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.
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It Isn’t Your Love for God that Brings
You Victory Ed Elliot
It isn’t how much you love God that determines how victorious your life will be. It is knowing and believing in the love God has for you that will.
Paul told the Romans in Chapter 8, they could overcome everything life threw at them from demonic attacks to famine if they never forgot one powerful life-changing truth!
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” Romans 8:37.
Paul didn’t say you will overcome all these things when you love God. He said you will conquer all these things in life because God loves you.
BELIEVE AND PRAISE HIM
By Joseph Prince
“Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” 2 Chronicles 20:20-21
Today I want you to see two powerful keys to winning life’s battles from the account of King Jehospaphat. The first is to believe the Lord,and you shall be established and believe the prophets and you shall prosper. God doesn’t want you to live in a perpetual state of uncertainty, anxiety, stress, and fear.
The second is to go into battle singing praises to God. As the Israelites began to sing and praise, God caused confusion among the enemies’camps, and they utterly destroyed one another. Judah did not draw a single sword that day, but the battle was won.
When you are feeling down, overwhelmed, or fearful, worship Him with these words,”His mercy endures forever.” As you praise Him, He will “set ambushes” against all your enemies, troubles, fears, challenges, and addictions, as He did for Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah. Not a single one of your adversaries will escape because the Lord Himself fights your battles.
“This is how I fight my battles!”
HIS LOVE ALONE
By Ed Elliot
The critical elder brother related to his father based on his performance as did the Prodigal Son. One believed he deserved his inheritance because of his obedience in keeping his father’s laws. And the other knew he was undeserving of every being a son again because his sins were great and many.
While one son boasted he had kept and obeyed his father’s laws and commandments, the other son confessed his sins and failures to show how unqualified he was to be a son.
You aren’t accepted by God based on how holy and good you have been. Neither are you rejected by God based on how sinful you have been. It isn’t your performance, positive or negative, that earns you anything from God. It is all about the Father loving you as you are.
The incredible truth about God’s love is that it never leaves you in the same condition it found you.
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Titus 3:3-6
YOUR FLESH VS. GOD’S GRACE
The Old Testament law of God is incapable of changing a person’s heart. Whereas, God’s love is capable of not only changing a person’s heart but transforming a person’s life.
The Old Testament law was all about the flesh aka human effort. Faith that works by love is how God connects to people’s hearts to transform them.
“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision available any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love: (Galatans 5:6)
When you choose to believe and trust in the love God has for you, your faith will work as God intended it to. Faith is simply trusting in God’s love and goodness He has for you.
Law produces condemnation and fear in the hearts of men. It can modify their behavior but will never change their hearts. God isn’t interested in modified behavior but in hearts changed by His love and grace.
Love gives birth to faith in a person’s heart and has the power to change it in ways that the law is unable to. Therefore, God connects to people’s hearts by faith, not by their flesh aka human efforts. It isn’t your efforts or good works that change you. It is knowing God’s love for you that does. Good works are evidence that you know God loves you.
By Ed Elliot
Jesus , take the wheel
Take it from my hands
‘Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go……..
So give me one more chance
And save me from this road I’m on
Jesus, take the wheel.
Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” Matthew 16:25-26
John 13:34-35 Message
“Let me give you a new command; Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples–when they see the love you have for each other.”
James 3:17-18 Message
“ Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings; not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.
A Simple but Deeply Profound Biblical Truth
that Changes Everything by Ed Elliot
Believers can only love others to the degree they are being loved by God. You can’t give to others what you have not received or experienced for yourself.
What Jesus taught about God’s love, the disciples later taught the same truth that a person’s ability to love others is in direct proportion to their acceptance of God’s love for them.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love,” John 15:9.
The disciples realized that how Jesus loved them was how God loves people. Truth is they were experiencing God’s love to the same degree Jesus was.
John wrote so eloquently about loving God had nothing to do with what we did for God or how we lived. It was about what we believed and experienced from God.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another,” I John 4:10-11.
Notice John explains what the end result will be when we believe God loves and has forgiven us. We are now capable of loving and forgiving others as we have been loved and forgiven.
So trying harder to be a good loving Chrisiian won’t make you a loving Christian. Believing in the love God has for you will.
I John 4:19 “We love God because He first loved us.”
You can’t love God until you believe and receive the love He has for you. The greatest decision you will ever make in your life is to simply accept God’s love you and live in that truth 24/7 You will never regret it.
The deception of religion is it teaches you to turn away from sin; whereas, the gospel teaches you to turn to God who sets you free from sin.
Where you turn matters. The Pharisees turned from sin, but they never turned to God. When you believe you can resist or overcome sin without God’s help, you allow pride to consume you and bring you down. This is called self-righteousness.
“Pride goes before destruction, and haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16;18)
Freedom from sin isn’t possible by self-effort; it happens by God’s power alone only when we yield to His grace and love for help.
We have a 24/7 invitation to God’s throne room whenever we need His help and power. The only qualification is you must come as you are! But the beautiful thing is you won’t leave as you came. God’s presence changes you into who He created you to be in Him.
“Therefore let us (with privilege) approach the throne of grace (that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor) with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy (for our failures) and find (His amazing) grace to help in time of need (an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment)” Hebrews 4:16 (AMP)
IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE
In the Father’s house I have been set free
Through the Blood of his Son Jesus all my sins are forgiven
My name He has cleared
In the Father’s house my every need is supplied
He offers protection from the storms that come
In the pavilion of His wings He has made a safe place for me
In the Father’s house there is peace and fullness of joy
Oh to know the love, mercy, grace of my Heavenly Father Words could never express
In my Father’s house I have choose to remain
The emptiness that was here He has filled
The search has ended and in His Grace I rest
In my Father’s house you will find many precious like saints
They are there to help and encourage you along the way
You will know you are not alone on this life’s race
“Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people–free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. Ephesians 1:7-10
Nothing You Can Do Will Ever Stop God from Loving you! Ed Eliot
The love God has for you isn’t based on anything you did or did not do. It is based entirely on who He is. When you discover who He is, you will know how much you are loved.
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (I John 4:10-12).
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
How to live Fearlessly
“You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.” Psalm 91:5-6
In the midst of all that is happening in the world, you can be fearless, and this comes from knowing the Lord as the God of peace. He will crush every fear, every worry, and every anxiety.
Grace-the undeserved, unearned, and unmerited favor of God–is the only thing against which the devil has no defense. That is why we put our faith in the blood of Jesus when we talk about protection. Grace qualifies us for God’s all-encompassing protection.
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2
Protected in the Secret Place of the Most High
Joseph Prince
“I will set apart the land of “Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land, I will make a difference between My people and your people…” Exodus 8:22-23
Don’t be afraid when you hear or read of terrible diseases in the world. As God’s beloved child, you are in the world, but not of the world. And as the children of Israel were kept safe and protected in Goshen, so will the Lord keep you safe in the secret place of the Most High.
What is more important, that you follow God or that He follows you? Ed Elliot
Some people try to follow God but the truth is God follows them. Paul makes a challenging statement of a fundamental truth about God’s character. If people understood what he said about God, it would impact their hearts in a powerful way to draw them to God.
“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” Romans 2:4
Two powerful truths:
- People not knowing it is God’s goodness that leads them to repentance
- It is God’s goodness that leads people to know God.
Repentance is all about knowing God’s goodness. Religion makes repentance about your sin, not God’s goodness and what God did about your sins. Repentance isn’t about you or your past. It is all about God’s goodness and what He has done about your sins. Religion wants you to focus on how bad, sinful, and disgraceful you are. However, God wants you to know how good He is and how His goodness affects you. It isn’t knowing how sinful you are that draws you to God. It is knowing how good He is that will cause you to want to know Him.
- Jehovah-Rash-”the Lord my Shepherd” God is always watching over us.
- Jehovah-Jireh –”the Lord that sees and provides.” God is still the Lord who sees and provides.
- Jehovah-Rapha-”The Lord who heals and restores our souls.” 3 John 2-”Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
- Jehovah-Tsidkenu-”the Lord our righteousness.” “Even the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference. Romans 3:26
- Jehovah-Shalom -”the Lord is my peace.” If we have peace, we will never fear any evil.
- Jehovah-Shammah-”the Lord is present.” (for thou art with me.) Today, God is always present with us because we have HIs gift of the HOly Spirit in us.
- Jehovah-Nissi-”the Lord my canopy.” A canopy is a covering, a protection for God’s people.
Nothing in these 7 names depicting God’s character and nature reveal anything that would harm us. As a believer, God’s goodness and mercy will follow you for the rest of your life.
The Local Church as a Place of Refuge
Joseph Prince
The Old Testament cities of refuge reveal a beautiful picture of Christ as our protection. The six cities were scattered across the land so a person could flee to the nearest one to take refuge. It is a picture of the local church. The local church is a place of refuge. The church is not man’s idea; it’s God’s idea. It is a place where all the guilty, where all who are suffering from condemnation, and where those who are being pursued can come and take refuge. It is not God’s heart for you to take this journey of faith on your own. God’s heart is for you to be a part of a community of faith.
In the Father’s house, people experience healing, breakthroughs, protection, and other blessings. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, “far above all sicknessess, all diseases, all terror, all snares, alll cancers, all depression, and all addictions. Amen!
The apsotle Paul declares, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” ( Ephesians 1:22-23). Where is this power today in our broken and fallen world? It is found in the church! His power, His authority, and His fullness are all found in the church–our city of refuge where we can run to and find divine protection!
Forgiveness will do nothing to change the past, but it can change your future.
Ed Elliot
Reconciliation isn’t based on one party apologizing to another. It’s about choosing to walk in love even if the other person never apologizes.
“To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” 2 Corinthians 5:19
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” I Peter 4:8]
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans. 8:38-39
“For it, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:10
We all say “Good Morning!” to others. Do you know the meaning of “Good Morning?”
G-Get up.
O-Open your heart.
O-Open your mind.
D-Dedicate your day to God.
M-Meditate on God’s word.
O-Optimise your faith & hope.
R-Rebuke all evils.
N-Never doubt God’s love.
I-Inspire someone.
N-Nothing should scare you
G-Go out with joy.
So, I say , “Good Morning and have a blessed day!”
From EVERQUOTE
ASK FOR WHAT YOU NEED
Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?
Matthew 7:7-11 Message
Let God Shape Your Life So, roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life. A life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy’; you be holy.”
I Peter 1:13-16 Message
THE POWER OF WORSHIP Joseph Prince
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” Psalm 95:6-7
Some people think that when they worship God, they are giving something to Him. On the contrary, as we worship and praise HIm, He is giving to us, imparting His life, wisdom, and power into our lives, renewing our minds and physical bodies as well in His sweet presence.
Worship is simply a response on our part to His love for us. We don’t have to, but when we experience His love and grace in our lives, we want to. It’s a response birthed out of a revelation in our hearts of just how great, how awesome, how majestic, and how altogether lovely our Lord and Savior truly is. As we worship HIm and become utterly lost in His magnificent love for us, something happens to us. We are forever changed and transformed in His presence. All fears, worries, and anxieties depart when Jesus is exalted in our worship.
Allow the music to simply wash over you like rivers of living waters. Let His presence flush out every fear and every anxiety. Let His love take away the cares that burden you. Let Jesus be magnified and glorified, and watch Him turn all things around for your good!
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