2008-03-09 - Be Still My Soul - Early Morning Time Jesus went to God early in the morning Excuses:
How does spending the early morning with God help build a closer relationship with him?
Hard time getting our of bed?
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2008-04-02 - Falling in Love with God - Bitterness An emotional response (along with fear) that succeed at undermining our love for God A result of an uncard-for emotional wound Matthew 18:15-17 - can resolve most issues Examples
Bitterness will actively oppose any attempt to restore our love for God Bitter or better - a channel of curses or blessings Disciples need Jesus' example to overcome the pain of the cross Jesus wants us to have his attitude toward suffering
Bible command us to get rid of all bitterness
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2008-06-27 - Purpose Driven Life - Shaped for Serving God Before God created you, he decided what role he wanted you to play on earth You were made for a specific ministry. Created in Christ to do good works - Ephesians 2:10 God does not make junk God never wastes anything - he did not give you talents and gifts unless he intended for you to use them for his glory God shapes us: Spiritual Gifts Heart Abilities Personality Experience We will look at spiritual gifts and heart today: SHAPE: Spiritual Gifts He alone decides which gift each person should have - 1 Corinthians 12:11 If you had them all, you would not need others; teaches us to love and depend on each other Given gifts for the benefit of others Gift given as a means of helping the entire church - 1 Corinthians 12:7 Two gift problems:
Heart = desires, hopes, interest, ambition, dreams, and passion Heart reflects the person - Proverbs 27:19 You may have interest that no one else has - from God Don't ignore your interest; consider how they might be used by God Serve the Lord with all of your heart - Deuteronomy 11:13 How do you know if you are serving the Lord with all of your heart?
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2008-07-03 - Purpose Driven Life - Thinking Like a Servant (part 1) Service starts in the mind Servants think more about others than about themselves Not thinking less of ourselves, thinking of ourselves less Self-denial is the core of servanthood Servants think like stewards, not owners Remember the God owns it all
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2008-07-05 - Purpose Driven Life - Gods Power in My Weakness (part 1) God loves weak people and everyone has weaknesses We usually deny, defend, excuse, hide and resent weaknesses God wants to use our strengths and weaknesses - 1 Corinthians 1:27 Admit your weaknesses Might be a good idea to list them Two great confessions:
Be content with your weaknesses I am glad about my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may work - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Reasons to be content:
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2008-08-04 - Questions and Answers - Part 5 Answered the following questions in the Q & A section:
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2008-08-06 - Questions and Answers - Part 7 Answered the following questions in the Q & A section:
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2008-08-10 - 30 Days at the Cross - Surprise of Serving Two types of serving: Hired and Bond (no rights nor wages) Bond servants included: thieves, unable to make restitution, and the poor Jesus willfully and purposefully became a bond servant - Phillippians 2 Character changes need to be made and preceded by suffering:
Are you know as a servant? Will others quickly turn to you in their time of need? |
2008-09-08 - Teach Us To Pray - Reasoning with God Reasoning with God in prayer is an expression of great faith Persistent widow reasoned with the unjust judge - Luke 18:1-8 We cannot change the eternal purposes of God but we can change his mind on how his purposes will be accomplished Abraham was a man who reasoned with God - his Son being sacrificed - Genesis 18:23-33 Moses was too - God decided to destroy the disobedient Israelites and start a new nation True humility is the key to the prayer of reason - not telling God what to do |
2008-09-11 - Teach Us To Pray - Unity with Others Questions to ask meself:
If no, denying one of the most powerful aspects of pray After Judas' sucide - two eminently qualified individuals were proposed - Acts 1:15-26 Peter and John were on their way to pray - Acts 3:1
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2008-11-04 - Man of Prayer - The Flesh (part 1) Two enemies we needed to be protected from - Flesh and Satan I know that nothing good dwell in me - Romans 7:18 Almost every internal struggle we face in our spiritual lives is a product of this fallen dimension of our being Activities of the flesh - Galatians 5:19-21
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2008-11-05 - Man of Prayer - The Flesh (part 2) Sinning is easy; it comes naturally Fruits of that new nature - Galatians 5:22-23 Jesus fought the battle with scripture - He said "It is written" many times while responding to others God promises that we will not be tempted more than we can bear - 1 Corinthains 10:13
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2008-12-31 - Raising Awesome Kids - How to Nuture Confidence (part 1) Only proper foundation is their relationship with God Develops confidence without cockiness Stress a relationship with God Focus on character - Tell your children over and over again that heart and attitude matter to God Applaud effort than ability Two of three men were successful because of their efforts not their ability - Matthew 25 Enough openness
Search out your kids strengths - everyone has at least some It is your job to help children discover and succeed in those things |
2009-01-06 - Raising Awesome Kids - Family Devotionals Family worship is an abolute must if we are to build a spiritual household Two or three come together in my name, there am I with them - Matthew 18:19-20 Shouldn't be anything but a boring or irrelevant hour Plan devotionals with your spouse - select relevant to the current needs Last about 45 mins |
2009-02-14 - Jesus with People - Jesus Won When Jesus first heard the news about Lazarus, Jesus declared that his illness was not going to be fatal - John 11:4 When Lazarus died, the disciples probably thought that he really blew it this time Good thing Jesus called lazarus by nameotherwise every corpse in cemetery may have come out The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead foreshadows Jesus' own resurrection after three days in the tomb Jesus is a victor over death While some could not pay taxes for a while; no one but Jesus can conquer death Do you fear death? How does your relationship with Jesus change the way you once thought? |
2009-02-27 - Promises of God - Standing on Promises For no matter how many promises God has made, they are all "Yes" in Christ - 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 Promises from others and one we have made > can make us highly skeptical about promises They represent efforts to pacify us at the moment; the promiser does not usually have to fulfill the promise immediately Does he promise and not fulfill? - Numbers 23:19 God fulfills his promises - every last one of them God is:
A promise from God is as good as fact |
2009-03-19 - Promises of God - For your Good In all things God works for the good of those who love him - Romans 8:28 Regardless of what happened, we must be convicted - God is intimately aware and involved in all of it We have two choices: To trust - brings peace To doubt - brings anxious, temptation to take matters in our hands, sin God is conforming us to the image of his Son - Romans 8:29-30 Examples of those in "bad" circumstances:
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2009-05-26 - No one like him - Kingdom Lifestyle (part 2) Different Righteousness – Matthew 5:17-6:18 Righteousness for the Pharisee had became having the correct facts and outward performanceDifferent priority – Matthew 6:19-34 The pursuit of God’s will should be the overriding passion of our lives |
2009-06-07 - One Another - Centrality of Relationships Relationships are the center of God's will Relationship with him and with those in the body Matthew 22:37-40
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2009-07-01 - A Life of Impact - Power Power Mark 5:1-17
Fearlessness
Spectacular Deeds
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2009-09-06 - Wild at Heart - Battle for a mans heart (part 2) Boys are in plentiful supply, but it seems fewer and fewer men Two reasons
They have lost heart Becoming a Christian is like being called to the front lines Wounds are far too consistent to be accidental Do you know why there’s been such an assault? |
2009-09-28 - One Another - Differences (part 1) Judgement or Apathy Two extremes:
Accused or Excused
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2009-10-03 - One Another - Responsibility for one another Two extremes:
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2009-10-08 - Wild at Heart - The Strategy (part 1) 1. I am not here Satan says, “ I am not here, it just you” You cannot fight a battle that you don’t think exists Satan prowls around like a roaring lion - 1 Peter 5:8-9 Assume you are under spiritual attack When you ignore the enemy, he wins He simply loves to put everything on us Get us to feel hurt, misunderstood, suspicious and resentful Before an effective military strike, must take our the lines of communication Marriage is a living example – Satan loves to divide and conquer Sends a message – you are blowing it – “I thought you were disappointed with me” They did not send this message Most of all the Enemy tries to jam communication with Headquarters Commit yourself to prayer every morning for two weeks and just watch what happens Satan tries to make our mind wonder and cause interferences |
2009-11-11 - Repentance - Worldly Sorrow (part 1) Sorrow does not equal repentance Nothing is more tragic than losing your eternal reward through popular yet readily avoidable errors Two great misconceptions Confusion that sorrow is repentance Humble prayers and our sorrow pleases God – still not repentance World Sorrow is neither Godly Sorrow Nor repentance Worldly sorrow brings death Five signs of world sorrow (pride) 1. Damage Control
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