Dell Sunday School Class

01/17/2025

In Leviticus 16 God established the Day of Atonement. I want to focus briefly on God’s requirement for Aaron to prepare himself prior to offering the atoning sacrifice. As believers, we too should prepare ourselves for the worship of God. Sadly, we do not often connect the words preparation and worship.

Let’s be honest. Most of us are doing good to simply make it to church on Sunday. My guess is that most of us wait to the last minute, get up in a hurry, skip or rush through breakfast, quickly dress the children, and then to church, hope to find a parking place close to the building, maybe get frustrated when we don’t, and then walk into church.

Too many Christians gather for worship unprepared, hoping something will automatically and miraculously happen that is spiritual and powerful. Prayer, repentance, and submission to God’s purposes are not just outcomes of worship, they are the very things we must do in order to prepare for worship. The more we prepare ourselves for worship, the more we are likely to receive from worship.

What makes worship right or wrong is not your posture, your music, or whether you raise your hands, clap your hands, or sit on your blessed assurance. When a woman asked Jesus about different ways of worshiping, Jesus replied, "A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" John 4:23.

Worshiping "in spirit" means that you mean it; that you're worshiping inside out, not just going through the motions. Worshiping "in truth" means that you're worshiping the true God and not some idol you've created. And it means you're being truthful with your words and thoughts that you bring to worship; you're not trying to put on a religious act to impress someone.

1 Peter 2:9 says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" We were called for the purpose of praising God, worshiping God.

God wants our obedience. In Jeremiah 7:22, God says, I didn’t bring you out of Egypt because I wanted sacrifices. I just wanted you to obey me, and sacrifices are only a tiny part of what I commanded.

Isaiah 1:11-17 says, "I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.... Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.... When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen."

Notice God did not say they were keeping the wrong days or doing the rituals incorrectly. The problem was that their day-to-day lives were full of sin and disobedience. Their sacrifices, prayers and praises were not accompanied by performance in their day-to-day lives. They had worship rituals, but they did not obey God’s commands on how to live their lives.

Romans 12:1 says, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship."

Worship is the giving of our entire self, our thoughts and our emotions, to God’s use. All of life is an act of submission, an act of worship, and it is to be twenty-four seven. Our service to God is not centered on a time or a temple, but is done whenever and wherever we are, because we are the temple of God. The test of worship is not only what happens at church, but what happens at home, on the job and wherever we go. What about you, does your day-to-day life match the worship image you project at church on Sunday?

03/26/2024

When it comes to sharing the gospel or sharing your testimony do you consider yourself bold? Is there a situation you can think of where you gave into fear instead of sharing the gospel? Is there a situation you can think of where you excused yourself from sharing the gospel because you thought you were not smart enough or because you didn’t know the bible well enough?

I encourage us to consider Peter and John in Acts 4. They were imprisoned for sharing the gospel, and when they are released from prison what was the first thing they did? They
go to other believers and pray (Acts 4:23-30).

Look at Acts 4:13, the religious leaders who arrested Peter and John perceived they were uneducated but they also recognized their boldness. To what did they attribute Peter and John’s boldness? They recognized that they had been with Jesus!

So, how do we spend time with Jesus? By reading His word and praying. The next time you feel fear about sharing the gospel, or think I’m not smart enough to share the gospel or think I don’t know the bible well enough to share the gospel or whatever other excuse comes into your mind about your inabilities…remember Acts 4:13.

Peter and John did not know the truth because they learned it at school. They knew the truth because the Truth is a Person, and they knew Him. You don’t have to be educated, well-connected, powerful in the worldly sense, to be powerful in the mission of Jesus. You just have to know Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit, and both happen through prayer and time in His word.

I encourage all of my fellow believers to make studying God’s word and praying to Him a priority. And when you pray, follow the Apostles example, and ask God for boldness to speak His word to a lost and dying world.

“What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy [Spirit] can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy [Spirit] does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.” E.M. Bounds

09/07/2023

In Mark 13 Jesus tells the disciples about the future destruction of the temple and the signs for the end of the age. Then in verse 32 and 33 He says, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is."

In anticipation of Jesus’s return what are we as Believers to do? Watch and pray. But do we actually do it? I have to confess that I do not watch and pray as I should.

What happens if we don’t watch and pray? Consider Gethsemane…Jesus asked Peter, James and John to watch and pray. But they did not watch and pray, and in fact, Jesus finds them sleeping. Listen to what Jesus said about why watching and praying is so crucial.

41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41.

What Jesus knew, but Peter, James and John did not, was that in the next few hours they were going to face the hardest temptations in their lives. In Jesus’s most desperate spiritual battle, His closest disciples slept through it. What was the outcome of them sleeping through Jesus’ spiritual battle? After Jesus is arrested verse 56 says, “Then all the disciples left him and fled.” The disciples, who did not watch and pray, are overcome by fear and abandon Jesus.

Remember, that a few hours before they went to Gethsemane Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him. But Peter boldly stated that he would never deny Him. Then Peter and all the disciples said that they would not disown Him even to the point of death. I have no doubt the disciples meant what they said, but they were spiritually asleep and completely unprepared.

Just like the disciples, I think most believers have good intentions, but good intentions will NOT help us in spiritual battles. In all spiritual battles, the victory goes to the vigilant, not those with good intentions. So, let us all keep watching and praying.

03/22/2023

Micah 7:7-8; 7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me. 8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The Lord will be a light to me.

Looking to the Lord means we go to Him in prayer. I want you to notice something. There is no “if” or “maybe” or “but” or any other condition in the phrase “My God will hear me.” Micah says it as a fact of which he is absolutely convinced— “My God will hear me.”

Have you ever had a time when you thought or felt like God was not hearing your prayers? I have felt that way, and it was nothing more than my unbelieving spirit. But this is the truth…
When we go to God in prayer through our faith in Jesus Christ, He will hear us. He may not answer you today, but He will hear you. He may not answer you tomorrow, but He will hear you.

Micah said 7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation…hope and faith in God is NOT a forlorn hope, but is a SURE source of salvation to us. We have hope that God will hear us not because we deserve it or because of anything to do with us, but because of who He is.

Even when we don’t know how to pray or what to pray Jesus Christ Himself is our Intercessor. Romans 8:34 says that Jesus “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” In 1 John 2:1 it says that Jesus is our “advocate with the Father,” and in Hebrews 7:25 it says that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for us. Do you think Jesus ever did anything in vain? NO. Jesus has NEVER done anything in vain, and neither is His intercession on our behalf. To think otherwise is unbelief.

What about when our enemies seem to triumph over us? Our firm assurance in “My God will hear me” will sustain us even when it seems our enemies have triumphed over us. In your darkest hour, whatever that may be, Micah says, “When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.” Micah is able to say this, and so are we, because of the firm belief that “My God will hear me.”

Speaking on this passage listen to what Charles Spurgeon said, “It makes my spirit leap within me to think how this conviction that God hears prayer begets in us the joyful certainty that we cannot be left in the dust, but we must arise, and shake ourselves, and put on our beautiful array. The God that has promised to hear us shall bring us again from Bashan; yea, he shall bring us up again from the depths of the sea. Our down-castings are temporary; our uprisings are eternal.”

Never forget my friends that through faith in Jesus Christ our uprisings are eternal.

10/25/2022

2 Kings 12 is a well known passage, and many sermons have been preached about the “Chest of Joash”. However, as I was studying this chapter, I was struck by the second verse. 2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

As long as Jehoiada was alive, Joash did the right things. But after Jehoiada died, Joash did not do the right thing. 2 Chronicles 24 tells us that after Jehoiada died, Joash turned away from God, embraced idols and became worldly.

So, what we can we learn from this? While Joash started out well under the guidance of Jehoiada, how Joash finished revealed that he did not have any real personal convictions regarding God. Your convictions reveal who you are: the way you think, choices you make, how you treat others, how you spend your money, etc. Your convictions (or lack thereof) impact your life and those around you.

To live by conviction requires that we recognize objective truth as God defines it. Therefore, it is imperative that we regularly read, meditate, pray over and put God’s word into practice. Hebrews 5:14 says, “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (NIV).

If your life is going to make an impact on others, they can’t merely hear our convictions spoken; they must see our convictions lived. What we do NOT live, we do NOT really believe.

01/03/2022

It is my sad duty to let everyone know that Sharon Smith passed away this past weekend. Sharon and her husband, Bill, were members of our Sunday school class and she will be missed. Sharon had struggled with rheumatoid arthritis for many years, but today she is pain free standing in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sharon is at this very moment experiencing what the Apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 5:8, to be absence from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord. While those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ will see Sharon again, it does not lessen or take away the grief of her family and friends. Our heart felt and sincere condolences go out to Bill, their sons, grandchildren, and the rest of their family.

06/08/2021

In recent times it seems like I see more and more people talking about the signs of the "end times". So, what are the signs Jesus gave for His second coming?

Luke 17:27-28; 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;

Do you notice that Jesus doesn't mention anything about the days of Noah or S***m that in and of itself is sinful? The list that Jesus gives is just ordinary activities of life. Why do you think that Jesus only mentions activities of ordinary life in his description and not the sins that the bible tells us was going on during the days of Noah and the days of S***m?

As believers we are in a spiritual battle, and its just not a battle against the threats of violence, sexual immorality and persecution from those who hate Christians. We are in a spiritual battle in our ordinary home life and business life which can blunt all our sensitivity to God's eternal kingdom.

The danger we face is that our faith in Christ and our love for Him and for each other will be swallowed up by every day ordinary life or by the lawlessness we see going on around us.

So how do we, as believers, endure until the end? Beginning in chapter 18 Jesus tells us a parable that I think gives us the answer. In fact, it is one of the few parables which Jesus interprets for us so we won’t miss the point. "Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart," Jesus' answer to the question on how we can endure to the end is, Pray! Pray! Pray!

If you cry to God day and night, if you always pray and don't lose heart, you will not be like Lot's wife: you will not be left in judgment; you will endure in faith and love, and God will vindicate you when the Son of man comes. Therefore, always pray and don't lose heart.

1 Peter 4:7 says, 7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

05/11/2021

My father-n-law, Tom Hupke, passed away earlier today. He was 84 years old. I could not have dreamed up or have asked for a better father-n-law. He always encouraged me and bragged on me. He was the most humble, generous and kind man I have every known. We will miss him terribly. However, in our grief, there is joy because I know exactly where Tom is right now. In recent months, and on multiple occasions, and to different people, Tom professed his faith in Jesus Christ. So, based upon the authority of God's Word, Tom is now in the presence of God. We will see him again. To anyone reading this post, you too can have that assurance by repenting of your sins and placing your faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-13.

05/11/2021

Thomas Earl Hupke passed away on May 11, 2021 at the age of 84. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Diane Good Hupke. He was a loving and faithful husband for 38 years. He was a loving and cherished father and father-in-law to his daughter, Jill Erin Hupke Dell, and to her husband, Eric. He was a dear special grandfather to his two beautiful granddaughters, Rebekah Erin Dell and Hannah Grace Dell. He is also survived by his sister Elizabeth Rowe (Melvin) and his nieces Cindy Rowe Dilena (Tim) and Laura Good Morelli (Mark) and nephews Scott Rowe (JJ) and Brooks Good (Shelly). Tommy, as he was called will be lovingly remembered by his family and friends as a generous, humble, and kind man who loved to golf. He served in the US Army, worked for Ford Motor Company and spent the majority of his life as a banker with Trust Company Bank of Georgia (now Truist).

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Waymark at www.waymarkfoster.org/give or by mail to Waymark, 2500 Dallas Highway, Suite 202, #480, Marietta, GA 30064. Please note that the donation is made in memory of Thomas Earl Hupke.

Private family services were held.

01/05/2021

Habakkuk is unique in that prophets of the Old Testament typically delivered God’s message to the people, but Habakkuk is essentially delivering the people’s questions to God. Habakkuk is questioning the fairness of God's management of the world.

Habakkuk cries out in the first four verses of chapter 1 that Judah is full of violence and perverted justice. Sound familiar?

Beginning in verse 5 through 11 God answers Habakkuk. God revealed to Habakkuk that the Babylonians, the epitome of everything Habakkuk (and God for that matter) detested, would become God's instrument of judgment on Judah.

What does this tell you about God in the way He answers Habakkuk? God is in control of the nations. He swings them like a sword to discipline His people. It tells us that our idea of justice is not God’s idea of justice. It tell us that God’s sense of timing is not our sense of timing.

As we look back on 2020, perhaps you have questioned God on how can He allow the violence we see in our cities? How can He allow the rioters and thugs to commit violence against others and even kill people? Why did He allow this pandemic? Why doesn’t God do something about it?

The answer for us is the same as God’s answer to Habakkuk in chapter 2 verse 4, "The just shall live by his faith".

When all you see is trouble on every hand, the righteous person remembers that God is still on his throne, and when the dark clouds gather overhead, he says to himself, “The just shall live by faith.”

As we start 2021 I pray that God will give me the grace to live by faith in Him. Blessings.

05/09/2020

My Aunt Sheila passed away earlier this week. I didn't get to see her much in recent years, but I will always remember her warm smile and her happy laugh. I loved to hear her laugh because it made me feel happy. My heart felt condolences go out to my Uncle Ronnie, Carrie Dell Allen, Jason, and all her grandchildren.

Sheila Ann Dell, the daughter of Mattie Syble Carter Maddox and the late W.D. Maddox, Sr., was born September 7, 1948, in Gideon, MO. Sheila was a member of the First Southern Baptist Church of Malden and also attended the Bethel Assembly of God Church of Gideon. On December 3,

04/12/2020

I hope you all are enjoying your Easter Sunday. During this corona virus pandemic, I know it is frightening. I know our future seems uncertain. I came across a verse last week that spoke to me and I wanted to share it with you.

In Nehemiah 9:19 it says, "You, in Your great compassion, Did not forsake them in the wilderness; The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, To guide them on their way, Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go."

Nehemiah is referring to the Israelites when they were in the wilderness after God delivered them from bo***ge in Egypt. Like the Israelites we too are in a wilderness of sorts with this corona virus pandemic. It is completely unknown territory to us and it is scary. However, just as God did not forsake Israel, He will not forsake those who have put their faith in Christ. He’s given us His word and His Spirit to guide us not just during this pandemic but every day of our lives.

I know this pandemic is having a terrible impact not only on the health of so many, but on all of our bank accounts as well. I cannot tell you where any of this will end or what will happen. But I can tell you what God’s word says,

Psalm 55:22, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee: He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

Psalm 56:3, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You"

How do we cast our cares on the Lord? We take our fears and concerns to Him in prayer…simply talk to Him the same way we talk to one another…tell Him your fears and be completely honest/transparent…and then the best way we know how believe that He will see us through this ordeal. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “…the righteous person shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)