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Darrell Eisenhauer
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Don’t Give Up Perhaps you have had a disappointment, or a series of disappointments, lately. Maybe you have considered giving up. You need to remember that we all stumble and fall occasionally. Let me tell you about something I experienced recently. My wife and I had driven out to see our two grandsons and as we turned into their long, winding drive-way, the two-year old spotted us. He quickly climbed down the front steps and began running across the front yard with a big smile on his face. I stopped the car and waited on him. It was one of those perfect moments of life....the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and racing over the green grass towards us was our happy grandson. I remarked to Sharon that I wished I could freeze that moment in time, but of course we never can. About 30 feet from the car he fell down, flat on his face. I watched him, curious to see his reaction. He bounced right back up, and still smiling resumed his running towards his grandma and grandpa and wasn’t satisfied until he crawled up onto our laps. And that, folks, is exactly how God wants us to react when we have a fall, not to moan and groan, but to keep smiling....not to just lie down in discouragement, but to get up and run to our Father in heaven. If we, being imperfect parents, want the best for our children (or grandchildren), how much more so our Heavenly Father wants the best for us. So, keep in fellowship with the Lord, and DON’T GIVE UP. Pastor Darrell September 2008 How to Build a House How many of you have ever lived in a trailer? I’m not talking about a double-wide, or even a trailer on a foundation - - I’m talking about a trailer still on wheels. If you’ve ever lived in one, you know that it can be downright scary when a storm comes and the trailer is rocking back and forth. The trailer shakes because it’s not on a solid foundation. Several years ago we vacationed at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The first thing you notice is that the beach houses are built on stilts. They are built that way for three reasons and one of the reasons is that it’s difficult to build solid footings in sand. The other reasons are that there are a lot of storms out there and the house on stilts is actually designed so that when the strong winds come there will be some give and it will sway a little bit without breaking up and also the stilts protect from high water. We were never in one of these houses during a bad storm, and I wouldn’t want to be either. I have never experienced a bad earthquake, but even a couple of the light ones that we have had - - the ones where the ground shakes and the dishes rattle - - that’s kind of unsettling, isn’t it? The thing is, we like to have our feet on something solid, and we want to know that it’s solid. We don’t like to be shaken. And do you know what? Just as we need a solid foundation and a sure footing physically, we also need it on a spiritual level. The Bible says in Psalms 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it…” Why bother with the time and trouble of building something if it’s not going to last? Jesus taught His disciples that there are TWO WAYS. His way is the straight and narrow way, the one that leads to life [Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life. The other is the world’s way - - the wide and easy road that leads to destruction Jesus also taught that there are TWO HOUSES. One of them is built on a foundation that will stand - - the solid Rock of Jesus Christ and His Righteousness; the other is built on sand….that house will fall when the storm comes. I have never been a carpenter in my secular life and I sure would not want to live in anything that I built! But spiritually speaking, every person is a carpenter. Everyone is building a house. In the Bible, the word, “house,” can be used in three different ways: to describe a person’s life; a person’s family; or the church itself (the Lord’s house). No matter what area we are building in, we need to pay attention to the Bible and build carefully. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes thru dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation. Matthew 12:43-45 Just by your will power alone, you can get rid of all the bad habits in your life if you try really hard. If you drink and smoke, you can stop drinking and smoking. If you swear, you can stop swearing. If you gossip, you can stop gossiping. No matter what the bad thing in your life that you are doing, you can stop it by yourself - - for a little while. But when you empty yourself, you are not going to stay empty long. We need to be emptied of self, but we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The simple truth is we are not strong enough to fight our own battles because we are not just fighting against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces as well. But here is the good news - - If we are in the will of God, the Bible tells us that the battle is not ours, but the Lord’s {2 Chronicles}. 2. A second kind of house the Bible talks about is a person’s family. I Timothy 3:4-5, tells us to rule our own house well, having our children in submission with all reverence for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? The Bible here is specifically addressing leadership in the church and stating that a person should be able to manage their own household if he expects he can be a leader at church. But even if we have raised our family, we can still be an influence on them. And for those who don’t have natural children, there are people in your circle of influence that you can have a positive influence on. the church itself is the Lord’s house. And what makes up th I Peter 2:5,9 The Bible also tells us that e church? Not wood and stone, but people, God’s people. The Bible says that we are as living stones, being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. God didn’t just choose and save us so that we can go to heaven - - if He did, He would just go ahead and take us home now. We were chosen to be part of His family and to do our part in building His kingdom. When we forget that, we start living independently of Him and running our own life. And then, sooner or later - - usually sooner, things begin getting a little shaky because we don’t feel that solid foundation under us. Your life does not have to be dominated by worries and fears and insecurity. You can have security and you can be free from worry and fear. It’s just a matter of building your house right. And here is a five point, step-by-step plan on how you can do just that:
We have a Master Builder on whose help we can rely, so let’s begin building and build well. Pastor Darrell July 17, 2009 The Three R’s Just like reading, riting, and rithmetic are basic to a young person’s education, there are three R’s that are basic to Christianity. Those three R’s are as follows: REGARD – “Regard,” means to be aware of, to look upon, and to consider. David said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.” In other words, if he was aware of sin in his life and did nothing about it, this would be a hindrance for him to hear from God. Sometimes, people sin and are not really aware of it. This is especially true when a person “gets used to a sin,” so that he no longer bothered by it. That’s why David also prayed, “Search me O God and know my heart and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” REMORSE – regret means to feel sorry about something we have done. But regret is often just being sorry that we got caught or sorry about the consequences of what we have done. Remorse takes it a step further. Remorse is to have moral anguish over our sin. Spiritual remorse can only come about when we are convicted by the Holy Spirit. At the time a person becomes a Christian, he has remorse over his sins, remorse over his sin nature, and remorse that he has offended a Holy God. And this remorse then leads him to the next step. REPENT - repentance is more than becoming aware of a sin and stopping that sin. It is more than being sorry for the sin. It is becoming grieved and remorseful over the sin so that we have a change of mind about it. We see it for what it is and we see our selves for what we are. Our minds are changed to agree with God, “I have sinned. I am a sinner.” Repentance involves a contrite heart and confession of sin. And it produces a changed life, so that now we love light instead of darkness. We love the things of God more than the things of the world. When we are saved from our sins, the Holy Spirit begins residing within us. He guides us, leads us, corrects us, and is always there to help us. We are also given the mind of Christ. This means that if we live close enough to God, where we are not grieving the Holy Spirit, we begin to think and feel like Jesus thinks and feels. This will keep us from sin. Our job is to stay in the love of God through obedience and loving Him. Pastor Darrell July 17, 2009 Praying on the Spot 7/01/2009 The days are full of many things....some good, some bad, but mostly just a lot of little things that demand our attention and scatter our thoughts. Urgent things are not always important things and important things are frequently crowded out by our to-do lists. We have a tendency to operate in our own strength instead of the Lord's strength. What's the solution? Will going to church regularly and having a daily quiet time keep us focused on the Lord? It will help. But if we want a continuous, close walk with the Lord where we operate in the flow of the Holy Spirit, something more is required. That "something more" is this - - we need to stay connected with the Lord ALL of the time. In-between our devotional times, in-between church services, and all other Christian activities, we need a constant awareness of His presence; we need to form the habit of turning to Him often, asking for His leading and how to respond to different situations. Whatever happens, there should be a turning to Him to seek how we should respond. This is called abiding in His presence. Learning to pray on the spot is one technique for abiding in His presence. Cultivate the habit of praying about everything on an ongoing basis. How can we possibly do this? The same way we form any other type of habit....PRACTICE. When we see someone, when we talk to someone, and even when we think of someone....pray for them. Often someone will come to our mind seemingly out of the blue.......sometimes the Lord brings them to mind for us to pray for them, and even if it's not from the Lord, we know it pleases Him when we pray for others. Even while we are talking to someone, we can carry on an internal dialogue with the Lord, asking Him how to respond and how to relate to the other person. When the cares of the world begin to distract, pray about it until it goes away and peace comes. What will happen if we pray all of the time? Will there be any time for us to just think about what we want to think about (day dream)? Won't it leave little time for us to think about our self? Yes, it will take our mind off of self. And by so doing, we will become less selfish, less self-centered, and we will be more giving....to God and others. We will be taking our self out of our own keeping and entrusting our keeping to the Lord. We will be abiding in His presence. Surrendering to God, submitting our self to Him, and making a conscious effort of dedicating the day to Him, will help us abide in Him. It's best to speak this out in prayer every day to get it firmly set in our spirit. Seek divine appointments every day........seek and keep on seeking, ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking. You will find, you will receive, and doors will be opened. Keep a journal of your seeking and your answers, the results will surprise you. Pastor Darrell Growing Season 7/01/2009 Everything in nature is designed to grow. About 20 years ago, we were having a spring much like this one, with lots of rain and lots of sunshine. My lawn was growing ...way too much. I was tired of mowing grass every few days and I got a bright idea. I had heard of something new on the market, something that once sprayed on your lawn would make it so you would only have to mow two or three times a season. I decided to try it. Bright ideas don't always turn out well. The spray not only contained some type of growth inhibitor, but also some week killer. Within a few days of spraying, large splotches began appearing in the yard. Even green weeds look ok when mowed, but these weeds had turned to an unsightly yellow and then brown. The spray worked though, because the grass pretty well stopped growing. But it looked wilted with a pale, unhealthy appearance. That year, we had the worst looking lawn in Saline County. And just like that growth inhibitor for grass, there are growth inhibitors in our spiritual life as well. Back in the late 1800's William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, made this statement. "I consider the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell." Well, we can see that all that has pretty well come about. Religion, for the most part, has become more respectable. It has become worldly. But while it's easy to look at a nation's sin or talk about what's wrong with society, it's more fruitful to talk about what we can do individually. What can we personally do to have a closer walk with the Lord and to be more effective in His kingdom? What's the number one thing that hinders our spiritual growth? Certainly one possibility is our failure to practice a repentant lifestyle. The same Bible that says we need to seek Him and to keep on seeking Him, also says, "God will not hear me if I regard iniquity in my heart." When David said this he was talking about unconfessed, unrepentant sin. There is a difference between regret and repentance. Regret comes from natural sorrow; repentance results from Godly sorrow. There is no value in regret. Regret may lead to feelings of guilt and shame and condemnation, but something more is needed if we are going to come into salvation. And something more is needed if we are seeking renewed relationship with the Lord. We need Godly sorrow over sin. Godly sorrow is the result of being convicted by the Holy Spirit. When we see our sins as God sees them, it produces grief in us because we realize we have sinned against Him. Godly sorrow leads us to repentance. True repentance is God-centered and God-focused. It is a sorrow over offending God .....a resolve to turn towards Him and do the exact opposite of the sin. The Bible says that when we seek God with all of our heart, we will find Him. But we must ask in faith, nothing wavering. We must ask with an undivided mind. Unrepentant sin divides our mind and it will act as a growth inhibitor in our spiritual life. So, while we could talk about such things as Lordship Theology, Free Grace Alone Theology, whether or not a Christian has two natures, whether there is such a thing as a carnal Christian, etc, I think it is most fruitful if we focus on one thing. And that one thing is seeking righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which comes about when we have right standing with God, which in turn comes about when we repent. And since repentance only comes after we have Godly sorrow over sin, we need to do those things that will put us into position to receive the gift of repentance from God. We need to be like David who prayed that God would examine his heart and point out any wickedness in him. The Bible gives us something to measure our repentance with: "For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter." So, here we have a way of testing our selves: 1) am I being diligent (careful) and quick to do what is right? 2) am I clearing myself of blame, am I quick to stop doing what's wrong when I become aware of wrong doing? 3) Indignation - do I feel an anger or moral outrage over a sin? 4) Fear - do I have a holy fear, lest the sin should be repeated or not entirely removed 5) Fervent desire - do I have a fervent desire to do what's right in God's eyes? (Apathy and half-hearted service is not a sign of true repentance) 6) Vindication - do I have a readiness to do the right thing The closer we are to the Lord, the greater our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin. There are many things we can do to improve our Christian walk, but perhaps the best thing is to daily invite Him to examine our heart and point out any wrong within us, so that we can repent of it. Let's do that. Let's make it a habit of completely surrendering our selves to the Lord, so that our growing season will be long and fruitful.
Pastor Darrell We Serve a Risen Savior 5/28/2009 My son and daughter-in-law have been working with our three-year old grandson teaching him to pray. He is doing quite well too. He prays with a spontaneity that comes so natural with children. He begins by clasping his hands, bowing his head, closing his eyes and then says, "Well, Jesus - - - and then proceeds with what's on his mind.He was praying the other night when all of a sudden he stopped, as if something occurred to him. Lifting his head and looking at his dad, he said, "Wait a minute! Isn't Jesus dead? Didn't that mean man kill Him on the cross?"That type of innocence and naivety in a three-year old is cute, but not so endearing in grown-ups. How many adults approach the Lord in the abstract way that views Him as a historical person, not a living one? When a person views the Bible and Christianity as just a set of rules and historical facts, something vital is lost.Here's the truth of the matter. Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. God's not dead, He's alive! The Bible is the living Word of the Living God. We serve a risen Savior - - - is He in your heart? Are you relating to Him as if He is alive or dead? Pray for a fresh revelation of the Lord. Let us seek Him while He may be found. Pastor DarrellCommon Ground 5/22/2009 A politician said the other day that we need to seek common ground on the issue of abortion. His words were flowery and his thought was lofty. But how can there be common ground on such an issue? The expression, "common ground," is usually defined as a "mutual understanding." It is most often used when trying to appease opposing parties holding strong opinions about a subject. Compromise is the result. There are situations in which compromise is acceptable, but it should never be used to dilute God's Word or to rationalize sin. There is a common ground that we can all acknowledge and there is another common ground to which we can all aspire. We are all sinners (in sin did my mother conceive me). We hold this in common, that we came into this world as sinners, and even now our flesh still has a sin nature. There is only one common ground that really matters and it lies at the foot of the cross. This is the common ground we should be seeking, not only for ourselves, but for others, for it is only here that we can find forgiveness of sin. Let us seek common ground in Jesus, the hope of the world. Pastor Darrell
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