Psalm 84:1-2Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Psalm 84:1-2 (ESV) How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. 📘Pastor's Note: The Book of Psalms could just as easily be called the Book of Hymns, containing some of the most beautiful songs of praise to our Lord. In this psalm, the choirmaster makes a definitive statement: "How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!" Heaven is a wonderful aspect to contemplate. We read about the realities of what it will be like when our time concludes in this life as Christians—streets of gold, no more pain or suffering, no more tears, new glorified bodies, and no more sin. Can you imagine? As amazing as all that will be, the best aspect of heaven, by far, will be our enjoyment of being in the physical presence of God for eternity. He is what makes heaven so glorious; it wouldn't be heaven without Him. He is the One who makes our hearts and flesh cry out in songs of joy. The day we see Him face to face in His dwelling place, my mind is too small to fathom the joy we will experience. Colossians 3:2 tells us to "set our minds on the things above." Day by day, we grow closer to the time when we will be with the Living God in heaven. Until then, let's strive to set our minds and affections on heavenly things, not earthly things. Have a blessed week. Know that you have been prayed for this day. Keep striving toward the goal in Christ Jesus our Lord. God bless. 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2084&version=ESV Learn more about us: www.mygpchurch.com/whoweare  Isaiah 6:4-5Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Isaiah 6:4-5 (ESV) 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 📘Pastor's Note: This was Isaiah’s conclusion when he found himself before the holy God. He immediately recognized how sinful his actions were before the perfect and just Creator. He felt doomed, exclaiming, “Woe is me!” Understanding that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God is crucial in realizing our absolute need for a Savior. Like Isaiah, we have rebelled against God, and from the fall of man until today, everyone born is tainted with sin, except Jesus. So, what does this mean for us? The penalty for sin is death, and there are only two options: either we pay for it ourselves, or we need someone else to pay for it. The Bible is clear—Jesus is the only one capable of paying the price for our rebellion against the holy God. It took the holy, blameless, spotless Lamb of God to atone for man’s sin. Fortunately, when we repent and trust in Him alone, He is willing to forgive us. This is the great doctrine of substitution. He does for us what God did for Isaiah—He cleanses and reconciles us unto Himself. In Isaiah’s case, an angel with tongs carried a hot coal to touch his mouth. Similarly, God cleanses us by sending His Son to touch our hearts, making us a new creation in Christ. The salvation offered to sinful man is incredibly great, even though we are undeserving. This is unmerited grace, and it's why we can experience absolute joy in His salvation. 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%206&version=ESV Learn more about us: www.mygpchurch.com/whoweare  Luke 9:57-62Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Luke 9:57-62 (ESV) 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 📘Pastor's Note: Counting the cost of following Jesus - The call to follow Christ is a call to die, to die to self. It's a call to pick up our cross and follow Him, to pick up an instrument of torture and follow Him. All too often, the Gospel is watered down to cheap grace or easy-believism, where it's presented as "Jesus loves you and wants you to have your best life now." Isn't that what Joel Osteen says? He suggests that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous, to have a mansion and an overflowing bank account, just like him. But is that what the Scriptures say? Here in Luke 9, three men approach Jesus, and it's clear that they have superficial requests. The first man says he wants to follow Him, but Jesus quickly opens his eyes to the fact that it won't be easy or comfortable. Even the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. The second man seems to have a reasonable excuse. He claims that his father isn't dead, and he wants to wait for his inheritance before following Jesus. Essentially, he's saying, "I'll follow you when I have enough money." Then the last man says, "Let me go and say farewell to my family." Initially, it seems fair, but the problem is that his family takes precedence over his commitment to Christ. Each of these men had excuses and higher priorities than following Jesus. The call to follow comes at a cost, and the question is, "Is having a relationship with Him, following Him, the most important priority in our lives?" He doesn't want a partial commitment; He desires wholehearted, total commitment at all costs. Does this challenge you? It certainly challenges me. It makes me contemplate whether my priorities are in order. Is my faith in Christ my highest priority? Am I willing to give up everything, including my comfort, security, family, and even my life, if He asks me to? 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%209&version=ESV Learn more about us: www.mygpchurch.com/whoweare  Matthew 7:17Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Matthew 7:17 (ESV) So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 📘Pastor's Note: Here, Jesus is teaching against false prophets. He’s teaching against ravenous wolves. Those who say they are believers but are not. He illustrates His point by using a good tree and a bad tree. His point is that something CANNOT produce fruit that violates their identity. A good tree will produce good fruit. A bad tree will produce bad fruit. I think where people get this wrong is that sometimes, people want to look at counterfeit fruit and claim it to be good. I’ve been looking closely at Andy Stanley, who claims to be a good tree. He thinks he is a good tree. He thinks he is producing good fruit. Unfortunately, many people are deceived in believing he is a good tree. Both he and many that follow him are deceived. Really sad. If you look closely, he is a very bad tree producing really bad fruit. He is a counterfeit, a child of Satan deceiving those that follow him. If he doesn’t repent and believe the Gospel, the Gospel that Paul preached, one day he will stand before God and be justly judged, cut off, and thrown into the lake of fire. That will happen because his true identity is that he is a bad tree. And let’s all be truthful. We were born with a sinful nature. Meaning we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are bad trees by nature. Yet Jesus is willing and absolutely able to make us new! He can change us from a bad tree to a good tree. He does that at salvation. When we hear the Gospel, repent, and believe in Him alone, He changes a stone heart to a heart of flesh. He makes us a new creation in Christ, He gives us a new heart, and He transforms us from a bad tree to a good tree!! How glorious is our Savior? How deep, how wide, how vast are His ways!! Have you done this? How about those in your circle of influence? Here’s where I hope we are. That we, who were once bad trees but now are good trees, live to share the transforming, life giving, heart changing message of the Gospel with bad trees in hope that they too will have their identity forever changed in Christ Jesus our Lord! 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207&version=ESV Learn more about us: www.mygpchurch.com/whoweare  1 Corinthians 13:11Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖1 Corinthians 13:11 (ESV) When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 📘Pastor's Note: When I think back to a time when I was young, I can’t help but remember how naive, how dumb many of my thoughts and actions were. Nothing about my life honored the Lord. I was lost. But when I came to hear the Gospel and surrender my life to Jesus, He forever changed the trajectory of my life. My desires, my affections, were forever changed. As I grew in my faith, as I started taking seriously the word of God, I started thinking differently. Childish thinking and actions were replaced with the mirror of His divine standard. He started teaching me to put away those childish ways and to think as He thinks. As I look back, I’m grateful that I am no longer where I used to be but even more grateful that God’s not done with me yet. He’s still working on me, transforming me day by day to think and act more like Christ. 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2013&version=ESV Learn more about us: www.mygpchurch.com/whoweare  Ephesians 2:1-5Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Ephesians 2:1-5 (ESV) 2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved-- 📘Pastor's Note: Maybe these are the most beautiful and encouraging words ever to be inspired by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul. He begins chapter 2 of his epistle by telling us of the dire condition of man. A condition that all of us “once walked in.” Each of us, before the Lord invaded our hearts, followed the sinful ways of the world. We were children of “the prince of the power of the air.” We were spawns of Satan. We were “sons of disobedience.” We were those that lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind. We were by nature “children of wrath!” Then comes maybe my most favorite words within God’s holy scripture…”BUT GOD.” In His rich mercy because of His great love for us, raised us to new life. We were dead in our trespasses, yet He made us alive in Christ!!! Oh, the glorious reality of our God! Oh, the glorious reality of His grace!! He could have left us right where we were…DEAD! But He chose not to. He breathed new life into our spiritually dead corpse. If you think of nothing else today, think of this. Think of the glorious salvation that comes in and through Jesus Christ our Lord, who, while we were still sinners, died for us! Now, go and live like it! Proclaim from the mountain tops of this greatest of all news!Praying for you always. The world is in a mess. The world is in chaos. Satan is rubbing his hands together as if he is thwarting the plans of God. Yet he and the world are deceived. They are blind to the fact that our God is in complete and utter control. They are unaware of the coming Day of the Lord. And sadly, if they die in that condition, they will spend eternity separated from Him while experiencing His holy and just wrath. Be on guard. Be vigilant. Be faithful. Be bold! 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202&version=ESV Learn more about us: www.mygpchurch.com/whoweare  Titus 3:10-11Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Titus 3:10-11 (ESV) 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. 📘Pastor's Note: Division and dissension can rip a flock apart. It can devastate the church. No wonder why one of the most important directives to Pastors in God’s word is for them to watch and warn the flock. Protect the flock! I’ve heard it said before that unity in the church is hard to achieve and even harder to keep. What makes it so hard? Let me give you three things that make it difficult.
Reading through the pastoral epistles this morning, this stood out to me. It’s a good reminder for us all how important it is to stay focused, to stay alert, to keep our hearts and minds bathed in the word of God. When we do that constantly, purposefully, prayerfully, we can all be of the same mindset. Pray for me as I pray for you. 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie 📖Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus%203&version=ESV Click here to learn more about The Grace Place Church  John 5:2-6Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖John 5:2-6 (ESV) 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 📘Pastor's Note: Here in John 5, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and He goes to a pool called Bethesda, a pool of water where people with disabilities/infirmities would go and await for the waters to stir so they can get in in the hope of being healed. Jesus comes across this one man in particular who had been an invalid for 38 years. The man was too slow to get to the waters and had been there a long time. Jesus sees him and knows this. He approaches the man and asks him a simple question: “Do you want to be healed?” Here, you have God in the flesh personally engaging a man who obviously is in a dire condition. He can’t heal himself. He has no hope of reaching the stirred water. Yet Jesus comes to him and offers him a question filled with hope! What a beautiful picture of the Gospel. In our sin, we are without hope of being healed. We need divine intervention. We are incapable of healing ourselves. We have no hope of reaching the pool of salvation. But praise God! He sees us, He engages us, and He asks us, “Do you want to be healed?” A very important question. That’s the question of the Gospel. We are desperately sick and diseased with sin. But there is healing available. God offers that healing through His One and Only Son! The question is, “Do we WANT to be healed?” That’s a question for every single person. Do they recognize that they are lame and that Jesus can heal them? Oh, the glory of God in His Gospel! He engages man and freely offers healing from our desperate condition with sin. Pray for me as I pray for you. 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie 📖Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%205&version=ESV Click here to learn more about The Grace Place Church  James 1:12Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖James 1:12 (ESV) Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 📘Pastor's Note: Trials in life will come. We should expect them, not be surprised by them. God sovereignly allows trials to perfect us in the faith. Understanding that, we can look at them as the gracious refinement of God. We are to remain steadfast in them knowing that the crown of life awaits the refined saint just as He promised. Are trials easy? No. Does that mean we endure it with a smile on our face? Not necessarily. But we are to approach it with a steadfast attitude knowing we are like gold heated by fire and being made more pure. In other words, God has a purpose for allowing us to experience trials and if He allows it, it is to our benefit. Be blessed. Endure. Be refined. Stay steadfast. And await the crown of life! 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie 📖Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%201&version=ESV Click here to learn more about The Grace Place Church  Hebrews 13:20-21Notes From the Pastor's Desk #notesfromthepastorsdesk 📖Hebrews 13:20-21 (ESV)20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 📘Pastor's Note: Isn't this a beautiful benediction from the writer of Hebrews? The God of peace, who sacrificed His only Son, the Great Shepherd, whose blood has brought us into a redeemed relationship with Him, equips us with everything good to do His will. "Equip" here means to prepare, to complete, to restore. He provides all things necessary for us to carry out His divine purposes. He chooses to use and equip us as clay vessels to make known Christ, the only Hope of salvation, to lost, sinful man. What a privilege and honor we have to serve the Redeemer of man's souls. And that He doesn't leave us to figure it out on our own, that He personally prepares each of us to carry out His divine plan, speaks volumes of our purpose as Christians. Praise Him, honor Him, glorify Him with your life as He uses you to shine His greatness to the lost world. Praying that we are fulfilling our God-given purposes to further the Kingdom of God. 🙏I'm praying for you always. ❤️ Pastor Jamie 📖Read the Chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2013&version=ESV Click here to learn more about The Grace Place Church  |
AuthorPastor Jamie Payton 
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