Pastor David Keuss - Hope without Compromise

Tomorrow in worship @ The Lakes Church we will have a day exploring God's Word for women seeking to be married or who are married.  As we kick off a new series, Staying in Love, there are some great truths in this message.  One thing to share that is a minor point in the whole sermon, but could be expanded for your use is this: Genesis 2:24 says this:  " That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united  to his wife, and they become one flesh ." When a man and a woman marry they are one flesh.  This is not just a random point.  This word for "one" was used of the fact that God is one.  See the main tagline for Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Same word.  There is unity.  There is staying power.  Even in God's purpose and commitments, it is ongoing, so Israel should strive to stay faithful.  This is counter-cultural. We know too from Paul later in the Bible that marriage is a picture of the gospel, as Jesus loves the church, his br

A Christian leadership book mentions an example worth following in life or work:  the author of that book and his leadership team long ago set down and wrote out their core calling (or mission) as an organization. They try new things as long as they fit in that core competency of helping people with biblical principles through their business, but they never get involved in things that do not match that their specific call.  This makes it easy to say "no" to what may be good things for some to try, but not a good fit for them. The fact is in your life and work, you too cannot please everyone. You must work and live with integrity and hope and kindness and faith, but that does not mean living to be beat up by people who will cause you trouble if you try to work with them. You have to work on and have a set calling, and pursue it with passion, which both attracts people to you and also repels some others (if their passion differs). If some things can be tried that are

Billy Graham put it this way:  "Don't forget:  without fuel, a fire grows cold--and without the "fuel" of the Bible, prayer and Christian fellowship, our faith grows cold."  Wise words.

As Christ followers who have faith that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Lord, that his death on the cross was in our place as a substitute for our just penalty for sins, we have entered a covenant with God.  It's not so much like Israel's covenant where they were setting it up.  Rather the New Covenant in Christ (Hebrews 8) hardly was something we had a big gathering and agreed to.  It was God's sovereign and prophesied plan coming to pass in Jesus' life, death, and raising again. The thing is we sometimes operate in our Christian walks like we are dependent on stipulations to have God's love.  Of course, this is not true, because Jesus does not change.  His work does not change.  God the Father does not change in accepting the cross as sufficient to forgive any believer's sins. So you come to a verse like Malachi 3:6 "For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed." We should learn to rest in that truth Malac