2009-01-13 - Raising Awesome Kids - Openness Instead, speak the truth in love - Ephesians 4:15 An open family is a close family Children should believe that we care enough to give them our full attention; will not fly off the handle Openness is not limited to parents and children - includes the children with one another King Saul - filled with jealousy and envy and held in his feelings Parent should be concerned for a child that holds everything in | ||||||||||||||
2009-01-27 - Jesus with People - Rich Young Ruler Luke 18:22-24 Sell everything and follow him = It's not what you do but who you are Jesus did challenge him but he also loved him Jesus does not get into a lengthy theological debate Each of us lacks that "one thing" deep down that we must give up and following Jesus | ||||||||||||||
2009-03-13 - Promises of God - Faith vs Doubt Doubt: God has forgotten about you and does not care Faith: He knows the way you have served - Hebrews 6:10. He knows notices and cares when a sparrow falls - Matthew 10:29 Doubt: He remembers but he remembers others more than you; Doubt fills in the blanks and customizes to your hopes and desires. Faith: God shows no favoritism; He moves at different time for different people; He has given everything we need for life and godliness Doubt calls into question the faithfulness of God Faith tells us it is impossible for God to lie When Doubt comes calling, we must turn away Faith says yes to God's promises | ||||||||||||||
2009-04-30 - No one like him - Differences from Jesus and the prophets (part 1) 1. His words were from the Father Prophets – “This is what the Lord says…”2. Where to get help Prophets - “Come to the Lord.”3. Fulfillment of scripture Prophets – Prophetic messages | ||||||||||||||
2009-05-10 - No one like him - His Courage Submissive yes, Timid and fearful, no. Submissiveness, not cowardly or silence – gave up self for others Wanted loyalty over their families and friends (Luke 14:25-27) They must give up everything for salvation (Luke 14:28-33) Who can accept it? (John 6:60) Many no longer followed him (John 6:66) 1. Rich young ruler found that Jesus’ message would not change for anyone (Luke 18:18-30) 2. Jesus never held back – Jesus and turning over tables of thieves
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2009-05-16 - No one like him - Jesus believed promises would become reality Luke 24:44 - Everything must be fulfilled Predictions by man may or may not come true; God's promises will and must come true Jesus saturated his preaching and teaching with references to scriptures | ||||||||||||||
2009-05-28 - No one like him - Conflict and Controversy (part 1) Established positions were threaten Again and again Jesus said “You have heard it said … but I say to you…” Some say Jesus was the ultimate nice person but he was a prophet (reputation for being offensive) Examples in Matthew 23:
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2009-06-05 - No one like him - Count Cost (part 2) Every effort Must give up everything God not as concerned about material as your heart Everything must be under the Lordship of Christ For all people Message for all people – young and old Spoke to the large crowds – Luke 14:25-33 Supreme Concern Jesus was concerned about the people becoming disciples Common belief is to believe - Christians vs Disciples Just because you think are a disciple does not mean you are – Luke 6:46; 7:22-23 | ||||||||||||||
2009-06-06 - One Another - Center of the Target Many people look at everything in God's will is the same weight - this leads to endless controveries over smaller details Jesus looked at God's will as a target Ex. Pharisees gave 1/10 of their spices but neglected the more important maters of the law - Matthew 23:23-24 Scriptures does not spell out what the second and third rings are Made it very clear what was at the center of the target | ||||||||||||||
2009-06-30 - A Life of Impact - Dream Shared Dream Shared Mark 4:26-32
Choice words Mark 4:33-34
Actions speak louder
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2009-08-07 - A Life of Impact - A Champion A Champion Mark 12:35-37
Reprobation Mark 12:38-44
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2009-09-28 - One Another - Differences (part 1) Judgement or Apathy Two extremes:
Accused or Excused
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2009-10-04 - One Another - Teaching One Another With all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another - Colossians 3:16 Teaching translated from the word "didasko" = to give instruction, to impart information or wisdom In Christianity to applies to spiritual development
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2009-10-08 - Wild at Heart - The Strategy (part 1) 1. I am not here Satan says, “ I am not here, it just you” You cannot fight a battle that you don’t think exists Satan prowls around like a roaring lion - 1 Peter 5:8-9 Assume you are under spiritual attack When you ignore the enemy, he wins He simply loves to put everything on us Get us to feel hurt, misunderstood, suspicious and resentful Before an effective military strike, must take our the lines of communication Marriage is a living example – Satan loves to divide and conquer Sends a message – you are blowing it – “I thought you were disappointed with me” They did not send this message Most of all the Enemy tries to jam communication with Headquarters Commit yourself to prayer every morning for two weeks and just watch what happens Satan tries to make our mind wonder and cause interferences | ||||||||||||||
2009-10-29 - Repentance - Illustrations (part 3) Like all paradigms, everything depends what you put in the center We put us in the center, it is impossible to satisfy a self-centered man In order to shift our paradigm to the truth:
Questions:
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2009-11-23 - Master Plan - Selection (part 2)
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2009-11-24 - Master Plan - Selection (part 3) Few were converted in His lifetime.
Everything that is done with the few is for the salvation of the multitudes. Modern Practicals
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2009-12-06 - Master Plan - Jesus gave himself away (part 2)
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2009-12-07 - Master Plan - Demonstration (part 1) He showed them how to live
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2009-12-17 - Master Plan - Reproduction (part 4)
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2009-12-21 - First the Kingdom - Spiritual Beggars Two words for "poor" in Greek:
Only through confession and humility - only by owning up to our sin Spiritual Beggars can have everything in the Kingdom of God | ||||||||||||||
2010-01-18 - Kingdom First - Giving in Secret Giving should be done without even our closest friends and family knowing - Matthew 6:1-4 God blesses are many time unknown or unseen to many people He gives because he wants to Are you content when no one sees your sacrifice? Do you give without wanting anything in return? Jesus' life was full of sacrifical giving and he expects us to do likewise
God loves a cheerful giver - 2 Corinthians 9:7 | ||||||||||||||
2010-01-25 - Kingdom First - Only One Master What occupies my mind? If we are eager and driven to gain more we will stray from the faith and be pierced with many griefs - 1 Timothy 6:10 Secret to being content, I can do everything through him that gives me strength - Philippians 4:12-13 Judas: example of someone trying to live with 2 masters:
Elders gave large sums of money to have them lie about the disciples stealing the body of Jesus - Matthew 28:12 What is our selling point? Do not put our hope in wealth, which is so uncertain - 1 Timothy 6:17 Keep your lives free from the love of money - Hebrews 13:5 | ||||||||||||||
2010-01-26 - Kingdom First - Self Titled But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, all these things will be given you - Matthew 6:33 Kingdom First:
The kingdom consists of people who volunteer in a battle between good and evil | ||||||||||||||
2010-02-03 - One Another - Confession Questions (part 4) How do we grow in our confession? a. Be open even at the temptation level We will get used to talking what we are thinking and going through We will nip many things in the bud before they progress to sin b. Start over-correcting Start confessing everything You can always tone it down so it does not become annoying :) c. Ask some else what they think of your confession: Do you find me to be a confessing person? What is my confession level?
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2010-02-23 - One Another - Reconciling with One Another (part 3) Examples of Conflict in the Bible Euodia and Syntyche - Philippians 4:2-3 1. Conflict happens - normal part of a relationship 2. The goal is to agree 3. We may need help from a third party David and the jealous king Saul - 1 Samuel 24:8-22 David's conduct with Saul was above reproach; He did everything he could to work things out If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people - Romans 12:18 There are things that depend on us and others that are out of our conotrl | ||||||||||||||
2010-03-17 - To Live is Christ - Considered Rubbish Not only did Paul give up his religious past and performance, he gladly counted everything else a loss too He would give up any claim of such things so he could gain justification by grace He considered them rubbish - Philippians 3:8-9 skubala = human waste or dung (KJV) He was saying the same thing as Isaiah - all righteousness acts are like filthy rags - Isaiah 64:6 The good we do is not rubbish but it is if those works are seen as the source and trusted in Our obedience, which is imperfect, does not make us right with God Christ's righteousness saves by faith The message of the cross calls us to sacrifice everything to Christ, who sacrificed everything for us Without his sacrifice, our sacrifice would be worthless to God and to man | ||||||||||||||
2010-03-23 - To Live is Christ - Anxious About Nothing Paul urges them to be anxious and worried about nothing and to pray about everything because God is in control - Philippians 4:6-7 Peace never comes without surrender Something instead of dealing with our emotions, we try an avoidance pattern We must be in touch with happens to others and ourselves Guard (a garrison of angel are available to help) our hearts - Satan wants us to trust ourselves and to doubt our God How challenging to turn everything over to God. Yet, how foolish not to!
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2010-03-25 - To Live is Christ - Learned to be Content The secret of being content in any situations is to remember - I can do everything through him who gives me strength - Philippians 4:10-13 Content = Greek word autarkeia = self-sufficiency or not needing a thing Secret he learned was not because he choose not to care He learned it by:
At one point - bad circumstances led him to despair of life itself - 2 Corinthians 1:8 What circumstances are in your life right now that could lead to a lack of contentment? | ||||||||||||||
2010-04-25 - Heart of Friendship (part 1) Preached by John Lusk (2005-01-23) Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Christ is the key to having true friendships Friendship with Christ John 15:14-15
Matthew 11:28-30 - Jesus yoke is easy and he will give you rest Hebrews 4:15-16 - Jesus understands and have been in your situation 2 Peter 1:3 - He given everything we need in life | ||||||||||||||
2010-04-28 - Heart of Maturity (Motivation of Maturing) Preached by John Lusk (2005-01-30) How passionate are you about maturing?
Motivation of Maturing 1. To regain your identify Genesis 1:26-27
2. To remian in Jesus 1 John 2:3-4 - This is a expectation from God 3. To be effective and productive 2 Peter 1:4-8
4. Secure salvation 2 Peter 1:8-11 - We have been given a new start Wrong motivation - Pleasing people, selfish ambition | ||||||||||||||
2010-04-30 - I am Innocent of the Blood of all Men (part 1) Preached (2007-03-18) Paul - Innocent of the blood of all men Acts 20:17-27
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2010-05-09 - World Hates Jesus (part 1) Preached by Richard Dixon - 1999-09-19 John 15:18-25
John 3:19-21
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2010-05-12 - Desire's Journey - Our Heart's Deepest Secret But I still haven't found what I am looking for - U2 We have a secret desire for life as it was meant to be Again and again the yearning of our heart cries for this life Life comes to all of us as a mystery We long to live a life we are not sure where to find The greatest human tragedy is to give up the search for life. Nothing is of greater importance than the life of our deep heart To lose heart is to lose everything - Proverbs 4:23 Who we really are and why we are here comes to us through our heart's desire Our heart yearns for things to be right is so strong that it overrides the logic and hopes against hope every time The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of - Proverbs 20:5 There are two things that pierce the human heart:
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2010-05-17 - Desire's Journey - The Beast Within Years of living in an indifferent hostile world creates a deep sense of unsettledness with in us Battle of good and evil within us - Romans 7:20-23 Sinful desires are contrary to the Spirit They conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want - Galatians 5:17 There is a nagging awareness warning us not to feel our hunger too deeply or it will undo us We wouldn't want to do anything crazy or desperate We want what our unmet desire wants but our sinful nature wants what is contrary We try everything - TV, sex, relationships, drugs, etc - going one to another We don't know what we want because we're so unacquaninted with our desire We try to keep a safe distance between our daily lives and our heart's desire - because it causes us too much trouble Do we really want to open Pandora's box? Dare we awaken our hears to their true desires? Is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? Our dilemma is this: we can't seem to live with desire, and we can't live without it | ||||||||||||||
2010-06-20 - Building the temple (part 1) Preached by Damon Pabts on 2002-03-03 1 Chronicles 28:9-10
Building Yourself1 Chronicles 29:1-4
Give everything to build1 Chronicles 29:2-4
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2010-06-27 - Jesus - The Lord (part 1) Preached by Richard Dixon on 1999-10-10 We have many bosses:
Matthew 9:27-34
Jesus is Lord of our FaithDo you believe that you will receive everything that you ask for in prayer? 5 Faith Killers:
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2010-07-01 - Desire's Journey - Great Restoration (part 2) Restoration of the world is play out each spring and summer He annouced the coming of the kingdom of God
God's kingdom - his will is done "on earth as it is in heaven" Jesus healed every disease and sickness among the people - Matthew 4:23 | ||||||||||||||
2010-07-24 - Desire's Journey - Letting Go (part 1) The more comfortable we are with mystrery in our journey, the more rest we will know along the way Paul's quests - 2 Corinthians 6:10
Somehow being empty allows us to make others rich Some believe in the church that being a Christian somehow satisfies our every desire Augustine: "The whole life of the good Christian is a holy longing" Being content is not the same as being full | ||||||||||||||
2010-08-05 - Waking Dead - Arm Yourselves (part 2) God intends for you to have eternal life When someone gets married, it isn't just a marriage to help them in retirement but their whole lives I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living - Psalms 27:13 No one who has left everything will fail to receive many times as much in this age, in the age to come, eternal life - Luke 18:29-30 Jesus talks about a life available to us in this age Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come - 1 Timothy 4:8 When we hear eternal life, most think a life that waits for in eternity But eternal means "unending" not "later" Eternal life can start now Jesus was raised from the dead, now we also may live new lives - Romans 6:4 Coming fully alive is what he was committed to What a different it would make if we really knew that our lives and God's glory were bound together Things would start looking up | ||||||||||||||
2010-08-12 - Waking Dead - Myths (part 3) Myth tell us three truths, this third one is: 3. In this desparate hour, we have a crucial role to play Neo sees himself as Thomas Anderson, but he was the one People in the scriptures that saw this:
This eternal truth is the most difficult for us to believe There is a glory to your life that your enemy fears The one who knows what you could be, fears it Things happen to you and we question why If believe we have a crucial role to play and come to know it is true, everything would change | ||||||||||||||
2010-08-18 - Waking Dead - Point of all Living Everything you love is what makes a life worth living Action: Set down the book and make a list of all the things you love
Jesus was asked what was most important He boiled it down to loving God and loving others - everything else will fall into place The heart is the connecting point; can not love without it If we can truly love, be loved, and never lose love - we would be finally truly happy If we worship efficiency, we can not grow in our love Some try to master all sort of principles and and never know God intimately, heart to heart. If do all sorts of Christian things without knowing God, he will say "I never knew you" - Matthew 7:22-23 The point is not the activity but intimacy with God Taking a course on anatomy won't help you love you spouse Taking a religion class will not help you love God You will find God when you seek him with all of your heart - Jeremiah 29:13 | ||||||||||||||
2010-08-25 - Waking Dead - Glory (part 2) Your story does not begin with sin but with glory Bible does not start in Genesis 3 but Genesis 1 God is glorious You are his offspring, his child You bear his image When he made all His creation before man he said "it was good" Only after did he make humans did he say "it is very good" - Genesis 1:31 Your glory is greater than everything else made - oceans, mountains, stars, the universe Saints in the land are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight - Psalms 16:3 Those he justified, he also glorified - Romans 8:30 The fact that you don't see your good heart and glory is proof has effective the assault has been Lion King example It is time for the true king to come back and take over But Simba does not believe who he is His father was murdered and the enemy blamed it on him After years of loosing heart, Simba's father appears to him in a vision: you are more than what you have become The one who is in you is greater than the one in the world - 1 John 4:4 | ||||||||||||||
2010-09-05 - Waking Dead - Deep Restoration (part 2) Everything Jesus did was to illustrate what he was trying to say He offered healing for the body but more importantly for the soul The Lord is my shepherd, he restores my soul - Psalms 23:1-3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds - Psalms 147:3 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed - Jeremiah 17:14 Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings - Malachi 4:2 He welcomes them and healed those who needed healing - Luke 9:11 | ||||||||||||||
2010-09-26 - Waking Dead - Heart of Treasure Above all else, guard your heart - Proverbs 4:23 Having so long believed our hearts are evil, we assume the warning is to keep us out of trouble So we lock up our hearts and throw away the key and try to get on with our living It does say guard your heart because it is criminal but because it is the wellspring of of life It is treasure - everything else depends on it Above all else? We don't even do it once in a while - we careless with our hearts What if we were careful? Faith would be must deeper Relationships so much better We live completely backwards "All else" is above our hearts What do you do on a monthly basis to take care of your heart? God intends that we treat our hearts as treasures They were ransomed at a tremendous cost | ||||||||||||||
2010-10-03 - Contagious Christian - Benefits (part 3) 4. Spiritual Growth If holding onto our faith and not advancing it much - it will become a chore and prayer a dry routine
5. Spiritual Confidence It is ironic that the act of preparing to show others the gospel is often the cause for us to understand it better ourselves In the face of opposition, we gain heightened sense of spiritual confidence Imagine what happens when one of these people becomes a Christian 6. Enduring Investments Jesus warned his followers to not store up treasures on earth - Matthew 6:19-20 Everything will be destroyed eventually - 2 Peter 3:10-11 It is a mistake to invest so much time and energy into things that won't last 7. Honor of Being God's Agent This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit - John 15:8 | ||||||||||||||
2010-10-11 - God and Your Money
QUESTIONS
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2010-11-16 - Contagious Christian - Making the Message Clear (part I) Before you can bring the message to others, need to make sure we clearly understand we understand the message ourselves Making the message clear will need us to be able to illustrate it for those we talk to God Three aspects of God we need to look at:
God made us without sin but we abused our freedom and became evil Sin requires God to pronounce upon us the death penalty - both physical and spiritual This is separation from God via hell We are helpless to change this Christ God had the power and authority to devise a plan for our salvation Christ died and suffered the death penalty debt for us and
You don't deserve it, we didn't pay for it, we can not earn it He paid a debt He did not owe I owned a debt I could not pay | ||||||||||||||
2010-11-23 - Mission - Expectation of Christ Reading Luke 19:11-27 Parable of the 10 minas God has given us a lifetime of opportunities and blessing with the expectation that they would be utilized to the fullest Consider the most important goal of life according to Jesus - salvation for all It is the motivating force behind everything Christ did Even to the point of dying for it - Matthew 20:28 The gospel must first save me, but then through me, save others Capitalism and Communism does not give us the answers No philosophy or religion can meet the needs God wants to the world more than you do When God wants something accomplished, he can move mountains to do it He sacrificed his own Son for saving man Our God is wildly happy when someone is saved - Luke 15 If we claim to know God, then we most certainly will share with in his attitude | ||||||||||||||
2010-12-03 - Mission - First the Kingdom No one is ready to follow Jesus who is not ready to put the kingdom of God first above everything else in his life Take away the radicalness of the message and you take away the power of the message Compromise it and you have religion but not the church of Jesus Christ Every kingdom has a king God is the king of kings and the lord of lords - 2 Timothy 6:15 Jesus is known as both Lord and Christ, King and Savior - Acts 2:38 We are the servants, subjects, and even slaves of God - Romans 6:22 The centurion understood this authority - Luke 7:8 You will be given all the things you need when you seek first the kingdom - Matthew 6:33 Can you powerfully proclaim this message to others because it is so clearly your conviction? - Colossians 3:1-2 When making decisions, ask what is best for the kingdom. |