Staying Focused

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized

It seems “staying focused” in our lives can often be a difficult reality to attain. So much going on around us. Life passing by at an incredible rate. Raising the family; maintaining the job; keeping up with the chores—all of these and so much more can easily pull our attention away from our main focus. I suppose some of you may be wondering, What is my main focus? An answer to that question needs to be formulated by each of us for when we have nothing to focus on in life, we have nothing to aim for. And when we have nothing to aim for, our life always seems to be lacking.

To help formulate a main focus, let’s take a look for a moment at John 3:29-30: “He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist is hearing the rumors going around that King Herod’s household is wanting his head. He realizes his days are short. So, what would you do if this were you? Would you readjust your outlook on life—would your focus change? John had established a life focus that was a rock for him—a strong, unshakable foundation that kept him from wavering around in his life pursuits.

Recognizing his position as a servant to the groom (the groom’s friend), he found himself listening, always watching and waiting for the next move of the groom (Jesus); desiring to hear His voice. In this his joy (his life) was made complete. John focused on Jesus and upon seeing Him increase. He recognized it isn’t about me; it is all about Him! By maintaining such a focus, it didn’t matter what life slung his way. It didn’t matter if the executioner was ready to slay him. It only mattered that the name of Jesus grew more and the name of John faded into obscurity.

In today’s world, everyone is trying to make a name for themselves; yet, the Word of God tells us our life’s goal, our life’s focus, is to make a name for Him—JESUS! When we get focused upon Jesus, we will find the cares of this world, the problems this world throws our way, and life in general simply takes a back seat to His glory and to bringing honor always to Him. Today, stay focused on Jesus and point others to do likewise.

Strength for the Battle

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized
Strength for the Battle
Have you found yourself overwhelmed by your circumstances? Your life seems to be in shambles? Nothing seems to be going right? You are not alone and this is nothing new. We can often find ourselves wondering if God really cares; if He even notices our situation and how seriously desperate our lives have become.
David’s life was filled with times of overwhelming despair, trials, and times of desperation. I am reminded of one of these occasions spoken of in 1 Samuel 30:3-6a. The Scripture reads: “When David and his men arrived at the town, they found it burned down. Their wives, sons, and daughters had been kidnapped. David and the troops with him wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had also been kidnapped. David was in a difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters.”
Now, think with me here for a moment. David and his band of fighting men had been out warring against the enemy. When they return home, they find that another group of their enemies had come in and destroyed the town they were living in and had kidnapped their wives and families. As we compare our problems to this, we discover just maybe our troubles aren’t quite as severe as David faced on that day, but to us, they are still serious.
So, in his desperation, what did David do? Where did he turn to? Did he let his problem lead to utter despair? Thoughts of suicide? Running away to never return? What did he do? Interestingly, David recognized his Source of strength. He knew it was not within his own abilities or capabilities or those of his band of fighting men. The Scripture goes on to tell us, “But David found strength in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6b). David turned to the only One he knew who could handle this dilemma he and his men had come against.
When your life is overwhelmed; when you can’t find the strength to carry on; when life is crashing in all around you…find your strength in the Lord your God. There is no battle He cannot win. There is no problem He cannot overcome. There is no mountain in your path that He cannot bring down. Find your strength for every battle you may be facing in the Lord your God. Trust in Him today! Truth in Him always!

Choosing the Right Path

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized

Choosing the Right Path

It is interesting the tangled web we often weave within our lives. We start out on what would appear to be the right trek but soon find we are wandering about aimlessly lost in the chaos of life. Solomon wrote that “a man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). The way I see it is that we make our plans according to the drive or desire of our heart but too often we fail to allow the Lord to step in and direct us down the right path. Maybe our drive or desire was outside His will or maybe we simply took the driver’s seat and assumed we could best get ourselves to the goal.

The real problem lies in the premise we operate under that says “I can do this.” If we are truly children of God, it is not His will or desire that we “do this” on our own but that we allow Him to direct and lead us as we submit ourselves completely over to His will and way.  David Jeremiah addressed this when he said, “Our lives are not our own. We need God to guide our steps to walk us through this thing called life.”  That brings up a very good point for us and that is that we are not our own. When we assume the driver’s seat in our lives, we push Him away from being in control by taking control ourselves. When we do this, we are setting ourselves up for failure and eventual disaster.

The prophet Jeremiah arrived at this conclusion as we see when he writes these words: “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). When we arrive at this conclusion for ourselves and follow in it, we will find that our steps are always in accordance with God’s perfect plan for us. Although we may not understand His direction at times, we can trust in His knowledge of the Big Picture to get us right to the place He always desires for us to be. Choosing the right path simply means choosing to allow God to always be in the driver’s seat of your life, for the right path is always in His perfect plan.

Facing a New Challenge

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized
Facing a New Challenge
It seems just about the time you get comfortable where you are, GOD has something new in store for you. I suppose too much time in one’s comfort zone can result in adverse affects. A loss of motivation and drive will definitely ensue. Over time, laziness can even set in leading to eventual failure in the mission GOD has called one to do. It’s important we keep in mind that GOD’s plans always far exceed what we can even begin to imagine and so we can often fail to reach the goals GOD has for us because we have allowed our human reasoning to come on scene and in so doing we lose sight of GOD’s big picture. 
I reminded today of the mission GOD had for Paul and Barnabas. Apparently, GOD’s plans far exceeded what they were capable of carrying out in their current scheme of things. So, as GOD will often do, He intervened into their life situations to see that His plans got carried out to their fullest. Let’s pick up at Acts 15:36 and read the story: “Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches” (Acts 15:36-41 NIV).
The mission GOD had in His heart required that Paul and Barnabas split apart. Their abilities were being stifled as long as they were dependent upon each other. By dividing up the team, GOD’s divine mission of evangelizing the world became more of a reality. One team became two teams carrying forth the message to twice as many people. GOD apparently wasn’t near as concerned about how the breakup came rather His concern was simply that it happened. Some sharp words and disagreement took place, but, above all, the teams were now more capable than ever in their work.
Oftentimes, GOD interjects Himself into our work, our relationships, and anything else that is hindering His work, so we will wake-up and get back on mission. When such times come, we can immediately re-direct our life’s course according to GOD’s direction or we can whine and carry on about how our feelings have been hurt and how offended we are now. We can follow GOD’s direction and understand our position as His servants acting always in obedience to Him or we can spend so much time having ourselves a pity-party allowing Satan to have his way and in effect destroy all GOD wishes to do in and through us.
Recently, I encountered just such an intervention in my life and work. Having struggled incessantly with those whose hearts and minds failed to understand GOD’s leading and direction, GOD stepped into my path and nudged me away from that work. Although I felt a sense of apprehension over loosing my income, I began shortly thereafter to feel GOD gently leading and directing. Before long, GOD was controlling my direction and helping me to see things from a different perspective. He was bringing people into my life who had encouraging words to say. Today, although I am still struggling to comprehend all of GOD’s plan, I know that He has a plan in store for me that I certainly do not want to miss out on. Today, I am facing a new challenge with my head high knowing GOD’s direction is always the right direction!

Where Did the Power Go?

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized

Following is my latest sermon. Feel free to SHARE and use as God leads.

Preached at First Christian Church – Weslaco, TX on August 9, 2015 – AM Service

Where Did the Power Go?

INTRO: As we take a serious look at the “church” in America today, it is simple but sad to conclude that the American Church is failing. The “now generation” is witnessing the greatest demise in American church history. What used to be the pillar of our nation’s strength and the beacon of its truth has now become an icon of days long past.

Over the past 4 or 5 decades, we have witnessed many of the mainline denominations upon which this nation’s past was firmly grounded begin to divert their strong godly beliefs away from the teachings of God’s Word rather choosing to follow the ways of political correctness and liberalism—choosing to accept the practice of murdering babies through abortion; choosing to accept the belief that God didn’t mean what He said in His Word about His hatred for the practice of homosexuality, adultery, fornication and all the other sins so many churches have accepted as the norm.

God owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology if He doesn’t rain down judgment upon those who have caved to the worldly pressures to accept these sinful practices into their midst.

Today, we are witnessing some of the more fundamental, conservative denominations beginning to crumble under the same pressures choosing to accept these ungodly practices rather than standing up and speaking out against them.

What has happened to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? She has chosen friendship with the world as more important than friendship with the Lord. By so doing, she has exchanged her power to change the world for a sense of being a friend with the world. As we can see in reading the book of Acts, God’s purpose for the church is for it to impact and bring about a radical change to a hell-bound world. I’m reminded of the accusation brought against a group of believers recorded in Acts 17:6 where it says: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” I am challenged daily to turn my world upside down and I do my very best to see it happens. What about you?

Let’s read some Scripture so we can get a better understanding of all of this.

TEXT: Judges 13:1-5; Judges 16:15-21

1 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines 40 years.
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was barren and had no children.
3 The Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
4 Now please be careful not to drink wine or other alcoholic beverages, or to eat anything unclean;
5 for indeed, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.”

15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ ” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!”
16 Because she nagged him day after day and pled with him until she wore him out,
17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the money with them.
19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. In this way, she rendered him helpless, and his strength left him.
20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.

INTRO: Now let me begin to weave this all together by encouraging you to recognize a vital link that exists in this story of Samson that relates to all the church as well as every individual believer—Samson’s power was determined by his personal purity. A Nazarite vow was a commitment to living a life of purity before God. True Godly power cannot exist outside of a life of purity. In Matthew 5:8, Jesus tells us: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

So, with all this in mind, let’s attempt to answer the question:

I. Where Did Samson’s Power Go?

A. Samson was separated out by God – consecrated before his birth for a special purpose and commanded to live his life in purity and holiness.

B. Samson’s purity was the secret to his power.
1. When he compromised his life of purity, he began to compromise his God-given power.
2. When he compromised his morals through his relationship with a woman who was not a Jew, every step of every day took him closer to his eventual demise.

APPLICATION: Samson stood powerless before his enemies after divulging the secret to his power. His eyes were gouged out and he was paraded through the streets powerless and humiliated. A man of God turned powerless prisoner. What a pitiful turn of events for a man who had been so used by God. Samson discovered the hard way that dabbling in the sinfulness of his society would bring about his utter destruction.

What does this have to do with us? How does this relate to this church and others across America?

Let’s make an attempt to answer the question:

II. Where Did The Church’s Power Go?

A. Samson was lulled into a deep sleep by the lies and deceit of Delilah—many churches in America today have been lulled to sleep by the lies and deceit of the enemy brought on through the integration of an ungodly society into the church house.

B. People across America are hurting today—they need answers that are tangible, that give hope, that give strength, that give help in this godless society we have become.
1. The church holds the key—the church has the answer—yet we have allowed ourselves to become powerless by preaching a powerless, lifeless gospel message—by allowing ourselves to be infiltrated by the “Everyday’s a Friday Gospel” when we all realize the fakeness of such a message.
2. Pulpits have been taken over by men more full of themselves than by the power of God—sermons empowered by the power and the fire of God have been replaced by silly sermonettes laced with self-help feel-good little diddies that are powerless except to empty the churches of their people.
3. When we fail to call sin—sin; when we fail to acknowledge and preach about the reality of hell-fire and damnation of lost souls, we are selling our people out and the church no longer has any reason to exist.
4. When we fail to speak out while 57 million babies are being murdered at the hands of abortionists; when we fail to take a stand against an out of control government that removes anything and everything Godly from our society, we have relinquished our nation over to Satan and his demonic forces.

C. The early church recognized the necessity of the power of God in operation in order to survive in a world of ungodliness.
1. Paul said in Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
2. Confessing to being a Christian in the early church was similar to confessing the same in the Middle East under ISIS today—ridicule, persecution, imprisonment and death were very much a likelihood.
3. But the early church continued on in the face of all of this, recognizing God had given them a mission to impact their world and they did just that.

APPLICATION: But, here in America the church has failed and failed big time. We will answer to God for those babies. We will answer to God for our apathetic ways and our failure to maintain God at the forefront of everything our nation stands for.

So, things appear pretty desperate from the perspective of things at this juncture. What can I do? What can you do?

Let’s attempt to answer one final question:

III. Where Did The Believer’s Power Go?

A. Change within our nation will only come about when there is a radical change within the church across America.

B. A radical change within the church will only come when there is a radical change in the lives of the individual members of the church that makes them rise up fresh, new, excited —taking ahold of the falsities that have invaded and throwing them out demanding that once again the church be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

C. But, before that will happen we need to understand just what it will require of each of us. Jesus said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24)
1. This call was to absolute surrender and total separation unto Him for anyone who desired to continue in a relationship with Him.
2. One cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of Christ—like mixing oil and water, it will never happen; like mixing darkness with light, it will never happen—one will always suppress and overcome the other—a friend of the world cannot be a friend of Christ.

D. Jesus took the issue a step further when He said: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” (Lk 14:26)

APPLICATION: I am telling you right now, there can be no fire where there is no power; there can be no power where there is no purity of living and separation from this ungodly world.

CONCLUSION: The reality of everything I have shared today is harsh. The possibility of any change coming is questionable. I ask myself, Is there any hope today for America? For the church in America? For each of us?

Let’s go back to Judges 16:22-30 for an answer.

22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved.
23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said: Our god has handed over our enemy Samson to us.
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead.
25 When they were drunk, they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars.
26 Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.”
27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about 3,000 men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain [them].
28 He called out to the Lord: “Lord God, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”
29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left.
30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.
We see Samson’s hair begins to grow back. His heart returns to God and to the purity of living that God had called him to. We see that the power of God came upon him one more time and he finished his life in the victor’s circle.

The church in America is in a sad, sinful, backslidden condition today. Revival and renewal within the church will only come about when God’s people recognize their own personal sinful lifestyles and determine by willful acts to turn from their sinful ways back to a holy God.

Each of us must come to an altar of complete repentance for all the spiritual shortcomings in our lives. We must confess and turn away from those lifestyles.

God is sending out a call for His church to rise up out of the ashes in purity and holiness in preparation for His soon return. He is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle. God is ready to pour out a fresh anointing of His Spirit and His power but to receive from Him, each of us must be found to be holy as He is holy.

Where Did the Power Go?

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized

Preaching tomorrow, Sunday August 9th, at First Christian Church Weslaco​ at 10:45 AM.
The sermon kicks off this way:

Where Did the Power Go?
INTRO: As we take a serious look at the “church” in America today, it is simple but sad to conclude that the American church is failing. The “now generation” is witnessing the greatest demise in American church history. What used to be the pillar of our nation’s strength and the beacon of its truth has now become an icon of days long past.
Over the past 4 or 5 decades, we have witnessed many of the mainline denominations upon which this nation’s past was firmly grounded begin to divert their strong godly beliefs away from the teachings of God’s Word rather choosing to follow the ways of political correctness and liberalism—choosing to accept the practice of murdering babies through abortion; choosing to accept the belief that God didn’t mean what He said in His Word about His hatred for the practice of homosexuality, adultery, fornication and all the other sins so many churches have accepted as the norm.
God owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology if He doesn’t rain down judgment upon those who have caved to the worldly pressures to accept these sinful practices into their midst.

Join us to find out “the rest of the story…205 W 6th St., Weslaco, TX.

A GREAT ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE!

Pastor Dr Danny Uncategorized

A GREAT ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE!
There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly and the death of the ungodly. Death comes to the ungodly man as a penal infliction, but to the righteous as a summons to his Father’s palace. To the sinner it is an execution, to the saint an undressing from his sins and infirmities. Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory. ~~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

http://www.preacherdanny.com