God offers us a big life! It is a life filled with big dreams and big opportunities! He is a God of BIG plans! He encourages us to think bigger, to act smarter, to see further, and to come up higher so that we can catch a glimpse of hat He has planned for us and what He says about us! However, this BIG PLAN must be balanced with a reality check. God wants us to look to HIS plans while also being mindful of the present. He wants us to focus on the here and now!

Where do you want to go in God? What is the big dream He has placed inside of you? Why aren’t you there yet? When we focus on the future, we neglect the present–a present that has problems that need to be addressed. Take inventory of your life. You dream of a great marriage; how is you marriage right now? You dream of owning a thriving business; how is your business right now? There are details in the present that must be addressed before the BIG LIFE God has for you can come to pass.

Don’t fret, though. We are all a work in progress. We all lack. We all want to be better, to be what God wants us to be; however, we lack the ability to do so. Don’t focus on what you don’t have, least you get down on yourself and begin to think about what YOU can do to fix it. That leads to a work’s mindset, and a work’s mindset is dangerous territory. Focus on GOD! God has more than enough to meet where you leave off! God never lacks.

As Paul wrote in the above passage, God has unlimited resources! If you want to love, He gives you love. If you want faith, He gives you faith! He wants you to work at it. He plants the seed so that you can work it and grow it, but He is always there to help feed the seed! Whatever you don’t have, GOD has for you.

It is hard to believe in a BIG GOD when life gets hard. Finances get tight. Prayers don’t get answered. Relationships fall apart. Suddenly, feels God is a million miles away and the Bible becomes bland. How do you cope in this sort of situation? How do you apply the promises of God when all hell is breaking loose? You go back to the place where you trusted God. There, as Paul writes, you find the inner strength given to you by the Holy Spirit. Ask God to reveal that strength to you.

The BIG LIFE is out there! But there will be moments in your world that will so radically test your resolve that all you can do is cling to the inner strength and wait! You CHOOSE to wait! Choice is the key. Choose now to hold on! Choose now to make that change. Choose now to work on your marriage. Do it NOW! And when the good days come, strengthen your relationship with Christ. He will become more and more at home in your heart. Then, when the chaos of life swoops in, you will be strengthened to stand against it. With Jesus by your side and the strength of the Holy Spirit inside you, you will have the ability o pursue you dreams!

So, choose now! Choose now to pursue the BIG LIFE God has for you. And choose now to hold onto the strength of the Spirit inside you. Choose now!

When we deal with spiritual warfare, if we don’t understand what we’ve been given, it is difficult to carry out our lives the way God intended us to.

The reality is everything changed when the cross came. The spirit realm changed and we now win every time. We can never lose because God lives inside of us. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us and movies in our lives.

When we accept God and allow Him to move and breathe in our lives, just as He did in Jesus, we are set free from that old dead life of defeat. When we realize God is already there and is already working and has already won, there is no room for worrying about the devil.

God is continuously working and is always there. We are living our lives trying to collide with the river that is already flowing.

Grab hold of this truth that is in the Bible and know that we are winners every time. The devil cannot win and will not win. We are victorious in every situation through Christ.

The best thing you can do for your growth is to be open for the Holy Spirit to move in your life. The Holy Spirit is an integral part of the trinity. While he is not the Father who created us, or the Son who came to die for us, he still is God. The Holy Spirit comes upon us and speaks into our lives. When we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives, he regenerates us. He lives inside of us, and becomes a part of who we are, making us holy in the sight of God the Father.

It is God’s will for the world that none should perish. His will is not being done on this earth; people perish every day. If we do not get with his plan, then people will continue to perish. Position yourself for the plan of God. Jesus promised us that we would do bigger and better things than he did. The Holy Spirit helps us do that.

Galatians 2:20 (NLT): My old self has been crucified with Christ.It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The House of God is a place to come to be refreshed. It is a place where the Holy Spirit moves; to convict where conviction is needed; to bring change where needed; and to refresh the believers. When we make room for the Spirit, He moves on our behalf.

There are four aspects of the House where one can encounter God and His Spirit:
–Fellowship: God moves in friendship; no one can truly survive the trials of life alone, we need friends to walk beside us and hold us up.
–Worship: We encounter God in worship. The worship leaders worship; they lead us into worship, and it is there that we encounter God.
–The Word: the Word is preached in this church. No matter who is speaking, they are speaking from the Word. The seed is scattered, and when it hits your heart and takes root, your world will change.
–The Alter: The supernatural happens on the alter. Healing, repentance, freed–it all happens here.

Now, the Spirit of God empowered Jesus. Wherever Jesus went, the Spirit went with Him. W have a spirit in us–upon conception, something eternal was created in the physical. It is part of being made in the image of God. That spirit part is the part that will never die. The human body will die, but the spirit will live on. When we are born in the physical, we are born into a fallen world; God waits for us to come to Him for a rebirth into the supernatural. This happens upon accepting Jesus’ sacrifice. When we come to that point, we encounter the Holy Spirit and are filled with Him!

Jesus was reunited with the Holy Spirit upon His baptism. From then on, Jesus and the Holy Spirit worked hand in hand to reach the World. Jesus would withdraw to pray. He, The Holy Spirit, and God would be one for a little while, then Jesus would return to perform the miracles growing inside of Him. The Holy Spirit would work through Him to change people’s lives. And when Jesus died the physical death on the cross, it was the Spirit that brought Him back three days later.

Then, in John 20:22, Jesus imparted the Spirit to His disciples. It was like receiving a new toy; they weren’t certain what to do with it, but they went for it anyway! They followed Jesus example: they went to pray. And when they prayed, the Spirit showed up! (The Spirit is in us; the Spirit fills the room around us.) Then, Peter–the disciple known for sticking his foot in his mouth–stood and preached! He was a fisherman! yet, when the Spirit came upon him, he did something he had never done before–he spoke with power, eloquence, authority, and theological accuracy! When the Spirit comes upon you, you do things you never would have done before! And what’s more, Peter already had boldness; the Spirit used his boldness to bring honor and glory to God! The Spirit takes what you already have and magnifies it for use in the Kingdom! He takes you into things you’ve never done and uses the gifts you already have! It is all for the benefit of the Kingdom!

The Holy Spirit is powerful! And He empowers us to perform miracles! He is in us! In every aspect of who we are. Paul said it in Galatians. It is no longer we who live, but Christ’s SPIRIT lives in us. He is in our hands, our minds, our hearts, and our feet. Where we go, He goes. And where the Spirit goes, there is also freedom! The Spirit brings freedom.

As God is three in one–God, Jesus, Holy Spirit–so, too, is humanity. We are created with a body, a soul, and a spirit. All three parts are sanctified when we accept Christ as our Savior. We commune spirit to Spirit with God through the relationship established by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead. It is in our spirit that we feel God the most. However, there are days when we don’t feel particularly spiritual. That is when we engage all three parts to seek God again.

All things of God engage all three aspects of who we are. The human body struggles to submit to the spirit. The soul is the battle ground where we battle our broken sin nature with its corrupted thoughts and propensity to lean towards the ungodly with the new nature God gave us upon Salvation. These two aspects of who we are, the parts we sometimes feel is what makes us less godly, are parts that have also been sanctified by God. And when we feel less spiritual, we engage these two parts to stir the spirit: We go to our God Zone.

The God Zone is prayer. We pray. We physically take ourselves to a place of solitude. We pour out our souls before God. We pray and seek Him; we seek His will. And our spirits are revived. God said in Joel that He
would pour His spirit out on all people, and they would Prophesy! In the God Zone, we engage that gifting. All three aspects of humanity come together in prophesy. The spirit stirs–whether upon hearing bad news or seeing something tragic or whatever else–and the body and soul engage.

Prophesy is speaking out truth into your world or into the worlds of others. You literally speak. The power of God manifests in speech. God spoke and the world came into being. When we speak, we change our worlds. Good or bad; believer or non-believer; as long as you have faith in what you are saying, it will happen. This principle goes across the board. Imagine what would happen if you align your words and belief with God’s Word? The Word of God is the Power of God. When we align ourselves with His Word and speak HIS truths into our worlds, great things happen. What He promises comes to pass.

When you speak His truths over your world, your world is changed. You can speak His truths over the worlds of your family and friends, over your situations, over your finances, over everything! That is prophecy. Speaking into the future changes the future for the better! Speaking GOD into your future opens the doors for HIM to do what He does best: Be Awesome! He will go above and beyond your expectations! So, speak out in faith! Believe it! Engage your body, soul, and spirit, and let God move.

Today is Father’s Day, but I would like to call it “Fathering Day”. Do you know why? Just because you have children, it does not make you a father. Get your children to tell you how you did in the parenting field. It might not have gone how you thought it did. Your children have a completely different view on things.
The biggest thing in parenting is discipline. Don’t be too strict, but do not be too lax, either. There is a balance between the two. Discipline realistically. You should let your children make decisions for themselves, but teach them what they should do, first, and warn them about what is out there and what could happen should they get themselves stuck in it.

Throughout all of Paul’s letters, he tells the churches to be like Christ, however, in verses sixteen and seventeen, he tells the Corinthian church that he is their spiritual father, and that they should imitate him. He brings correction into the here and now, telling them to do as he does, not as Christ did in the past. The Bible doesn’t do the hard stuff for us; we do it. We show our children how to live by what we do. If your children see you treating your wife or husband badly, that is how they will treat their spouse. Take responsibility for your life and the actions you take.

There is a difference between instructing and fathering. Fathering requires heart. Do not only tell your children what to do, and how to live their lives. Love them. Affection is modeled. If you do not show the love you have for your children, then they will have a hard time farther down the line, when they try to show affection of their own. Speak well into your children’s lives. They want it. Be honest and real; make sure that they know that correction comes out of love.

Father’s Day is either the best day, or the worst day. Many people have horrible memories of their fathers. Many fathers out there are either missing or abusive. However, the greatest redemptive moment is when you use your mess to help someone else who is going through it. There is a point in time, and it becomes easier to forgive and forget the hurt and pain that was caused to you.

Never forget that your children are watching you, and that what you do in life will become apparent in their own lives. Be real with them. Show them that they are loved, and make sure that they never forget it.

There is a big difference between being a believer and a disciple. Most people probably don’t stop and really think about this. Most people probably picture a bearded man in sandals when the hear the word disciple. What’s more, most people probably tend to think that the end of their faith journey culminates in their belief, in their salvation moment. A lifetime spent away from God pivots upon the events of one morning, wherein a person’s heart becomes inexplicably soft—by a pointed sermon or a moment of worship or even the power withheld in the very name of Jesus himself—they respond to that altar call, confess their sins, give their life to Christ, and then for many, they’re done. Not so for the disciple.

Getting saved by Jesus is the easiest task one could ever hope to perform. One doesn’t have to accomplish anything by their own cleverness or effort. One doesn’t need to do anything period. Except surrender their pride and accept the gift. It is, after all, the Holy Spirit who is doing the saving anyway. It’s his work to his glory; not yours. Consider it this way: if salvation were the goal for humanity, if it alone was the charge of the Great Commission, then Scripture would read, “Go into all the world and save people.” Instead it reads, “make disciples of all nations.” Disciples, unlike Christians, are not born. They are made.

Concerning the passage from Matthew above, before the charge to his disciples to go make more disciples, Jesus commands the remaining eleven to go to “the mountain” in Galilee. Scholars have debated to which Galilean mountain he directed them. Some have argued that it was perhaps Mt. Carmel, where Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal. Others have suggested Mt. Table. I personally believe that it was Mt. Hermon, a coastal mountain overlooking Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus had once taken his disciples and proclaimed “I will build my church” (Matthew 16: 13-20). It is this same mountain that Peter, James, John, and Jesus ascend in Matthew 17, where the Lord appears transfigured and meets with Moses and Elijah. Mt. Hermon is, in short, a significant site to the disciples, and thus likely the one mentioned in this week’s passage.

So here Jesus takes all eleven disciples and, overlooking the pagan colony of Caesarea Philippi and all the sinners within, he commands, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” What, then, is the difference between the saved and the disciples? For one thing, discipleship is necessarily beyond salvation. It’s the next, big step in one’s faith walk. Again, being saved is easy; becoming a disciple, on the other hand, takes work. It takes, according to this passage, first being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, this naturally constitutes an actual physical water baptism by which one publicly and symbolically demonstrates their physical death and rebirth in Christ, but it also suggests that we are to be baptized in the name, or, in other words, immersed in the spirit of God. God has a hand in our salvation, to be sure, but He also guides us toward discipleship after He finally gets His hands on our lives.

We must get out of His way so that He may do so, however. One must never underestimate the power of his own will. As C.S. Lewis once suggested, the spirit of God “cannot ravish. He can only woo.” So if the God of Heaven, who merely spoke the cosmos into existence, can approach the door of your spirit but cannot (or rather, will not) force His way through, then we can conclude that a man’s will is a strangely powerful thing. So to become a disciple, finally, we must allow God to take our hand and lead us deeper into Himself. Once this happens, we’ll begin to feel convicted about our sin. We’ll begin to actually want to spend time in prayer, in worship, and in the Word. Getting saved, you see, cleanses our spirit but doesn’t change our bad habits or attitudes. Going deeper into God’s teachings and truths is what ultimately transforms our lives from believers to disciples. We begin to talk differently, act differently. We begin, in short, to live our faith as well as believe it.

A challenge facing Christianity today is that we have a great many Christians and too few disciples. We need more disciples in the kingdom, more Christians walking out, not just believing in, their faith. If the original eleven disciples multiplied and, in time, transformed the the Roman Empire from a land of unrestrained paganism to the site of the early Church, how much more of an impact will a kingdom of disciples have today? Certainly have we more than eleven disciples at the present moment. Our focus, then, as a Church should be to foster a community of discipleship, and not belief only.

Discipleship is moving people; whether to a new level in God or to move out of your comfort zone into something new. When a person submits to being a disciple, he or she submits to having someone or someones come into their lives and bring correction.

80% of Christians fail because they do not submit to the discipleship process. It is the reason people start strong but finish weak if they finish at all. You see, a Christian is not a disciple. A Christian is born. When a person comes to Christ, asks Him into his or her life, and is transformed into a new creation, that process is called being “born again.” A Christian is born. And most times, a Christian remains in that place. Christians can remain “baby Christian” for years. They never grow beyond the initial salvation experience; they do not get to the meat and solid foods of the faith.

Disciples are made. Verse nineteen clearly states the command “go make disciples.” A Christian cannot survive strong with the idea that “Jesus is discipling me.” That is un-Biblical. Jesus took twelve men and lived life with them, teaching them and helping them to grow. When He left, He instructed His disciples to do the same. Discipleship is allowing yourself to learn the ways of God and to live those ways. We are called to live a higher calling, to live to the upward call of God, as Paul puts it. You see, God wants to make something of you, and He brings people into your life to make that happen. Disciples are made!

Discipleship comes through relationship. God transforms nations through His people, but He can’t do that if we all remain children. God completes His work through others. If we willing submit to the people God puts in our world, we are submitting to God’s correction. Correction is brought through love and an established relationship. Sometimes, it is a graceless smack-down that hurts, but that sort of adjustment is necessary to grow.

Believers are baby-Christians; Disciples are adult-Christians. The difference between babies and adults is that adults can reproduce. Adult Christians are disciples; they are submitted to God and the people He put around them; and they take the correction and grow from it. How do you know you are a disciples? It is when God uses you to reproduce–to make others into disciples.

There are three different layers to this miracle. The first layer is provision. The couple at this particular wedding ran out of wine. You don’t want to run out of wine at a Jewish wedding. It’s not good. Jewish weddings last for days, and the people feast on wine and good food. If you run out of wine, you will be looked down upon, as poor and lowly, but when you invite Jesus to your party, or your life, you will always be provided for. He doesn’t go half-way, either. He created the best wine from dirty water. With Jesus, you will always have the best of the best.

The second layer of this miracle is obedience. The servants had no idea what filling pots with dirty water would do. Still, they did what Jesus told them to. When your plans fall apart, do what Jesus says- even though it is hard, and all it feels like you’re doing is carry dirty water. The servants had to carry 180 gallon pots to the river and back. They did this when Jesus told them to. They did not ask why, they just did it. All Jesus asks of us is to carry a burden, not give up, and do something crazy. The Bible does not say when the water turned into wine, but we know that when the servant dipped the cup into the pot, it was water, and somewhere in the middle of his obedient walk to the master of the banquet, it turned into the best wine. If God can get us involved in our miracles then they will stick.

The third layer of this miracle is that we are the pots- God wants to cleanse us and fill us with something priceless. The substance inside of the pots started out as dirty water from the river, and wound up as wine, the best wine. God wants to do that in our lives. he wants to take all that is in our hearts and make it better, clean it up and make it beautiful. You don’t even know when your water turns to wine but it happens. Somewhere in the walk of being obedient, a miracle happens.

In reflecting on our ongoing discussion about the power of God, a theme that you hopefully have seen emerging in recent weeks is the fact that nearly every breakthrough and miracle that we will experience in our Christian walk will require a faithful request or else some sort of bold initiation on our part. I have said it before: “God will use you to work your own miracles.” Scripture confirms this. Two weeks ago, we learned about the woman who was healed because she waded through a crowd just to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe (Mark 5:24-34). The two blind men in Matthew’s Gospel similarly had to call out to Jesus before having their sight returned to them (Matthew 20: 29-34).

This week’s story is a little different. It’s a little shocking, really. It starts off ordinarily enough—if one could ever really refer to Christ’s miracles as “ordinary”—beginning on the heels of yet another ‘self-initiated’ miracle, where a Roman officer has just offered a bold analysis of authority, thereby impressing Jesus and healing his slave (Luke 7:1-10). After this episode, Jesus travels the ten miles from Capernaum to Nain. It is here where this week’s story begins.

Jesus, as you can probably imagine, has garnered quite the following by this point in his ministry. He’s healed leapers (Luke 17:11-19); he’s cast out demons (Matthew 8:28-34); he’s fed the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21) and restored the sight to the blind through some rather unusual means (John 9: 1-34). What’s more, he’s probably earned the reputation as a particularly cheeky prophet at that. By now he’s worked a month’s worth of Sabbath days (thereby incensing the local Pharisaical devotees), and even managed to get kicked out of his hometown of Nazareth. Indeed, controversy tends to spiral in his wake. That is all to say that this young rabbi was likely to have a crowd of disciples, onlookers, enthusiasts and scrutinizers surrounding him wherever he went.

So on the road to Nain this entourage, all abuzz with the witnessing of miracles and ten miles of teaching, meets up with a crowd with an altogether different timbre. The crowd whom Jesus encounters in Nain is a funeral procession accompanying a widow who has just lost her only son. This is a rare and terrible blow for any single mother, but even more so for a woman in this time and culture, who would’ve lost not only her last blood relative but her financial safety net as well. She, in effect, has lost everything. At the front of this procession would likely have been a band of her peers wailing along with her in an act of demonstrative sisterhood.

These two crowds eventually meet—one craving life and the other mourning death. The emotional contrast could not be starker nor Jesus’ reaction more surprising. Upon witnessing this woman and intuiting her sad circumstances, he is moved to intervene. His intervention, however, is surprising in several ways. First, it is interesting to note that this woman, unlike the other stories mentioned above, does not ask for his intercession. Her dire worldview has probably become such that she is tired of the faithful and all their optimism. She’s stopped asking for miracles long ago. Her prayers, she tells herself, have not and will not be answered. She’s done. Jesus, though, spots her and calls to her, “Do not cry!” Authoritative. Curiously, Luke reports that his reaction was one of excessive compassion, though most of us are prone to intuit one’s yelling at a widow as an especially insensitive act. The thing to catch here is that Jesus is refusing to agree with her situation, and is instead provoking her to think otherwise. Tough love, some might call it.

But Jesus isn’t finished. He never is. He goes a step beyond speaking and moves to action. As Luke reports, he walks into this crowd, the death crowd, and tells the boy to “get up.” Equally authoritative. And out of an equal compassion. The boy, as you have read, does exactly that. Another miracle has been worked and witnessed.

As an aside, it is crucial to recognize that becoming a Christian is not a one-way ticket to The Good Life. Even after that altar call your day to day existence will more than likely remain a challenging endeavor and your obstacles will still be there where you left them. So let’s be frank, the Christian walk is not paved in bricks of gold. What Kingdom living does offer you is not only a Savior and Redeemer, but what’s more, a community of people who will speak into your world encouragement and, when necessary, conviction. They will become your brothers, sisters, friends, and mentors. It is the crowd round you, and not a plastic smile, that will help to keep your feet moving when life becomes nearly unlivable, and in this circle you will find hope. And Jesus will of course be there as well, teaching and affirming you every step of the way.

What Jesus has effectively done in this story (and beyond) is shaken death by its collar. Perhaps you require a similar ‘shaking.’ Perhaps you have responded to the wailing of the death crowd and decided long ago to tuck tail and walk in their ways—out of fear, or despondency, or faithlessness. Jesus is perhaps calling to you those same tough, provocative words: Stop crying and get up! And perhaps the local church will be the last thing, maybe the only thing, that can help get you back on your feet.

There are seven miracles recorded in the Book of John set before the Crucifixtion. Each story is written with several layers. This story is no different. It is a story about an encounter with God that leads to a slowly unfolding revelation. The first hint is the word John uses to descibe this man’s blindness. It is not the usual word for “someone who cannot see.” It actually means general blindness.

Now, let’s start at the beginning. Jesus is walking along with His disciples when He sees a blind guy. His disciples see Him as well and begin to question the origin of the man’s blindness. It was the belief of the time that sin caused sickness. Jesus immediately refutes that belief with the truth: he is blind so the power of God can been seen through him. Jesus is about to shake up this young man’s life in the most radical way! He proceeds to spit on the ground, make clay from it, and then rubs it all over the man’s eyes. This guy has not met Jesus; Jesus and the disciples were talking about him without talking to him; and then, suddenly, he gets spit on. Then, Jesus tells him to go to the PUBLIC pool of Silom to wash. This guy can’t see. He’s probably never been to the pool of Silom. But, without any help, he does as he is told.

He find the pool, washes, and, BOOM, he can see! He walks out his miracle! Sometimes, we have an encounter with God that shakes up our world but requires us to go a step further. He requires us to walk out the miracle. Jesus has healed several people in several different ways. He is capable of the instant heal (which we all love and want for Him to do for us), but some times, He requires us to walk it out by faith. This is what this man had to do. He had to walk by faith to achieve his miracle. And he did! But the story does not end there.

He goes home. His friends immediately begin to question him about what happened. He says, “The man called Jesus…” Jesus, a man, healed him. That is his first understanding of who it was whom he encountered while begging. His friends don’t believe him. And soon, the Pharisees come in. They are perturbed by the fact that someone worked on the Sabbath. Jesus made clay! He isn’t supposed to do that on the Sabbath! They are so locked in their religious rules that they can’t see the miracle in front of them. Religion is a killer. It stops us from encountering God. The man’s parents could not even rejoice over the fact that their son was healed out of fear of being kicked out of their religious bubble.

The Pharisees interogate the man. They want to know who did this. The man then answers that it was Jesus, a prophet! The revelation is continuing to unfold. First, Jesus is a man. now, he is a prophet. The Pharisees protest that he is a sinner. The man counters with an understanding that he, himself, does not know what all the rules and regulations (religion) dictates concerning this event, but all he knows is that he was blind and now he can see. He had an encounter with God. Jesus came in and shook up his world. And now, he can see. Then, he goes the bold and decalres himself a disciple of this man/prophet Jesus whom he has not ever seen, but he heard the disicples call him Rabbi and decided that he, too, wants to follow him. Jesus, the man, the prophet, and now the rabbi; the revelation continues to unfold.

The Pharisees kick the man out. He is cut off from the social religious norm. He is left alone to wander. That is when Jesus finds him. In life, God intervenes and shakes up our world. He puts his finger on an area of our lives that we are blind to and wants to shake us out of it. He wants us to see it, to heal from it, to overcome the thing holding us back–fear, broken home, addiction, failing marriage, bankrupcy. He shakes up our world, and then He withdraws to watch and wait as we walk it out. he wants us to trust in Him. So, we walk it out. And then, the world turns against us. Our friends and even family want to pull us back into the box that is the safe social norm where no one upsets the status quo. Your stepping out in faith angers them, and they try to pull you back down. But, you push on; you make a stand for God. And then, Jesus finds you.

Jesus heard what had happened. Jesus knows what is going on in your world. When He finds you, He knows what is going on. Jesus heard what had happened to this man. He asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answers, “Yes, I want to. Tell me where He is!” This man has declared himself a disciple. He wants to follow Jesus. Jesus replies, “How have seen Him. And He is speaking to you.” The man falls to his knees before Jesus, declaring, “Yes, Lord!” Capital “L.” And he worships Jesus publically. From man, to prophet, to rabbi, to Lord, to God. The revelation is complete. This man has had his life transformed by the real the living God.

God wants to do something radical in our worlds. He will come in and intervene; either through church or someone speaking into our worlds; He comes in and shakes us up. He does something radical, frightening, amazing, and completely against the social norm to motivate us out of the place holding us back. He pushes us to walk out the miracle. We take teh steps of faith, trusting in Him to do what it is He promised to do; and as we walk in faith, the revelation unfolds and the miracle happens. No more staying at the same level. Will you let God shake you up so you can experience Him?

This woman’s situation was possibly the worst. In accordance to Jewish Law, she was completely shut off from society. She had no one in her life save for the doctors who were causing her grief. They would get her hopes up for healing, but she would only get worse and her hope would fall. Despair and solitude are a bad combination. This combination makes room for bitterness, anger, and thoughts that lead to a twisted, darker view of the world. She was completely alone.

Then, she heard that Jesus was coming. Jesus was on His way through town in order help someone else. Usually, Jesus would show up without any one knowing; this time, word came ahead of Him. And she had heard about Him. Now, she has a choice. She can either adhere to the Jewish Law and stay at home, away from society and from the people who were constantly letting her down. Or, she could muster up her faith one more time and break the rules by seeking out Jesus. To venture out was a danger, for she could not hide her disease; she could not hide that she was unclean; but that fact did not stop her. Her faith was stirred when she heard He was coming. Faith comes when the Word is spoken.

The woman came to an interesting conclusion in verse 28. She thinks that if she can “just touch His robe,” she’ll be healed. Why? There is no Biblical mandate stating that the robes of a Rabbi are holy and have healing powers. She could have come to this conclusion because of the rules influencing her world. An unclean woman is forbidden from touching a Holy Man. So, in following the rules, perhaps she thinks just touching His robe will do the trick.

OR…she remembers the Word of God and has received a revelation. Isaiah 6 describes God as sitting high and lifted up with the train of His robe filling the Temple. There are several Biblical references to God’s robe and His glory. Maybe, she knew this. Maybe, she believed Jesus was the Messiah and how He is different from any other. She believes what she hears and decides to take a chance and break the rules. She fights through the crowd–the doubts, the fears, the opinions of the world–and reaches out to Him and grabs His robe…

And Jesus feels it. He immediately stops what He is doing and asks, “Who touched me?” Everyone around Him is like “We all are touching you!” But Jesus knows. This was different. The woman approaches Him, falls at His feet, and tells Him her story. And He listens intently. That is the nature of Jesus. When someone reaches out to Him, He stops everything and focuses on the person, wanting to know their story. Nothing else matters save this one person.

This woman had lived her life in rejection and pain, yet, in hearing the Word, she stirred her faith. She worked her miracle; fighting all doubts and fears to reach Him. And Jesus listened to her. Then, He completed the miracle. In front of everyone, He says, “Daughter, your faith has healled you.” He elevates her back into the Family of God by calling her “Daughter” and seals the deal started by her faith.

Faith is the key. It stirs a person to go the bold. Position yourself, work the miracle, and GO THE BOLD!

Vision is what drives us. If we don’t have vision, we go nowhere. As a man thinks, so he becomes.

You can only go so far without Divine power. Man’s wisdom only goes so far. When we reach our limits, and don’t want to accept defeat, we need to go to prayer. The only thing that can do anything is God, and we have his power inside of us when we give our live to Christ. There is nothing more powerful spiritually than when you give your heart to God.

The doorway into the power of God is the understanding of the promises of God- the Bible. If you don’t understand the words of God, then you will not understand the power of God. It is our job to get into the Bible, and get to know what God says about our lives. Stuff is going to happen in our lives; we are going to get challenged. We need to put the promises from the Bible into practice in our lives. When we step over into the supernatural, we are unstoppable.

John 20:1-18 (NIV): “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead) Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (Which means Teacher). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ “Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”

Let’s take a trip into the tomb for a minute. The tomb is place where you die with Christ. When you die with Christ, your eyes are opened to the spiritual atmosphere around you. There are things going on around our lives that we have no idea about. As Mary Magdalene ran into the tomb to make sure that Jesus was gone, her eyes were opened to the things inside of the tomb that the disciples had overlooked.

There were three things inside of the tomb, in addition to the Angels sitting in reverence and praise at the head and foot of where Jesus had lain. The first of these things were the strips of linen that Jesus’ body had been clothed in. This means that as Jesus rose from the grave, he donned new garments. For those of us dying with Christ, this means that we become new people. We have the same person inside of us, but we are now clothed with the King of all Kings, with the best of the best. Our attitudes in life are radically changed, and people notice that.

The second thing that is found in the tomb is the burial cloth, the face cloth that covered Jesus’ face as his body lay in the tomb. For us, this means that we will be washed clean of our past, not forgotten, but washed clean. It is a brand new day; the freshness of God is on our lives. We have the brightest of futures to look forward to.

The third thing we find in the tomb is Mary’s humanity. She falls down on her knees and weeps, begging for her savior to be given back to her, to know where his body lay. She died to herself, wanting nothing more than her savior. As she realized who was standing before her, she wept with joy, not sorrow. As we ourselves die with Christ in the tomb, our humanities are also stripped away. As we die to ourselves, we turn around and find our lives in the hands of our savior. Joy floods into our lives, replacing the sorrow.

It is hard to believe what Jesus says sometimes, but his promises are true. Visit the tomb- so that you can die with Christ and come alive with a new life. The same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead is also alive within us. Take a hold of that, and don’t you ever let go.

In this story, Jesus is found in His House preaching the Word. The crowds are drawn to Him. Some receive what He is saying; some don’t. Why is that? It is not the issue of God wanting to get something to you; it is a heart issue. Are you submitted to God? Or is your heart hardened against the seed?

Attitude is crucial in living a life for God. Submitting to God’s word is very easy. It is the simple answer to life’s complicated problems. See, in ministry, people often think the pastor has all the answers. They want his council, but the answer is easy: come into the House of God; submit to the Word.

In this story, four young men are carrying a burden. They are drawn to Jesus’ House by His Words (the same Word we have today). They want to receive what He is offering. But they are faced with a challenge. Life throws challenges at you every time you decide to step out. For instance, you decide to come to church, but then, suddenly, you have to work or someone dies and you need to go to the funeral service or you sleep in. So many things try to get between you and your answer. For these men, it was a large crowd. Yet, they are not deterred. They climb onto the roof and dig through. They push through until they reach Jesus.

What obstacles are in your way? Push through! Submit to God’s Word, and your burdens will fall away.

Everyone has choices to make. Even Jesus had to make the right choices regarding temptations. We must choice, daily, to go with the right choice, or the wrong choice. Only you can make that choice for yourself. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Bible comes alive within you- not only written on the pages, but living inside of your heart. The Holy Spirit leads you into truth. He is there to help you make the right choices.

The power to make the right choices, get bold, and get confidence is found in your greatest trial. In the midst of the battle comes the power- when you tap into the supernatural of God’s strength. Know what the Bible says about you and be able to find where it is. In knowing what is said about you, and being able to quote it, you are able to make the right choices for all temptations sent your way.

God wants to anoint you with things and He has assignments to give you. Your job is to get in that assignment and do what God has appointed you to do. Get up off your butt, and use your gifts. Use your gifts to change the world you live in. if you do that, then your world will fall together.

When you came to Christ, you stepped into a new world, but don’t stop there. Keep marching on, through that great trial that seems impossible. You will come out greater than ever.

Get filled with the Holy Spirit. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it’s all love. Love for people, love for God, and love for yourself. It’s all about love.

1 Corinthians 12: 1-10 (NLT): Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

There are three things the Holy Spirit came to do: convict the world of its sin, God’s righteousness, and the coming judgment. Don’t try to do the Holy Spirit’s job- that is worldly, man-made religion. When we convict the world of its sins, we live in that man-made religion, and we have no time for love. If all we do is convict, look down on people believing that we are better because we are saved, we will save no one. We must move over and let the Holy Spirit do his work. When the Holy Spirit is free to move, he does os powerfully, in freedom.

The Holy Spirit moves through us, in our gifts and our fruits. Fruits are grown, and gifts are given. We are all given gifts; we all have them, but we must grow the character to contain the gifts. We should let the Holy Spirit do his work, but we should keep order in the meeting, which we do.

The 9 gifts of the Spirit are: great wisdom to make good decisions, special knowledge, great faith, the gift of healing, the power to work miracles, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. We should let the Holy Spirit work through us with the gifts we are given, and help the others in our worlds.

The book of 1 Corinthians is a great book. Chapter 12 is about the gifts of the Spirit, and chapter 14 refers to the fruits of the Spirit. Chapter 13 is about love. Love is the motivation for walking in the gifts. Everything comes together in unity. Something interesting- a dove has 9 bones in each wing, and there are 9 fruits and 9 gifts. They go together.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NLT): So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

Galatians 5:19-24 (NLT): When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

The passage in Luke is a potentant statement that gives believerts a unique look into the heart of God. God sees everything we can be–not what we think we are or what the world says we are. When we believe what the world says we should be because of what we have experienced, chosen, been through, etc…we sell ourselves short; God gets frustrated when we sell ourselves short! It is this frustration that sparks the passage in Luke. He is telling us just how important our hearts are to who we are and who we can be, as well as to Him. He, as stated above, knows what we can and will be if we submit our lives to Him.

Spiritual fruit is grown. It is not a gift given. Jesus wants to grow this fruit in our lives. It is a challenge. Ground must be churned; rocks and thorns must be delt with; seeds must be planted and cultivated; weeds must be uprooted; and time must pass before the fruit comes to fruition. The House of God is a place where this process can happen. The House of God is a place where life is cultivated and learned through living what the Bible says and not just by memorizing what it says. God’s will is released in our lives when we submit to the cultivating process. He makes us strong–body, soul, and spirit.

Paul continues on the theme of the heart in Galatians. This is where the classic Christian passage about the fruits of the spirit is found. Prior to the famous passage, he points out a poignant truth. There are two natures in our hearts–the sin nature and the Spirit nature. The Spirit nature is implanted in us the moment we accept Jesus. One day, we are living for ourselves, doing all the things listed in Galatains 5:19-21; the next moment, we are living verses 22-24. With the help of the Spirit, we begin to deny the nature of our flesh. However, the flesh fights back. There is a constant battle in our hearts and minds over what we should do. Paul says that it is like wanting to do the right thing but not doing it. The sin nature urges us to do wrong, be selfish, follow the easy path into death; the Spirit strengthens us to submit to God’s will and the use the fruit that is being grown within us.

In order to win this battle, we must be submitted to the Spirit. We must let Him lead us. We do this by hanging out with Him, soaking Him in, and letting Him change our hearts. He sets us free from the Law. The Law dictated that one little mess up was rewarded with a long list of punishments. In the Spirit, there is only grace. Mess ups are met with forgiveness, grace, and the urge to try again. The Spirit gives us victory over our sin nature and grows the fruits that begin to define our personalities.

So, when you are in conflict of the mind and heart, STOP and know that He is God. Pray. Let your spirit language flow. That’s why He gave it to you, to battle against the mind. The mind does not understand the Spirit language, thus praying in the Spirit stiffles the attacks of the mind. And when you pray, the Spirit comes on you, and the fruits begin to grow. Love comes in, followed by joy and peace and patience. One by one, the fruits over power the flesh until, finally, self-control finishes the mix, allowing you to forgive, forget, and move on with your life. That is the joy of submitting to the Spirit and letting Him cultivate fruit in our lives.

What’s love got to do with it? EVERYTHING!

2 Corinthians 6:14-15 “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?”

Agape love is the love that God has for us. It is shown in acts of service, kindness, and sacrifice. Sacrifice in your relationship so that it benefits the other person, in a way that it doesn’t benefit you. If the other person is not receiving of the gift, it doesn’t matter. Do something for the other person. Sacrifice your time or something else so that the other person accepts it, and it means something.

The two things that make a relationship work are alignment and let go. Align your vision with the other person’s vision. Alignment is also called submission. Be agreeing and accepting of the other person and their relationship with God. Let them go to be all that they can be in God. For men- being the head of the household isn’t about being in charge. It’s about covering your woman in encouragement, providing her with the things she needs to grow, and encouraging her to be all that she can be. For women- submit to your man, and encourage him to be all that he can be.

In order to have a good relationship with someone, you must be equally yoked, but not only that, you must be on the same page spiritually. If you have been a Christian for a long time, you should not be in a relationship with someone who is a new Christian. There should be a relationship where two people are working together in order to go where they need to go in life. There should not be one person constantly leaning on the other. There will be times when one person needs to lean on the other person, but it shouldn’t be for too long, or the other person will be dragged down. Spiritual equality is about being on the same page. Draw from God, but talk it over with the other person. Equality means, let’s grow together.

When two people are joined together in a marriage, they become one. Two people becoming one is a life-long journey. That kind of love takes time to build.

3 John 1:14-15 “For I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk face to face. Peace be with you. Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.”

Philio means brotherly love. That is the love we must have for one another. Just as an arm is connected deeply to our bodies, love is that connection. Love is the deep connection that binds us all together as Christ’s body. Connect is a great part of life. How do you get your best life? Connect and grow. 10% of pastors will leave because of loneliness or isolation this year. Loneliness is one of the worst things in the world. It can be deadly. We need people to survive.

Serve your friends. That is how you let them know that you care about them. With all the different ways to contact each other, it can be so convenient to just tweet or send a comment on facebook, but nothing beats face-to-face contact. It is the best way to communicate with someone because they can see your face, hear your voice, and really know what you mean. It can be hard at times to interpret what someone’s attitude is through an email. Are they angry or just saying something? Face-to-face contact is the only way you can make sure that people know how you are trying to say something.

Matthew 6:33 “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

Acts 2:41-45: Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

The new testament church described in Acts is the kind of church that attracted thousands. Imagine having a church of only one hundred that, after a miraculous move of the spirit, grows to over three thousand in one day! Imagine! And this church was run on four basic actions: teaching, fellowship (hanging out), the Lord’s Super (eating together), and prayer. Four simple actions constructed a church that revolutionized ancient historical culture and changed the course of the human race!

Then why do we make it so complicated? How did Christianity go from an attractive movement to something for which we must aspire? Why jump through the hoops to reach God? That was not the intention of the first church. It wasn’t even called church. That came later. Christians came later. These people were simple people drawn to a supernatural God.

Verse 43 states that “a deep sense of awe came over them” and that “the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.” The Acts Church was familiar with the supernatural. It was tangent and moving among them daily. These believers were not afraid to let the Holy Spirit move, to let Him display His power. Why has that changed? Again, modern churches have shifted from what was to something more complicated. There is a desire for structure and order; some services are even structured to the very minute; yet, have we put so much structure that God has no room to move? Modern churches have forgotten that when the Holy Spirit moves, there is structure! There is order and structure, but there is also freedom and openness for God’s will to be accomplished. Structuring God out leaves rigid religion, and that is not God.

Because the Acts church was submitted to the flow of the Spirit, something even more miraculous happened. Verse 45 says that the early believers “shared everything they had,” going so far as to sell their homes and possessions so the poor and in need could be given help. This spirit of generosity was revolutionary. In the ancient Roman culture, there was no such thing as charity. IN the ancient Hebrew culture, there was no such thing as charity outside the family! Yet, here, perfect strangers bound together by a mutual faith have done the impossible! They changed modern culture by introducing charity! Since that day, Christians have been the forerunners in disaster relief, aiding the poor, and helping those in need. All because a group of people remained submitted to a supernatural, loving God.

When humanity is exposed to God, hearts change. It is seen in the creation of generosity, and it is seen in the second and third actions taken by the Acts church. Fellowship and the sharing of a meal at a table; these two things are revolutionary to church life. In the days of the New Testament, sharing a meal was no small feat. It was an event that spanned for hours. Enemies would sit down together and dine as a show of peace and forgiveness. When a meal was shared, a friendship was formed. In the modern western era, the value of the table has been lost. People are too busy to go home and eat. Tables are more an accepted social norm for a home than a used piece of furniture. There is something difficult about inviting someone into your home. Home is intimate, private, holding secrets that you may not be willing to share. That is why restaurants are so popular. It is easier to share a meal in public than it is in private. And yet, this one on one intimacy of sharing a meal together in a home is one of the staples of early chruch life that made it attractive.

Yes, the first group of believers were attractive! And we as Christians should strive for the same. Back then, 3000 people did not join in a day because the early Christians had a big building with lots of gadgets and nifty programs that ran perfectly and smoothly, followed by lunch at a near by eatery. No, this church was attractive because God reigned! And were God is, people follow. His presence is attractive. His Spirit changes hearts from hard and selfish to soft and generous. That gives room for an open, friendly environment that welcomes all. It was God’s presence that brought people in, and it is God’s presence that built a church that changed the world.

Teach the Word. Hang Out. Be Hospitable, inviting people into your home. And Pray. Four simple things that can change history. Are you ready?

Lots of places have slogans. For example, McDonald’s slogan would be “I’m loving it.” The C3 Church’s slogan would be “your best life”. We believe that God has only the best of intentions for our lives. You best life means your best all together life, not your best one part of your life. We are not supposed to focus only on your spiritual life; you must focus also on your physical and emotional lives as well.

At that time the above verses were written, Jews and Gentiles were being treated differently. The Jews were allowing the Gentiles to be Christians, but the gentiles were not allowed to completely join. They were not allowed to worship in the inner courts. The church that Jesus is building is for everyone, there are no insiders and outsiders. When someone immigrates into this country, they must get a green card in order to live here. Green cards allow the person to live here as a citizen, but they are not allowed everything that a citizen is allowed, such as the right to vote. With God, there are no green cards. Everyone is allowed, and everyone is equal. This is our family.

However, being a part of this family means that you must contribute something. We all have our place, and we all have our calling, but our calling is also as a family. We must work together as such. Even while all families have dysfunction, we are called, as the local church, to change lives and impact the world. Nothing can impact the world like the local church.

We are a leadership-driven church. We are visionary, but we have order, and we hold ourselves accountable. Everything that God does, He does through a person. The cornerstone is Christ. This is a dwelling place for Him. he lives in us. We have the power to reach the world, but think long-term. Is what you are doing today going to impact the world in a good way?

Nicodemus came to Jesus soon after Jesus had cleared the Temple. He was a member of the Pharisees–a group who ran the Temple and profited from the not-so-holy business dealing that were going on within until Jesus came and drove everyone out. It seemed to be his hope to win Jesus over before this new stranger could cause any more trouble. He tries to butter him up by calling him “Rabbi” and talking about his miracles. It is then that Jesus hits him with this: “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Huh? That came from way left field! It is a statement that has nothing to do with the conversation at hand. Now, we modern day Christians understand the importance of this statement. Salvation or “being born again” is a fundamental basis for Christianity. But for Nicodemus, the statement was a bit absurd. He was trying to win Jesus over, and yet Jesus was changing the subject. Why would he do that?

It is because Nicodemus came to him with an agenda, and Jesus was going to have none of it. We often come to God with an agenda–deliberately or not, hoping He will accept it and do things the way we want them done. However, we must be prepared for the consequences. If we come to God with an agenda, He will answer us with something that will blow our minds! This story is a perfect example; it poses the questions, “What will you do when God has another agenda?”

As this new year begins, we all make plans and resolutions. It is common. We also seek vision for what we should do. This time presents a unique opportunity where our agenda and God’s plans meet, and we have a choice to either hold to our plans or submit to His will. It is like walking a dog. A dog gets excited at first over the walk, willingly accepts the leash, and lets the human lead. Then, after some time, the dog tries to take control of the walk by going this way or that, forcing the human to tug on the leash to correct the dog’s path. Then, inevitably, the dog takes a stance of refusal, digging paws into the ground so as not to move any further.

We as humans act in much the same way. We lay aside our agenda to follow God’s vision for the year. At first, we are excited. We follow God’s lead. We let Him take control. Then, after a few months, we begin to try to take back to the control. We want to go another way. God brings someone into our world to speak to us (a “tug on the leash”) and set us back on the right path. Then, more time passes, and we reach a point of stubbornness. We don’t want to go this way any more, so we drag our heals. At this point, God does two things. First, He tugs on the leash once. He gives us a chance to submit. Fiances get tights, so we stop tithing. He sends a “tug.” We get into a relationship that may not be best for the time being. He sends a “tug.” Any number of situations come up where our pride gets mixed in and we stop following God’s lead; He sends one tug. And if we do not submit, He let’s go of the “leash.” He frees us to do what we want–regardless of the consequences He knows will happen as a result– because He cannot and will not control us.

Inevitably, disaster strikes. Can we look at God and ask why He lead us here? Sure, but it was not Him who lead. He let go. We went our own way. But God is merciful. We come back and submit to His lead again, and He will lead us. He promises in His Word to lead us through the good times (“by the still waters”) and the bad (“through the valley of the shadow of death”). He leads us no matter what. He is always there beside us if we lower our agenda and let Him take the lead.

The shepherds in the natural came to worship a shpeherd in the spirit. Shepherds are caretakers for their sheep. They watch over tham, and protect them from all harm. When a sheep runs off, the shepherd follows it and brings it back to the herd. Sheep need the shepherd. Jesus Christ is the Great Shepherd. When we wander astray, He follows us, making suer that we don’t get into too much trouble. He protects us, making sure the the wolves who come to destroy us do not have their way. With Him on our side, nothing can hurt us.

Matthew 2:1-12 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “’But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”

When the kings came to see Jesus, they brought gifts fit for a king. They asked Herod where the new king was. The kings proceeded to follow the star until they did find Jesus. The newborn baby was a king, and He still is today. He is the most powerful knig that ever lived. Revelation 19:16 says that on His robe is the name “King of all kings and Lord of all Lords.” Kings know where they are going, and they rule with authority. As subjects, we are not to question or argue what the king decrees.

Jesus Christ is a shepherd and a king. When He is your shepherd, you are His sheep. You are well taken care of. He restores your soul. He protects you from everything that could ever come against you. He knows what you need, and He delivers it. When He is your king, you are His subject. You must bow to Him. You must carry out what He decrees in your life. Love your neighbors as yourself. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not cheat. Consequences will come when you disobey the king. Are you ready to make Him your king? Are you ready for the responsibility of becoming a subject instead of just a sheep?

Acts 16:16-31 (NLT):One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon-possessed slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her.

Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials. “They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.” A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”

This is a fantastic story about how life can turn cold really quickly when you follow God’s will. Prior to these events, Paul was seeking God in order to discover what he was to do next. He was about to take the Gospel out of Palestine and into Europe. He sought God’s will as to the next step. God granted hm a dream which led him to Philippi. There, he met Lydia, a business woman, and through her, the church of Philippi is established. Things are looking great from Paul’s perspective.

And then, he meets a demon possessed girl and things turn sour. Suddenly, he is locked in the lowest level of the dungeon where there is no light, no place to sit, and the inmates are less than pleasant company. In just one day, things go from awesome to not so awesome. That is something that we as humans do not expect when we step out to obey God’s will. He grants us a dream; we take the courageous steps to follow it. Then, suddenly, life goes south. Our natural inclination is to look up at God and say, “What the hey? Not cool, man! I’m following Your will, here! Why is this happening? I did not sign up for all this trial and tribulation!” Sad but true; we never expect that following the will of God will be hard.

But it is in these times of trial that God’s grace abounds. He wants to see what we do next. Trials build us or break us depending on our attitude. Can we keep faith when all hell is breaking over our world? When the hour is darkest, what do we do?

Paul’s attitude in his circumstance is what makes this story so powerful. The story picks up at midnight, the darkest hour; and we find Paul and Silas singing. They are singing! In their darkest hour, when they would have every right to be angry and/or resentful of their circumstances, they sing to the One they love and serve. And what’s even better, the other prisoners are listening. You see, the world watches when Christians are in trial. Our attitude in the tough times reflects the God we serve. Paul sang his heart out that night thanking God for all He has done.

And the prison shakes! The power and the presence of God rushes through the lowest level of the dungeons, breaking ever lock and shackle and opening every door. God did not just free Paul and Silas; He freed everyone! He cannot help Himself. He loves to set people free! Miracles happen in people’s lives, and it flows out to those who are around the person receiving the miracle. If your life is going hard, surround yourself with people who praise!

God takes it one step further in this story. The jailer–a man who must be hard for he deals with hardened criminals and executions on a daily basis–comes running in to see that the doors are open. He panics. His greatest fear has been realized; he has failed in his duty, and now there is only one option left to him: death. Yet, God intervenes even then. Paul calls out to him in the knick of time. God’s presence was so strong in the prison that none of the prisoners had dared to move. The jailer falls to his knees and begs to get whatever it is Paul and Silas have. And all of this happened because they praised.

There are people around us who feel they have no option left and are ready to give into death. Their lives are in ruin. Everything has fallen apart. Their worst fears are realized. God wants to intervene. He wants to use us to intervene in their world. You see, our attitudes in our darkest hours allow us to carry the presence of God into the world, where it intervenes in the lives of others who are imprisoned, near death, ready to give up. Our miracles become theirs, and the captives are set free! Your worst hour is the moment God is waiting for to shake up the world!

God can unlock our lives and bring freedom, but it depends on our attitudes. Praise Him in the darkness, and see what He will do!

Acts 3:1-8: “Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.”

What is the call of God for our lives? The call of God is a lot of things, but it is to have glorious futures. Elevate your thinking about yourself. In life, we are to bind together with peace. When we see someone hurting, we are to help that person, not bring someone half way. Referring to the Acts excerpt, Peter would not have gone to the temple without an offering, so he had money when the beggar asked him for money. However, God knew that the beggar needed healing. God spoke to Peter, and Peter gave the man what he needed, which was healing.

So why this day? Why, when Peter and John passed this man every day, why today? Why would the man be healed today and not the day before or after? Something happened today that shifted in Peter’s heart, and he picked the man up and helped him inside.

It isn’t like the man had no friends. The man was crippled since birth. His friends and family carried him to the temple and home from the temple every day. The difference is that the man’s friends hadn’t had the vision to bring him into the temple. They only brought him to the entrance of the temple because he was a cripple. Something went off in Peter’s heart, and he knew that he just had to bring this man into the temple, and when he did, the man could control himself. Peter shouted “look at us!” people knew who Peter and John were because of this, and they knew that Peter and John believed in Jesus, the Messiah. By healing the crippled man and bringing him into the temple instead of just to the edge of the House of God, they were making a statement, a very true statement, that Jesus Christ is Lord, the true son of God. Peter also grabbed the man and pulled him up. In that day, cripples were not touched. They were the bottom level, the lowest place you could be; they were dirty!

What we need to do is bring the people we know into the House of God. We need to touch hearts, and bring people to where God and His love reside. We need to reach people where they are at. If you find someone sitting on the sidelines of life, do not just leave them there. Bring them into the House of God. Have vision for people’s lives. The call of God on our lives is to extend our hands to people, and bring them into the House of God.

Have a vision of what is possible. Destiny is a hard thing to understand, but what and where is your destination? How will you get there? Develop a sensitivity to God, so that when He asks you to do something for Him, you can and will. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know that you have helped God to change someone’s life? Will you do something crazy for Him?

God NEVER gives up on people, and neither should we. Don’t let anything stop you from loving and believing in people. Be the Peter to someone’s life. Bring people into the House of God, instead of just to the House of God.

So, which person are you right now? Are you the beggar? Are you the friends of the beggar? Or are you the Peter?

Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.

This story is one of the pivotal moments in Christian history. Before this point, Christianity was circulating strictly within the Jewish culture. It was the belief of the Jews that salvation was for them and no one else. They believed that it would start in Jerusalem, just as Jesus said, move to Samaria, then to Judiah, and beyond to the dispersed Jew across the world. None even fathomed that when Jesus said “and beyond” that He meant to the Gentiles!

But God’s vision was bigger than the Jews. He knew the time had come to have His message sent out to the rest of the world. Whenever God has something He wants said, He does not say it Himself. He looks out over the world to see who He can send. He looked for someone who is open to Him and who plans his or her life around what God has. All Christians can live in this state through constant prayer. Prayer is not a mystical thing. It is an act of communication with the God of the universe; everyone can pray and be used by this awesome God to change the world. Prayer is about changing and being changed. God never sends a message through a messenger without also changing the messenger and allowing him to receive something from Heaven as well.

In this story, God chooses Peter, the most devout Jewish Christian ever. The story starts with a Gentile. Cornelius was a Roman soldier who converted to Judaism and served God faithfully. He prayed and gave generously to the poor. God saw his open heart and granted him a message: Go find Peter. The next day, Peter receives a vision while praying (see a pattern here?) that leaves him speechless. God told him to kill and eat unclean animals! But Peter was a good Jew; he refused. Then, Cornelius’s messengers arrive. Peter begins to see that God wants him to do something. He opens the push of the Spirit and travels with those men back to Cornelius.

What follows is the conversion of the first group of Gentiles that starts a steamrolling effect. The spark is lit that blazes into a torch that is later carried by Paul across the world, and all because a Gentile prayed, a Jew prayed, and both obeyed God. That is how God works. When we pray, we open ourselves to God. He wants to impart visions and dreams that will rock our world! He wants to give us something that will change us and change others through the sharing of the message. Now, visions like the ones Cornelius and Peter received are rare, admittedly, but hearing and receiving from God is not. Whether through a vision or that still small voice, God speaks when we pray. And when He speaks, we receive, and worlds are changed.

1 Peter 2:5: “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”

As members of a flock, a certain church, we often feel as though we are not able to pray to God, when, in fact, we are all able to pray and have a relationship with Him. God wants everyone to have access to Him, and we do. The temple curtain tearing on the day that Jesus died was significant of just that- the old traditions were broken, and we were all made equal in His sight. We no longer have to go through someone to get to God; we have access to Him ourselves.

As we go through our everyday lives, it gets easy to believe that we are not good enough to be in God’s presence. Most people don’t pray because they feel unworthy of praying, when, in fact, Jesus’ death on the cross made it so that we are worthy of being with God. We are cleansed through Jesus’ blood. That makes us all good enough to be with God, as long as we repent and feel bad for sinning. Then pray. God is desperate for His people to commune with Him. He wants for us to get closer to Him, not farther away from Him.

We are sheep in a flock, all part of our church, and our pastor is our shepherd. It is not only the shepherd’s job to feed and lead the sheep, but also to protect the sheep, and that means getting rid of wolves. Most wolves are not intentionally wolves. Everyone is allowed in the church, but once destructive behaviors start, they need to be stopped.

When it comes to prayer, have a “do-it-now” attitude. Pray now, not later. When you tell someone that you will pray for them, why not now? The bible says in the Old Testament to pray without ceasing. This can get very hard at times, but there are many different types of praying. You can come together in agreement, you can alone time with God, and you can live life in the right way. there are many other ways of praying. We can all pray, so why not?

Matthew 5:13 & 14 (NLT): “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

Arrange your life around the House. That is a concept that is difficult for most Christians to understand. Mainstream Christians have a habit of keeping the “God-thing” in their life separate from the “life-thing.” Isaiah is urging people to live IN the “God-thing.” The Prophet Haggai urged the People of Israel in much the same way. He urged them to repriortize their lives so that the House of God was in the center of all they did. But to those of us who understand and live this principle, we see the blessings.

Yes, it is difficult sometimes to combat the mistakes and overall bad history of the church when living in the world. It is almost too easy to keep the “God-thing” for Sundays. In doing this, we miss the message God is sending to us: A healthy Church is the greatest force on earth! Church is God’s business. He is building His church to be the mightiest force this world has ever seen! Now, it is understood that there is no such thing as a perfect church because there are no perfect people to run them. But if you are willing to invest into the church, you will reap the blessings.

Church is engagement. That is a lost factor in this day and age when people who have been offended by the Church stay at home to watch church on TV or listen to it in podcasts. There is no accountability, no relationship, no interaction. Church is all those things! Offense comes as a chance for us to push through and breakthrough! To conquer mountains in our lives and defeat giants standing in our way! Church is accountability; it is the opportunity to choose good over evil and see where those choices take us.

And when the people of God come into that healthy church, then ” nations will see your righteousness. World leaders will be blinded by your glory.” Matthew 5:14 says that we are “the light of the world.” The world is dying. Everyone born into this world is dying. We are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” Salt is used to preserve; Light is used to reveal! Suddenly, the darkness is chased away to reveal what is truly around us.

The Light is not about us. When you look directly at light, you hurt your eyes. You can’t look directly at the sun without doing damage to you eyesight. We are a light to the world; they are not to look at us (so beware of pride!); they are simply to see the truth when the light comes on. When the light comes on, the world changes!

Notice how Jesus used two different words in Matthew 5. He said “salt of the earth“ and “light of the world.” Salt, as previously stated, is meant to preserve. We dig deep into the earth–into the darkest depths of people’s lives where there is pain. We rub the salt in deep, preserving them by giving them hope when all seems lost, help when no one else is there, encouragement when they lose faith, love in a cruel world; we stay in the depths and we preserve!

The light has been there the whole time, but they can’t see it. You can’t force them to see it. Yet, we keep bringing the light. Sometimes, they catch a glimpse and it angers them, so they lash out. But keep holding on. Because, soon, God moves and the light is seen. Their world is illuminated around them, and they see the truth! The truth is revealed in the light. The light is the revelation that leads them to God, the source of all light.

So, be aware of your affect on the world around you. Don’t be afraid to invest in people. When you care, you can change the direction of a person’s life. When the light comes on, you can see where you are going. If the destination is destruction, you can change your direction now that you see that there is another path: God! “nations will see your righteousness. World leaders will be blinded by your glory.” The only hope the world has is in you and I preserving them long enough for them to see the light! Dial the “self” down and make it about someone else. We are going to change the world!

Matthew 5:13-14 (NLT): “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

The House of God is a place of Love. It is here that the Word of God (logos) and the Revelations found in God’s Word (Rama) mix with Fellowship with fellow believers to begin a transforming of our lives. We thrive in the Love of God in the House of Go, and, in turn, we gain a Love for the House. Isaiah loved the House. He loved it so much that he strived to see it become something fantastic!

We become stronger the longer we are in the House. The Word gets into our minds, changing negative mindsets that trap us into confident minds that are fueled by the truths and promises of God. Attitudes and behaviors change; bitterness and anger melt away; and love becomes the center of our world. Love for God. Love for each other. Love for the House. And when strength is given, we are ready to head out into the world.

Jesus calls us “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” Two different words: earth and world; with two different meanings. The Light portion will be discussed next week, but let’s focus in on the Salt. What does Salt do? It preserves! Fisherman would use salt to preserve the fish once it was caught. They would put the fish into crates and POUR the salt over it; then, they would RUB the salt INTO the fish! The salt would keep the fish from decaying for two days or more!

When a fish is not preserved, it begins to stink. It is decaying because it is dead. The World is full of death. Like a fish being caught dies instantly, a child born into this world begins to die. It is a slow death that we call life. Jesus knows this. He sees the darkness and decay of the world. He asks us to be the Salt that preserves the world. He does not ask us to sprinkle a little salt here and there. He wants us to POUR ourselves out and EMBED ourselves into people’s worlds. He wants us to keep them alive until they give their lives to Him! We can do this by loving them. And we gain the strength to love by being in the House, letting the Word get into us, and letting God’s people surround us. We become strong! And then, we take our salt into the world, there to preserve the dead and the rotting.