Displaying Christian Sermons by tag: Turning Point

David Jeremiah (January-25-2023) Daily Devotional: No Outcasts - Turning Point

Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord. - Isaiah 56:3-4

Recommended Reading: Isaiah 56:1-8 - SALVATION FOR THE GENTILES - 56 Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness,For My salvation is about to come,And My righteousness to be revealed.2 Blessed is the man who does this,And the son of man who lays hold on it;Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,And keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3 Do not let the son of the foreignerWho has joined himself to the LordSpeak, saying,“The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”;Nor let the eunuch say,“Here I am, a dry tree.”4 For thus says the Lord:“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,And choose what pleases Me,And hold fast My covenant,5 Even to them I will give in My houseAnd within My walls a place and a nameBetter than that of sons and daughters;I will give them an everlasting nameThat shall not be cut off. 6 “Also the sons of the foreignerWho join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him,And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,And holds fast My covenant—7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,And make them joyful in My house of prayer.Their burnt offerings and their sacrificesWill be accepted on My altar;For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,“Yet I will gather to himOthers besides those who are gathered to him.”

 
Isaiah 56 is an unusual passage, written to two groups of outcasts. The first were foreigners. The others were Jewish males who had been mutilated by the Babylonian invaders. They were eunuchs. Sometimes we, too, feel like outcasts or suffer the loss of something the world has taken from us.

In Isaiah 56, the Lord invited foreigners and eunuchs to join themselves to Him, to serve Him, and to love His Name (verse 6). He promised, “Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer” (verse 7).

In Christ, there are no castaways; in heaven there are no outcasts. We’re included in the grace of Christ. Rejoice today knowing that we are no longer outcasts!

The gospel brings me explosive news: my search for approval is over. In Christ I already have all the approval I need. - Dave Harvey

David Jeremiah (January-24-2023) Daily Devotional: Heavenly Love - Turning Point.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. - Revelation 21:4

 Recommended Reading: John 14:1-3 - THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE
14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

 
A toddler is playing in the yard while his mother watches from the nearby porch when the toddler stumbles and falls hard on the ground. A split second later comes the predictable wail, the anguish of pain. That signals two things—the mother running toward the toddler and the child running toward the mother. There is the iconic scene: The mother’s love poured out like balm on her child’s fear and confusion as they meet.

In a way, our whole life is destined for the same eternal joining—where our lifetime of anguish meets the permanent and loving presence of God. King Solomon wrote that God has put eternity in our heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Whether we know it or not, the longing of our heart is to find love, comfort, and security in the presence of God. And in heaven we shall; the result of our faithful union with Christ is no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain.

The final consummation of God’s love for us is heaven, the eternal dwelling place He has prepared for us (Revelation 21:1-4). Thank Him today for the joy that awaits us in heaven.

I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. - John Wesley

David Jeremiah (January-23-2023) Daily Devotional: Powerful Love - Turning Point. 

Nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:39

 Recommended Reading: John 10:27-30 - 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”

A recurring plot of romance movies is a couple separated after high school or college who are then unexpectedly reunited years later. Predictably, their love is rekindled, and their romance is restored.

What the pair discovers is that nothing had dampened their original love. Nothing—not time nor distance nor careers—had managed to separate them when it came to love. This theme is biblical at its core. In Romans 8:35, Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” And in verse 39 he concludes, “[Nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In verses 35-38 he provides a list of more than fifteen circumstances and events which might seem powerful enough to separate us from God’s love. But nothing is as powerful as the love of God.

Don’t ever think there is something that can come between you and God. Nothing is stronger than His love.

None walk so evenly with God as they that are assured of the love of God. - Thomas Manton

David Jeremiah (January-21-2023) Daily Devotional: The Best From Psalm 23: Anointed With Oil - Turning Point

You anoint my head with oil. - Psalm 23:5

 Recommended Reading: John 10:7-16 - JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD - 7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

 
Over a hundred years ago, William Evans wrote a little book about Psalm 23, in which he said: “A shepherd must be a physician also. In the belt of the shepherd, medicines are always carried. Sheep are very susceptible to sicknesses of many kinds…. Ofttimes at night as the sheep passed into the fold, the shepherd’s knowing eye would detect that one or another of them was sick and feverish…. He would take the feverish sheep and… anoint the bruise with mollifying ointment.”[1]

Olive oil was the shepherd’s great secret. He used it for making and dipping bread, for fuel for his lamp, as a lotion, and as an ointment for his own wounds and those of his sheep. A few drops of the lubricating fluid would relieve the hurt of a cut or bruise.

The Bible compares the Holy Spirit to oil. The Good Shepherd anoints us with this precious oil, and the Spirit’s invisible ministry to us gives us nourishment, brings a radiance to our face like a lotion, and heals our wounds.

Rely on the Spirit’s ministering work today.

The metaphor of oil—the visible and tangible liquid poured upon and absorbed by a human being—tells the invisible presence and action of the Holy Spirit. - John McKinley

David Jeremiah (January-20-2023) Daily Devotional: Inexhaustible! - Turning point.

We love Him because He first loved us. - 1 John 4:19

 Recommended Reading: 1 John 4:12-19 - SEEING GOD THROUGH LOVE - 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

THE CONSUMMATION OF LOVE - 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.

 
Charles Spurgeon preached on this verse—1 John 4:19—many times. He said: “I hope to preach from it a good many more times… for it is one of those inexhaustible wells into which you may let down the bucket every morning, and always pull it up full. It is a mine with a good many seams of the richest ore. You may think that you have dug all its treasures out, but you have only to sink a new shaft, to find that there is another seam just as rich as the former one; and when you have brought all that wealth to the surface—and that may take your whole lifetime—someone else may… open up a fresh vein.”[1]

We should take this verse into our heart today! Only eight words, yet the wealth of heaven is contained in the syllables! Say it aloud. Ponder it. Imagine it. Believe it. Rest on your pillow tonight with this simple sentence ushering you to sleep.

No matter what we face in life, God will always love us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from His love!

The love of God to his people is omnipotent; there is no force in nature that can for a single moment be compared with it. - Charles Spurgeon

David Jeremiah (January-19-2023) Daily Devotional: One for the Road - Today's Turning Point

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? - 1 Corinthians 6:19

 Recommended Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 - GLORIFY GOD IN BODY AND SPIRIT 12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

 
Major Ian Thomas, a British expositor, described a foolish man who was trying to push his car when it was filled with gasoline and capable of running on its own. He said that’s how many people try to live the Christian life—in their own strength and by their own efforts. But only Christ can live a life of godliness. He wants to do it through us by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.[1]

As we walk in the Spirit, we become more and more like Jesus because He is controlling more and more of us.

That perspective adjusts the way we look at difficulty. The devil seeks to harm us, but God uses every peril and problem to develop a more disciplined, Christlike, Christ-filled, Christ-empowered life. What a blessing to have a Heavenly Father who desires us to be more like Him! As we walk with Him, let’s thank Him for the daily work of the Spirit in our life.

The Christian life is nothing less than the life which He lived then… lived now by Him in you! - Ian Thomas

David Jeremiah (January-18-2023) Daily Devotional: Take It to Heart - Turning Point

My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves. - Hebrews 12:5-6, NIV

 Recommended Reading: Hebrews 12:3-11 - 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens,And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

 
God provides the discipline we need to become mature members of His family. This isn’t an easy teaching to understand. Sometimes we wonder if God is disciplining us whenever we get sick. If we suffer a misfortune, is it because we’ve committed a certain sin? Not necessarily. It’s often hard to know when a particular hardship constitutes divine chastening.

Often God whispers in our heart to tell us He is correcting us. Our conscience whispers, “The Lord is teaching you a lesson.” If so, take it to heart. He’s doing it out of love.

In a broader way, all the hardships of life are the means by which we develop the discipline of discipleship. There are lessons in every circumstance, and maturity can be gained in every hardship. Just like earthly fathers, our Heavenly Father demonstrates His love for us through discipline. Though we don’t like discipline, let’s learn to be thankful for this demonstration of God’s love in our life.

If God didn’t discipline His children He would be a negligent father. He would be displaying cruel disinterest if He were indifferent to whether His children obeyed or not. - Erwin Lutzer

David Jeremiah (January-13-2023) Daily Devotional: Love and Eternity - Turning Point. 

And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. - John 6:40

 Recommended Reading: Romans 6:21-26  -  21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

 
Our modern concept of eternity is mostly negative: “I waited in line for an eternity at the DMV!” “It takes forever for my kids to clean their rooms!” In other words, eternity usually is an experience we hope will end sooner rather than later.

Instead of it being something we hope ends soon, eternity in Scripture is an experience that will never end—and happily so! Eternity, according to the Bible, is consistent with the character of God—who is love (1 John 4:8, 16). In fact, God so loved us that He gave His only Son in order that we “should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). But here is a truth about eternal life that we often fail to realize: It begins now. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

Thank God today for the eternal life you have by knowing Him through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you. - Augustine

David Jeremiah (January-11-2023) Daily Devotional: A Hot Mess - Turning Point

If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. - 2 Timothy 2:13

 Recommended Reading: 2 Timothy 2:11-13 - This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him,We shall also live with Him.12 If we endure,We shall also reign with Him.If we deny Him,He also will deny us.13 If we are faithless,He remains faithful;He cannot deny Himself.

 
Talk about “cleanup on aisle 5!” A truck in Memphis, Tennessee, hit a retaining wall and crashed, spilling its load of Bertolli alfredo sauce. The road was closed as workers struggled to clean up the sticky, high-calorie sauce and the thousands of broken glass jars.[1]

We all make messes, don’t we? Remember the time you dropped the pizza upside down on the kitchen floor? What about the time the garbage bag broke before you got it into the bin? Or that awful moment you opened your mouth and said something impulsively?

Sometimes we make a mess spiritually—yielding to temptation, neglecting our devotions, losing our temper, engaging in a habit we know is displeasing to our God. We need to guard our heart carefully and repent of sins promptly. We should also remember that God doesn’t stop loving us when we mess up. At times we might think that God’s love for us stops when we sin. But that’s not true. God compassionately loves us in spite of our sin.

Thank Him today for His compassion and love, and seek to please Him always.

No matter what storm you face, you need to know that God loves you. He has not abandoned you. - Franklin Graham

David Jeremiah (January-09-2023) Daily Devotional: Love and Obedience - Turning Point

But why do you call Me “Lord, Lord,” and not do the things which I say? - Luke 6:46

 Recommended Reading: Deuteronomy 28:1-14 - BLESSINGS ON OBEDIENCE - 28 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: 3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. 5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 9 “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

 
A poignant moment in Peter’s life was when he met Christ by the Sea of Galilee after His resurrection—the same Christ whom Peter denied knowing just before the crucifixion. In this meeting in Galilee, Jesus needed to know whether Peter’s heart had changed. Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” And each time Peter replied that he did. But each time Peter confessed his love for Jesus, the Lord gave him a command: “Feed My lambs…. tend My sheep…. feed My sheep” (John 21:15-21).

Jesus’ words illustrate a theme that runs throughout Scripture: Love is demonstrated by actions. More specifically, when it comes to God and man, love for God is demonstrated by man’s obedience to God’s commands. And such obedience is rewarded by blessing. Jesus made this connection when He spoke to a large crowd of followers and seekers: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) In that crowd were people who were seeking His blessing but had not reckoned the cost of obedience.

If you confess Jesus as Lord, don’t take lightly the responsibility to obey His words.

Beware of reasoning about God’s Word—obey it. - Oswald Chambers