sermon-notes

Mighty God

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:44:09 +0100

Isaiah 9:6

For a Child is born to us, a Son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

God is:

Omniscient

Omnipresent

Omnipotent

The separation between God and man has forever been taken away by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus then reconciled us with God forever as His children by His resurrection. Through His Holy Spirit we then got the most amazing Grace ever.

Through Jesus God is …

1. Working IN you

Ephesians 3:17, 20

Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

2. Working For you

Psalm 18 & 91

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Working through you

Acts 1:8

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Father God

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:59:22 +0100

In John 14:8 we read where one of Jesus’ disciples asked him one of the most important questions any heart could ever ask “Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."

Every human heart is longing for a father. Every boy and girl needs to be fathered by a father who loves and cares for them.

To simply become a dad is a mere biological exercise. To be a FATHER is a matter of choice. We cannot assume that just because someone is born as your child, you will succeed at fathering them.

This is why God calls Himself our Father. He knows that we desire to be fathered and He chose to be this for us.

Below I will quickly mention three things that a father should do – and how God fulfilled it for us.

First of all, a father needs to find pleasure in his children.

This is why God said in Ephesians 1:5. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.

God finds great pleasure in us as His children. Every father should delight in his children. It will make them feel that they are loved. When children know they are loved and feel loved, they grow up to become very secure and emotionally stable individuals.

Secondly, fathers should also “adopt” their children. This makes them feel like they have a place to belong to. To adopt means you make them feel secure in their own individuality and in your home. A father should “reach” into their children’s souls and make them feel like they are wanted and have a home in his house. This is why the Bible said in Romans 8:15. So 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."

We do not have to fear God’s disapproval when we disobey because He has unconditionally accepted us into His family. We are adopted. God reaches into our hearts and souls and gives us a place to belong.

Thirdly, fathers are also key in helping children find their purpose in life. When children grow up with secure early attachments, they will have a sense of purpose. Children who are loved unconditionally feel that they are important in the overall functioning of society and understand that they need to contribute to it. God has given us purpose – we will produce fruit when we are in Him and His Word in us. John 15:16. You didn't choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name.

God promises us that He will not reject us. Some come from dysfunctional families and do not feel like they will ever be loved, accepted and succeed. But God tells us plainly in Psalm 27:10, Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.

When we accept Jesus we are children of God, God is our heavenly Father and takes pleasure in us, gives us a place to belong in His family and gives us purpose.

Help me choose a spouse

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:04:40 +0100

We just finished a series called God is Love. The main focus was on the three aspects of the great commandment found in Matthew 22:35-38. During the last sermon, Love on Fire, we focused mainly on marriage and sexuality.

Here are the 4 C's we mentioned would help in making a decision about a spouse:

Calling
Do you have a sense that this relationship is from God?
When we talk about calling, we simply refer to the fact that God has called each one of us for a purpose in His Kingdom. Our marriages will always be an integral part of the way that we actually live out our God given purpose in life. For this reason you should make sure that the person you pursue for a marriage relationship is one that will help you fulfill God's purposes for your life.

Character
Is the person you are in love with honest and has he/she have integrity?
Many people make decisions for a spouse based upon a feeling of being in love and then end up marrying someone who has very little trust. Here are some tips to see whether someone has a good character.

Can he manage his money well? Does he honor God with his finances? Does he stay out of debt - and does he take responsibility to pay it off when he borrows?
Is she truthful? Does she tell little white lies or maybe bend the truth a little to get what she wants? Honestly in marriage is vital. Always look for someone you know that will tell the truth even if it hurts.
Does he have a good reputation with other people? Ask your good friends if the person you are getting involved with will be a good person for you. When he has a good reputation, it is usually a sign that he has good values.

Chemistry

Does he make your heart go faster? This is hugely important in any relationship. Unfortunately many people make this the highest priority in choosing a spouse, but when they look for other aspects they tend to totally ignore this one. To be physically attracted to the person you are in love with is equally important as all the other aspects of a relationship. Is the chemistry strong?!

Competency
Wil he be a good husband and father? It is one thing to be in love with someone, but another to raise a family with him. As family life is becoming increasingly less of a priority for many and careers are more important, it is a good idea to not only base your dreams upon his salary and career, but mainly upon his ability to keep a family together. When someone has a heart for family, they will adjust their priorities accordingly to make sure mom and kids get all the love they need.

This might not be an exhausted list of criteria to choose a life partner, but it sure is a good place to start. When these four things are in place, you could well be in line for a good marriage.

Thanksgiving

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:44:09 +0100

Why Pray?

Prayer is the most important spiritual activity and discipline. Prayer however is hugely misunderstood. Most people understand prayer only to be asking God to help them in times of need. This is not 100% wrong, but is definitely not 100% complete. This will then bring us to a point where we view God as only limited to someone who can be approached when things go bad.

Prayer should be seen as a daily activity that is as important as eating food. Not eating food, or eating unhealthy food will cause malfunction in your body. In the same way, a lack of prayer or an unhealthy prayer life will cause your faith to malfunction. Just like any relationship needs time together to make the relationship stronger, prayer will cause you to get closer to God and strengthen your faith.

Prayer is also the way that we “bring things from the unseen to the seen”. God is Spirit and He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3). While we are living on the earth, these blessings mean very little to us if they remain in the spiritual realm. Prayer however is the way we “access” these promises of God and make them manifest in our physical life.

What is prayer?

Prayer has two main aspects. Although these two are not exhaustive in this teaching, nor exhaustive on the teaching of prayer, they are very important to understand.

First, prayer is mostly worship and thanksgiving. When we learn to give thanks to God in spite of all the circumstances we face, we will be filled with faith James 1:2-3. In thanksgiving we will see God’s goodness and His faithfulness. When we focus on God’s goodness is worship and thanksgiving, we will look past the problems and the perspectives that it creates. Like keeping a coin in front of your eyes and blocking out the sun, focusing on our problem and praying the problem all the time makes you loose your perspective.Thanksgiving does a few things:

It brings God glory: When we worship God, the spiritual realm becomes saturated with an atmosphere of victory. God inhabits the praises of His people. Therefore the praises of God’s people are vitally important in our lives to help us experience God and build our faith.
Gives you a better perspective on life: When we look at circumstances we can choose to look at it from a human perspective or from a Godly perspective. When we look at it from our human perspective we will tend to see the problem as being bigger than ourselves. When we see it through God’s eyes we will always see it by faith and know God is bigger than anything we ever face. This is the power of Thanksgiving and praise. It brings circumstances into a Godly faith perspective.

Annoys” the devil and drives him away. Satan is scared of God. His only weapon against us is lies and deceit. When we worship God and give thanks, he can’t stand that atmosphere of faith and victory, neither can he then influence us with his lies. Worship and thanksgiving is one of the most powerful weapons against satan.

Secondly, prayer should be directed at the problem we are facing. (Mark 11:22-23)

God gave us authority to “speak to the mountain”. God has instructed us to live in the authority He has given us. To fail to live in this authority will mean there are many things that we face we will never overcome.Jesus has the ultimate authority over everything in the universe. Some of this authority has been delegated to us. We have authority over satan and demons. We also have authority over the physical creation. Just like Jesus spoke to the tree and it died, He told us to do the same with the “mountains” in our lives.

When we live a life of thanksgiving, we will understand how much of these circumstances are under our authority in Jesus, and then have the faith to speak to it and expect a change.

How do you give thanks?

Thanksgiving can only happen from a heart that is worshipping God in spirit and truth.

John 4:23 But the time is coming—indeed it's here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way.

To be able to worship God in spirit and truth you would need to know what the truth is ... and that is only found in His Word. Meditating on the Word of God is vital for a person to know and understand the promises of God. When we are in difficult circumstances, it will be the Word of God that is in our hearts that will birth true Worship and thanksgiving.

When my body tells me I am sick, the Word of God will be eternally standing firm saying “by his wounds I am healed” 1 Peter 2:24. In an atmosphere of worship based upon God’s Word, these promises then begin to build my faith and faith is what overcomes the World. 1 John 5:4

How do you speak to the mountain?

In the same way that Jesus overcame the temptations in the desert when satan tempted Him, we should follow the same pattern. We should answer our circumstances with scripture. When we “speak to the mountain” we should never speak things that we feel or are in our own effort, but simply based upon the promises of God in His word.

For this reason it is important to study God’s Word and meditate upon it so we can internalize His promises. When the Word is in our heart, it will determine our first reaction to any “mountain” we face. When we meditate on the lies we get from the world, our lives will be determined more by media, news, etc than by God.

Just like God told Joshua (Jos 1:8) that he would succeed in everything he does if he meditates upon God’s Word, we will have the same outcome. The same promise is made in Psalm 1:2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.

In the face of difficult circumstances, the Word should be living in you richly so that – just like Jesus in the desert – you would know what to answer your “mountain” when it speaks to you.

Growth: Learning to Rest

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:49:30 +0100

When we truly understand the power of the victory of the cross, our thinking about God and ourselves will totally change. The blood of Jesus is powerful enough to destroy all sin. This is a huge thing to understand - sin is destroyed!

That means we are no longer bound to sin. The only sin that has any effect in our lives are the ones that we deliberately allow. And even those things can easily be taken care of by just simply asking God;s forgiveness. The power of sin is destroyed and we are totally reconciled to our Creator again because of Jesus.

Two things we should never ever do - underestimate the power of the blood of Jesus to destroy sin, and never underestimate the power of what it means to be created in God's image. The reason Jesus redeemed us from sin is because God loves us. When God created us in His image, it was the biggest risk anyone has ever taken. God did this knowing full well that we could turn our backs on Him. That is the reason He planned our salvation even before he created the world.

But what exactly does it mean to be forgiven and reconciled to God?

When man fell into sin he got separated from God and had no more relationship with Him. Satan then took over this planet and became the ruler of this world. On the cross, this was reconciled, and God restored man again to the rightful place of relationship with Him.

When we continue to see ourselves as sinners, we will never be able to really grasp how much the cross accomplished. We should start looking at the power of the blood of Jesus and realize how awesome this redemption is.

Here are the slides I used on Sunday to talk about this topic. Follow it along with the sermon uploaded on the media page.

Growth: Learning to fight

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:51:22 +0100

Whenever a person wants to progress in their relationship with God and grow more, they will inevitably face three major enemies. This is simply what Jesus said in Mark 4 will be the main things that can hinder the seed of God's Word coming to full maturity in our lives.
Being aware of these three things will make it easier for us to overcome them. Even though this blog will not in any way be an exhaustive explanation, it will definitely help you to start identifying certain areas in your life that could hinder you from living in victory.

Our own flesh, the world we live in and the devil and his demons are the three major things we will always come up against in our walk with God.

Flesh
When we talk about the flesh, we simply refer to our own inner lustful desires. These things are simply the cravings of our sinful nature that wants to cause us to move away from the Word and promises of God.

One thing we all struggle with is worry. Jesus clearly told us not to worry in His well known sermon He preached in Matthew 5-7 (6:31). Also in 1 Peter 5:7 the bible says "Give all your worries and cares to God". To worry is simply to meditate on the lies of the devil. God wants us to trust Him and He will take care of us like a loving Heavenly Father. But most people will let the worries of their lives consume their thinking and totally forget the promises of Gods Word.

This is mainly because of Greed. Greed is not just simply lusting after money, but lusting after the promises of money. Money makes empty promises of fulfilling our needs and bringing happiness. If money would have brought happiness then no rich person would ever be dissatisfied with life. True peace and joy can only be found in your creator. Our fleshly desire for more things is a huge obstacle in our lives to hinder us from living in the fullness of what God has for us.

World
When we talk about the world it simply means the pressures we get from the outside to conform to the way people would like us to live. Every culture, friendship group and family and some sort of expectation to conform to what they think is right. Whenever a person wold like to live in the purposes of God they will be persecuted for their point of view.
This kind of persecution has one single purpose - The Word. Jesus said in Mark 4 that people will be persecuted for the Words sake.

Jesus also said that those who do not have the character of heart to resist this kind of persecution will inevitably fall under the pressure. The devil will certainly make sure that there are pressure on you to resist God's Word.

Devil
C.S Lewis said "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them"

Although I do not hold a view that all evil in the world is definitely caused by Satan and his demons, I do firmly believe that they have a huge influence on people's lives.

How is it possible to know that the devil is influencing your life. Here is a list of possible clues:
Torment (Acts 5:16)
Physical Injury (Matt 9:32-33, 12:22-23, Acts 8:4-8)
Accusation )Rev 12:10)
Death (Prov 8:36)
Murder / Suicide (John 8:44)
False Spirits and Spirituality (1 John 4:1-6)
Continual stealing / can't retain blessings (John 10:10)
Guilt & Condemnation (Romans 8:1)
Can't stop sinning (Romans 8:2)

Spiritual Growth: Learning to play

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:02:29 +0100

What determines the outcome of anything in our lives! How can we change - really change - the circumstances in our lives. According to the Bible it is simple; whatever we have in our hearts in abundance will be the deciding factor of our lives. In Proverbs 4:23 we read "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."

This means that we cannot ever blame anyone else for what happens to us, we should take responsibility ourselves. Jesus explained it well in the parable of the sower in Mark 4. Jesus said it is this easy; if you sow the Word of God in your heart, then you will have a harvest of righteousness. This is so simple that if you can just understand how to plant a little flower and make it grow then you can have overcoming faith! All you need to do is plant the Word of God in your heart and make sure it grows. The result will be that the blessings of God will be the outcome of your life.

So how do you get the Word in your heart?
First of all you need to read it. Reading the Word is important to get a general overview of what it says. I suggest you start with the New Testament. This is much easier to understand than the old testament.

Secondly you need to study the Bible. This means you need to take time to dig a bit deeper into what the portion of scripture says. Make it personal and see what God wants to teach you from it. Here are a few portions of scripture I suggest you start off with.
Ephesians 4-6
Galatians 5
John 14-17
Romans 6, 8, 12
1 Timothy 2

These portions of scripture will help you understand some of the basics of the Christian life.

Thirdly it will be a good idea to keep a regular journal. I once heard someone say that a short pencil is better than a long memory. This is very true. Looking back at my journal over the last year is very revealing to see the journey God has taken me on. It is very encouraging to read the things that God has promised and see them fulfilled in my life.

Memorizing scripture is also important. This helps you to internalize the scripture. To memorize and meditate on scripture will help you make these "seeds of life" come to full harvest in your life.

Finally; praying is vital. Make time regularly to set apart where you can spend time quietly and undisturbed to reflect on these verses and talk to God about them. Praying is much much more than just asking God to do things for you. Praying is when you spend time talking to God about His Word. When you do this you become very sensitive to His voice and the way the Holy Spirit leads you through life.

Take the condition of your heart seriously and be careful what you let into your heart. Whatever rules your heart will rule your life.

Spiritual Growth: Learning to live.

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:25:06 +0100

When speaking to many people about God and trying to give a reason for the hope we have, I inevitably end up getting asked one question: But how will God send good people to hell if He is loving. This is the cry of most people's hearts and the question that so many people have. Because this question is misunderstood, many reject this picture of a vengeful hatefull God who just simply has a thirst for blood and punishment. This however is not who God is at all!

The cry of the human heart is for love and acceptance. When we see the way people treat tyrant dictators we can see how much people long to be free from the judgements of others. And because they see God as a tyrant dictator they reject Him just like they would any other.
If we can only understand that God's heart for people is love and freedom we will also understand God's grace.

When God created man, He created us as a spirit in His image. Because we are different from animals in this particular way - we are spirit - we can have unbroken relationship with God. This was the original intention when God created us.

But because man turned away from God and rejected Him, this eternal relationship was destroyed. This spiritual separation from God is what original sin is... spiritual death. Because man lost his "connection" with God, we also lost the eternal life that came from God. This eternal separation is what causes us to be cursed and not living in the abundant blessings God wants for us.

God however loves us so much that he does not want us to be separated from Him like this. This is the reason He came down to earth in the form of a human being. He came to restore this eternal separation and give us the new life in our spirit that will reconcile us with Him again. When Jesus died on the cross, He took this eternal and spiritual separation from God upon Him, and through His resurrection He then restored us to God.

For this reason the Bible says in John 1:12 "But to all who believed Him and accepted him, He gave the right to become children of God." This means that anyone who is willing to accept Him will become a child of God and receive this new life in their hearts.

When we understand this simple truth, it is clear that the answer to the above question is easy: God does not send good people to hell, but saves them from hell. This is the good news of Jesus. He came to seek and save the lost, not send people to an eternal torment in hell.

God is love and because of His love we can be reconciled with Him - not because we are good or because of what we do, but because of His love and Grace.

All you have to do is believe that Jesus is Lord and was raised from the dead to make you a child of God. Invite Jesus to come into your heart today.

Spiritual Growth

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:00:30 +0100

Christianity is greatly misunderstood by many Christians and non-Christians alike. To be a Christian is much more than just simply believing in God and be a good person. The central focus of the Christian faith is the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Although this blog will not be aimed at proving this, I would like to mention that this is not something that we just blindly believe. Any authentic Christian should be a skeptic and make sure that what they believe is based upon evidence and facts

When a person understand that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the son of God, (proven by His resurrection Rom 1:4), you will understand that the only way for any person to be reconciled to God is by the grace given to us in God’s Son – Jesus.

But there is much more to it than this. In the Bible we see an interesting verse; Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. (Hebrews 5:14 NLT). In this portion of scripture we see than to believe in Jesus and have faith in God’s grace for eternal salvation is in every way the absolute beginning of our faith. There is much more to it than just simply going to heaven.

For many, Jesus is simply fire insurance. But the real maturity that is found in the salvation of the cross is more than just being saved from hell.

During this Growth series we will aim to answer this question. We will explore what God has given us in Jesus and how to fully live in this.