Restoring Spiritual Power

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Matt R.

Do you ever feel like you have lost your spiritual power to overcome sin, fight temptation, advance in your Christian walk?  In 1 Samuel 7:1-2 Israel is in the midst of a 20 year power outage because they were unwilling to do what is necessary to restore their relationship connection with God, the only source of true power.  The following are steps to restoring spiritual power taken from 1 Samuel 7:3.

Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”

A. True change comes from your heart/will. (Emphatic position in Heb. “with all YOUR heart”).

1. Exp: External pressures to change and conform are not enough to bring lasting change.

2. Ill: Children in a Christian family/college – conform to the rules to avoid the consequences – discipline/expulsion, but if it is not from their heart it is not true change.

B. Repent (“return to the Lord”)

1. Acknowledge the error of your way and change it.

2. Direct your heart to Him, place Him as the first and most important in life.

C. Remove sin from your life. (“remove the foreign gods and ashtaroth”).

1. App: As long as you keep sin in your life, your relationship with God cannot be right.

2. Ill: Removing cancer from your body.  No good simply to identify and leave. – Surgery is painful but necessary!

D. Renew your relationship with God (“prepare your heart” – prepare = direct, arrange).

1. Our hearts experience the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics – they always tend to wander away from God.

3. You must establish new actions and methods that keep checking your heart and redirecting it toward God.

E. Serve Him alone (“serve/worship Him alone”)

1. God desires single-hearted worship – He will not share it with anyone or anything.

F. Result: The power will be renewed (“and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines”).

God’s desire for you is victory and freedom from sin!

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Words of Encouragement for a College Student!

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Matt R.

This evening  I came across this comment on Facebook that a seasoned, godly friend, Ed Fallon, had placed on the wall of a freshman college student who is beginning to feel the weight of the semester.  I thought his words were full of wisdom and great advice to all of us!  (I share this with his permission.)

Remain focused on your tasks one day at a time. Try not to think about what you have to do next week; rather think about what you have to do today. Break-up long term tasks into daily/weekly tasks as appropriate. Set mini-goals for yourself… (not humonga tasks) & celebrate your accomplishment in achieving them. Idea here is to break big tasks down into small manageable ones then focus on small manageable tasks one at a time and one day at a time. Additionally, remain committed to finishing the goal. You will have set backs, everybody does. You will get discouraged, everybody does. But failure is only defined as giving up, not having set backs, difficulties, or discouragement, so remain committed. Lastly, you are beloved of God, “wonderfully & marvelously made”, precious in the sight of God. God will enable, strengthen, & help you because He loves you. Call upon God & walk with Him. He will give you all that you need.
Romans 8:37, Philippians 4:13; Hebrews 4:16; James 1:5
O.K., now go get’em kid! :-)
Posted in Bible Studies, The Rowley's | 2 Comments

Heading to CT!

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Matt R.

Tomorrow morning at 5:15am we will be heading the airport to fly to CT for vacation/update/ordination!  We are excited about being able to get away for a short vacation and to visit family and friends.

I am so thankful that God has provided capable men in the church to direct the work while we are gone.  I have three different men filling in for 2 Wednesday evenings (8/25, 9/1) as well as Sunday School and Morning Worship on Sunday, August 29th.  We will miss everyone here in Jax, but are confident that they will be able to get along just fine without us.

This Saturday evening at 6:30 I will present my doctrinal statement to the men of Truth Baptist Church in CT.  I will be preaching in the morning service and giving an update on the ministry in Jacksonville in the evening service.  Lord willing, if I can pass the examination:), I will be ordained in the evening service.

We would appreciate your prayers as we travel with two young children!

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There is None like my God!

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Matt R.

The Lord has been encouraging my heart as I have been meditating on the awesome character of my God.  I thought I would just share some passages that have been an encouragement to me!

1 Chronicles 29:11-13 “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. 12 “Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. 13 Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.”
Jeremiah 10:6-7  “There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might.  7 Who would not fear Thee, O King of the nations? Indeed it is Thy due! For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like Thee.”

If you have some verses that have been a blessing to you on the greatness of God, please leave them in a comment!

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Our First Vacation Bible School

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Matt R.

Some of the children

Mummy Mobile Races

Egyptian Costumes!

This past week we held our first Vacation Bible School for children ages 3 years old to the 8th grade.  God greatly blessed and brought a growing number of children each morning!  Thank you to those of you who prayed, invited, and worked in VBS!  May the Lord use this effort to reach children and families with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

A big thank you to the teen group from Truth Baptist Church in CT who came down to help us run the VBS!  We worked them hard with flier distributions, set up and tear down each day.  They also ran the lessons, games, and crafts.

Posted in Church News | 3 Comments