Pastor Prince

In Matthew 5:3 Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  Who are the poor in spirit and why are they blessed?   The poor in spirit are the humble who know they need God and others.  Sometimes it helps to understand what something is by looking at its opposite.  The opposite of being poor in spirit is to be prideful.  Revelation 3:17-18 speaks of the church of Laodicea.  It was a church that thought it was rich and didn't need a thing from God or anyone else.  But Jesus tells it that it's really poor, miserable, blind and naked!  He calls on it to humble itself and turn to him for what it needs! The church in America today is a lot like that church.  It's wealthy and spoiled.  Oftentimes American churches are inward-focused and blind to the needs of the communities that surround them.  They have great buildings and programs.  But they're spiritually impoverished. The poo...

Two constants of human life are birth and death.  Every human experiences them.  Birth is a time of joy.  We celebrate our birthdays each year to commemorate the years we've lived since then.  Death is a time of sorrow and loss.  It's the great consumer of human life. Isaiah 25:6-9 says one day God will change all that.  He will take away the shroud that covers all nation.  He'll swallow up death forever.   In John 12:20-25, Jesus said the time had come for him to be glorified.  He said that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  Then he said those who try to save their lives will lose them, but those who hate their lives in this world will keep them for eternal life.   He was referring to his own death and resurrection, and to the life that would come to us through them.  The apostle Paul used a similar image in 1...

We walk the earth thinking we own lots of stuff.  Our houses, cars, jewelry, cell phones, stocks, etc., etc.  But the truth is we're only stewards. We receive or earn things and use them for a while.  But at last we pass them on to others. If you're a Christ follower, you're also a steward of the good news of Christ and the gospel.  You received it from others and now God has entrusted it to you.  What will you do with it? Jesus spoke of this in his parable of the tenants in Matthew 21:33-46.  Originally, it was a parable directed at Jewish leaders.  It's really more of an allegory than a parable.  In it, Jesus shows how the priests and Pharisees had taken a living faith and turned it into something corrupt that took people away from God.  Ultimately, they rejected God's Son when he came to him. Those leaders blew it.  It seems some of us are doing the same thing.  Some of us have created a legalistic conservative e...

You've cleaned the house, put up the decorations, and prepared the food and drinks.  You've sent out lots of invitations.  But it's a few minutes before the party, and you're asking yourself, "What if nobody shows up?"   That's probably happened to you and most likely people showed up.  But what if they didn't?  That's the theme of Jesus' parable of the banquet in Luke 14:15-24.  Jesus is eating dinner at the home of Pharisee.  The Lord mentions the resurrection of the end of the world.  One of the dinner guests expresses his confidence that he'll be at God's great banquet that will celebrate the beginning of his kingdom.  Jesus responds to him with a parable. A man plans a party.  A great feast.  He sends out lots of invitations.  He sends his servant to tell those invited that the feast is ready.  But all those he invited refuse to come, giving lame excuses.   The master is angry and tells his serva...

"Don't get mad, get even!"  How many times have you heard that?  Oftentimes our anger rises when someone wrongs us, especially when it's intentional.  That anger compels us to strike back, to get even. This was on Simon Peter's mind when in Matthew 18:21ff he asked Jesus how many times he was to forgive his brother.  He thought he was doing well when he suggested seven times.  Religious teachers of the day said he was to forgive three times.  Peter doubled that and added one!  Surely that was enough! Jesus replied, "I tell you, not seven times but seventy times seven!"  His forgiveness was to be limitless! Then Jesus told a parable about the kingdom to show why.  A king settling accounts with his servants learns that one owes him a huge amount of money.  When he tells the servant he's going to sell him and his family into slavery to pay his debt, his servant pleas for time to pay him back.  In a stunning moment of g...

Most Christ followers today don't talk much about the Last Judgment.  Maybe it's because it doesn't fit our culture of relativism and individuality.  Or maybe it's because of the excesses of previous generations of church folk.  Many of them had a joyless faith in which clouds of guilt and judgment hung over them and everyone else. But Jesus spoke often about the Last Judgment.  Some of his most unforgettable parables were about it.  One of them was the parable of the net in Matthew 13:47-50.   Jesus said fishermen went and cast a large net in the sea.  When it was full of fish, they took it to the shore.  There they emptied it and separated the fish.  They took the good ones and saved them in baskets, but threw the bad ones away.   Jesus said the kingdom of God was like that.  At the end of the age, angels will separate the righteous from the wicked.  They'll take the wicked and throw them into hell, or the fi...

Imagine you lived in Jesus' time, and you were able to see him and his disciples.  Imagine also you knew nothing about what would become of them.  All you know is that Jesus' father was apparently a carpenter and Jesus had no advanced religious training.  None of his disciples were impressive.  Four were fishermen.  One was a tax collector.  One was a political radical.   Though at the height of his popularity, Jesus drew thousands to hear his teaching, by the time of his crucifixion his followers were few.  Yet today, about 2 billion people spanning the world say they follow this Jesus!  No one in Jesus' time would have guessed that, except for Jesus himself! Jesus predicted it his parables of the mustard seed and yeast, recorded in Matthew 13:31-33.  He said that though the mustard seed was one of the tiniest seeds, a huge plant grows from it.  He also said that a small amount of yeast leavens a large amount of dough....