P. Schaller

This is a bit of a different service because I’m running out the door to the airport. Bid me fair well! What a blessing.

We have P. Ken and Kitte and Dr. Chung and Natalie over here. Natalie, do you want to show yourself to everyone? She’s 6 months with child. Maybe during the week you can share. Maybe tonight in the rap, whatever is good in the schedule. I’ll be gone but P. Scibelli is here. Is Katie Szabo here? Here she is from Kentucky over there. Good to have you. P. Drew and the family has been here all week. Love you guys. Amazing, beautiful.

This morning we had a message called the Amen. We’re going to do a short intro on that and then I’m gone. No drama in leaving. When my wife years ago and I was living in Hungary and commuting back and forth, one time we didn’t see each other for four months. It was hard going to the airport and she would take me there. No drama. I would just say I’ll see you tomorrow. And get out of the car and go to the check in and I’m gone. Isn’t that good advice. It didn’t work though! Aghhh!

Rev. 3, I’m so thankful for P. Pete Westera. How about you guys? Such a dull response. I don’t know why! He does such a good job. I think we need some Sunday school teachers. Pray about it.

Also, go to chapter 3 and verse 14. Rev 3:14, it is a pattern in our Scripture when God is speaking to a church. He defines himself relating to their need. Their need is they need an “amen.” They need a solid amen because they are drifting. They are drifting in comfort and wealth. They are drifting in relativism. They are drifting in their culture. They are poor and miserable on the inside. So when he came to them, he called himself the Amen. This word is important to us because it’s one of Jesus’ favorite words. Amen. In the Greek New testament, we have it written verily, verily, I say to you. It has the meaning of firmness and solidity, what is nailed down, what is true and sure, what cannot be moved. The Amen. God is an Amen. He transcends the world we live in. He is the anchor. He has put us in us his Son and by the Son of God in us we have an Amen in our heart. This is in distinction to another word HEBEL in the Hebrew. This word means what is visual or recognizable but unsubstantial, momentary, profitless, futile, spurious, illusionary and fraudulent. It’s translation is “vanity.” HEBEL HEBELIM is vanity of vanities.

When we were growing up as young people, we were living our life but for some of us like a Lutheran priest in Finland many years said to us his favorite thing to do was go outside the discotheque at 1 or 2 in the morning and look for the teenager leaving the restaurant a bit lonely and bewildered. He would go to the young person and talk to him or her about the Lord. He was fishing. He had an Amen in his heart. He wanted to speak to someone who had vanity of vanities in their heart. I can see it but it’s empty. I see a pile of money but it’s empty. I see a document or diploma or wife or children or job or my life and somehow I don’t have an Amen. It’s not solid. I don’t know when it will pass away.

Ec. 3 the Beatles made a song of it I think. The Birds. The old guys got the album fresh in their entertainment room at home!

Ec 3:1-3, all these things that happen in this life they are seasons and the last portion here of this paragraph is vs. 11. When we had the young people on stage dedicating their babies, could it be any greater or beautiful to have a child and hold the child in your arms. It’s beautiful for a time. When you buy a home, it’s beautiful or you get married. Your teenager graduates from school. He has made everything beautiful in his time. Why? Because it passes. It passes. I want it forever and it’s gone. Why? That thing is visual but it doesn’t have the substance that you are looking for. Because he has put eternity in our hearts. Eternity in their heart. You hold a baby and hope it doesn’t end. You get the idea. Why? We have eternity in our hearts. You know what is needed in the human heart? An Amen that doesn’t change. Verily, verily, I say unto you. The Laodicean church didn’t have the Amen. They were lukewarm. They were living life cruising on auto pilot hoping the garden party Friday night would be a success. Could you go deeper and look for something that has no end? Look for the I AM and relate to God who has no beginning and no end and the Great Commandment is to love him with all our heart and mind. That’s why doctrine, this book, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the word, our love for each other has such value. This is not temporary. This is from our heavenly Father and it’s forever. Our life is forever. Our values he puts in us is forever. Love never fails. Heaven and earth will pass away and not this book. Our relationship with our families that may mean much to us and should and do but also we are rejoicing in that which cannot be moved. Words of truth that do not change. Those truths are able to build us up and live in a temporal world and say God loves you. And say I forgive you and pray for you. The great I AM has given us a substantial affirmation of truth and we are able to say Amen deep in our spirit. This is why we come here. This is why we go to places and look for God to minister. I wouldn’t have any business going to Hungary today or any of us going anywhere if we didn’t have a message. Greater than the diplomats of our nation, any political party, any amount of money, your life and mine we possess something the world is hungry for. HEBEL HEBELIM, – its going empty and I need to hear that which is not empty.

P. Scibelli

Rev. 22:20-21. – That word has been on my brain all day. What is the word? Amen. Is it better to follow vanity and vanity of vanities or to follow the Amen? Which would you say? Amen. It is much more rewarding to follow the Amen.

Jesus is the Amen in Rev 3:14. He’s called the Amen. This word means firm, solid, faithful, finished and fulfilled and true and certain. You’ll hear this word used in church services around the world and people and we throw it out there but it’s a spiritual powerful word. Finality, fulfilled, finished work. Absolutely solid and firm. This is the Amen. I love how the Bible ends with that word. I was thinking of Jesus being the Amen and grace.

vs. 21. Amen finishes the devil. He’s finished and defeated.

The world is defeated in 1 Jn 5:4; the devil is defeated in Rev. 12:9-11 and the old sin nature is defeated in Rom. 6:6 and Gal. 2:20. We have absolute victory. We have amazing three fold victory over the enemies. Amen to that. Such an Amen as it relates to the grace of God and thinking about the nature and character of God I can proclaim to what is taking place in my life and your life. Laodicea is interesting. Jesus calls himself the faithful and true witness to a church that was neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. Jesus said I will vomit you out of my mouth. I taste you but you make me sick. I love you but you don’t taste good as a church. Rather than being yes and no and doubleminded, let’s have a church that is an absolute Amen. I’m blessed to be a part of a ministry that is doing what this ministry is doing in this city. Can you say, Amen? You’re going to say that a lot tonight.

Ecclesiastes is an amazing book. 86 times it talks about vanity or something derived as it is vanity. 29 times the words under heaven or under the sun. He’s saying life under the sun is emptiness or futility. I have searched it out and have had everything. 7 greats. He was great, did great work and had great knowledge. There was no one like him. Great riches and power and he says 86 times HEBEL. It’s all vanity. Everything under the sun is vanity. Imagine people striving for everything this world has to give and when they get it, it’s all vain. Going after something and once I got it, it does nothing for me. It’s all vanity. We have the riches of Christ. We have the riches of Christ. Can you say, Amen? We have all the riches of Jesus Christ.

Eph. 2:5, 7, 8, it will talk in those three verses about grace in the past, present and future. The exceeding riches that will come in the future. We have grace for our past and present and what takes place tomorrow and next year. When I know he gives me grace and cares for me, I say Amen. Amen to what God has said and what God has done.

2 Cor 1:18-20, all the promises. How many? All the promises of God are in him yes and in him amen to the glory of God. His promises are all Amen and he is the Amen. One day we will have no sin nature. Amen! Can you imagine one day you’re not going to have an old sin nature? Martin remembers in Uganda my osn having a reaction on the basketball court! I never tried to outdo an older person! It was an Amen! People came to church from the basketball court. That’s an Amen. We are occupied with what we want to happen and think we need and don’t say Amen to what God has done. In heaven there is no devil, demons, osn, no sickening world system. What is the world anyway? That which is in opposition to and alien from the life of God. I say Amen to get out of it. We are going to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. To that I can only say Amen.

We are witnesses to Jesus Christ and as a ministry we have a great responsibility and purpose to bring the message not only to Baltimore and Silver Spring – Amen! God healed him. P. Shibley is an amazing man of God. I’ve been with him how many years? 30 something years. The time your mother came and pulled you out. 39 years. Storeton [?} chapel. That was an Amen.

The day I met my wife was an Amen. Being single is also an Amen. Thank God for the person you are married to because of God using it. Amen to your husband and wife. Those children given to you by God. Amen to those children. I was teaching Kourtney how to put your fingers in the seams on the basketball and how to shoot it from the ear. She never said Amen to it. I think she went back to shooting the way people taught her. Sometimes you have to force the arm. I know more about basketball than she does. Amen! I did a man’s wedding and he had been married legally and had 17 children in the wedding party. Amen. 17 kids lined up there as the bridal party. We killed the cow and ate the whole cow for the wedding. There he goes again with those stories. No, they are Amen’s. God delivers us and heals us. What do you say to that? Amen. Say Amen to that before it happens. “I don’t know what God is going to do.” You should like the bishop of Laodicea. I know what God will do because all of his promises are yes and amen. He is going to bear fruit in our older age. Say Amen to that. When we speak to people about Christ, God can touch them. We heard P. Schaller about how he got on his knees and praying to God. We communicate the message of J.C. and we never know what will happen through our prayers. I say Amen to that. When we are praying, we say God is going to do it. Why else would we pray? Ever pray and not believe what you are praying? Interesting. I don’t think I should have added the word Amen to it. Amen? Someone said a life expectancy of a certain people group is 68. I said I went right by that. Amen. When someone goes home to be with the Lord, what do we say? Amen. Next Sunday I want to preach a message, Sunday morning and night being blessed versus being stressed. Hello? Anyone ever get stressed here? It’s when your mind is divided from God’s mind. Anxiety, cares, is when my thoughts are divided from God’s. Here comes the stress. The peace of God passes understanding and I say Amen to that. I say Amen to raising up children in the way they should go. You see them floating in different directions and Amen. God is bringing them home one day. God loves me. Can you say Amen to that? God loves ME. Even ME. I don’t care who you are and what you’ve done and will do. God’s mercy rejoiced over judgment. Amen. Amen. God never thinks evil. You know what I say to that? Amen. God restores people. God puts relationships back together. All I can say to that is Amen.

God provides all our needs in Php. 4:19 and to that I say Amen. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Amen. It’s final, fulfilled, victorious, true, certain, firm, and it stands. Satan hates Amens. That’s going to be with you for years. No, I have an Amen grace to my thorn. Ever had a thorn or besetting sin that never seems to go away? You know why it doesn’t go away? Because the osn doesn’t go away. That’s the plan of God. Thank you, God for giving me the person of the Holy Spirit and to that I say Amen. We have an eternal purpose in the plan of God. Placed in the Father, the Son and the Spirit and to that I say Amen. P. Pete Westera says Amen that his wife married him and someone helped that along a bit. I can’t hear you. He says Amen! Rather than looking at life through some “no” all the time, I look at life through the Amen of God. I’m not going to follow vanity and the crazy world out there. I want to follow the Amens of God. I’m not going to sit there and complain. Does it ever help? I don’t think it helps at all. We have the Amens of God. God has given us the H.S. and will never take away the H.S. We are eternally secure and he will lovingly discipline us if we sin. Last night I was with Miracle Rivera. Right there. She told me when she was born she was 1 pound. That’s a miracle. That’s why they named her Miracle. Can God do miracles? God opens up the Red Sea. God pulls down the walls of Jericho and raises the dead. Lazarus come forth. Amen.

Paul comes out of prison in Acts 16. Amen. Peter is delivered while sleeping and doesn’t know an angel is jabbing him in the side. Amen. All these miracles of God they are not just stories or fictitious.

We can say Amen to God who crippled the greatest civilization on the face of the earth in Ex 4:4-10 and in just a matter of days. And I say Amen.

He has a murderer in Ex 2:2, Sam 11, and Acts 8 write the Bible. To that I say Amen. Moses, David and Saul of Tarsus. What do you think about that? 55 to 60 % of the Bible was written by three murderers. To that I say Amen.

Sony McDonald is here tonight. To that I say Amen. It’s Amen we have churches around the world. They just came from Japan. Are you there somewhere? They are doing a work in Japan and people are hearing the gospel in Japan. I say to that to Pastor Dr. Chung and his wife is pregnant. I say Amen. They said we’re going to Japan. Is that the right country? Amen to that. That’s incredible.

I was on a conference call with 4 pastors and one of our pastors went home to be with the Lord and he left 7 children with orphans. I heard his wife’s testimony. He loved God and the message of grace. He was pastoring three churches in the Sahara Desert. She said I’m broken hearted but I say Amen as it’s God’s will. This woman facing such a difficult time in her life raising all those children and orphans. She’s so positive and grateful he was saved. We’ll meet our loved ones in heaven again. Amen.

Lost for a little bit of time and place. Let’s be Amen people. God has done it. It’s final, fulfilled, finished, certain, true, firm and it stands. Amen to the cross, the finished work, the authority of God, the victory of God, the Body of Christ, the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. We say Amen. I don’t know if we said it 86 times but we’ll finish it off in the rap.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.