August/18/ 2019 Filed in:
To Be ListTo BE a witness
key thought…
Your greatest calling is not something TO DO but something TO BE.
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Three things from Acts 1:8…
1. There is a problem
2. There is a people
verse 8 “But YOU will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on YOU and YOU will be my witnesses….”
3. There is a power
Verse 8 “But you will receive POWER after the Holy Spirit comes on you…”
verse 8 KJV “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
Luke 24:49 “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
Isaiah 40:31 NKJV “But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
How do we respond to this calling to BE A WITNESS?
- I must SHARE with my world
Verse 8 “you will be a witness in Jerusalem”
2. I must DARE to go beyond my world
verse 8 “you will be my witness in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria”
3. I must CARE about the entire world
verse 8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
August/18/ 2019 Filed in:
To Be ListTo BE list
Part 3
BE a servant
key thought…
Your greatest calling is not something TO DO but something TO BE.
We are not just called to SERVE, we are called to BE A SERVANT.
When serving is something I do I might…
1. Serve out of OBLIGATION
Romans 13:8 GNT “Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another.”
2. Serve with FRUSTRATIONS
a. Am I serving in the right place?
b. Am I serving at the right pace?
c. Am I serving with grace?
3. Serve for RECOGNITION
Matthew 6:1-4 NCV “Be careful! When you do good things, don’t do them in front of people to be seen by them. If you do that, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “When you give to the poor, don’t be like the hypocrites. They blow trumpets in the synagogues and on the streets so that people will see them and honor them. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 3 So when you give to the poor, don’t let anyone know what you are doing. 4 Your giving should be done in secret. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you.”
When serving is who we are we will serve…
1. WILLINGLY
Ephesians 6:7 ISV “Serve willingly, as if you were serving the Lord and not merely people…”
2. FAITHFULLY
3. JOYFULLY
Psalm 100:2-3 NCV “Serve the Lord with joy;
come before him with singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we belong to him;
we are his people, the sheep he tends.”
4. WHOLEHEARTEDLY
Ephesians 6:7-9 “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
Romans 12:1 NCV “So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship.”
August/11/ 2019 Filed in:
To Be List
Key thought…
Your greatest calling is not something TO DO but something TO BE.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Stronghold = a prison of lies
- The prison of insecurity
Romans 8:15 NLT “You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
2. The prison of hurt
Psalm 55:4 “My heart is in anguish within me…
verse 12-14 “If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.
13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.
3. The prison of fear
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
4. The prison of addiction
Romans 7:18-19 NLT “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”
verse 24 he says “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
verse 25 “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Luke 4:18 “he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives…”
verse 4 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
1 Corinthians 1:18” For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Through the cross there is…
1. Freedom for my BODY
Isaiah 53:5 “by his wounds we are healed.”
2. Freedom for my MIND
Isaiah 53:5 “the punishment that brought us peace was on Him”
3. Freedom for my HANDS and FEET
Isaiah 53:5 “He was pierced for my transgressions”
4. Freedom for my HEART
Proverbs 17:22 “…a crushed spirit dries up your bones”
Isaiah 53:5 “he was CRUSHED for our iniquities”
Colossians 1:19 MSG “all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
August/04/ 2019 Filed in:
To Be ListTo Be Loved
Key thought…
Your greatest calling is not something TO DO but something TO BE.
Ephesians 1:4-6 MSG “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)”
God created us to love and be loved by Him.
Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are WORTH more than many sparrows.”
Four things about God’s love:
- God loves me even when I DON’T DO ANYTHING.
Matthew 6:26-30 “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more VALUABLE than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?”
2. God loves me even when I DO SOMETHING WRONG.
Romans 8:1-3 NLT “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have.”
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Romans 6:1 “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!”
I John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
3. God loves me even when OTHERS DO SOMETHING WRONG.
Romans 8:31-34 “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”
4. God loves me even when SOMETHING GOES WRONG.
Romans 8:35-37 NLT “Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? …37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
John 16:33 “In this world you will have troubles, but take heart for I have overcome the world”
Three truths we believe when we learn to BE LOVED by God:
1. I can trust in God’s promises
I Peter 5:7 “cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you”
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
2. I can rest in God’s provisions
Isaiah 64:6 “all of our good deeds are like filthy rags”
3. I can grow in God’s purposes.
