Our Mission To love all people at all times and lead them into a new life in Christ.
Our Vision To be a church that will be multicultural and generational, having a lasting impact on the people to whom we minister.
To see the gospel extend beyond the walls of our church through various outreaches.
|
“The refining pot is for silver and the furnace is for gold, and a man is valued by what others say of him.” Proverbs 27:22
What is the measure of a person? We watch and listen to what people do and say. The important issue is the relationship of what he says and what he does. Are his words and deeds in harmony or do they say one thing then do something different?
James says in chapter one that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. In other words, his words and deeds do not reflect the same condition. To talk one way and act another makes a person unstable in all their life situations.
This leads to doubt, fear, and even chaos for the one caught in the circumstances of life situations. Reading and living the Word of God helps bring all things into focus and The Holy Spirit is your Comforter. The Word of God is our source of perfect information and the Holy Spirit is the source of our strength to live it.
The promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you” was first given to Israel and Joshua before entering the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 31:6
This was echoed in Hebrews 13:5 He Himself has said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”. In a world and even in our own lives where things are constantly changing, what a comforting promise to hold onto.
The first part of this scripture in Hebrews reads “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.”
This tells us we are not to put our trust in riches or material goods, the things of the world we think will bring us contentment which will ultimately fail us. We as believers should place our hope in God, who has promised, “I will never leave you and I will never forsake you”.
“Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall”. Psalm 55:22 Peter echoes this in 1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you”.
Consider these scriptures: “Do not be anxious about anything” Philippians 4:6, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1), “Don’t worry” (Matthew 6:31).
As we look through Scriptures we are encouraged over and over “not to worry; don’t be anxious. Don’t be troubled. God knows what worry does to us. The one thing it will do is steal our joy and peace of mind.
God gives us the invitation to cast our cares on him and He will sustain us. Being humble allows God in our lives and trusting that he will take care of us. The cares of life come and go so we cannot run away from them or pretend they don’t exist. What we can do is not allow the cares to have us. The word casting means to throw. In order to throw there has to be a release. May our prayer be today, “Lord I release these cares to you today. I refuse to be anxious or troubled. You will give me peace in the middle of this storm. Your Word tells me to cast all (not just some) all my cares on you because “You careth for me.”
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Whether we realize it or not, we all operate in faith daily. When you sit down in a chair you don’t worry that it’s going to fall apart on you. You have faith that the chair will hold you. In the same way, God wants us to simply put our faith in Him. When we face the dark times of life, He wants us to sit and relax in the arms of Jesus and say, “I’m asking you to take care of this and I’m believing you will.”
Remember the old church hymn “Living By Faith”.
I care not today what the tomorrow may bring
If shadow or sunshine or rain
The Lord I know ruleth o’er everything
And all of my worry is vain
Living by faith In Jesus above
Trusting, confiding In His great love
From all harm safe In His sheltering arm
I’m living by faith
And feel no alarm
I know that He safely will carry me through
No matter what evil betides
Why should I then care though the tempest may blow
When Jesus walks close to my side?
Faith is what helps to get us through, lighting the pathway
in times of darkness, helping to give us strength in times of weakness.
Just as the surety of the sun rising and setting so does my Word for concerning you. Yes my Word is a sure foundation in the lives of those who call me their Lord. Never doubt that I would let one Word fall to the ground just to be void. For I have a purpose to what l have spoken to you whether it be through the Scriptures or in the moments when you have cried out to Me. So do not allow your thoughts to linger in the shadows of what if’s but be steadfast in the believing of what I have said. For I will speedily answer you and in due season it will be brought forth. Shout grace unto that which stands in the way of the manifested promise. With the shouts of grace you come into agreement with My spoken Word. For have I already decreed it is not by might nor by power but my Spirit says the Lord!
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11 KJV
So also will be the word that I speak it does not return to me unfulfilled. My word performs my purpose and fulfills the mission I sent it out to accomplish.
Isaiah 55:11 Passion
God sees you with eyes of love. Before we ever loved him he loved us and had his eyes on us for his very own.
When we were utterly helpless, with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for him. Even if we were good, we really wouldn’t expect anyone to die for us, though, of course, that might be barely possible. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ROMANS 8:6-8
How do we look at ourselves? Sometimes it is hard to see who He has said we are looking through our eyes. Looking through His eyes things will look a lot differently. Do you feel safe, loved, hopeful in your relationship with God? When we have doubts about how God feels about us, life can feel uncertain.
THROUGH FATHER’S EYES
I never thought I would move beyond the past That I would never be free from the voices in my head From what I could see I didn’t like myself much And I would forever be bound I heard the Good News for those who would be believe I found freedom from the One who paid the price for me I read from the Word about who I am The Truth began to chase away the lies about my worth With His spirit now alive in me I am beginning to love what I see Looking through my Father’s eyes
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” Phil. 2:5”
Pastor Shirley’s sermon last Sunday about victory was awesome. It inspired me to continue with part two, although I did not know it would be this week. Hebrews says we should assemble together to stir up one another about the things God has done for us. My sermon today is entitled “Victory begins in the Mind”.
Scripture tells us that as born again believers we have the mind of Christ. (I Cor.2:16) But we must know that learning to use it is a real faith issue. Grace is the power of God that saved us but faith is the key to receive what grace made possible.
We must learn how to walk in victory in everything regardless of the present circumstances. That can only be done if we learn to trust and use the “mind of Christ”. The human mind is remarkable in its ability to function considering how little of its ability the smartest people can use. Victory comes by faith that believes “with God all things are possible.
Be of great courage today. I have overcome so shall you overcome. Don’t let it be even in your thoughts that you must just bear the trials that life throws at you. Rest in Me knowing I know and I Am working on your behalf to bring great deliverance to you. Rejoice for victory is already yours. As born again believers we have been assured of victory in our lives. There are times when we may not see or feel it. But it is still the Word. The devil is trying to defeat you through your thoughts. Don’t let it be even in your thoughts that you must just bear the trials that life throws at you. Jesus already bore it so we don’t have to bear it. God tells us to rest in him. Rest is when we completely trust the sovereignty of God and lean into His Holy Spirit even in the midst of not understanding the trials of life. We can rest when we know God already knows and he is working on our behalf to bring the deliverance. Be of good courage He has overcome so can we. I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have trials but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident,]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] John 16:33 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Deut. 20:4
2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. When you accepted Jesus God gave you a new nature and filled you with his spirit. The spirit of the Lord dwells in you and you are free. Our freedom comes because of Christ’s saving work and the spirit that he gave us. Freedom is not personal independence-the ability to make our own decisions and choose our own path in life. The freedom that Jesus said is ours is not doing whatever we want whenever we want. He was freeing us to do what we ought to do as believers. This is liberating us to walk in relationship with God and go and be the people he created us to be.
Peter Marshall, Before the U.S. Senate – Prayer Lord Jesus, thou who art the way, the truth, and the life; hear us as we pray for the truth that shall make all free. Teach us that liberty is not only to be loved but also to be lived. Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It costs too much to be hoarded. Help us see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to please to do what is right.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
Romans 8:9-14 Message
Spiritual CPR: Continued – Prayer – Rescue
Being born physically does not make one alive spiritually. In Ephesians 2:1 Paul wrote that we all start out spiritually dead in our sins. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. (NIV) And you [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins. (GNT) God is the one who makes us alive when we come to Him through faith in Christ. Those who are born again now have the ability to love others with spiritually alive hearts.
We are called to breathe life into those who need to be rescued. This is called love in action. Rescue means –to free from confinement, danger, evil, deliver a person. Not just those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. But also to those who are born again. To those who have become discouraged, lost hope, need healing, need encouragement or who are in need of deliverance from an addiction.
Who do you know today that needs Spiritual CPR? Someone who may need Jesus-praying for them-loving them to salvation. Do you see a fellow brother or sister struggling? Breathe on them…
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention to God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 Message
1Thessaloans 5:12 “Dear brothers and sisters, make sure that you honor those leaders who cherish you. They have been given the responsibility from God of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. For they are your leaders who care for you, teach you, and stand before the Lord on your behalf. In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work.
Pastor Jerry will celebrate his birthday Friday, June 11th. His life is a testimony of God’s goodness. And I am sure he will not mind at all for us knowing his age. Today we shout out an early, “Happy-Blessed Birthday Pastor Jerry!
I am honored to have sat under this ministry for 27 years. The Word that he has ministered has been life saving. I am sure each one of you have a testimony of what this ministry has meant to you and your families.
We love and appreciate you Pastor Jerry. Our prayer for you: The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually). Numbers 6:24-26
“The”:
”Sermon of a lifetime.”
There are many words in the English language and one of those is the word, definite. The definition of definite is: complete and final, firm, final and complete. It is not to be challenged or changed.
We have many parts of speech in our language but we only have one definite article. That is “The”. It always is used to point attention to one specific thing. Bringing our information about this to my point this morning let us consider the following. The word “the” appears in any translation of the Bible, thousands of times. We cannot look at all of them but there are a few hundred of them that deserve our attention.
In fifty years of preaching I have never preached a sermon centering around “the”, but I am now by revelation from The Holy Spirit. There is no way I am able to cover everything about this word. I will make an effort today to show you how important this word is in understanding things about God and Jesus.
What is the difference between the next two sentences? Go stand under a tree. Go stand under the tree. “I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me.” Ex. 20:1-2 “I and my Father are one” Jn. 10:30 The is a common, but very important word in any language.
Have you ever thought about why you can trust God no matter what. For someone to be trustworthy they are to be trusted to come through time and time again. It would be hard for someone to have your trust if you continually say but yet do the opposite. God is not like man that he has said or would say and not follow through with his word.
God can be trusted because the Scripture tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8 He is exactly the same in the past, in the present, and in the future.” He has been trusted, he can be trusted, he will be trusted.
When my husband was diagnosed with the virus last fall his first words to me were, “You know God has a good track record of keeping me alive.” He was saying I trusted God to bring me through then and I trust he can now. For those of you who may not know Kenny was in the hospital for 41 days in 2013. He was on a vent for 5 days. The doctor had diagnosed him with pulmonary fibrosis. For those who don’t know this is a grim diagnosis. But to the doctor’s amazement he started to get better. A team of doctors met and tried to figure out why he was getting better and not worse. But God!
Who are you putting your trust in today! Let your life be anchored in God who is our hope-today, tomorrow, and forever.
2 Corinthians 12: 7-9 Paul said-Three times I pleaded with the Lord to relieve me of this. But he answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.”
Are you experiencing a hard place in your life? I describe hard places as those difficult times of life. We all will go through these times. Not a matter of if but when.
As I look back over my life I see the hard places I have gone through. There were times when I spent all my energy trying to figure out ways to get out of that place. And of course the enemy always said it is your fault. If you had done this or if you had not done that you would not be in this situation. I know that God does not always come in and deliver his immediately. The hard places are not meant to destroy but to mature us. It is a place of patience, faith, trust and learning.
Maybe you are one that is in a hard place and there is not going to be no instant breakthrough. Quit trying to use all your energy in trying to figure it all out. Maybe you like Paul have pleaded with the Lord to take it away. Could God be saying to you as he did to Paul, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” Weakness is the state or condition of lacking strength. No, we don’t have the strength to breakthrough. It is not through our strength that we overcome these hard places anyway. If you are that one this Scripture is for you.
So do not fear, I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with a righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:1:10
-WHAT IS YOUR SAY SO OF THE LORD-
David told us what his say so of the Lord was.
I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust”. Psalms 91:1-2
It doesn’t matter what others say of the Lord, it is your “say so” that will generate faith in your heart to believe. David said, “He is my Refuge and my fortress, my God. Could it be that Davids “say so” of who God was to him caused faith to arise in his heart. He goes on to say,” God shall deliver, God shall cover, don’t be afraid, you shall trust.
David’s “so say” caused him to have confidence in the Almighty (the all sufficient God eternally capable of being all that is people need) and that He would take care of him in spite of the storms of life. What is your “say so” of who God is? What do you need Him to be in your life? He is the Almighty One. Let faith arise in your heart today as you say who God is to you.
Remember this song – I lift my hands to believe again You are my refuge, You are my strength As I pour out my heart, these things I remember You are faithful, God, forever
I was in line to check out at a local store this past week. A couple of people were behind and were engaged in a conversation and as one of them walked away he said, “Hey buddy I am not broke I am just in between pay days”.
I heard the Holy Spirit say, “See you are not broken you are just breaking out to a breakthrough”. I needed that word so much at that moment. The last couple of months have been overcoming, overcoming and more overcoming. But God….
Maybe you need to know today that you are not broken. Could it be you to are breaking out to a breakthrough. The place called “to” is where the battle is. It’s the “to” place where we can become discouraged. The enemy wants us to give up during this place called “to”. That is where faith is put in action. Like Paul and Silas we will pray and praise our way through.
This morning you may feel broken, weary, push to the limit. I prophesy to you that things are breaking through. You will see the breakthrough.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. Acts 16:25-26
Are you in need of a break out? Maybe you are in a situation that seems to have you hemmed in. The prison walls seem to have you closed in. You feel as if you have been beaten by the storms of life leaving you feeling tired and worn. Today is your breakout and breakthrough.
Paul and Silas were thrown in jail for speaking deliverance to a servant girl possessed with a spirit of divination. The Scripture tells us at midnight they were praying and singing praises to God. WOW! In prison, beaten, mistreated Paul and Silas worshipped the Lord. As they were praying and singing suddenly the breakout came and they breakthrough as the prison doors open. Paul and Silas received their breakout at midnight. We see God’s faithfulness in their darkest hour.
The good news for you today -no matter what situation that seems to have you hemmed in. You may feel prisoned in your circumstances. Open your mouth and give God a sacrifice of praise.
You may have waited a long time but your breakout to breakthrough may come suddenly just as it did for Paul and Silas.
Last Sunday while ministering I sensed a surge of the Holy Spirit. I heard the words, “The day’s of greater glory! Today God wants this word released to you.
Haggai 2:9 “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. I believe we are now in the “days of greater glory” the Lord spoke about in this verse”.
What is the glory of God? In Exodus 33:18-19, we read that Moses asks to see God’s glory and God’s response is that his “goodness” will pass before him. “I beseech you to show me your glory. “I will make all my goodness pass before you. God’s response to Moses, “my goodness is my glory.” God goes on to say to Moses, “I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy”.
The glory of God is the manifestation of His presence, His power, and His goodness. The manifestation of God’s presence is his glory.
Romans 8:19 says, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. We were born again to reign and manifest the glories of the Kingdom of God on the earth. We are God’s glory bearers in that we express the goodness of God on the earth. Yes this is the day of greater glory.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Isaiah 60:1
|
|
