The Trinity Baptist Church Podcast

February 12, 2017 Reconciliation: Speak Healing Words to Heal a Hurting World Matthew 6:14-15; 18:21-35

February 5, 2017 Living the Lord’s Prayer | Matthew 6:1-13

How on earth can we meet the demands of our daily life? Everyday faith heroes answer that question by trusting God in everything they do, during each and every day. Which is why Christ gave us the Lord’s Prayer. By learning how this prayer was lived out by Christ we can know how to live by this prayer in our daily lives.

 

To get started, I encourage you to 3M the prayer:

MEMORIZE the prayer. Learn the 68 words from the King James Version, since this is the translation known by most Americans and is the version used for public occasions.

MEDITATE through the prayer. Feel the words as you think the words. See the prayer’s big picture, trusting God to empower you to live a heavenly life on earth. See each phrase in the prayer as a building block.

MOBILIZE the prayer by enacting it in your life. Put the prayer into play. Learn by experiencing the prayer. See how God will answer other prayers you pray by how He answers this prayer in your life.

 

“Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  God, who created all of us,  works for all of us to be winners in life. To make this clear, Jesus used “Abba” when calling out God’s name - which can be translated “daddy”. God is our tender & tough Heavenly Father.

 

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread?”    Bread, as food, is essential to living. Bread for Communion is the sign of Christ’s presence.

 

“Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us?”.       Forgiveness is the biggest “game changer” we can make. When and why  we choose to forgive or not forgive reveals our strength to build a future better than the past or to doom ourselves to waddle in a failed past. The choice is ours to make.

 

“And Lead Us Not Into  Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil?”  We benefit from God trumping evil if we trust God during life’s dark days...Temptations are lures used by evil’s fishing attempts to hook us into thinking that bad is good, and good is boring. God exposes evil for what it is - boring, bad, and deadly.

 

“For Thine Is The Kingdom And  The Power And The Glory Forever. Amen.”              Happy endings are God’s specialty. Write a happy ending for your life by daily living this Prayer of prayers. Live with the King in His Kingdom. Be empowered by His power. Know the glory that never fades. Amen. So be it!

 

January 29, 2017 LOVING DIFFICULT PEOPLE: Strengthening Your Kingdom Capacity To Impact People | Matthew 5:43-48

January 22, 2017 OBEDIENCE: Shaping Your Habits To Win | Matthew 5:17-26, 48; 7:2

Every second Google is asked 40,000 questions.  Which means each day Google processes 1.2 billion questions and 1.2 trillion queries per year. If this is true for the Google search engine, imagine how many questions God is asked a day. 

 

But here is what I find most interesting about Q&A conversation. In the Bible, roughly 3,300 questions are asked. And most of those questions are asked by God to people. Not because God didn’t already know the answer but because He wanted to know if those queried knew the answer. And if they didn’t, did they know they didn’t know. Questions like: “Adam, where are you?”; “Who do you say that I am?”; “What is most important?”;  “Which one of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man in need?”. 

 

In the Sermon of the Mount, many important questions are asked about our habits. 

 

How do your habits help you to win in life? Are some of your habits self defeating? Do you shoot yourself in the foot with some of your habits? Essential among these questions is our motivation with people. By knowing why we do what we do we are able to let God set us free from self defeating habits. How we feel and think  about people are key indicators of our level of obedience to God’s pathway for living. For instance,  “For in the same way you condemn others, you will be condemned, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”   Matthew 7:2

January 15, 2017 Light & Salt: Living Out Your Divine Purpose | Matthew 5:13-16

Trinity is known as a lighthouse on the hill. People from around the heart of San Antonio can see our steeple @ Mulberry and TriPoint off 281. They are inspired to think of their life purpose in light of God. We pray that our lives will then help them, like a light, to see how they can live out God’s inspiration. United we become as Jesus said, “a city set on a hill that can not be hid.”

 

We are commissioned by Jesus, to let our “light shine before people that they may see our good works and give glory to God in heaven.” Jesus blessed us with his teachings on our being “the light of the world” and our being “the salt of the earth.” He also warned us not to lose our “saltiness” and not to hide our “light”. What are we to make of this blessing & warning?

 

CLAIM your identity. Jesus said, “You are.” Your “saltiness” and “light” enables you to know your place on the earth and in the world. Otherwise we get lost.

 

CARE for your identity in light of your purpose. Salt is meant to preserve and provide taste. Care for God’s message in your life and in the earth. We become worthless if we lose our saltiness. Light makes things visible. Don’t hide your light but give care to let it shine so people can see. 

 

CONNECT your purpose, your salt & light, to honor God and you will be renewed and rewarded. 

 

BE LIGHT: Light enables us to see. Light reveals what was hidden in darkness. Light shows the way.

 

BE SALT: Salt preserves. Salt adds taste. 

 

BE YOUR TRUEST SELF. You are made in God’s image. You are reborn in Christ.  You BECOME light in the world. 

 

Christ is the Light who lights up our lives. Christ is on the bold mission to shine through us as Light into darkness. 

January 8, 2017 CHARACTER: Changing the World by First Changing Ourselves Matthew 5:1-12, 48

C.S. Lewis prophesied the truth by how he could see heaven and earth. He wrote, “Aim at heaven and get the earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” Heaven is ultimate. Earth is penultimate. Understanding the difference is the key to getting everything else right.

 

So Jesus laid out this truth in what we call the Sermon On The Mount and its opening, The Beatitudes.  The first and last verses of the Beatitudes highlight that all the Beatitudes are filled with Kingdom of Heaven qualities. So between being “poor in spirit” and being “persecuted for righteousness sakes” are connected with: (5:4) “mourning to be comforted”; (5:5) “being meek to inherit the earth”; (5:6) “hungering and thirsting after righteousness to be filled”; (5:7) “being merciful to obtain mercy; (5:8) “being pure in heart to see God”; (5:9) “being a peacemaker to be called the children of God”.

 

Christ embodied heaven on earth and by following Him we see how to live a heavenly life on earth.