From December 1st through the 28th we will be providing a daily devotional on this blog to promote a special focus on Jesus Christ during this holiday season. In addition the link to the weekly video message that corresponds to the devotionals will also be posted. Our theme is “Unwrapping Christmas”. We will introduce the series tomorrow with our message “Worship His Majesty”.
Blessing
Pastor Dave Watson 
An NYC Shepherd
If you are looking for a series on the book of Revelation I am listing here links to 19 sermons I preached on the book as well as the entire powerpoint presentation in order for you to follow along. The series is entitled “The Beginning of the End and the End of the Beginning”
Powerpoint – https://app.box.com/s/r624v5gdlmduh6q563kx
Prologue to the End -Revelation 1:1-3
https://app.box.com/s/qcaw0p9a6szazxwls9uj
An Introduction for the Greatest Come Back of All Time- Revelation 1:4-8 https://app.box.com/s/jd0fvmdzaxbexdvzvyeq
“Take a Letter”- Revelation 1:9-20 – https://app.box.com/s/zfcccvrjwutw0qy4yiau
The Cold Church – Revelation 2:1-7- https://app.box.com/s/4ie19bvqpy9mfts4cnsb
The Crushed Church Revelation 2:8-11- https://app.box.com/s/cat43c71w4gc6mld7wd3
The Compromising Church – Revelation 2:12-17 — https://app.box.com/s/xkaspelbk3kkbbb92rl8
The Corrupt Church – Revelation 2:18- 29 — https://app.box.com/s/0z6q9gfj80oj2e33vlj9
The Corpse Church- Revelation 3:1-6 – https://app.box.com/s/cawrxe3zw1f8gzc1a4x6
The Consistent Church Revelation 3:7-13 – https://app.box.com/s/tgvshpjj8apapk2q1439
The Cruddy or Christ-less Church – Revelation 3:14-22 — https://app.box.com/s/5dpqp58nhvc19nid5wnh
A Trip to Heaven – Revelation 4:1-5:14 — https://app.box.com/s/joez3sr7gy3a5uot2n0s
The Baby’s Coming – Revelation 6:1-8:2 – https://app.box.com/s/2kf2712906v3mc3d112i
The Trumpets of the Lord – Revelation 8:3-9:21 — https://app.box.com/s/q0zrni6j8njoq3l4g2d6
The Tipping Point – Revelation 10:1-11:19– https://app.box.com/s/ta5xwdiob81ulz0bhqxl
Beauty and the Beasts – Revelation 12:1-13:18- https://app.box.com/s/fs075btbr1p3f98q4u70
Bowled Over Revelation 14:1-16:21- https://app.box.com/s/7otob8ypu49zeesv6it8
The Oldest Professional in the Oldest Profession – Revelation 17:1 – 18:24- https://app.box.com/s/e82hyazqngeh2549emp8
War, Peace and Judgment -Revelation 19:1-20:15- https://app.box.com/s/nt7b4olytqhqtktubpco
Welcome Home – Revelation 21:1 – 22:21- https://app.box.com/s/e0detyc3x79j9uwe2wfa
I hope it is a blessing to you.
Dave Watson
Link to today’s show with LaVerne White – https://nycshepherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/gioc2013aug10.mp3
Nine month Sandy Update today from Pastor Tim McIntyre from Oasis Christian Center on “God in Our City”. 11:00 A.M. on WMCA 570AM or at www.wmca.com
It’s about transformation…
There are many ways to think about this thing we call the Christian life. It is admittedly very difficult to summarize our Christian walk in a few phrases, harder still in a word to two. I think, however, that if I needed to summarize it in one all-encompassing term I would use the word transformation. This word, in my opinion, sums up the Christian experience. It is what the Christian life is all about. Let me explain using a well-known often quoted Scripture.
The apostle Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has past and the new is here.”
This verse shows that the Christian life and its accompanying transformation is an event. The event being spoken of here is that of being “in Christ”. The product of that event is that the individual is a new creation. The New Testament speaks of our relationship with Jesus as being “in Christ”. At the moment someone confesses Christ as Savior and Lord they are “in Christ”. They are united to Christ and given new life and are said to be born again (1 Peter 1:3-5). A Christian is someone who has been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and transported into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). This transformative event is called salvation.
This verse also shows us that the Christian life and its transformation is a process. It states that “the old is past and the new is here.” More literally it says “the archain is past, behold (all things) have become new and are becoming new”. This speaks to the whole idea of a process. Each person who confesses Christ as Lord and Savior enters into a life long journey of growth and change. Ephesians 4:22-23 speaks of putting off the old self and being renewed in the attitude of your mind. 2 Corinthians 3:18 speaks of being transformed into the image of God through the Spirit of the Lord. Philippians 2:13 says “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We call this process of transformation sanctification or restoration.
Finally, the verse implies that the Christian life and its accompanying transformation is a destination. This process will one day be complete. We will be completely transformed into the image of Jesus Christ at a point certain in the future. In heaven I will be who I was created and saved to be. In speaking about our transformation in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Paul says “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” This destination is sometimes called glorification. The hymn writer says it this way;
Then we shall be where we would be;
Then we shall be what we should be;
Things which are not now, nor could be,
Then shall be our own.
Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him ~ Thomas Kelly
This whole matter of transformation is summed up in Romans 8:29-30. There we read, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” This speaks to the absolute surety of the transformation of those who are the Lord’s through faith in Christ. They will be changed, they will experience transformation.
In closing, let me just ask whether or not you have experienced that transforming event of salvation. If not, please seriously consider inviting Christ to be your Lord and Savior today. Let me also ask you whether or not you are cooperating in the transforming process we call restoration. If not, please surrender anew to our Lord. Finally, are you deriving hope in this life from the coming reality of your transforming destination called glorification? If not, plan to get your head and heart around where you and I are headed. The Christian life is about our transformation — the Event, the Process, and the Destination.
Blessings,
Pastor Dave
NYC Shepherd
“God in Our City” airs today at 11:00 A.M. on WMCA 570AM and at www.wmca.com. Our guest is Pastor Dave Beidel, the founding pastor of New Hope Community Church and President of Urban Hope. He will be taking about the amazing ministry God has allowed him to be part of and his soon to be released book “Samaria, the Great Omission”. Be sure to tune in.
“Why Aren’t We Praying?”
“Nothing of eternal consequence is accomplished apart from prayer”. I heard this statement so many times in my college and seminary years that I will never forget it. In turn, I have used these same words in sermons I’ve shared and in our church publications I am quite sure you will never forget them.
Though you and I know the importance of prayer and perhaps have even experienced, to some degree, its power in our lives we often times have weak anemic prayer lives. In examining my own life in the light of Scripture I have found a number of reasons this is true of me and I suspect of many of you as well. Here are my top ten reasons I and, perhaps, you fail to pray.
We fail to pray because:
#10 – We have an unyielded heart – We are afraid that as we pray God will ask else to do something we don’t want to do or go someplace we don’t want to go. So we don’t pray. We need to surrender our hearts to Him (Rom. 12:1-2)
#9 – We have an unwilling heart – Epaphras is said to be one who labored in prayer (Col. 4:12). Real prayer is hard work. We don’t like to expend energy. We don’t want to get up early or stay up late to pray. We are lazy and unwilling to change.
#8 – We have an unbending heart – We prefer to believe that we know what we are doing and that we can handle what comes our way. Nothing could be further from the truth. Prov. 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
#7 – We have an undisciplined heart – As we come to God in prayer we find our minds wandering here and there and everywhere. I have even heard of some people like the disciples falling asleep when they should have been praying. Jesus’ rebuke fits both them and us when He says “What, could you not watch (pray) with Me one hour?” (Matt. 26:40)
#6 – We have an unsettled heart – Like Martha we are troubled and worried
about many things and only one thing is an absolute necessity. That one thing is what Martha’s sister, Mary, chose, sitting at the feet of Jesus (Lk. 10:38-42).
#5 – We have an unfocused heart – We know we should be spending time in prayer yet we put off that commitment in our lives for a rainy day. We know God is telling us to do this but we are waiting for a more convenient time in our lives to put it into practice.
#4 – We have an unforgiving heart – There are people who have hurt us in our lives. We know that God wants us to forgive but for whatever reason we won’t. This hinders our prayer life greatly. We must, by God’s grace, forgive even as God in Christ has forgiven us (Eph. 4:30).
#3 – We have an unclean heart – We know that “all have sinned” and that we continually fall short of the standards and expectations God has for us. We feel guilty coming before a holy God. We know that “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me”. We must also remember His promise in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
#2 – We have an unthankful heart – We have forgotten how much God has done for us. We have forgotten His promises and the answers to prayer we have already experienced in our lives.
#1- We have an unbelieving heart – We say that we believe that God answers prayer and that prayer makes a difference. However, in our heart of hearts we doubt that it actually does. We need to get back to His Word and trust what He says. The Bible says “the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16b). Prayer works.
Clearly prayer is a heart thing. Whatever our reason for not praying we should with the song writer sing:
“Change my heart O God, Make it ever true, Change my heart O God, Make it more like you. Thou art the potter, I am the clay, mold me and make me this is what I pray.”
In His Service,
Pastor Dave Watson
NYC Shepherd
We’ve put together a Fifty Day Lenten Devotional that is a study of 1 Peter and the Life of the Apostle Peter. We call it “Believers in Babylon, Serving our Savior in the Secular City”. If you would like a free Pdf file of this devotional for your personal enrichment during this special time of year please simply email me at NYCShepherd@gmail.com and say send me the devotional and I will send it to you asap.
nycshepherd.com 