Gtcotr/ss082315
Tech
Moment:
We have spent a quarter century
gathering Christian life resources and making them easily available to others
around the world.
·
Church Online
·
My Online TV Network
·
Podcasts
o Today’s Podcast was
step 22 of 30 Steps to Success – it encouraged us to be “Attentive” to those things around us so as not to miss
opportunities God brings our way.
Nothing takes the place of paying attention!
o Our daily podcast is
accessible virtually around the world but it is aimed at the English speaking
audience or those who wish to learn or brush up on their English and want to
know how to become a success in life.
·
Daily Devotional
o Translated into 7
languages thus far, including English (360
million native speakers):
§ Arabic 295 million native speakers
§ Hindi 310 million native speakers
§ Swahili
26 million native speakers
§ Russian 155 million native speakers
§ Thai
56 million native speakers
§ Nepali 17 million native speakers
o And it is currently
being translated in two more which will offer the potential of reaching an
additional 1.5B …
§ Mandarin
Chinese
– 955 million native speakers
§ Urdu – 66 million native
speakers
o As well, we have
just begun to look for a Spanish translator
which will add another 405 million Hispanics who are native speakers of Spanish
to those numbers.
§ source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
o In all we are
providing Christ centered daily outreach and growth oriented daily devotionals
to near 3 billion people to access freely in their native languages.
o If we were to count
those who speak second and third languages, which is much if not most of the
world, we are reaching out to virtually the whole world every day with the
Gospel of Christ in a language they understand.
o Today’s Devotion is
centered on the truth:
Unchecked and Unchallenged is often Unchanged
(Production
Note: I want to access and read today’s devotion from the website @
RonHammonds.com)
·
Life Shape Prayer and Discipleship
·
Sunday Circles
·
Live Online Leadership Mentoring Sessions
·
Southeast Texas Bible College and Seminary
These
are just some of the tech ministries we make possible to our community and to
the whole world on a daily basis from our Church right here where you sit
today. This is GTCOTR – This is us working for God!
On
top of these tech heavy ministries which can be accessed online there are also daily
outreaches from our Church family reaching out to help feed the hungry, care
for orphans, bring water to thirsty humanity, provide medical needs to the
sick, ministering to our active duty military and veterans with the never
changing Word of Almighty God in a powerful and life changing way, helping to
establish Churches from 7 miles away to 7000 miles away from the chair you are
sitting in right now.
Together
we make a difference here and around the world every minute of every day with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are seeing souls saved, whole families baptized,
people filled with the Holy Spirit, lives changed and relationships restored all
in the name of Jesus to the glory of God.
Don’t
lose sight of what we have done, are doing and will yet accomplish together because
of our commitment to the Great Commission of Matthew 28 in the name of Jesus by
the grace of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and through your prayers and support.
Just
last Saturday our High School Youth ministry saw 69 High School football
players from Port Arthur accept a Shield of Strength with Joshua 1:9 on it and
then pray to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their lives.
Together we are making a difference … an eternal difference.
The
Word of God for us today is: Don’t let yourself get too tired!
One
might ask, “What do you mean by ‘too tired’?” Allow me to explain. You see, a
person can know God and love God and be a part of God’s family plan and stop
being effective because they let themselves get too tired to continue being the
light of God to their world. Sometimes people get tired and quit shining. One of
the major sources of this type of mental and emotional exhaustion comes from
the bombardment of the unrighteous conversation and conduct we hear and see in
the world around us and even from our friends.
This
is what happened to a man and his family some years ago. We can read the
historical account in the Bible in the Book of Genesis chapter 19. The man’s
name was Lot … Lot was tormented, oppressed, he became depressed and sorely vexed
and Lot got confused and stopped shinning. Let’s review the story, find out
what the Apostle Peter had to say about this account and discover a truth today
which will help each one of us to Check, Challenge and
Change ourselves when needed.
(Give
the account of the story of Lot and his family being visited by angels and
delivered from Sodom before its destruction. Genesis 19:1-26)
2 Peter 2
6 God Who turned the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them
an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
7 and delivered righteous
Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man,
dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by
seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) —
9 the Lord knows how to
deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment
for the day of judgment,
Verses
7 and 8 say that Lot was oppressed by the filthy conversation of the wicked and
his soul was tormented because of their conduct. The King James version says Lot’s
righteous soul was vexed because of the conversation and conduct of those with
whom he had surrounded himself. This simply means that they finally wore him
down and tired him out and he no longer had the mental or emotional strength to
combat their unrighteousness behavior. He was tormented, too tired and was
confused.
The
Apostle Paul put it this way …
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: "Evil company
corrupts good habits."
A
modern translation of this scripture simply says: “Don’t be fooled, bad company
corrupts good manners.”
Our
Daily Devotional was written using the “Many Point Sermon” notes I catalogued
from the sermons I have preached over the past 3 decades. This many point
sermon has more than 700 points now and in preparation for this sermon I
thought it would be advantageous to review three of the points in support of
the message God wants us to be reminded of today.
Point #13:
Who you allow in your inner circle can limit you.
Point #14:
Who you connect yourself to will determine your future.
·
Those
married daughters of Lot ???
Point #345: Those with whom you surround yourself will
serve to define you and will ultimately determine your effectiveness and
overall success.
We
are called to love and lead our family, friends and even our enemies to the
truth of God’s Word and to a relationship with Him through faith in His Son,
Jesus of Nazareth. Check, challenge and change when needed.
We
are not called to simply sit and soak in this world or to allow those around us
to drag us down and wear us out with their filthy and unrighteous conversation
and conduct. What can we do to insure we don’t get too tired with the continual
unrighteous bombardment of this world?
Surround
yourself with those who will lift you up and lead to out instead of drag you
down and pull you deeper into this world. Surround yourself with people who
love God and are committed to His will for your life.
