Church Of The Lost Sheep

" I have written to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not accept our instruction. So if I come, I will call attention to his malicious slander against us. And unsatisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and forbids those who want to do so, even putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God." 3 John 1:9-11 [This is the 11th message of this series ] John the Beloved Continuing on this series of us putting names to characters in the bible we shouldn't be like, we come upon someone who John mentioned in his third letter, the name of this person is Diotrephes. Diotrephes Who is Diotrephes? We may not have heard of him but in all likelihood we know someone like him -- someone who always wants to be in the thick of the action, always inserting himself in things that doesn't concern him.  This person always has

"You are aware of the fact that all who are in [the province of] Asia turned away  and  deserted me, Phygelus and Hermogenes among them. The Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me  and  showed me kindness [comforting and reviving me like fresh air] and he was not ashamed of my chains [for Christ’s sake];  2 Timothy 1:15 [This is the 10th message of this series ] Apostle Paul After having discussed about Onesiphorus in another series of lessons , who the Apostle Paul mentioned to Timothy (leader of the first church in the City of Ephesus), we will have a short lesson on Phygelus and Hermogenes who Paul also mentioned in that same letter to Timothy. Apostates Paul singled out Phygelus and Hermogenes when he reported to Timothy that the believers in the province of Asia have 'turned away' from the faith and left the church. A multitude of people abandoning their faith is what the term 'apostasy' means.  Turning Away This ma

"I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges. And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you’re right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans—worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the Book of Life." -the Apostle Paul writing to the first church in Philippi, 1st century Philippians 4:2-3 [This is the 9th message of this series ] Differences Continuing with this series , today we will be spotlighting two women who Paul mentioned by name to be having some sort of disagreement. Euodia and Syntyche Reading between the lines, I feel the disagreement between these two ladies were affecting the Philippian church to such a degree that Paul found it important that he had to step in to mend the rift or even to stop the bleeding. On another version of this verse, Paul put it more blu

"Some of these men go into homes and mislead weak-minded women who are burdened with sins and led by all kinds of desires. These women are always studying but are never able to recognize the truth. As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth. Their minds are corrupt, and the faith they teach is counterfeit. Certainly, they won’t get very far. Like the stupidity of Jannes and Jambres, their stupidity will be plain to everyone." 2 Timothy 3:6-9 Continuing on this series of us putting faces or names to people we shouldn't be like, we will have a momentary side-trip to the Old Testament to the time of Moses, when magicians opposed the power of God with their magic tricks. [This is the 6th lesson in this series] I must confess though that writing this has not been easy for me. Normally when I start to write, the words flow out naturally and at a pace that my fingers couldn't catch up. But for this, the words just seem to be lagging behind.

"Simon (of Samaria) saw that the Spirit was given to the Samaritans when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered Peter and John money and said, “Give me this power so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter told Simon, “May your money be destroyed with you because you thought you could buy God’s gift. You won’t have any share in this because God can see how twisted your thinking is. So change your wicked thoughts, and ask the Lord if he will forgive you for thinking like this. I can see that you are bitter with jealousy and wrapped up in your evil ways.” Acts 8:18-23 Continuing with this series, the seventh about putting a name or a personality to people who we should not be like, today we will focus on a Samaritan named Simon. Tradition tells us that he was a magician by trade, and he was quite famous in Samaria. So when he witnessed the apostles "performing" a more astounding "magic act" than he could, the

Ananias and Sapphira "A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold some property. They agreed to hold back some of the money they had pledged and turned only part of it over to the apostles." Acts 5:1-2 Continuing on this series which is about putting a name or a face to people who we should not be like, we come upon a husband and wife, believers, who gained notoriety during the early church. Again, let me state that although Scriptures show us traits that are undesirable in God's Kingdom, this series is really to allow us to see that the bible do show us examples of real people, so as to put a name to these personalities we ought not to be like Let me just start that in the fifth chapter of the Book of Matthew, it was recorded that Jesus said not to make a vow to the Lord, most definitely one which you cannot follow through or worse have no intention of accomplishing altogether. And there are countless pompous people who are so full of themselves and promise so

"As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him talk. But Martha was upset about all the work she had to do. So she asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Tell her to help me.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. There’s only one thing you need. Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42 We shall continue with this series, the fifth in which is about putting a name or a face to people who we should not be like. Believe it or not, well meaning people have labored long and hard to please God, doing everything and anything, reading His Word daily and even memorizing Scriptures but miss the most important part of what the Lord wanted them to do. Throughout church history, we have read or heard

"Then he said to the council, “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you do with these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared. He claimed that he was important, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, and all his followers were scattered. The whole movement was a failure. “After that man, at the time of the census, Judas from Galilee appeared and led people in a revolt. He, too, died, and all his followers were scattered. “We should keep away from these men for now. We should leave them alone. I can guarantee that if the plan they put into action is of human origin, it will fail. However, if it’s from God, you won’t be able to stop them. You may even discover that you’re fighting against God." The council took his advice. They called the apostles, beat them, ordered them not to speak about the one named Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the council room. They were happy to have been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for speaking about Jesus. E

7 Sons of Sceva "Some Jews used to travel from place to place and force evil spirits out of people. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to force evil spirits out of those who were possessed. These Jews would say, “I order you to come out in the name of Jesus, whom Paul talks about.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I’m acquainted with Paul, but who are you?” Then the man possessed by the evil spirit attacked them. He beat them up so badly that they ran out of that house naked and wounded."  Acts 19:13-16 Continuing on this series which is about putting a name or a face to people who we should not be like. In the story above, Paul who was in Ephesus was doing tremendous work in the Name of Jesus and is spreading the Gospel to both Jews and Greeks. Then along came the sons of Sceva who most probably made a living as some kind of old school Ghostbusters or exorcists. So seeing

"Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem. As he went into a village, ten men with a skin disease met him. They stood at a distance and shouted, “Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he told them, “Show yourselves to the priests.” As they went, they were made clean. When one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back and praised God in a loud voice. He quickly bowed at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (The man was a Samaritan.) Jesus asked, “Weren’t ten men made clean? Where are the other nine? Only this foreigner came back to praise God.” Jesus told the man, “Get up, and go home! Your faith has made you well." Luke 17:11-19 This is the second of this series. And in the story above, it is obvious who we shouldn't be like. I know, that these people may be hard to relate to and yes, not many of us has a hard core skin disease nowadays. But in case it is still not apparent, being "ungrateful&

"Be careful not to do your good works in public in order to attract attention. If you do, your Father in heaven will not reward you." Matthew 6:1 Scriptures show us people to look up to and emulate. But the reverse is also true, particularly in Matthew chapter six and seven, which starts with "When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites... When you pray, don’t ramble like heathens... When you fast, stop looking sad like hypocrites..." And it goes on to explain why. So in this series we will look at those (people) who we shouldn't become. So although from reading Matthew 6, we might already know that we shouldn't be like pagans or legalistic Pharisees, it would be nice to put a name to other people who we shouldn't be like. Judas, Barabbas, Gestas Among them is Judas, one of the most trusted followers of Jesus and among those who stayed with Him day in and day out, during the last three years of His life and His public ministry. Judas