Messages from New Hope Assembly of God, NuMine, PA Steve Kromer

Last week, we began a new message series “Go Fish” learning about evangelism; sharing the good news about Jesus.  We began with Jesus calling his first two disciples to follow Him; Simon Peter and Andrew.  Peter was called right in the middle of some rough times as his mother-in-law was living with him and was very sick and he had just worked a long overnight shift at work with nothing to show for it.  



Today, we celebrate Father’s Day.  We’ve been blessed with guys here at New Hope in every stage of life.  Some are just getting started in life, some are newer dads with toddlers, some have great-grandchildren.  Most all of us can relate to where Peter was at when Jesus called him.  He’s giving it his all and yet it still just doesn’t seem like enough.   



It’s one of the worst feelings for any guy.  You feel the weight of responsibility on your shoulders, but so much is just out of your control.  There’s nothing that you can do to heal your family when they are sick.  You work hard and take on extra shifts and yet still there just isn’t enough to make ends meet.  Things break down and there’s never a good time for it to happen.  You just feel broken yourself. 



That’s OK.  That’s exactly where Peter was at and Jesus was exactly what Peter needed.  Once he made the decision to stop trying to solve everything himself and to just trust Jesus and do what He called Peter to do, everything changed!  His family was healed, his worst day at work turned into his best day at work, his brokenness that was overwhelming him was overwhelmed by God’s grace and power and authority! 



We pick up this week after Peter had followed Jesus throughout the 3 or so years of His public ministry; just after Jesus gave His life on the cross.  Peter gave up everything to follow Jesus and those were the best days of his life!  He saw miracle after miracle and learned so much about God’s Kingdom and got to be a part of helping countless numbers of people.  Now Jesus was gone.  What was he to do? 



Well, most of us guys can relate to what Peter decided to do in response to this all.  Sometimes you just need to go back to your old stomping grounds to your favorite fishing hole and spend some time out in nature to get your head straight. 



How’s that country song go?  I know what they say money can’t buy everything. Maybe so, but it can buy me a boat. 



John 21 



Seven of the disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 



Sound a bit familiar from last week? 



4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 



5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” 



“No,” they answered. 



Now anyone who has been out to a public fishing hole knows how this feels.  There’s always that one guy who always seems to have the biggest mouth who likes to walk up and down the stream annoying everyone instead of fishing.  Here’s a guy shouting all the way from the shore out to a boat. 



What’s even better is that this guy is usually walking around with an empty stringer and yet he knows exactly how to catch the limit in just a few casts.  He tells you all about what you’re doing wrong and how you ought to be fishing instead.  Well, it was no different with this guy… 



6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”  



Now do you think that these guys really fished all night long and never once threw their nets out on the right side of the boat?  No, I’m sure they tried every trick in the book and still fished all night with nothing to show for it. 



As if though it wasn’t bad enough that Jesus just died and the ministry that they left everything for just came to an abrupt end, now they ca

We’re starting a new message series this morning entitled, “Go Fish.”  We’ll be learning more about evangelism and how we can have supernatural encounters through our everyday natural routines.  Evangelism is all about spreading the good news about Jesus.



Our faith journey begins with a conscience decision to follow Jesus. 



At some point in our lives, we became aware of the fact that God wrapped Himself in flesh as a man named Jesus who taught all about the Kingdom of God, lived a sinless life, gave His life on a cross as a sacrifice for our own personal sin, and then rose again from the grave.  At some point, we became aware that the only way for us to be forgiven of our sin and to enter Heaven is to put our faith in Jesus and follow Him with our lives.



More often than not, it was a family member or friend who shared this good news with us of how to be saved.  Maybe it was reading a tract or a book or the Bible itself.  Maybe it was listening to the radio or catching a TV program or attending a church service.



Regardless of how we became aware of how to be saved, at some point, we made the conscience decision to receive Jesus’ salvation and chose to follow Him.



What’s one of the first things that we naturally want to do when we receive good news?



We want to share it with others!



As soon as Jesus began His public ministry, He gathered twelve guys to be a part of it.  The first two were Peter and Andrew.  This account is included in all four gospels.



Matthew 4:17-20 (MSG)



This Isaiah-prophesied revelation came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”



Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.



With just two simple words, “Follow me,” Jesus transformed Andrew and Peter from fishermen to fishers of men.



In these few simple verses, lives were radically transformed!  The trajectory of Andrew and Peter’s lives and their family business came to a crossroads.  A decision had to be made.  It was the intersection of:



Jesus’ words/Andrew and Peter’s obedience



God’s beckoning/Their surrendering



Regular work/Spiritual co-laboring



Normal routine/Supernatural encounter



How many times have we been busy about our regular work and daily routines and missed something huge that Jesus had planned for us in the midst of it?  Andrew and Peter could have just ignored the voice of Jesus and kept on cleaning their nets.  Simon aka Peter hadn’t been exactly having the best days at this time.



Luke gives us a few more details including the fact that this may not have been Simon Peter’s first encounter with Jesus.  I say maybe because according to Matthew, this happened after Peter was called to follow Jesus and not before.  Luke records it this way, though.



Luke 4:38-44



38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.



40 At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.



42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving t

Message provided by Annette White regarding finding our identity in Christ alone.
The post Identity appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.

Today, we’re finishing up our message series entitled, “Clean House.”  In it, we’re learning how to do some spiritual spring cleaning in our lives so that we can live them to their fullest without all of the clutter that weighs us down and trips us up.



When it comes to cleaning the house of our lives spiritually, it is not only our own sin that needs cleaned up.  Anyone who has maintained a house for any length of time has dealt not only with the clutter and dirt that happens within the house, but also other issues.  You’ve also at some point dealt with infestations of other creatures.  It may have been mice, ants, lice, fleas, rats, squirrels, or any other of the many critters that we find here in Western Pennsylvania.



Uninvited guests who found a way to enter our home and to forcibly make it their own.  They are pests, rodents, nuisances and tormentors.  If you were to ask my wife, she would consider our pet who was once a stray cat that showed up named Toby the biggest tormentor ever to invade our home. 



Even if you keep an immaculately clean home, you are still susceptible to these intruders!  In fact, Jesus used the analogy of a clean house of a life that is most at danger for such a spiritual infestation of impure spirits!



Luke 11:24-26



24 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”



You may have cleaned up your act and be living a good and moral life even by God’s standards.  However, God does not desire nor require a clean house, but rather a full house!  Our lives were designed and created and purposed to be containers full of God’s Holy Spirit!  In fact, God’s word calls us not only to be filled with His Spirit, but overflowing with His Spirit!



If we do not keep our lives filled with the Spirit, and few of us are able to achieve and maintain this, then there are other spirits out there looking for a cozy place to dwell.  Our clean, but not full lives are choice real estate for these evil spirits.



Now these evil spirits will take what they can get.  They will possess a person; meaning that they have total control over that person.  However, if they cannot fully possess a person, they will take whatever part of that person that they can get.



Again, Jesus uses the analogy of a house being a person’s life that these evil spirits look to dwell within.  A pest will take whatever part of your home that they can take.  If it’s just the attic, the basement, the kitchen cabinet the wall; they’ll take it.  If they aren’t driven away, they will gladly take over as much as they can up to the whole home!



Although we are much larger and stronger than they are, most people are still fearful and creeped out by these pests.



Right? Stop and think objectively about it. What is a cockroach or ant or spider or mouse compared to you? You can easily crush them under your feet. However, most of us are still scared of them for some reason.



So it is with demons to a Christian.



A significant part of the ministry of Jesus during His lifetime and the church following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was casting and driving out demons.  It is still intended to be a part of our ministry today!  Culturally, demons were recognized and acknowledged by those living in the eastern world at that time and still so today.  In our western culture, however, a person is labelled as crazy and outdated if they recognize that a life issue is being caused by demons.



We are all susceptible to the influence of evil spirits and demons.  I do not believe that a demon can override the will of a believer, but I do

Today, we celebrate Motherhood. 



In the beginning, God and Adam saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone.  In response, God created the first woman, Eve.   



She was created from Adam’s rib.  Not from his foot, that Eve should be walked on or ruled over by Adam, not from his head that she should rule over him, but from his rib that they would co-labor side-by-side in life.  She was created purposefully to be Adam’s helper.  As God states in Genesis 2:24, that they would come together as one. 



This Hebrew word for helper is ʿēzer and is found 21 times in the Old Testament.  Twice, it is used to describe who Eve is in relationship to Adam.  Eighteen times, it is used to describe who God is in relationship to us.  This is incredibly significant! 



In our culture, when we think of one who is a helper, we often think of it in a demeaning tone and lesser than the one that they are helping.  However, God is by no means lesser than us and His role as our helper is by no means demeaning!  This is the role of Eve as Adam’s wife. 



She was so influential and valued alongside of Adam that the devil chose to take all of mankind down by tempting Eve.  If Eve were subservient to Adam in relationship, then the devil would have tempted Adam to cause them both to sin.  Adam also would not have submitted to her request for him to eat the fruit if she were subservient to him nor would she have been so bold as to tell him what to do.   



We also don’t focus on this often in the account of the fall, but according to Genesis 3, Adam was with Eve when the serpent was tempting her.  Though the serpent was talking with Eve, Adam was together with her while this was taking place. 



Many take Paul’s letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 2) where he states that women should learn in quietness and full submission to men and that a woman should not be permitted to teach or have authority over a man since Adam was created before Eve to be a rule for all people for all time. 



However, in his other letters, Paul calls out many women by name and commends their ministry and even their leadership within the early church.  Since 1 Timothy 2 was a personal letter between Paul and Timothy, I believe that they both knew about a specific issue and situation in the church in Ephesus that made it unwise for women to teach or lead at that specific time.  Unfortunately, we’re a few thousand years removed from that letter and can only speculate. 



Women have always had an important role throughout the Bible.  In fact, Paul even attributes Timothy’s faith to first living in his grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice.  We never find any mention of the men in Timothy’s life except for the spiritual father that Paul was to him.  It was his grandmother and mother’s faith that lead to Timothy’s salvation and call to ministry. 



Never underestimate the power and influence of a Spirit-filled mother! 



We learned last week how the demons knew Jesus and heard about Paul. 



I’m convinced that the demons shutter when some of you moms out there come around! 



They’ve heard about you. 



The way that you pray. 



The way that you prophesy. 



The way that you correct. 



The way that you encourage. 



The way that you are relentless about your whole family reaching their full God-given destiny. 



The genuine and relentless faith of a mother! 



Luke 18:1-8 



1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 



4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets just

Today, we’re continuing our message series entitled, “Clean House.”  In it, we’re learning how to do some spiritual spring cleaning in our lives so that we can live them to their fullest without all of the clutter that weighs us down and trips us up.



One thing that always amazes me when watching the hoarder home reality shows is the mindset of the hoarder.  There they are crawling around through mountains of stuff, using a bucket for their restroom, eating moldy food, finding pets that died years ago under their rubble. 



Yet they sincerely don’t think that their condition is all that bad.  They have a reason and an excuse for every mess that gets pointed out to them.  To them, there is nothing wrong with their messes and everyone else is the problem.  They seclude themselves and cut off all outsiders from entering their home.  They begin to place their identity in their hoard and cannot objectively look at it.  They take it personally when anyone points out a problem with their home.



To clean house spiritually, we must begin with humility and honesty.



Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about the conflict that they had regarding the leaders of the church that they were following.  He said:



1 Corinthians 4:1-5



1 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.



We can’t trust even our own consciences.  We may not sense any guilt about our lifestyles at all, however, that does not make us innocent before God.  Even our very own heart and mind within us cannot be trusted to indicate our guilt or innocence.



Jeremiah 17:9-10



9 The heart is deceitful above all things



    and beyond cure.



    Who can understand it?



10 “I the Lord search the heart



    and examine the mind,



to reward each person according to their conduct,



    according to what their deeds deserve.”



That’s why David cried out:



Psalm 139:23-24



23 Search me, God, and know my heart;



    test me and know my anxious thoughts.



24 See if there is any offensive way in me,



    and lead me in the way everlasting.



To have a clean house of a life, we cannot lean into our own understanding.  We cannot look to our conscience.  We cannot trust our hearts.  We cannot believe our own thoughts.  They are all part of our old selves and prone to deceive us.



Again, we must go back to the architect and builder of our lives to show us anything that needs corrected in our lives.  We need to go to the One who can take an objective look at our lives and show us with clarity what is right and what is wrong.  We need God!



Jesus dealt with this issue often when interacting with the religious leaders.  Their lives looked great from outward appearances and they worked very hard to ensure that this was the case.  The Lord doesn’t look at outward appearances, though, only humans do.  God searches the heart and weighs motives to make a right judgment.



Jesus saw this reality within them.  He said that they were whitewashed tombs.  On the inside, their lives looked just like a hoarder’s home.  This is what religion unfortunately does.  So long as we look and act and speak a certain way, we are granted a false sense of security by others and think that this means that we are in right standing with God as well.



It’s not about what we say, but about who we are and our relationship with God that mat