, “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” This is Jesus’ 7:7 PROMISE. So it is important that what you A.S.K. is connected to God’s best desires for your life and our world.
Ask - What are you asking? What are you curious to know? Are your questions connecting to what God wants to show you? What does God want you to ask that you are not asking? Ask God directly. Ask wise people. Ask and you will receive God’s direction. The asking humbly positions us before God.
Seek - What are you seeking? What do you need to find to move your life forward? What seems to be missing in your life? Have you lost something, someone, some feeling that needs to be rediscovered? Following are some of God’s promises about seeking:
Deuteronomy 4:24 - “Seek the Lord with all your heart and you will find Him.”
Jeremiah 29:13 - “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”
Luke 19:10 - “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 15 - Here are 3 famous parables of asking, seeking, and knocking.
More than anything God wants you to seek His presence so you can find what He is ready to show you.
Knock - What doors of opportunity are you knocking upon? What doors have been closed to you? How are you knocking? More than anything God wants you to knock with a loving heart’s desire so He can open the treasures of His Kingdom to you. Jesus said, “But seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all that is important to your life will be opened to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
So A.S.K.
Textual note: Jesus spoke The 7:7 Promise in the present tense and as an imperative, which turns His word into a continuous promise. (Called iterative in the Greek.) Therefore, The 7:7 Promise never ends. The 3 verbs of A.S.K., stress intensity and progression. Continually asking.
Continually receiving. Continually seeking. Continually finding. Continually knocking. Continually living in the abundant life.
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
By how we live, we help people to get a feel for the Golden Rule as we work together - day after day, week after week, year after year. At school events, HEB check-outs, business deals, political elections, community gatherings, ball games, and scouting responsibilities - the words of Jesus need to be lived out.
By how we live & share we show that life includes us but is not just about us.
We need each other. We are in this together. God loves everyone, and we can treat each person with love and respect - just like we want to be treated.
We do this through working as dedicated - school officials, business owners, professionals, ranchers & farmers, organizational volunteers, elected officials and ... We “pay it forward” by contributing to others.
By how we live - “Doing unto others as we would have them do to us” - we fulfill God’s call for mercy & justice. By this we feel the touch of God’s nobility upon our soul. By this we build gold into our people, our city, our state, our nation, and our world.
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Freedom from being worried about things is Christ’s prescribed cure for
materialism. The how is described in Matthew 6:24-34. In these 10 verses Jesus asks 8 questions. Through each question He guides us into seeing His meaning. And through our trust in God’s character we can relax in His care.
Note that the word worry, used by Jesus, implies strangling. Worry chokes off the oxygen flow we need for trusting in God. And what we seek sets our direction, “By seeking God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, then all the things we need will be shown to us.” Matthew 6:33
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Saturday Apr 01, 2017
Fasting is the spiritual practice of intentionally doing without something that is normal for us to have in order to purify our connections from body, mind, and spirit with God. Through fasting we learn to be more simply in God’s presence. While feeling the ache of absence from what is normal and using that absence to prompt us in thinking about God, we can then better allow the insights and messages of God to penetrate us.
Fasting from food is the most common application mentioned in the Bible. Though, at times, Jesus chose to fast from being with the crowds (Mark 1:35-37)... In the 21st century we can find it occasionally helpful to fast from our regular activities: shopping, non-work related online activity, and television.
The following Five Be’s are practical how-to’s:
1) Be clear that you are not fasting to lose weight (though you will) and that you are not fasting to impress God or people, but that you are fasting to regain or maintain the balance of leadership your spirit is to have over your body and mind.
2) Begin simply and progress—begin preparing for a 7 day fast with a preceding 3-day fast that is to be preceded by a 36-hour fast that is to be preceded by a 24-hour fast which is to be preceded by a 12-hour fast, and preceding each of these with several days of eating smaller than usual meals– especially eating fruits and vegetables.
3) Be prepared for the side effects of fasting by knowing that hunger pains are not starvation pains, and that headaches are temporary nuisances necessary in the withdrawal process.
4) Be set by knowing your spiritual focus so that you can know more clearly how to use the extra time and energy, and so that you can receive maximum results. God will be faithful to bless your preparations, and you will be surprised with insights that you’ve never known before.
5) Be ready to stop the fast with the new empowerment given you to apply that which you’ve learned from the fast.
Fasts are meaningful and life-shaping when we pursue them from our dsire to know God more clearly. Try the fast and see what God will do.