Winning the War for Your Mind Pt II Scripture as Our Weapon (Psalm 23) Psalm 23:1 What is the job of shepherd? To provide and care for, to protect, to look out for. • When those thoughts are coming against you. I feel alone, I feel unprotected, I feel uncared for. o Respond with what...
Winning the War for Your Mind (2 Cor 10:1-5) Verse 3 Paul realizes that this is spiritual warfare. This is a spiritual issue, not a worldly one. Verse 4 The implication is that Paul sees their criticism of him being rooted in a demonic stronghold. • The word stronghold refers to a place where an...
The Heart of Worship Pt 2 (John 3 & 4) • John 3 A Pharisee named Nicodemus come to Jesus and asks to know more about the Kingdom. o Jesus says, in order to know God and understand the Kingdom of God, you must be born again. o John 3:5-6 There are two parts to...
The Heart of Worship (Physical posture as worship) • In Matt 14 after Jesus clams the storm, it says “they worshipped Him.” • The word ‘worshipped’ here means: to fall down, to kneel, to bow down, fall at the feet of another, to prostrate oneself. It can even mean to kiss the hand of. o...
On Mission with God: To the Nations and the Neighbors (Rev 5:8-10) • Matt, Mark, & Luke all have the same basic command from Jesus to be on mission and take the Gospel to all nations. • These passages are generally referred to as the Great Commission. Acts 2:5 God saw fit to have every...
Let God be on Mission in You: Growing in the Desert (Matt 4:-11) • The Lord wants to grow us to be more like Him and one of the primary ways He does that is through a wilderness or desert experience. o Desert seasons are also often very long, sometimes years. • All three Gospels...
On Mission with God: Serving and Compassion (Matt 20:24, John 13:12) • Matt 20:26 The context here is that the mother of Zebedee’s sons came asked for her sons to sit at the sides of Jesus. Then the other ten disciples get made about this. • In the Greek Jesus actually states this very emphatically,...
In Luke 9 Jesus says that those that want to follow Him will have to deny themselves and take up their cross daily. In this message we explore what that means and how it relates to being on Mission with God. On Mission with God: All In (Luke Chapter 9) Verse 18 Jesus is trying...
On Mission with God: Immanuel • Isa 7:14 This Hebrew name occurs three times in the OT with two times being in Isa 7 & 8 • The name implies that Jesus is leaving heaven and coming to be with us here on earth. The structure of the name: The name is really made up...
On Mission with God: Destroying the works of the Devil • 1 John 3:8 The context here is sin, John it telling his readers that you can’t continue in a life of sin. • But the work of the devil is the source of sin. o Jesus came to destroy all the works of the...
On Mission with God: Being Sent Ones (Luke10:1 and Acts 2-3) • Again, and again Jesus gives the command to go! o Matt 28:18-20 o Many of Jesus’ parables give us insight into what the mission will look like. Luke 10:1 Jesus is commissioning and sending out the 72, expanding His mission team from 12...
On Mission with God Praying toward the Mission (Acts 4:23-31) • We cannot be on mission with God as the primary purpose of the church without prayer. • The specifics, the wisdom, of how we are going to walk out this mission are going to come through prayer. o The power and empowerment for this...
On Mission with God Discovering the primary purpose of the Church • Since the moment Adam and Eve fell in the garden God has been on a mission, the missio dei o That mission has been to restore the relationship between mankind and God Himself. o In the OT era God’s mission was primarily seen...
In Philippians chapter 4 Paul says that he has learned to be content in every situation. I think that’s a great lesson for us all to learn. Let’s look at this passage and ask who were his teachers and what was the curriculum to see if we too can learn to be content? Learning to...
A Life Worth Following Part 2 1 Cor 11:1; 2 Cor 1:8-9 • From this statement, Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ, we saw three key issues. o First, the quality of Paul’s life, the worthiness to be followed. o Second, there is an invitation. “Follow me” A deliberate invitation. o...
Paul tell us in this verse to follow him as he follows Christ. But what made Paul’s life worth following? A Life Worth Following (1 Cor 11:1) 1 Cor 11:1 Is my life worth following? Context: Paul is addressing the entire Corinthian Church. He is not writing to an individual believer. Three key issues here:...
It’s Not My Job: It’s My gift (Colossians 3:22: 1 Cor 12:12) • The context of 1 Cor 12, Paul is talking about Spiritual Gifts. o Then in this section he abruptly talks about the body, meaning the church. o He is creating this picture, this analogy that the church is like the human body....
It’s Not My Job: It’s my Testimony Matt 28:18-20 These were Jesus’ final words to His disciples. • He commissioned His disciples to go and spread the news of His love and sacrifice to the world. • Even many of Jesus’ parables were stories around the idea of sharing our faith. This passage in Colossians...
Sometimes it’s really easy to complain about our jobs. At times it’s even easy to fall into the “it’s not my job” attitude. But in Colossians 3 Paul gives us a great way to see our work from a whole different perspective. To such a degree our jobs, how we serve and volunteer, even lead...
Doing the Right Thing will Cost You 1 Kings 16:30-33 This is the context into which the rest of this story takes place. 1 Kings 17 Because of the wickedness in the land, Elijah prophecy’s that there will be no rain, not even dew. Verse 7 Shows that what Elijah prophesied came true, no rain,...
Baptism The word Baptize There are two basic forms of the word baptize in the NT • One, which is used less frequently means “to dip” or “to dye” We see both of those images in baptism. • The Other form which is used far more frequently refers to the Jewish cleansing practices. o If...
Today I look a passage in 1 Cor 9 where Paul says he as been all things to all people to reach them for the Gospel. Paul entered into the world of people who had never heard the name Jesus before in order to bring the Gospel message. The call remains the same for us...
For the Love of Weeds (Matt 13:24-30) • Verse 24 Jesus tells a parable using language and concepts they would have been understood. But of course, adding new meaning and symbolism. Verse 24 The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God. Jesus tends to use these terms interchangeably. • The man or farmer here...
In this passage we take a look at Jesus’ warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. Jesus is talking about the world views of religion and government. Heeding this warning from Jesus will help us discern the times we are living in. Of Governments and Religion (Mark 8:1-18) Verses 1-3 This passage...
In this message we look a the deep connection between love and obedience. Love compels obedience. Jesus says he can only do what He sees the Father doing, and He can do nothing by Himself. He did the miracles he did through the Power of the Holy Spirit, acting in obedience to what the Father...
A brief introduction to the Holy Spirit and the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Living in the Spirit: Being Filled (Ehp 5:15 and Acts 8) Eph 5:18 The verb here in the NIV as “be filled” is a present passive imperative in the Greek. o There are three components to this grammar...
Today we take a look at Psalm 23 and how it perfectly represents Jesus and therefore also perfectly represents the Communion Table. Communion Psalm 23 Verse 1 The Shepherd’s job was to protect the sheep. • Jesus is of course The Shepherd, our Shepherd. o And He has laid down His life for us, the...
Remembering Remembering God’s presence and promises, can be a key to getting through difficult times. We all have a history with God, and it’s important to remember and reflect on that history. The problem is, there is just something about human nature that causes us to forget rather quickly what God has done for us....
Trust Last week I talked about walking into the fire, and how it takes deep trust in God to be able to enter in. But, in the fire we find what we were looking for all along. This week I want to talk about why can it be so hard to trust God, and where...
The church of Jesus has been born out of the presence of God and was created to gather around His presence continually through the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, we see that, within a few short weeks, the crowd in Jerusalem went from saying, “Crucify Jesus” to “What must we do to be...
Everything we need is the found in the presence of God. Moses knew this. Chapter 33 of the book of Exodus contains some incredible comments by Moses, statements that serve us well as we seek to know God and encourage others in the 21st Century. Even though Moses already had an incredible and personal relationship...
In the frantic pace of today’s society, the concept of rest sounds like a quaint antique. However, Sabbath rest is biblically fundamental to the kingdom of God. Sabbath rest is highlighted in the Ten Commandments, where God goes out of his way to remind us to “remember” the Sabbath. In the agricultural age of...
In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus illustrates spiritual realities through the natural world that apply to us as humans. Fruit trees require great care and attention to produce good fruit. The same is true for us – the words we speak reflect the condition we have cultivated in our hearts. Jesus condemns the religious leaders (the...
Words have great power. We were made in God’s image, and if we truly want to imitate him, we will use great care with our words and get in the habit of speaking blessings, not curses. The apostle Peter tells us that we should speak God’s words so that we advance Jesus’ kingdom, not...
There is no getting around it – God is concerned about justice for those who have no voice. Justice was a major part of Jesus’ ministry as well. In fact, the word “justice” is used 130 times in the NIV translation of the Bible. Jesus saved some of his harshest words for the religious leaders...
My House Shall Be Called A House of Prayer. This scene comes during the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. After Jesus comes riding into the city with everyone cheering and singing praises there is this little verse where Jesus goes into the Temple and looks around. Verses:12-14 He curses the fig tree and a...
