Weekly Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sandbox Church
We are a community of market place professionals, both married and single, with a desire to develop a deep and authentic faith, build rock-solid families and driven to impact the community around us. We are imperfect people, rescued by a perfect Savior, growing into our God-given purpose together. We are committed to a life of love in our homes, our workplaces and our community.
In business, a sandbox is a place where one can fully develop an idea or product before releasing it. A core function of Sandbox church is leading people into the fullness of Christ in a safe environment where one can learn, grow and make mistakes. It is also a place of collaboration, unity and fusion of gifting. Our church is passionate about developing and launching our people beyond the Sandbox.
The Destructive Force of Blame: Coddling of the American Mind by Brent Phillips by Sandbox Church
Safety is Not the Best Policy: Coddling of the American Mind by Brent Phillips by Sandbox Church
When Safety Becomes Dangerous: Coddling of the American Mind by Brent Phillips by Sandbox Church
Professional athletes have coaches. Why is that? Elite athletes have been playing the sport for years and years, so they know what they need to do. However, we all need someone to push us to get to the next level, as well as to help us stay in our lane. Why do we need leaders? They can see the things we can’t see. Unfortunately, Satan has done a good job of breaking down our respect and reverence for our leaders. Elders are leaders who provide a living example for us of how we are to live. They are not perfect - only Jesus was - but we should focus on what type of leaders we choose. We are responsible for choosing and allowing elders who will hold us accountable, because they are charged with watching over our souls and protecting us and they are accountable to God for how they lead us. We choose how it will be for our elders to lead us - whether it will be joy or sorrow - by how we follow their leadership. Our pride tells us we can do it on our own which causes blind spots. We must allow our elders to push us past what we think we can do. At Sandbox, we have more than one elder because it helps them to watch over each other, to share the work of watching over us, and to keep an eye out for wolves and false prophets. God’s plan requires God’s process. This means we must first submit to the authority of our elders. Then we can move in the community of an Acts 2 church. We also must take seriously the requirements of elders in Titus 1. It is both a great privilege and a great burden to be an elder! Congratulations to Ben and Weston on their ordainment as elders today!
We are so quick to judge people and judge God when things don't go how we think they should, and we are usually wrong in our assessments. When tragedy strikes, we question God's love easily because when all is good, it's easy to praise, but when our faith is tested, we see how strongly we really hold our faith. What comes out of us when we are pressed? If we have the wrong idea of God's character, we can't trust what He says, so this series is meant to rebuild our faith foundation. God judges sin because all sin eventually leads to destruction. He is giving us an opportunity to clean up our mess, but if we don't accept it, any consequences are our fault. He cannot be righteous without judgment and He loves us enough to want us to remove what is poison in our lives. God loves us so He gave us free will and He can't violate the system He put in place. People question the difference between the Old and New Testament and the culture and time they were written. We can't just excuse things because of these. We must realize we have the answer in the New Testament, so it's easier to understand the questions in the Old Testament. God is patient and gives us many opportunities to choose righteousness. If we don't choose it, a door is opened for Satan to come in because the absence of God (good) leaves room for evil. As we read the Bible, we should do so with a Christ-bias - meaning, we should look at everything through the lens of Christ, who was the embodiment of God. He is the cure to the incurable, the new medicine to bring us relief!
Amen!
Reference verses: Proverbs 24:10; 1 Peter 3:15; Romans 6:23; Deuteronomy 20:17-18; Romans 1:18-20, 24; Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Samuel 16:14; 2 Corinthians 6:14-15; James 1:13-15; John 10:10; 1 Samuel 18:10-11; 1 Samuel 19:9-10; Exodus 30:12; 2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Ephesians 4:27; Psalm 51:1,4; Exodus 21:22-27; Hebrews 10:1-2, 11-14; Matthew 5:38-42; John 15:5 Matthew 15:32
All of us have questioned if God is really good at some point because He hasn't given us something we have asked for, but we also tend to minimize our responsibility in our relationship with Him. We put it all on God because we've been taught He is in control of everything - so it removes our responsibility and makes it easier on us. The first thing Satan did was to plant a seed of doubt about God's goodness and he's been doing the same thing ever since, but now he uses preachers teaching wrong theology about God's character. What we do matters and what we don't do also matters! If we think God created evil and then sent Jesus to rescue us from that evil, it makes Him a fraud because He wouldn't be good if he created evil. It goes against His character. We must remember in the absence of knowledge not to make up nonsense! God sets us up for blessing, but we must follow Him and do our part if we want to receive what He has for us. He gave us the gift of free will, which allows us to choose (and misuse), and then we blame the consequences on Him. As long as choice has existed, there is always a chance that evil will come because we can choose to go against what God intends for us. To eliminate evil, God has to eliminate free will; if He eliminates free will, He eliminates love. We must understand that we can only see things linearly, so we can't begin to understand everything about God, or He wouldn't be God - we would be. Don't go beyond the Bible - focus on what we DO know! Where evil reigns strongly in our world, it is because Christians know to do good and are not doing it. We are made in God's image - having free will, authority and power given to us to create and take life - so we can affect Gods plan. This is why we must consider how important our words and actions are. God can redeem all things, but we must allow Him close in order to receive it.
Amen!
Reference verses: Romans 2:8-12; Proverbs 16:17; 2 Corinthians 6:14-16; James 1:13-14; 1 John 1:5; Romans 8:28; Romans 5:12-13; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Genesis 1:28; John 19:11; Proverbs 3:27; James 4:17; Psalm 139:13-15; Genesis 1:12, 1:21, 1:27-28; James 1:17; Psalm 145:9; Genesis 25:21; 1 Kings 13:15-24; Matthew 6:10; Romans 2:4; Matthew 5:16
Commonly used statements like "God controls everything" or "God allows me to suffer for His glory" are from the Calvinist tradition and have infiltrated Western church culture. This tradition has led us to a place where we misunderstand God's sovereignty. Even cults and Satan started out with or quoted scripture, but they have twisted it. Most of us came to Sandbox because we didn't like what we saw at our previous churches, but we must be careful not to overcompensate because each denomination has good things to offer as well. If we believe that God causes everything, both the good and the bad, then how can we pray for and believe that He wants to heal us? If we are honest, we don't truly believe God is good and this mindset causes us to look at God with mistrust. If we read the Old Testament without reading the New Testament, we miss the beauty of God's story and Jesus, which explains the Old Testament. We keep trying to figure out the equation (Old Testament) when we already see and know the answer (New Testament). Jesus is perfect theology and all discrepancies in the Christian faith come because we don't know who God is. In the Old Testament, they didn't know God's plans, but in the New Testament, Jesus TOLD us His plans! He's not trying to undo what God did: He is the embodiment of God. A cold, detached God is not what Jesus walked on this earth. He is all we need to understand everything we need to know about the character of God.
Amen!
Reference verses: Matthew 13:58; Colossians 2:16-17; Matthew 13:17; Colossians 1:15, 2:9; John 14:8-19; 1 John 3:8; Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Acts 10:38; John 10:10; Isaiah 55:8-9; John 15:5; Job 11:7-8; Exodus 4:11; 1 Corinthians 2:11-13; Luke 4:18-19; John 5:39-42; Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 3:4-10
Many times, we find ourselves needing rescue and wondering if anyone cares or if God hears our prayers. There is a full-scale operation underway that God put into motion before we were born! He doesn't have favorites: he loves all of us, all nations, all races, all people equally. Before we can be rescued, we have to realize that we have a need for it. Do we fight God when He tries to rescue us because we don't like the package the rescue comes in? We must remember that truth is truth no matter how we feel about it. Truth is under attack in this world. The truth is that if there is no Creator, there can be no purpose to our lives: we would all be an accident because there would be no foundation on which to build a life of purpose. What are we doing with the life that God gave us? If we have been rescued, there is a responsibility on our lives to help rescue others. Jesus says "Come with me if you want to live". He won't force us - we have to accept His offer! God withholds no good thing from us, but we must receive it.
Amen!
Reference verses: Romans 1:20-23; Colossians 1:13; John 3:16-17; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-11
People often stay away from church or argue against Christianity because others have misused or abused scripture for selfish gain, but the same thing happens in many other areas of life. Car accidents happen, but we don't stop driving. We must take the good and the "bad" stuff in the Gospel - the stuff that holds us accountable - and remember that anything good in this world originates with God. There is such a move against the prosperity gospel, but there is much prosperity IN the Gospel! God said He was going to bless Abraham so that he could bless others. The idea that we are somehow more holy when we are in lack is just not true! We can't give what we don't have - whether that is love, money, time, etc. We need to stop living in a poverty mindset and realize that we know THE almighty God, so there will be blessings that come! Every blessing from God has the potential to lead us to selfishness if we don't keep our focus on following Him and passing on those blessings to others. We WERE sinners saved by grace, but now we ARE new creations designed to be used to impact the lives of those around us. Remember that Jesus will separate us by how we took care of others and we can't help others be free if we are captives ourselves. Healing and blessing are provided, but they are not guaranteed! Let us ask God in faith for these things so we can pour them out on others!
Amen!
Reference verses: Proverbs 22:6-7; 2 Kings 4:1-7; Proverbs 10:22, 16:20; Psalm 84:11; Luke 4:18-19; James 2:16; Matthew 25:35; John 10:10; Galatians 3:13-14; Genesis 24:1; Genesis 14:11, 14-16; Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Hebrews 11:6; James 1:5-8; Philippians 4:10-19; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Mark 10:29-30; 3 John 1:2
It used to be that we had to watch out for the world, but today, we have to watch out for the church. There is a lot of false theology being preached - stuff that may be mostly right, but is just a little bit wrong and pollutes our spirit - just like Satan did to Eve in the Garden. Does your faith matter? While we can't question each other's faith, we are called to hold each other accountable for our faith and we do need to call out a lack of faith. What we believe about scripture will have a massive effect on our lives, so we must be watchful and vigilant about what we allow in. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus, and He fulfilled all of the prophecies there, but the leaders of the church didn't believe it. It upset the status quo. Are we the same? Do we see Him and yet keep questioning what He really means? Faith in Jesus is an all or nothing proposition - either believe in Him or not, there isn't an in-between. It takes no faith to believe God CAN do something, but takes faith to believe God WILL do something. Our faith is going to be in direct proportion to who we believe God is, so what happens when the goodness of God is questioned in our lives? If we believe God is good, we will expect good things from Him. It is blasphemy to attribute the work of God to Satan, so is it also blasphemy to attribute the work of Satan to God? What is the consequence of believing that God brings illness - why would you then pray to Him to heal it? We must get into the Word and study for ourselves to see His will and have faith in what He says.
Amen!
Reference verses: Hebrews 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Matthew 17:14-20; Genesis 3:1-5; Hebrews 11:6; John 9; Mark 6:5-6; 1 Samuel 17:37; 1 Chronicles 4:9-10; Matthew 9:20-22; John 10:10; Matthew 12:22-25, 31-32
As we celebrate this Easter Sunday, we remember that Jesus chose to be on the cross, to be betrayed by His friends, and to be beaten and mocked. We have a choice to make today - will we leave the same as we came? His resurrection was the greatest gift we will ever receive, but if we don't really open the gift and just keep playing with the wrapping, we will never get to the depth of the love God gives us in order to be able to share it. Is Jesus just our savior, or is He also our Lord? Have we gotten comfortable to the point where we live like we don't owe God everything? We may be in bondage and not even realize it. Jesus' sacrifice gives us the opportunity to live resurrected lives! We need to identify ourselves by our identity in Christ and walk assured of the power we have in Him to walk out His plan for us. We don't need to try to convince people that we have changed, but we do have to present ourselves in truth. This will require re-introducing ourselves to people who knew us before we came to Christ and we shouldn't tire of this! People need to see Jesus in us as we continue to walk in Him. Jesus told Thomas those who believed without seeing would be blessed - that's us! We must establish ourselves and walk in the giftings that God has given us. Although Jesus was a carpenter by trade, He was also a gifted teacher (they called him Rabbi). He knew His gift and used it to lead the disciples into greater blessings that would increase after He left. Let's renew our minds and continue to remind ourselves who Jesus is!
Amen!
Reference verses: 1 Corinthians 15:12-19; John 20:11-18, 19-23, 24-31; John 21:1-14, 25
What do we do when we pray and we don't see Heaven come down? The modern church seems split between those who focus on suffering and those who focus on prosperity when it's really a bit of both. Jesus told us to ask, seek, and knock. The key is persistence. Do we ask and give up when we don't see immediate results? Do we really believe He will give us what we ask? God often works the supernatural through the natural, so we have to ask, seek and believe that He will give it to us - continuing to act in faith. We can't lose heart and we must remain hopeful! Jesus is coming back and He will be looking for those who haven't given up. We can look to Abraham as our example of continuing to believe and walk in faith that God will deliver on His promises. Once we receive deliverance, we also have to put ourselves in a position to keep it by living by God's Word, putting on a garment of praise, coming under discipleship, cultivating right fellowship, being filled with the Holy Spirit, being baptized, and putting on the whole armor of God. This is how we fill the void of spiritual oppression so that it does not come back! We also must remember to chase after God and not the sensations and spiritual highs that come with deliverance. Seek His glory first. As we grow at Sandbox, we are training up leaders. To truly walk out the Acts 2 church looks weird to the world because it's messy and requires investment of our time and resources into each others' lives that isn't seen often. Let us be transformed and never go back!
Amen!
Reference verses: Luke 11:1-13; Luke 18:1-8; Ephesians 1:4; Luke 11:9; 2 Corinthians 1:8-11; Romans 4:18-22; Matthew 4:4; Isaiah 61:3; Matthew 28:19; 1 John 1:7; Ephesians 5:18; Mark 16:15-16; Ephesians 6:13-18; John 6:50-69
Jesus intended for healing to be carried out in the local body, so we have to be open and vulnerable to each other. It takes character development over time to walk into spiritual maturity and walk in our gifts - it's not an overnight process that requires discipline and walking through the daily battles, not just feeding off spiritual highs. There are different kinds of sickness and they each require healing that is best done in community. Spiritual sickness is a result of our own sin; emotional sickness is a result of hurts in the past from someone else; and physical sickness is from disease or accidents. A complete healing ministry will address spiritual sickness through repentance, inner healing for emotional, physical healing, and deliverance from demonic oppression. Demons are a taboo subject in our culture. Satan has succeeded in deceiving people into believing there isn't really a war going on and there is a fascination with demons. There is a difference between demonic possession and oppression. Christians can't be possessed because we belong to God, but we can be oppressed, often by our own doing in feeding our fleshly desires or giving them power over time by our lack of self-control. Demons don't usually announce themselves, but rather enter our lives through often through a painful situation, where they can attack us in the areas of spirituality, emotions and attitudes, our minds, our tongues, sexuality, physical appetites, and our physical bodies. We must remember that we either work with God or we work with Satan - either directly or indirectly - by what we allow in our lives. If we are trying to help someone battle demonic oppression, it is best that we make sure we are not also struggling. There are steps to take, but we must let God lead and always be renewing our minds, be active in our local church, and put on the armor of God to fight this battle!
Amen!
Reference verses: James 5:13-16; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; James 4:7; Galatians 5:19-23; Romans 8:11; John 16:33; Colossians 3:5-10; Mark 1:21-34; Matthew 12:22-32; Acts 19:13-16; Matthew 12:43-45
Today, we talked about preparation and impartation, as well as forgiveness as they relate to healing and deliverance. There were four main reasons Jesus healed people: to glorify God; out of compassion for people; to destroy the works of satan; and to provide a witness to God's future and present kingdom. We must make sure we are glorifying God and not ourselves when we pray for healing. Jesus imparted to the disciples the authority and the mission in which they were to walk and the healings, signs, and wonders flowed from that. The gifts we have are meant to be shared outside the church so that others may come to know Him. The gift of tongues is often ignored because people don't understand it. It attacks our pride and is a way for us to speak to God in humility because we must rely on Him to practice it. When we talk about forgiveness as it relates to healing, we must recognize that repentance is part of it. Jesus didn't tell people to confess: He told them to go and sin no more. When we stay in unforgiveness, we put ourselves in a prison and don't allow God to come through the door with healing. Unforgiveness leads eventually to bitterness. Ways to deal with bitterness are: express negative feelings - don't suppress them; accept responsibility for our negative feelings; confess reactionary sin (vengefulness); ask yourself if you really want to be healed of the emotional pain; in faith, choose to forgive!; choose to extend Christ's love to those who have hurt us; forgive ourselves and accept God's forgiveness; break the inroads of satan that came through the situation(s). Jesus does NOT will for us to live in bondage! It is a simple command to forgive, but is not easy to do and we must rely on faith and ask for help to walk in it.
Amen!
Reference verses: Matthew 11:2-5; John 5:44, 7:18; Matthew 14:14, 20:34; Matthew 12:22-29; Isaiah 35:4-6; Matthew 9:35-38, 10:1, 10:7-8; John 14:12-13; Matthew 6:10; Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 1:27-29; 1 Corinthians 14; Psalm 103:2-4; Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 6:14-15; Mark 11:24-25; Luke 5:17-26; 1 Corinthians 11:17-33; James 5:13-16
Whether we believe it or not, we are continually involved in a very real, spiritual war. Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. We should expect evil to come and be prepared to fight against it. Every time Jesus healed someone he was destroying the works of Satan. Jesus knew who his enemy was and that He had power and authority over that enemy. Through His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, he gave us that same power and authority.
God created angels to guard and protect us, as well as to glorify God through worship. While many people either minimize or dismiss the presence of angels and demons, these are both mentioned frequently in the Bible. Most people and churches shy away from talking about demons, but they are very real. Demons have a will, emotions, intellect, self-awareness, and can speak. The good news is that a demon cannot coexist with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
All the gifts of the Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit were manifested in Jesus. The power that He gives us comes from the Holy Spirit. To have and utilize this power we must first walk in intimacy with Jesus. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, it is to do as He did while ministering, which was healing, delivering, and casting out demons. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan and He commands us to do the same and even more.
Satan has no authority over Christ followers unless we give it to him by believing lies, doubting, taking offense, continuing in sin, and holding onto wrongs done to us by others.
Spiritual Gifts and the Fruit of the Spirit are for others. Fruit must be grown and cultivated over time, while gifts are given to us fully developed. Walking in step with the Spirit will help us to develop the nine fruits of the spirit.
Amen!
Reference verses: Daniel 10:12-14, Ephesians 2:1-10, Luke 10:17-20, Matthew 28:18-20, John 14:12, I John 3:8, Galatians 5:22-25, I Corinthians 12:8-10
Although we would all like to have things go smoothly, we all encounter distractions and interruptions in our lives. Being natural and real, like we strive for at Sandbox, is costly - in time and emotional engagement. If we were to do big, flashy performances to attract people, we would have to continue to up the ante and manufacture glory from God to keep people. It's why we must come for Jesus and nothing else. We've prayed over people to be healed and we don't always see it, but we keep doing it because that is what He said to do. Sandbox must be a place that calls out what is wrong in the Church so that we can make it right! Many tick off the list of things they want from their church, but how many look for what they can bring to the table? If you are lonely, go show love to someone else. Christ will take care of the global church, but we are to be fully engaged in the local church and be part of something bigger. The church is about sitting around a table sharing meals and Jesus with each other and all who God brings to us. Jesus broke all the laws down to two: Love God and each other. Signs and wonders will come from our community when we give, are willing to help others, and work hard so we can bless others.
Amen!
Reference verses: Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 68:6; John 13:34-35
It must have been so hard for Jesus to send the disciples out after spending three years with them everyday! It is the same for us at Sandbox. The joy and love we have here is hard to give away, but it is what God has called us to do. We can't put our light in a corner and keep it to ourselves, just like a dad can't hold his daughter tightly and not give her away in marriage. We must remember that although it hurts when we leave a place we love, that Jesus will be ours for life, no matter what church we attend. It's where our foundational verses in Ephesians and Acts come in. We have gifts meant to be used and church is meant to be lived out in homes, around tables, serving others. The purpose of Sandbox is to be a recruiting depot for Jesus where we share and give of our lives to each other. If you think you can't make a difference, pray for God to light a fire in you and just make yourself available to do what He asks you to do!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 4:11-16; Acts 2:42-47
Being a shepherd is a high calling that many don't answer, but we all walk in it in some way - whether as a parent, or a boss, or anytime someone looks to us for guidance. It's not something that happens instantly, but tends to develop over time as our relationships grow and can be a thankless, lonely, or treacherous job. Ask yourself - who is my flock? Who has God entrusted to me or put in my life to guide? He calls us to be shepherds and not hired hands who will run at the first sign of trouble. David was a literal shepherd and through that, God taught him how he needed to lead His people. There are four things we must do to be a shepherd. First is to lead. In order to do this, we must take a hard self-inventory and get rid of what doesn't fit to be a person who leads others to Jesus. Second, we must feed them by considering their needs, filling ourselves up on the Word, and sharing it with them. Third, we must protect. Shepherds don't have a choice - it's the job description to watch over those you are called to protect. This can be hard if you don't spend time with or love and care for a person - they won't listen to you. Your staff is the Word of God, to ward off the bad with the Truth. Lastly, there must be love - unshakeable, unconditional love where we give of ourselves. This includes holding people accountable and sometimes saying things we would rather not say. We also must have people who hold us accountable or else we can't be good shepherds for others.
Amen!
Reference verses: 1 Samuel 17:32-36; John 10:1-5, 10-15; Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 5:2; John 21:17; Matthew 28:20; Acts 20:28-31; 2 Corinthians 2:4; Isaiah 56:9-12
Evangelism is pivotal to the five-fold gifting because without it, the others don't work. Old Testament prophets spoke of what was to come - to get people ready for Jesus. Jesus did the work and now modern-day prophecy is used to help people get closer to Jesus. The Gospel is key - without it, the apostles wouldn't have had Christ and we wouldn't be here. Just like a pastor can't be a pastor without sheep to follow him, we can't teach about something we don't know, so we must study the Gospel in order to do our jobs to spread it. The result is not our responsibility, only to go and spread the Good News that changes lives! The woman at the well in John 4 came as a worldly woman and left as an evangelist, sharing what she had seen with her neighbors and the whole town believed. It's important to remember that we are the advertising for Jesus: we are the example of Him people will see, so we must represent Him well. He's given us the tools - Scripture and our testimony - that we need to show Him to the world and share what He has done for us. We need to focus on the Word first and then look outward for new people to bring in - the harvest. It is okay to say you don't know all the answers! If we focus on one person at a time, plant, and water, God will bring the growth in the proper season.
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 4:11; John 4:4-42
The purpose of the five fold gifts is to unite the Church in mind and spirit. Teachers help us attain knowledge and maturity in our walk. Many of us don't think of the fullness of Christ as being truly for us to reach. This is why it is so important to teach truth - to combat all the false teaching out there. It's important to remember that attaining knowledge is not in itself the goal, but rather is a part of leading us to the goal of knowing Christ. Steadfast love and knowledge of God go together - we must study His Word to know Him and learn of His love as we grow in our love for Him. Jesus was the perfect example for us to follow as a teacher! He rebuked the teachers of the day a lot because they focused so much on the law that they missed Him as the fulfillment standing right in front of them! We can have the same veil over our eyes that they did, but updated for our current times. The Holy Spirit was writing to an audience then and us now and the only filter we should look through is God's Word. We must be mindful of practicing what we preach and not seeking honor for ourselves because teaching is a big responsibility. Scripture tells us teachers will be judged with greater strictness because they can lead people astray - a rather sobering thought! To walk in balance between the loftiness of the role and faithfully moving in our gifting, we must pray, practice our gift, and always do so with humility, keeping our eyes on God and not ourselves.
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 4:4-16; Hosea 6:6; John 5:39-40; Matthew 23:1-8; Hosea 4:6; Proverbs 13:14; James 3:1; James 4:10; James 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:5-7
We sometimes try to over-spiritualize things and they have become commercialized in the church, allowing Satan to come after those things to corrupt them. Prophecy is one of those things he attacks. Whether we realize or not, we have all been used for prophecy at some point. Being spiritual doesn't mean we aren't living in reality, but we need to be approachable and filled with the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, prophets were used by God to speak to the people. What they spoke became the authoritative Word of God and that is what stands now and against what we must test all prophecy. Scripture tells us we will know His voice, but many of us struggle to know if it is really Him speaking to us. The more saturated we are in His Word, the clearer His voice will be as other influences fall away. We shouldn't expect to be proficient right away - we will grow in the gifts, but we must practice them. Even our weaker ones - we will grow and mature in them the more we operate in them. They all originate from the same place and are just a different application of the Holy Spirit's power. In all we do, love must be our highest goal. It will come with risk, but God wants to use people who are willing to be used by Him. We mustn't allow fear to stop us from stepping out in something new and advancing in our faith.
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Corinthians 14:1-3, 24-26, 29-33; John 4:16-19; Acts 11:27-29; John 1:48; Acts 21:8-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22; Romans 12:6
We should absolutely work hard in all we do to serve God, but we also need to relax and have peace. Most people are not at peace in their relationship with Him: feeling anxious or insecure. Like our earthly fathers discipline us to build us up into maturity, our Heavenly Father is doing the same when He convicts us and sharpens us to get us ready to do more in the Kingdom. So many have the idea that honoring God has to be somber, but it has to be joyful also! God rewards those who diligently seek Him, so we can relax in Him and the work of Jesus because His will for our lives is to live with peace in our hearts. Even when people disappoint or hurt us, we need to have peace. Some may call this being a pushover, and you could say it is in the natural, but not the supernatural because when we choose peace in the natural during a trial, we are allowing God in and the strength of the supernatural to take over. An amazing walk with God is easy with the Holy Spirit, but impossible without. We will find peace by praying about everything and remembering to be grateful for all the blessings God has already given us!
Amen!
Reference verses: Colossians 3:15; Colossians 1:9-10; Philippians 4:6-7; Isaiah 26:3; John 14:27
Many of us have already made and broken New Year resolutions, but what if our only goal this year was to surrender everything to Jesus and do whatever He tells us to do? A life surrendered to Jesus is the only thing that matters. We look at the story of the rich, young ruler who, by the world's standards, was a pretty good guy. He was wealthy, but he kept the commandments and treated people well. However, he was missing one thing. We can be in a place of systematic goodness, but it is meaningless without a relationship with Jesus. We may find ourselves burned out or judgmental toward others if we are striving in our own power and not in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus makes us a new person when we choose Him, so our identity can't be in other things. Following Jesus will cost us and we must count the cost - it will be persecution, tribulation, we could be killed, people with us will fall away and betray us - so we must take it seriously. However, we can't just look at the natural world when we count the cost, we must consider the eternal perspective and the cost of not following Jesus. Our sufferings won't compare with the glory we will enjoy with Him and without Him, we will die as slaves to our sin instead of living in the freedom only He can give. He will use us to impact those around us, so let's submit daily to Him, live with open hands, and give all we can to serve Him.
Amen!
Reference verses: Mark 10:17-27; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Luke 14:27-30; Matthew 24:9-13; Mark 10:29-30; Romans 8:16-18
Psalm 37:4 tells us to take delight in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart. We must give to Him first and He gives it back to us even better. Hannah asked for a son and promised God she would give him back to Him, so He gave her Samuel. When the people wanted an earthly king, Samuel went to the Lord to ask for guidance. He only wanted to do what the Lord told him to do. The people wanted to be like the nations around them, even after Samuel warned them of the consequences, so God gave them what they wanted. God had lived with the Israelites for many years without a temple, but David wanted to build one for Him. God told David He would build His temple through David's son. He was talking about the physical temple Solomon built and the spiritual temple Jesus built. We become God's temple through Jesus! When we feel the power of the Holy Spirit, it is because we have opened our hearts and brought Him in, and when we don't feel it, the opposite is true - we have turned from Him. God doesn't care what material the vessel is made of as long as it is clean, so He can use us, no matter our circumstances, if we have clean hearts. We must be patient - God won't show us His whole plan for us because we wouldn't be able to understand, but if we have open hearts, the Holy Spirit will show us something new everyday!
Amen!
Reference verses: Psalm 37:4; Matthew 6:19-21; 1 Samuel 8; John 6:38; John 18:36-37; Acts 7:45-51; 2 Samuel 7:6-7; Acts 1:6-8; 2 Chronicles 7:1; Acts 2:1-3; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:19-21; Romans 8:28
Often, the first things we think about when we think of Christmas are earthly things - presents, food, time with our families, etc. Even as Christians, we don't grasp the magnitude of God sending Jesus to us. When Jesus was born, the universe shifted - in both earthly and spiritual realms. It wasn't just a quick glimpse of God like Adam, Abraham, and Moses had that we read in the Old Testament. Jesus entered earth the same way we do and stayed for 33 years, living like us, but with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Luke and Matthew give the accounts of His birth. It was dirty, painful, and dangerous. It was humble. His birth unleashed great things in the spiritual realm with the battle of the enemy to hurt believers. Many believe the story in Revelation 12 is the story of Jesus's birth, with Satan trying to kill Jesus when He was born. But God thwarted Satan's plan with His own and turned it around to use it as a way for us to have a relationship with Him. With all the commercial rituals of Christmas, Satan doesn't have to do anything to attack. The early Roman church adopted many pagan rituals in an effort to make it easier for them to turn to Christianity. This led to good and bad consequences - the spread of Christianity, but also the dilution of the real truth of Christ's birth. As we celebrate Christmas, let us be mindful. Do we want to teach our children about the unseen realm of Jesus or the unseen realm of Santa? Our lives should look different than the world. Let us remember that being sons and daughters of the Most High God is the greatest gift we can receive.
Amen!
Reference verses: Matthew 1:18-25a; Luke 2:1-7; Philippians 2:6-8; Luke 2:8-21; Matthew 1:25b-2:12; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 12; 1 Corinthians 10:23; Ephesians 5:11; Philippians 3:20; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; James 4:4; Colossians 3:1-2
Just like with physical fitness, Scripture talks about strengthening our core to build up our gifts. Paul knew what the church would face and how important a strong foundation would be. Are we confident we have Jesus in us? If we aren't and we are not prepared, it won't go well. There are sobering statistics about the state of pastors today and the stress, anxiety, and burnout they experience. It shows that a seminary degree can't prepare you for ministry. It is a tool, but if you don't have your foundation in the Word of God, a pastor can't minister effectively to others. The name of Jesus is above every other name, but we still live in a world where a battle is raging and we must stand like Ephesians 6 says - but in spiritual strength, not our own. As our world moves further from truth, the truth becomes more offensive and we must be prepared to do battle and know the calling on our lives. Have you asked yourself if you know the calling on your life? No matter what we do for a living, we are all in full-time ministry right where we are! We must grow in our foundation at the same time that we grow in our gifts or we will struggle. As God increases the anointing in our lives, we will find the consequences increase as well. Be prepared!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 4:1-4; Matthew 7:24; James 1:22; Acts 19:13-16; Acts 5:1-12; Acts 15:36-41; Matthew 16:13-24; Acts 17:28
We have a skewed view of what Jesus's ministry was. We think it was supernatural and big when the mundane happened while He spoke - kids got bored, people tuned out - all the same things we see in our daily lives. When we look at our foundation verses in Ephesians, it all hinges on experiencing God's love. Most of us haven't really experienced it and that's why we are tired from all our efforts in our flesh - because we have been chasing the supernatural instead of Jesus. We should only be chasing Jesus and the gifts and miracles will come! What we should look for is exceptional normal - as we go through our daily lives living for Him, that He will work through us. The fasting that has been happening in our church has been about tearing down the blockages between us and God. We don't need another book, conference or sermon, just the faith and a heart that seeks Him and He will reward us! He will make His home in our hearts in a tangible way where we will feel His presence. In everything we do, all the normal, He is the author and His presence is there; we just need to be faithful to do what He tells us to do and leave the rest to Him. His love is always there, but we block it by holding onto unforgiveness and other things. Remove these things that stop us from feeling the love of God!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 3:19-21; Luke 10:38-40; Acts 20:9-11; Acts 8:26-40; Acts 3:1-8; Colossians 3:5-17
During his fast, the Beatitudes really came to life for Brent. When you are mourning, He WILL comfort you! Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness WILL be filled. There was nothing else he could fill himself with during the fast and God did a miraculous work of sustaining him. When he felt his body shutting down, family and church were ready to pray for him. Our prayers and fasting alongside him helped him get through it. The biggest thing Brent learned is if our foundation doesn't start with full surrender to Jesus, everything we do will be in vain. We can look at the story of Mary and Martha and wonder what Jesus told Mary as Martha was being busy. Whatever He told her, it sustained her when He was on the cross and gave her the strength to stand fully surrendered to Him. We can also look at the story of the rich young ruler. Jesus told him what he needed to do to inherit the kingdom and the price was just too high. He wasn't willing to surrender. Surrender is the one thing we are lacking when we try to hold onto the world and serve God at the same time. Ask yourself today - when have I stepped back and thanked God for my salvation? Let us celebrate our God today!
Amen!
Reference verses: Matthew 5:1-10; Luke 10:40-42; Luke 18:18-23
Something Brent's fast has shown us is how important it is to be completely surrendered and obedient to Jesus. We need to know that we are growing and maturing in the Lord and the Church needs to be the light in our secular world. So much of our Bible study is about principle forming rather than Presence forming. Scripture talks about baptism, and the modern church has whittled that down to just water baptism, but it is so much more than that. It's about walking with and immersing the newly baptized in the church community. Many of us know the concept of His love, the peace of Jesus, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, but we don't feel the wholeness of God. Our concept of spiritual formation needs to change. Unity in the church is required, but we must value and respect the diversity in our God-given gifts and roles, with each one being important. We need an awakening of our base spiritual gifting so that when it comes alive, it is a boon to our church body. God makes Himself known to the evil spirits at work in the world through the work He does in us and the church. When He saved us, He restored a dominion inside of us and made us a new creation, so that from our unique roles, all the supporting gifts will come. As you go through this week, ask yourself: what would happen to our value in the local body if we realized God gifted us specifically?
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 3:20-21
Five hundred years ago, it wasn't a question of if you believed in God because everyone did. Today, the question is "Do you believe?" and this has affected our worldview. Many don't expect God to move and it begs the question - Are we being more transformed by His Word or the world? How would we define or describe being a great Christian and how far are we from what the New Testament calls the church to be? The church has come up with theology to explain the gap and to entertain people - we've largely accepted not being what God has called the church to be, so we have to decide if we will do something now. There is a big push to meet people on their territory, but Jesus went deeper and called people out on their sin and didn't worry about pleasing the crowd. We are at a place where we have to decide if we are more willing to follow Jesus or try to fit with the culture because the Bible tells us the church will be judged first. Our mission is to be the church He has called us to be, not to reform culture. When we try to redeem cities, we miss the mission to be the light on the hill. Revival can't happen in the culture until it happens in the church! As we look at our scripture reference today, we see that Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest who had lived to that point, but the least in God's kingdom was still greater than he - that's us! He admonishes us that we can't be passive, we have to hear and our hearts have to change such that we don't put demands on God saying we did all these things for Him and He didn't do what we thought he should - exposing our pride. There are four key things to ponder as we go forward: 1) Are we more concerned about honoring Jesus or not offending people? God pulls people from the fringes to do His great work. 2) Do we understand and pursue Jesus's idea of what it means to be great or the world's idea? Keep in mind Jesus said the last shall become first and the first shall become last. 3) Are we growing in our kingdom identity and ambition or are we being civilized by the secular culture? America is secular and will fall too. We must avoid mission creep and focus on the goodness of God, building our faith and the church, not focusing on a political agenda. No matter what happens in this life, we are responsible to take the promises of God and act on them. 4) Are we living for and under God's expectations for our lives or the culture's expectations for us? We should examine ourselves to see if we have ears to hear or if we are showing up with a demanding heart expecting to be served by God instead of serving Him.
Amen!
Reference verses: Matthew 11:1-19
When we are weak is when we see God's greatest strength because that is when we call on Him most. The cross should be our central focus because it is why we are here. We can't keep trying to make Jesus look white collar and neat and tidy to fit into modern cultural boxes and norms. So many people leave the church because they were drawn by a sermon, not by what Jesus did for them on the cross. We shouldn't be ruled by emotion, but if you are serving God without emotion, you're missing out on Jesus. The cross demands a response - you either believe He is the son of God and died for us or He isn't. We have watered Him down and made Him less than He is, but without the true Jesus, we have nothing. It is impossible to live in a worldly way, keeping your feet partially in the world, and trying to also follow Christ. We must be prepared for what comes with the cross - persecution and rejection, but also fullness of life. We have to wrestle with the hard message that Jesus must come first - before our families, before our own lives; we can't just add him to our bag and carry on. If we love God and chase after Him with all we have, our love for others will multiply. Let's not, however, take the meat out of the Gospel to make it more palatable to share. Jesus meant to be offensive when He spoke about drinking His blood and eating His flesh. He was thinning the crowd because many were following Him to chase miracles and not to find a Savior. Let us feast on the Word of God because it is what gives us life. What are you holding onto that is keeping you from getting more of Jesus? Lay it at the foot of the cross today!
Amen!
Reference verses: 2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Luke 14:25-35; Mark 11:24-25; John 6:53-68; John 10:10
We should be excited to dig deeper in God's Word into the hard things because it means we are growing. We think it is hard to get into God's presence because we have so much junk and sin blocking the way that we can't taste and see the goodness of God. Even as Christians, we are letting the culture determine who we are - whether it is our political affiliation, the teams or schools we support, or holidays we celebrate - we look just like the culture because we have become too accustomed to it. Because so many grew up with hell, fire, and brimstone preaching, the pendulum has swung too far the other direction and all we hear now is grace. Just because we have the power of the Holy Spirit does not mean we can live how we used to. Christianity has become like someone walking along a path and they encounter Jesus and just keep walking, but think he's with them. Being a Christ follower means you are walking along, encounter Jesus, and you change directions and follow Him. Jesus never told us He would follow us - He told us to follow Him! It's about those willing to follow, not large numbers - remember that Jesus dispersed the crowds. We must give people a real Jesus and we can only know Him when we allow Him to do the work to change us from the inside. It can't be behavior modification in our own power. Our identity is the righteousness of Jesus and our focus should be on walking from that identity, focusing on Jesus and obedience instead of focusing on what we don't want to be doing. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 3:14-19; Ephesians 4:30-32; Hebrews 10:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:22-23; Colossians 3:3-5; Romans 6:12-14; Ephesians 5:3; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 2:1-6
When did we forget that gathering with our brothers and sisters in the presence of God is so special? We are able to come in freely and because it is free, we don't value this gift and revere it the way we should. Reverence has been lost in the culture, not just the church. The definition of reverence is to regard or treat with deep respect. Do we treat God this way? We need to be Pentecostal in our pursuit of the Holy Spirit, Baptist in our pursuit of knowledge of the Word, and Catholic in our reverence for the House of God. The phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" fits - we take for granted everything we have from God. In America, people get more passionate about the National Anthem than they do about worship in church, but it won't bring the presence of God into the room. Christians have been killed all over the world because they spread love and this message has a supernatural impact. So have we forgotten this because it has come to easy to us? Have we forgotten that the Bible is the living, breathing Word of God or stopped standing on the Word of God and submitted our lives to the authority of it? Have we forgotten that God is both Sovereign Lord and Abba Father? We must have the balance between those because He is both. We cannot focus too much on the Sovereign Lord and think He is unapproachable and hard or too much on the Abba Father and think He is our personal genie. Jesus taught us the healthy, radical middle. We mustn't diminish the name of God in our speech with carelessness that is part of our culture. Our deep reverence for God should change how we act because we represent Him! Ask yourself today if your driving force is to honor the name of God with a deep reverence and fear of the Lord. When we know there is no one like Him, we can put our trust in God, fear Him and are secure in Him, not living our lives like we are on the throne.
Amen!
Reference verses: Proverbs 25:17; 1 Corinthians 11:26; Exodus 20:7; Prov 16:6; Psalm 111:10; Psalm 147:11; Psalm 115:11; Proverbs 14:26; Hebrews 12:28; Acts 9:31; Philippians 2:12-13; Matthew 6:9-13
The more time we spend in scripture, the more we may realize how far we are from what God intends for our lives. We have two choices: to accept a lukewarm Christianity or to chase after God. He will reward the faithful with His presence. We need an atmosphere of faith to bring Him into our midst, so ask yourself how valuable His presence is. Do we love Him or the vision of Him we have created? Paul was beaten for the gospel but people leave the modern church because of offense over trivial things. How much are we really willing to suffer for the gospel? It's so easy to get comfortable with people and lose that feeling of specialness - the same thing happens with God. We have lost our reverence for Him as we've gotten more familiar with Him. We must approach our lives with faith and go to the Holy Spirit to get inner strength. Take an honest look at your life and evaluate - if you look the same now as five years ago, you aren't growing in Christ and you should question the food you have been feeding your spirit. We identify too much with what we were and Jesus identifies us with what He sees us becoming. Jesus will come and take up residence in our hearts if we open to Him and our lives will look, smell, and taste like Christ! We must be willing to look for anything we are holding back from Him and give it to Him for Him to be able to give us what He wants to give us. Surrender it all! Be devoted to the Word, ask the Holy Spirit if there is anything hindering him from moving in your life, and believe God for all that He says!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 3:12-18; 2 Corinthians 3:16-18; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Revelation 3:20; Ephesians 1:1; Romans 5:5; James 3:1-2; Ephesians 4:30-32; 1 John 4:18; Acts 2:42-48; Hebrews 11:1-3
A main goal of Sandbox is to train us to go out and share the gospel. If you have been going to training for years and still don't know how to do something, there is something wrong. It is by the Holy Spirit that we learn and understand what God has to say to us. It is easy when you have been in church for awhile to get into the habit of speaking in Christian lingo. We can use big words that exclude newer believers from understanding, so we need to be sure we pay attention and speak simply. If we read a passage, each person can pull something different from it, no matter how long they have been following Jesus, and it can give us a different perspective. We always want more and want to go deeper, but it all comes back to the basics of what Jesus did on the cross as the most important thing that we can't forget. It's interesting to see that oftentimes, third world Christians have less book knowledge than we do, but a deeper relationship with God than us. They are often under greater threat than we are, which begs the question: Would we still be Christian if it was illegal? Would we really consider it an honor to die for Him? If so, why don't we live for him with that passion? Imagine if Paul had not had the passion to share Jesus that he did - none of us would be here because we are all Gentiles. Our task is to reconcile people to God, so we need to ask ourselves if we really have a passion for that. If not, it is not a condemnation, but a call to action to pray and ask God to give us that passion. As we commit to it and walk together, our Sandbox family will help us get there!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 3:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
This week Brent closed out Ephesians Chapter 2, where Paul lays out that we are a new people! a new creation! Where are you living with an old mindset instead of the new? Listen to the message below.
Reference verses:
Ephesians 2:14-22 New Living Translation (NLT) 14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. 17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. 19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
2 Corinthians 5:15-21 New Living Translation (NLT) 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. 16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
The modern church is full of people who want church to just be what they have come to know - like an appetizer, main course, and dessert. However, God wants to give us so much more! We can never become a stale religion. It HAS to be about an intimate relationship where the words come off the page and shift something in our lives. We must know the "why" and the "what" for our faith and what we do as we walk out our faith. If our reasons are selfish, we will quit. We want a specific calling, but God calls us to be faithful in the general before we are ready for the specific. Ask yourself if you are being faithful with what God has in your life right now. David is a good illustration of this. He was "just" a shepherd, but he was faithful with it. When his brother insulted him, he didn't take offense, he just continued on the course God had set before him. When we give in to the bait, Satan is the only one who wins! David found his what and why when he defeated Goliath. He was righteously angry about the Philistines defiling God and he wanted to do something about it. The Spirit of God is what gave him the power to fight, just like it gives us. We don't need a seminary degree to make an impact, just a heart willing to follow the Spirit's lead. As we are faithful in what God has called us to, He will mold us into what He needs us to do next. The five-fold ministry comes in here. We will learn what our gifting is and train in that gifting, not ignoring opportunities to develop in other areas when they arise. As we do this as a church, we will increase in joy and grow into the church that rises up to do the work He has for us!
Amen!
Reference verses: 1 Samuel 17:14-15; 17-20; 28-31; 32-37
As we focus on Ephesians 2:11-13 this week, we can ask how many of us truly understand what Jesus did on the cross? Paul reminds us that we were outsiders and had nothing but then the blood of Jesus brought us in. Do we underestimate what Jesus did? Our sin is NOT greater than Jesus! Sometimes, we may find ourselves thinking we were forgiven for everything we did up until we got saved and then God started keeping track. Jesus died and His sacrifice covered us for all time. It is about sanctification vs. salvation. We have been made perfect because of Jesus: this is our salvation. We still sin and find our perfection in Jesus as we grow: this is sanctification. We don't know what to do with the authority and power we've been given and Satan attacks us, reminding us of our former selves. May we never forget what God does for us! Do we get excited about the benefits in the Bible? If we don't know about them, we can't receive them, so we must learn what God has for us and what He has done for us by the blood of Jesus. God is faithful and while we strive for holiness, we must accept we will fall short and it still doesn't change our relationship with God. We can be slaves to goodness or stay in bondage - it's about walking in agreement with the one you choose to accept. God already defeated it! We limit ourselves and our worship with our own minds, but the blood of Jesus purifies our minds and justifies us - as if we had never sinned. Think about this as you go through the week: Would you walk differently if you had never sinned?
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 2:11-13; Hebrews 10:11-14; Psalm 103:1-5; Acts 19:1-7; Acts 20:28; 2 Timothy 2:13; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 6:22; Hebrews 9:14; Romans 5:9; Hebrews 10:9
As we've been studying Ephesians and Job, we are reminded that God has put forward a choice for each of us to make: Life or Death. He wants us to choose life, but He gives us free will. Pre-programmed love isn't really love. Free will gives us the opportunity for pain and suffering, but also for love. As we look at Ephesians, we are going to look at 2:4-10, especially verse 10. It tells us we are God's workmanship, created to do good works which He prepared in advance for us to do. Jason shared with us the miracle of his near-fatal ski accident, which resulted in a broken neck. He had God's protection in small things that could easily have led to further damage and paralyzation, as well as the support of his wife, family, and church continually praying for him. God saved him because He is not finished with him yet! As he has recovered, he has been reminded of opportunities he took to serve others and what might have happened had he not followed God's leading. We all have these opportunities and if we don't take them, can miss out on His blessing. More of Jesus is available to us! We may think of what our lives may look like in the future - things we want to do - but God may have them for us now. So many of us live in the kingdom of me. We don't truly believe the promises God has made. How we think of Heaven will determine how we live our lives here - it may lead us to chase after worldly things to get enjoyment. We must change our mindset to have an eternal focus! Ask yourself: When is the last time you felt fully alive? For many, we feel most alive during worship or when we are outside enjoying God's creation. We mustn't let these moments go by too fast - we must treasure them and not let the world choke out the wonder of God. John 15:4-11 talks about how we walk in the works the Lord has prepared for us: we must abide in Jesus everyday. This is how we glorify God! We want to arrive in Heaven and be able to speak 2 Timothy 4:7-8 over ourselves - that we have fought the good fight and run the good race in service to the Lord! When we are working for the Lord, let us remember not to put too much pressure on ourselves - we are just the vessel He is using and it has nothing to do with our abilities.
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 2:4-10; John 15:4-11; 2 Timothy 4:7-8
The way to filter through all the varying theologies in the world is to examine them against Jesus. We should test everything and consider all teaching and scripture reading with a bias that God is good and Jesus revealed Him to us. We must be careful who we take instruction from and look at the fruit in our leaders/teachers lives because they can point us, but we are responsible for what we believe and do with it. Because people have abused the gifts or finances, we can fall into the trap of limiting in our minds God's abundance. Common thought has been that God was angry in the Old Testament and loving in the New Testament, but we should look at this more closely. Understand what judgment is and that God must judge sin because he is a just God. He doesn't want to judge us when we sin. We inherently know the law and when we break it, we know the judgment is just. All that is evil and opposite of what God created in the Garden is part of the curse of the fall and is not what He wanted for us. We have only two choices - life or death, blessings or curses, follow God and have all He promised or don't and suffer the consequences. You can look at the story of the Israelites and Pharoah in Exodus and see that God's first choice was that Pharaoh would let the people go. God gave him the choice and he chose to be proud and hard-hearted over and over, such that God finally gave him over to his choice. He does the same with us! His desire is for everyone to be saved - even the wicked! The only way for sin to be eradicated is for final judgment to happen, so God, in His patience, is waiting and giving as many people as possible time to repent and choose Him. As Christians, we need to check ourselves and determine if we are doing all we can to lead people to Jesus. If we are not seeing results from our prayers, we need to check our motivation, our faith, and realize that spiritual warfare could hold up our prayers also. Stay faithful and continue in prayer!
Amen!
Reference verses: John 14:8-9; Col 2:8; Matthew 4:23-24; John 10:10; Exodus 15:26; Isaiah 45:7; Romans 2:5-11; Psalm 9:16; Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Romans 9:17-18; Exodus 9:1-4, 15-16; Romans 9:16-22; Leviticus 18:24-25; Deuteronomy 20:16-18; Ezekiel 18:21-23; 2 Peter 3:9; Joshua 2:12-13; Romans 10:13; Exodus 18:29-32; Ezekiel 33:11; Luke 13:34; Romans 9:30-31; Galatians 3:13; Romans 2:4; Luke 10:19; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5; Ezekiel 22:29-31; Genesis 19:18-22; James 4:1-2; 1 Peter 3:7; Daniel 10:12-13; Matthew 17: 19-20; Mark 6:5-6; Job 38:2-7; Job 42:2-6
As we continue to break down the story of Job for greater understanding, we are reminded that Jesus is the truth. Everything we need to see or know about God, we see in Jesus because He is the exact imprint of God. Nowhere in scripture does it say that Jesus blessed a disease and said it was for the good of the person afflicted. People argue back and forth about predestination and free will, Calvinist and Armenian, but the reality is that we can hold so closely to what we have believed that we aren't willing to see things that are obvious. We must have a heart to hear - this hasn't changed from Jesus's time when those who were willing were able to understand. When we look at Job, the reason he was blameless was because he sacrificed to God - fulfilling the law that governed the earth. It was not God who struck Job: it was Satan! When we question whether something could have come from God, we should remember we have a right to hold God accountable to who He says He is in His word. Throughout the Word, Jesus's will was to heal. There is not a single instance where someone who came to Him for healing left without it. Do we stop asking too quickly? The Canaanite woman pressed when Jesus said healing wasn't for her and he rewarded her with the healing because she kept on. How can we think that God who is all good would inflict us with the very suffering from which He then would heal us? Going back to Job, one thing to note is that Job never asked God for deliverance. He pleaded his case, questioned God why, but he never prayed for deliverance until the end of the story. Then, immediately, he was healed and restored. God was waiting for Job to take action and ASK. We can get stuck in the method and neglect the heart of God when we have preconceived ideas of how our deliverance should look. We can also attribute suffering to God's will instead of taking responsibility for our choices that lead us into suffering. There is a difference between suffering caused by bad choices and Biblical suffering. Biblical suffering is for the Word - persecution for your faith. God will strengthen us as He did Peter against the insults and attacks when we choose Him and are redeemed. As we wrap up the week, as yourself where you have accepted a Job situation instead of going to God in prayer.
Amen!
Reference verses: Hebrews 1:3; John 14:8-9; Colossians 2:8; Job 2:4-6; Job 1:1; Leviticus 17:11; Job 2:7; Matthew 8:1-3, 5-7; Mark 5:25-29; Matthew 4:24; Job 1:21; Job 35:16; Job 38:2; 1 Chronicles 4:9-10; Luke 22:31-32; Matthew 6:8-10; Psalm 102:17; Luke 11:9-10; Daniel 6:6-9, 12-14; Isaiah 53:9-10; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 4:16-17; John 15:18-21; 1 Peter 5:8-11; 1 Peter 4:12-16
Often when believers talk about the goodness and mercy of God, people will say "what about Job?" Many of us have the same struggle in our thoughts. It's like fighting to stay stuck in the mud, but Jesus freed us from that. He had to die and be resurrected in order to be raised above all things and rulers on the earth. In Genesis, we see Adam and Eve given dominion over the earth by God, but they lost that and gave it to Satan when they sinned and disobeyed God. This spread to all mankind. Therefore, all the earth is under darkness and the authority of Satan. Before we came to Jesus, we too were under the dominion and obeyed the devil - there is no middle ground. You either obey Jesus or the devil. Often, people question why God was so harsh in the Old Testament and loving and merciful in the New Testament. God doesn't change! He is the same! He was not against the people, but against their sin, which He had to punish as a righteous God because sin is destructive. Jesus was the only answer there could be to redeem mankind, but God had to wait a long time for men to do what was needed. Jesus paid the price for us with His blood, but for Job, the sacrifice had not yet taken place. He was still in Satan's hands because Satan had dominion over the earth. Job loved God and stayed away from evil, so his soul was safe, but his body and earthly life were subject to the authority of the devil that Adam had given away in the garden. God made man in His image and Jesus is an exact representation of God, so when the devil led Jesus into the desert to tempt Him, it was like Adam. The difference is that Adam gave into the temptation and Jesus did not, so He overcame the authority Satan had over the earth because He was born to a virgin and was sinless. He broke the chains and regained the authority Adam had lost. So - what about Job? We are in a different place than he was because we have access through the death and resurrection of Jesus that has set us free!
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 1:19-23; Genesis 1:26; Romans 5:12; Colossians 1:13-14; Ephesians 2:1-6; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; Romans 8:2; Galatians 3:13-15; James 5:9-11; Job 1:6-12; Hebrews 1:3; Matthew 4:2-11
Matthew 19:16-22 tells the story of the rich young ruler who couldn't bring himself to give everything up for Jesus. He had done all these other things, but couldn't do that. We think in terms of "good enough", but there is no such thing with Jesus - it's all or nothing. He has a plan and purpose for us and we are not fully walking in it when we don't fully surrender and follow Him. It's about the posture of our hearts. As we break down our verses today, we see Paul praying for the church to show love to God's people everywhere and to have strong faith, which comes from adversity. He tells us to pray constantly. He then prays for us to have spiritual wisdom and insight. Do you realize some things might not happen without our prayers? We must pray and expect to receive! We should have confident hope, knowing who we are in Him, and rest on Him as we show that hope to others. We also must understand His incredible greatness and realize He will provide everything we need. Too many Christians go through life as beggars, so ask yourself if you trust and believe Him or not! God has authority over everything. If we truly understand this, we can stand up and claim what He has already given us! When we do this, we will be made complete in Christ, not lacking anything because He has provided for us.
Amen!
Reference verses: Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 9:16-22; Matthew 5:16; John 13:35; James 1:5; 2 Kings 6:15-17; Matthew 8:5-10; John 14:12-14; Jeremiah 6:16
Before we were saved, many of us lived our lives not even knowing we were lost and in need of saving. If we don't know we need Jesus, we won't be open to receive Him. It is His leading that leads us to transformation. Parenthood is like a snapshot of how God feels about us - He will stop at nothing to draw us to Himself. There are two kinds of lost people: those who are lost but don't realize they are and those who know they are lost but don't know how to be found. God seeks us out, but it is still our choice to accept Him, because it can't be love if it isn't a choice. When we fully comprehend the lengths God has gone to to save us, we can't help but respond. Acts 2:37-41 shows us Peter telling the people what they need to do and it hasn't changed: repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. God is available and wants to save everyone, but we still have to choose and we need Jesus to open our hearts and minds to Himself. This brings us to the unpardonable sin, which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This isn't a one time thing. This is a lifestyle of repeatedly rejecting Jesus once you have shared in the Holy Spirit and experienced things of Heaven. God will keep trying until the point of no return when He allows us to have our way. We never stop being His children! We cannot lose our salvation because we can't earn it - it is a gift! We have all been hurt by the church, so let's all join to help build a better church!
Reference verses: Acts 2:37-41; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Romans 10:9-10; John 6:44; Mark 3:28-30; Hebrews 6:4-6; Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:11-14; Deuteronomy 31:6; Revelation 3:20
Amen!
The main part of church isn't the sermon, it is the highlight of meeting and spending time with the Father. We get in trouble when we worry about the wrong things because God's plan is much more robust than our small vision. Do we really want to know our purpose? We ask God what He wants us to do, but when we don't like what He says, we keep looking. In Ephesians 1:7-14, God shows us our purpose. We must fully understand what He did for us to understand our purpose and know we can never repay it, but accept the freedom He gives. We should grow in wisdom and understanding because He gives it to us. A crucial part of understanding our purpose is living inside God's plan. His plan works through the local church - through our involvement and releasing ourselves to His plan. God works it all out according to His purpose, not when we do what we want and assume He will work it out. He is available to all, but we must choose to believe. He leaves the Holy Spirit inside of us as an inheritance and redeems us to His glory. Our purpose begins in Mark 16:15-16 - to go into the world and preach the Gospel. To see results, we must do what He instructs us to do. Matthew 16:25 reminds us we have to be willing to give up our lives for God's Will. Sandbox is about Acts 2:42-47: we live this out with God's help. Our purpose is wrapped up in our local church and we make time in our lives for our church family, reorienting our lives to live out that purpose.
Amen!
In 2 Samuel 23:10, we see Eleazar standing alone to fight when everyone has left. Are we willing to fight alone? What will it take to move us from what God says we are? We must be people who will stand on God's Word when everything else has fallen away. 1 Peter 1:18-20 says God chose Jesus to be the sacrifice before He created the world, yet Paul told Timothy to pray for the leaders so there would be peace. This shows us that God's Will still requires us to act on it! If you believe it is all up to God's Will and what we do won't make a difference, it will affect your theology. You can't pray with full faith for healing and deliverance if you believe that sickness and evil come from God. God does not want anyone to perish, but scripture tells us the path to destruction is wide and that to righteousness is narrow - so we must choose which path we will take. Any conviction we feel comes from God knocking at the door of our hearts, but we still have to let Him in. God called us when He chose us, but we must ask ourselves: how are we responding to His calling and His gifting to us? We have a great responsibility as His chosen ones to step out in faith! Some may battle self-doubt, not really believing He chose us, but if we will believe, we will no longer fight those feelings of inadequacy and can rest assured there is nothing we can do to return to what we were before Christ. Let's ask ourselves what people see about Jesus from watching our lives and what entanglements we are allowing to keep us from moving forward.
Reference verses: 2 Samuel 23:10; 1 Peter 1:18-20; James 1:13-15; Genesis 2:16-17; Deuteronomy 30:19; Colossians 2:13-14; John 6:44; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; John 3:16-17; Acts 2:38-39; Matthew 9:37-38; Romans 10:14-15; Mark 16:15-16
Amen!
We must combat the tradition in Christianity to believe we are growing because we are gaining knowledge. That is only part of it - we must apply what we learn. Think about all the sermons you have heard and ask yourself what fruit has come of them. James 1:22 tells us to be doers, not hearers who deceive themselves. What is the single greatest pursuit or purpose of your life? It should be a relationship with our Lord because that is what Jesus came to do - to restore us to the type of intimate relationship Adam and Eve had with God before the Fall. Where is the evidence in your life of your faith or have you been hiding in the trees? Too many Christians are waiting for God to kick them out, but He never will! We can't truly follow Him if we don't believe He always does what is best for us and He doesn't bring evil into our lives - only one does that. We must know who we are in Jesus to implement what He tells us to do, or else we will make excuses when we haven't claimed our identity in Him. Every letter Paul wrote had a purpose - a call to action - and he could not be knocked off course because he knew what he was called to - read Ephesians 1:1. So why are we following just some of Christ? We are selective in what we follow and we end up off course, so we must realize we need and ask Christ for His help to change. We can only gain the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-24 with His help! Unless we are different, the world will never see Jesus in us, so we must do the Psalm 139:23-24 inspection of ourselves with God regularly. Ephesians 1:3 reminds us everything is because of Christ - all blessings come only from being united with Him. To implement this, we must be obedient to Him above what we may like, want, or choose for ourselves and trust Him with our whole lives.
Amen!
When we receive a word from someone, even if they are a believer, we still should test it against God's Word. 2 Corinthians 2:4 reminds us that we should speak out of love when we have a healthy burden on our hearts for a fellow Christian. In last week's message, Brent compared us a bit to the Pharisees. That can be hard to hear, but said in love, it should open our eyes to look at where we may be falling short and test that against God's Word. It is easy to react in our flesh when something happens that we don't like, but as a Christian, we are called to respond in a way informed by our faith. It's not really an option for us to do otherwise because a Christian is who we are, not just something we do. When we become a Christian, it's no longer our right to react in our flesh! So often, we say it's hard, but the reality is it isn't hard, it's just unfamiliar territory. When we are born, we don't know how to do everything, we have to learn skills and knowledge, so similarly, we just need to learn how to walk in our faith.
When we look at Acts 2, it is clear that God expected the Christian life to be a 4-D experience. It is active and engaged, not passive like the modern church has become, where we just get an education that we don't apply. We mock the Pharisees but we become like them when we focus on being perfect on the outside and turn lifeless on the inside. If our foundation is not on the Word, but is on being at the "right" church or other worldly things, we can't be authentic and weather the storms that will come. James 1:27 reminds us to look after orphans and widows and keep ourselves from being polluted by the world. Are we on the lookout for spiritual pollution of our souls? Have we, as a church, become polluted by the world or are we pushing back against it? How will we know? The Bible is our mirror - if we lay our lives against it, it shows us the answer to those questions.
When we talk about giving in the church today, there are many misconceptions. Sometimes people can take the Word and beat people with it on the subject of giving, making it a purely legalistic endeavor. The sermon on the Mount talks about all the ways we are blessed by flipping the idea of blessings on their head. All the ways the world considers someone not blessed, Jesus says we are. The poor in spirit have the kingdom of Heaven. Those who mourn will be comforted. The merciful will be shown mercy. The pure in heart will see God. All of these things show the people had a heart issue - and so do we. Our giving is tied directly to the state of our hearts. Matthew 6:1-4 tells us not to give in order to be seen or to be recognized. It is easy to develop a sort of spiritual pride about how we give of our finances, our time, and how we use our talents for the church when we keep track of our giving in these areas and compare to others. If we are giving to fulfill a need in our hearts for recognition from others or from pride, we need to reevaluate our motivation and take it to God. Our choices are earthy rewards or heavenly rewards, so we should ask ourselves - which one do we want? We can't have both - it's a choice to be recognized on earth or in Heaven. We need to develop a passion for giving and not for the recognition that it brings. The flip side of this is that we are also called to show our works so others can see them and glorify God - as in Matthew 5:15-16. If we keep quiet, how can we give an account? It doesn't have to be this way - we don't have to keep our giving a secret but also shouldn't brag. A good way to think about it is if someone were to take a peek into your life, they will see how you give. It's not seeking praise for ourselves, but being faithful. Hebrews 10:19-20; 23-24 reminds us we have confidence because of the blood of Jesus and we should spur one another toward love and good deeds. We can only do this by giving an account of what He has done in our lives and sharing how He has changed us. In Luke 17, we see the story of the ten lepers who are healed, but only one returns to thank and praise Jesus. It is important when we receive that we be open and tell others how God has worked in our lives so that we give Him the praise He deserves. James 2:14-26 talks about the perceived battle between faith and works. The church culture today is so caught up in works that we can forget the faith in Jesus that should drive those works or it's so caught up in grace that we don't think we have to do anything. Jesus's heart was for us to testify about our faith and how others' works have impacted us. Abraham gave us one of the first examples of faith and works. He walked in faith for years after God promised him offspring, but then was willing to give up his precious son when God asked - walking out his faith. Let's not get caught up in legalism! Revelation 3 is the letter to the church at Philadelphia. Although John tells them he has found little wrong with what they are doing, he still exhorts them that there is work to be done. We can't rest on our faith and not work out our salvation. How we give is a picture of that process. The world doesn't want us to give joyfully when we are facing tribulations. They want us to be quiet and not share our testimony. We don't have the time to waffle over this and allow Satan to use our giving and church culture as a self-rebuke. Our giving should be an overpouring of what God has given us - whether it is finances or time - not in a prideful way, but in obedience and gratitude.
Amen!
Jamian: We often have confidence, but we don't trust ourselves. We have all the tools we need to beat whatever we are facing with God. Trust in yourself through Him! John 3:16 tells us about God's love for the world. It's the foundation of Christianity, but what is your foundation, your why? Why are you a Christian? Is it just so you can go to heaven? What does your salvation save you from? Sometimes if we have been Christians for a long time, we get the idea that we don't have anything else for God to save us from, but this simply isn't true. Galatians 5:13 reminds us we were called to freedom. We seem to have a lot of "buts" - excuses why we aren't free. But I went through this challenge or that one - when we need to leave the big "buts" for what God did and does to redeem us from those situations. Ask yourself if your life inspires others to be free. If it doesn't, then you may not be as free as you think. Write down what it is that you still need freedom from in your life - to help you see yourself walking free from it! Galatians 5:14 tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but you can't love others if you don't love yourself. Remember the circumstances of your past and let them propel you, but don't allow them to define you. You are no longer a slave - so don't identify as one! We don't get to choose what we are dealt in life, but we do get to choose how we will play or not. Choose your weapons wisely! Brent: Sometimes our comfort can hold us back. Struggle gives us an opportunity to grow in a way we wouldn't otherwise. We have this misconception that life should be fair, but nowhere in the Bible does it say life is fair. If you have to push against something or someone stronger than you, like in physical training, eventually you will grow stronger. We have become a nation of the scared, not the brave. We are so risk averse, but the Bible tells us we will be persecuted. Christians should be the toughest people on the planet! In church today, people are too easily offended and worried about what everyone else thinks. If we know who we are in God, it doesn't matter. Nothing can stop God's plan and purpose for our lives if we are living in His will. Why do we think we deserve anything? No one owes us anything! The world is set up to drag us back into slavery at every turn - that's why Galatians 5:1 reminds us not to fall into slavery AGAIN. We have to choose not to submit to it! Matthew 16:21-28 tells the story of Jesus predicting his death and Peter tried to rebuke him. But if we want to live for Jesus, we have to be willing to give up everything. We must be willing to give up what we think we should have. This is not our final destination! If we are truly walking in freedom, we will be willing to lay down our lives to further His purpose. Are you really ready to be free?!
Amen!
We've just wrapped up the freedom series, and we talked about the choice of being free from the prison of our sins and shame. Once we have made that decision to give up our chains, what are we to do next? A look at Philippians 2:12-17 gives us a good guide. We are saved by faith, but we still have to do something with it. Verse 12 tells us "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling". This fear is reverence and respect for God. Much like a car, we have to keep doing maintenance on our faith. We will get dirty as we go through life, so we have to do maintenance to keep our faith strong and to be obedient to God. It's not just a one time thing when we accept Jesus. Verse 13 talks about the will - how God works in us so that we do what he has purposed for us to do. As we walk with Jesus, we will feel an urgency to do what God tells us to do. Like a thermostat that is wired above to the air conditioner, we are wired to God. When you turn the thermostat up or down, the machine will adjust. In the same way, if we are wired to God above through prayer, we can change our surroundings. When we get our will in alignment with His, we can change the environment. Verse 14 can be hard because it tells us to everything without grumbling or arguing - not some things, everything. It's not always easy to do! Things frustrate us and we react in a way we don't want to. We should do things in joy, but why? Verse 15 tells us! We will become blameless in a crooked generation and we will shine. Our witness will be God's light shining through us in the darkness. People will notice something different about us if we react in peace and kindness when others react harshly or in anger. Verse 16 reminds us to hold firmly to the word of life - that is Jesus. As we live for Jesus, we will be able to witness that our lives are changed because of Him. We are reminded in verse 17 that there will be things we will have to sacrifice to serve Jesus. It is like exercising. If you go to the gym but don't do anything, you won't see results. If you just come to church, but don't engage and don't exercise your faith on other days, it won't matter. What we feed our spirits - our spiritual food - will come out. Be sure you are putting in good food! As we serve God, we must remember that eventually, we will be persecuted, whether it is being the odd one at work or people saying you are wrong in your beliefs because they don't match current day culture. Remember that the Word needs to change the culture - not the culture changing the word to suit it. Equip yourself by putting on the full armor of God like Ephesians 6 tells us so that after you have done everything, you can stand. Keep up the good work!
Amen!
In today's culture, it seems like attendance is enough. It doesn't matter if you truly participate, as long as you are there. As we end our Freedom series, let's not make the mistake of thinking that applies here. You can go through this curriculum, not miss a week, and do all the homework, but still not be free. As Christians, we serve the God of the universe, but we can still live in a dungeon in our hearts - one of bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, and resentment. We can't give something we don't have! We are called to go and make disciples, but to what extent can we do so effectively if we are still bound up in our own mess? In order to get free and stay free, it takes a commitment, like Galatians 5:1 tells us, "don't be burdened AGAIN" - it is an ongoing process. Like a garden, we have to choose what is going to go into our soil. What is going to be the main feature? We have to tend it, pull weeds, and prune it for the desirable plants to grow. It is the same with our lives and our thoughts. If we want to be free from bitterness, self-hatred, anger, etcetera, we must choose to uproot those things. Jesus has done all the work that needs to be done for us to be free by dying on the cross for us, but we still have to choose to accept the freedom He offers. Ask yourself: What am I allowing to set the standard in my life? Is it television, social media, the opinions of others, or is it God's Word? Do I allow other things to influence my expectation of God and what He is going to do? If others attribute evil things to God (i.e. How can God let bad things happen?), do we listen to them or to His Word? Psalm 119:105 tells us His word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our paths. 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us to live by faith, not by sight. These verses remind us how we are to perceive God. We must let His Word set the standard for our lives and our expectations. How should we go about our daily lives to walk in the freedom He has provided? 1) Put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6:11-17 tells us about that armor. It doesn't say "if" the devil will attack us, it says "when". We must be equipped for it! 2) Worship the King. When we praise Him, we focus on Him and not on the things going on around us. 3) Continually be in prayer, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22. We need to remember prayer is not just talking, but also listening for His voice. 4) Be accountable and maintain right relationships. James 5:16 reminds us to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other. The world tells us to keep our junk to ourselves, but we must confess it in order to be forgiven and healed from it! 2 Corinthians 6:14 tells us not to be yoked with unbelievers. This doesn't mean you can't have unsaved friends, but it does mean that the people who you allow to speak into your life in the deepest ways need to be believers. 5) Resist the enemy and he will flee from you - James 4:7 6) Take inventory and make changes. We must change our fleshly habits. If we don't fully take off our old selves, how can we put the new one on? Are you ready to walk in freedom?!
Amen!
When we are kids, we sometimes think our coaches in sports are against us because they make us do things we don't want to do, but as we get older, we realize that everything they do is for our benefit. It's the same way with church! If we are bored, we often think it's the pastor, but it's not - it's our own fault. We tend to think church is about us - that we should be entertained, that God owes us something, when the reality is that He owes us nothing but gave us everything! When it comes to worship, getting down on our faces shouldn't be a difficult thing if we think about it. In countries where people have nothing, they know they need God, but here, in our wealth, we can easily think we don't when He is the thing we need the most. If we don't listen and realize this is meant to take us to the next level in our faith, we will become bored and fall into the wrong mindset. So many people go to church with an attitude of clock checking God - they better sing only 2 songs, or the message better not be longer than 30 minutes - when really, what do we have to do? We don't have to be here - we don't get a checkmark for just coming to church. If we don't want to come, don't come! Our worship is a response to God and what He has done for us. If we don't feel like worshipping, we should investigate our hearts to find out what is wrong and ask Him to show us. It is very easy to worship God the way He deserves when we get our arrogant, prideful hearts out of the way. When we realize that everything God is instructing us to do is for our benefit, we can live a life that is not just about us. Worship is more than just songs - it is a lifestyle! We can't be fully free until we give God our full worship. Remember - we are all worshipping something and what we worship, we will become. When we worship Him, we are restoring what He intended for our relationship with Him. Ask yourself: Does God have my worship? Would someone know, by looking at how I spend my money, that I worship God? How about how I use my time? If you have kids, keep in mind that they watch you, so they are watching you for how you value going to church. Our feelings may not always align with what we need to do, so we need to get our feelings in alignment. We can't serve a God we don't trust. Try reframing your mindset and your language - "get to" instead of "have to". To grow in trust with God, do these five things: 1) Give Him your affection. 2) Remain committed. 3) Include Him in your life. Our lives should look the same way Monday-Saturday as they do on Sunday. 4) Be obedient. Act quickly when He tells you to do something so you don't have time to talk yourself out of it! 5) Show reverence. Our level of intimacy with God is dependent on us, but He will help us do it. Look to Paul and Silas as your example in Acts 16:23-28. They were in jail and had been severely beaten, but they praised God anyway when they likely didn't feel like doing so. They remained committed, faithful, and reverent and many were saved. Let's try to be like Paul and Silas!
Amen!
Sometimes we think because our salvation is free, that everything else will just fall in line and be easier. This just isn't true. Walking with Christ will cost us! A CEO I recently met with said, "Extraordinary outcomes come from extraordinary effort". Effort as a Christian looks very different than effort in the world. Everything from Christ comes through faith. Romans 15:13 shows us that hope, joy, and peace come through faith. 1 John 5:4 shows us victory over sin comes through faith. Power over Satan comes through faith - Ephesians 6:16. Obedience comes through faith - Hebrews 11:6. Everyday, we must choose whether we will believe what the devil or God has to say about us - where we will put our faith. The first lie Satan told Eve was that God was holding out on her. This lie persists in our society today - that somehow we are missing out on something by following Jesus, that His laws are outdated or don't apply for today. God's ways are perfect and He knows what is best for us! Faith is a fight, as we are reminded when Paul talks about what he faced in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27. We may find ourselves praying for the difficulties and the difficult people to leave our lives, but God has a plan through all of it. We see the story in Mark 9 of the father of the boy with an evil spirit. He asked Jesus to heal the boy and help him in his unbelief. There are different levels of belief and we must be willing to have the humility to ask God to increase our faith when our belief isn't at the level we want it to be. Like Joseph, we may not see the great plan that God has for us as it unfolds. Will we decide to swap out some of His ways for our own to "help" Him along? So often, we want the shortcut to the miracle when we don't fight in faith. God often does great things through the difficulties in our lives. We must learn to put on the full armor of God, reminding ourselves of God's goodness - that the just shall live by faith. When you just "aren't feeling it", ask yourself if you are spending more of your time on things other than God. We must remember that the devil will not stand by as we try to change the world. He will actively persecute us. If we just want to lead a quiet, comfortable life, we can't expect to see God do big things through us. Let's remember to step out in faith and trust what our spiritual eyes see, not our earthly eyes as we ask God for the difficult things so we can live by faith!
Amen!
God calls us into partnership, so if you are a believer and are just existing or defeated, this is by your own choice. Jesus has done everything that we need and we have to receive it. Something needs to shift in our minds when we are saved so that we know we have an advantage over the enemy and we have God's power within us to refute his lies. What do we believe and live out in our daily lives? What moves God is faith. If we allow him, Satan will steal the purpose for our lives. 2 Corinthians 2:14 tells us we have been made captives of Christ through His victory. If Satan can defeat us in our minds, he can defeat us in our lives - it doesn't matter what the facts are if we don't believe them. Luke 1:30-33 tells us the story of Mary and the angel who told her she would give birth to Jesus. He told her purpose would be to raise the Son of the Most High. She believed it and walked in her purpose. Ladies, there is no greater thing you can do in this world than to raise a child in the way of God! 2 Timothy 2:20-21 talks about the difference between household tools for common use and those for special purpose. We choose the level of impact and significance for what God will use us: He does the work, but we have to choose to say yes! If we are selfish with our time and resources, there will not be testimonies of great impact we have had on others. What is the line we have drawn where we won't give parts of our lives to God? If we don't surrender to God's will, we can't complain about lack of results. Let us be convicted of righteousness! One of the reasons we don't change is because we think we don't have a choice (another lie of Satan), but we have been born again and we do have a choice! Romans 12:1 urges us to give our bodies to God because of all He has done for us. 2 Timothy 2:22 reminds us to flee evil desires - the company we keep makes a difference in this! Romans 6:12 tells us not to let sin reign in our bodies. All of these things are tied to our minds - the battle against sin starts in our minds and we must choose who we will listen to and who we will follow. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 reminds us that we wage war with God's weapons that can destroy strongholds. If we don't renew our minds with God's Word, it will be renewed elsewhere. Let us repent of living a life beneath what God has for us!
Amen!
In 2 Kings 6, we read the story of Elisha and his servant surrounded by the enemy. Elisha prays for his servant's eyes to be opened to the angels around them. Spiritual warfare isn't just in the Old Testament - it is for today! Many have been turned off by people in the church who do odd things in the name of spiritual warfare. Just because we don't know about something doesn't mean it isn't real. It is sad that 51% of Christians don't believe there is a real devil. He has done a good job of convincing Christians that he doesn't exist and that everything that happens is God. Many Christians go through life hanging onto the things in our lives that Jesus took to the cross and we don't receive the spiritual blessings He gave us. When He said He gave us every spiritual blessing, why do so many still barely hang onto their salvation? He is at the right hand of the Father and has filled us with His Spirit to do the works He has for us. Remember - the devil doesn't show grace or play fair and will take advantage of us until we stand on God's Word! We have to know the Word to be able to stand and to recognize when things in our lives are out of whack. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us he roams around looking for someone to devour, so we must be on guard. How many couples find themselves arguing on the way to church? Husbands - remember that YOU are the pastor of your home. YOU are the shepherd and you must listen for what doesn't belong. If you don't pray for your family, the devil will prey on them. We see in Acts 12:5-7 where the church was fervently praying for Peter in prison and he was freed. Do pastors fall because their churches aren't praying for them? James 5:14-15 tells us our prayers of faith have the power to heal the sick. If we don't pray, it may not be activated. Our prayers should be bold! Luke 10:17-19 tells us we have all authority and the demons must bow at Jesus's name: This should change our prayers! Jesus said "it is written" to Satan when He was being tempted, standing on the authority of the Word. We must study our sword so we know how to wield it. How do we practically fight spiritual warfare? First, submit ourselves to God - be humble. Second, close any doors we have left open for the enemy to reach us. Third, confront the enemy daily. Bind him in our families and our church with prayer and the Word.
Amen!
The Holy Spirit should be our best friend, but the modern church has done him a disservice. Many want him to be present in their service, but just sit there and be quiet. In John 16:5-7, Jesus tells the disciples He is leaving and it is best for them or the Holy Spirit will not come. Jesus tells us in John 14:12 that we will do even greater works than He. This is because of our numbers - we can multiply what He did all over the world. He promises that the Holy Spirit is in us and will fill us even more. When Jesus talked about commands, we think about things we are not supposed to do, but He also commanded us to ask! Ask for the Holy Spirit! There is no way we can read scripture and come to the conclusion that the gifts have ceased. If we are not seeing God move in our church, there are two things we can do - 1. Get on our knees and ask God for forgiveness for not being in alignment with where He wants us to be or 2. Come up with theology that protects our position and say He just doesn't perform miracles anymore. We are scared of the Holy Spirit, so we push him away. He is not an "it", He is a real person who comes alongside us to guide us. When we don't know what to say, we should wait to speak and pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give us the words. The Holy Spirit destroyed the works of Satan, healed the sick, and raised Jesus from the dead. If the Holy Spirit isn't moving in our church, let's be honest about it and fast, pray, and ask him to come! The Holy Spirit coming in Acts was the kingdom being restored and this is still going on today. If we, as a church, just give people bread, but don't see them set free with the gospel, then we are just a glorified outreach shelter. The answer is the Holy Spirit! Jesus's gift as He left the Earth was the Holy Spirit. We have to know He exists and something should shift in our lives when we receive him. We need to look for ourselves to learn about Him and not just listen to what others say. Some signs of receiving the Holy Spirit are speaking in tongues or prophesying. Some people don't want these gifts because they have been abused. If we say we love Jesus and would die for Him, but we resist His gifts, then we don't trust Him. In Acts 1:8, Jesus's final words as He left Earth were about receiving the Holy Spirit. We don't have freedom and we can't shine without the Holy Spirit!
Amen!
Ephesians 5:18 tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not a one-time thing: it's ongoing and necessary for us to be able to do what God calls us to do. It requires constant filling with His Word because His Word has supremacy over any circumstance in our lives. We will never see complete freedom without it! If we plant His Word, we will change our world. Think about it - He spoke the universe into existence, so what could he possibly not be able to do in our lives? Jericho was an impenetrable city with its walls, but God called Joshua to do what had never been done - to break through the walls. The world will tell us all the reasons why something can't happen, but if God says it can, that should be all we need to hear. The problem comes when we have glorified our problems and issues more than we glorify our God. In Joshua 1:6-8, God instructs Joshua to be strong and courageous as he leads the Israelites into the Promised Land, faithfully following the law, not straying from it, keeping it on his lips, and meditating on it day and night so that he will be prosperous and successful. The message is the same for us today. We can't just rely on others to tell us what to do; we have to get into the Word and find out for ourselves. Luke 1:34-38 is the story of Mary's encounter with the angel when he tells her she will give birth to God's son. It reminds us His Word will never fail. When we allow God's Word to work in our lives, it affects the people around us. Isaiah 55:11 and Jeremiah 1:12 remind us that God sends His Word out and watches over it to see that it is fulfilled. There are three things we can do to make this a reality in our lives: 1. Make God's Word a priority (Matthew 6:33) ; 2. Meditate on the Scriptures (Psalm 1:2); 3. Believe what we read (Hebrews 4:2). Our minds are being renewed everyday, whether we realize it or not. They will follow what we say, so it is important that we fill and speak good things based on His Word. If we keep planting God's Word, it will change our hearts!
Amen!
Proverbs 18:21 tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue. We see this played out in our lives - when we are encouraged or criticized, words can impact us accordingly - from childhood and on. The words we speak are a spiritual gauge that show how much we have surrendered our lives to God. What is really inside of us tends to come out when we are squeezed by difficult circumstances, showing the true condition of our hearts. We influence people all of the time with our words and will reap the reward of the words that we choose to speak. You have heard the saying that hurt people hurt people and the reverse is also true: free people free people! This is why we must be careful about what we say! Our words can condemn us. If you look at Eve in the garden, Satan didn't bite her to infect her with sin, he simply spoke to her and his words infected her. Then those words infected Adam and were passed down to all of humanity. James 3:2-5 tells us about the tongue - how a bit in the mouth of a horse controls it, or the rudder of a giant ship directs its course. It is like a small spark that can set a whole forest ablaze. James cautions us to control our tongues. There are three things that can help uproot words of death in our lives. First - guard your heart. Matthew 12:34 reminds us the mouth speaks the overflow of the heart. Second - Limit your tongue. Remember that correction is not bad, but the way we speak matters. Third - Speak truth instead of lies. When a lie is spoken, speak the truth over it. Repent of believing the words of someone else over God. Cast off the lies. Bless others - including the ones who have hurt you.
Amen!
Forgiveness is a tough topic. We have the right to choose whether or not to forgive, so if we are carrying unforgiveness that is keeping us from growing, it is entirely our choice - see Deuteronomy 30:19-20. The devil has convinced us that we don't have choices or that we are weak because of all the things that have happened in our lives, but that is a lie. If Paul or Jesus were alive today, they would be considered offensive because they spoke truth. Jesus destroyed the power of sin on the cross so we would have the power to stop our destructive behavior and poor choices. When we are in Him, we are neither helpless nor victims. Many of us have faced hurtful times and may have closed our hearts to others and to God, thinking we are unlovable. The reality is that when we close ourselves off, we make ourselves unlovable through a hardened heart. We can often struggle with unforgiveness because we have the wrong idea of what forgiveness is. First, it is not letting them off the hook, but rather is allowing God to step in. When we are hurt, we want judgment for others, but we open ourselves to the same treatment when we do that. Ouch! That's when we might want to remember mercy. Second, forgiveness doesn't always mean reconciliation or forgetting the wrong. There are some relationships that it is best not to rekindle. When we are able to see God's hand working in our situation, we are on the way to forgiveness and we are letting ourselves out of the prison. Look back at Matthew 18:21-35 and the parable of the unforgiving servant. He was forgiven a massive debt by his master after pleading for mercy, but then showed none to someone who owed him money. The result was that his master took away the mercy he had given and threw him in prison. Matthew 6:15 tells us straight - if we refuse to forgive others, our Father will not forgive us. We have justified a certain amount of unforgiveness for ourselves to carry, which only allows garbage and diseased thinking when we hold onto it. Forgiveness is not natural - we MUST have supernatural help from Jesus to do it! We should also be honest with ourselves: do we hold offense as much as the world does? If we do, we aren't reflecting Jesus in our lives and we should question how strongly we are holding our faith. The third way we struggle is that we don't believe we can do it. How can we say God raises the dead but we can't get over our small hurts that won't matter when our time on earth is done? Ephesians 4:31-32 tells us to get rid of ALL bitterness. If our hearts are closed and hard, we cannot be useful for God. Our job is to trust Him for wisdom to guard our hearts. His job is to protect us and help us. Let Him do his job in you!
Amen!
How do we get to a place of faith like Paul and Stephen? They both died for their faith. They knew as it was happening what was coming and surrendered. As we celebrate this Easter, there are some sobering stats about the state of faith in America. Just 20% of American self-professed Christians attend church on a weekly basis. That number climbs to 50% for Easter. What this might tell us is that the church is failing in its job to show Jesus. Many Christians haven't really met Him. Romans 10:9 is the origin of the salvation prayer, but many don't think about the true meaning and intent of those words. The heart is at the center of life: all physical, spiritual, and soul (thoughts, desires, purposes), flow from the heart. In order to trust God, we have to develop a relationship with Him and if we have a damaged heart because we have been burned by people or the church, we might not want to open ourselves up. We have to learn to trust God and give up control, with three areas where we must surrender to deepen our relationship with Him. First, we build trust through His Word. Romans 12:2 reminds us to renew our minds. Ask yourself: What am I spending more time doing - watching tv or spending time in the Word with God? If we don't desire to spend time in the Word and learn more, it is a dangerous place to be, making us an easy target for the enemy. Second, we build trust with God through prayer. We talk to Him and share our thoughts, feelings, concerns, and fears. Check out Matthew 7:11, Philippians 4:6, 1 John 5:14, and Colossians 4:2. Third, we build relationships with other believers to encourage one another and walk together as in Hebrews 10:24-25. To have a deep relationship with God, we must be willing to sacrifice, whether that is things, relationships, or our selfish desires, to completely surrender our lives to Him. Some questions to ponder this week: What am I prioritizing above God? What am I holding onto that is keeping me from the promises of God? Step into surrender!
Do we have a preconceived notion about God - how He should heal us or deliver us? Like Naaman, do we think we know how it will go and limit what we are willing to do to receive freedom? How many times are we offered a way out and we don't take it? Like Martha in the story of Lazarus, we turn away the only one who can help us when we reject God because our deliverance doesn't look like we thought it would. Instead of listing excuses why it can't happen, we need to accept God's healing when we ask for it and take Him at His word. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts because they will direct our lives. Ask yourself: How is my heart? Is it broken? We may have blockages in our heart that prevent us from living life the way that we have received with Jesus. Those can be selfishness, bitterness, rejection, and evil thoughts. We must be honest with ourselves about what we have done to ourselves, what we have allowed to fester that others have done, and make the decision to feed ourselves with good food for our minds and spirits, not junk. Ask the Holy Spirit today to show you where your blockages are!
Amen!
In order to be free to love God and be ourselves, we have to receive the love of God first. God created us in three parts with an order to all of it: a spirit that must be redeemed; a soul that must be restored; and a body that must be re-purposed. 1 Corinthians 2:14 reminds us if we aren't in the Spirit, we won't be able to understand and our bodies and souls can reject the Word. While we are saved at the point of salvation, we aren't mature Christians. It takes time to learn and grow and we must be nurtured in order to reach maturity. God can do an amazing, immediate transformation like He did with Paul, but it may also come in degrees. The enemy can also move us off the right path by degrees, so we must be watchful. As we grow in our spirit, we become one with God - 1 Corinthians 6:17. Christ will often give us a song of our heart. Do you have one? Do you remember it or have you let it leave your heart? The soul is restored when it comes in line with the Holy Spirit. Our soul is also three parts: our mind (thinking and reasoning); our will (making choices); and our emotions (believing, feeling). For our minds - do we know God or do we know of God? Sometimes we don't recognize miracles for what they are or we take credit for them or treat them as normal, such as finding a job that allows us to provide for our family. The miraculous surrounds us everyday if we will look differently at the world around us. It requires us knowing who is driving our thoughts. The good thing is we can change our destination! The body is the last part and involves works, our flesh and all the things we do in our own power. Have you ever noticed the harder you try to get out of sin in your own power, the tighter its grasp seems to be on you? We must be ourselves, especially around the people closest to us. Otherwise, we can't experience the fullness of Christ. Knowing our identity is key to being in the fullness of Christ. Our identity is not what we do for a living. Do you know your identity? If you don't, ask God to show you through His Word. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that He chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. He did so in love. Let's remember that God does not condemn. Galatians 5:19-23 tells us about the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. This is not to condemn, but to warn us, to help us recognize the dangers and to know the benefit of the Spirit. It is then that living in the tree of Life becomes tangible and exciting!
There are lots of things that we don't talk about in church: porn addiction, sex, adultery, etc, but who told us we can't talk about those things? If we all put on our church face and don't talk about the things we struggle with, we can't get free. This is why you see the same statistics in the church as in the world. Faith is believing in what God says over everything else, but if we don't have confidence in Him, we won't trust that He can provide what He says He will. Look at Abraham and Sarah. Their names were changed to mean "mother and father of multitudes". God spoke that over them before He provided it to them. God does the same with us. We were once slaves, but like Galatians 4:7 says, we are now sons and heirs. God equips us and He is right here among us - we don't have to wait till we get to Heaven to encounter Him and be free. So many of us are bound up by shame, so we pray over small stuff and don't address the big things with God when we should be transparent because He knows it all anyway. Satan blackmails us by reminding us of what we have done when we try to step out in faith, such as when we go to pray for someone struggling with relationships and he reminds us of our failures in that area. The best way to counteract his blackmail is by admitting it - confessing our sins and laying it out so it's not hidden anymore. Galatians 5:1 reminds us that we have to fight for our freedom because we can become bound up again in our sin and shame. This can be especially hard for believers because we know better! Remember Romans 8:1-2, which tells us the law of the Spirit of life has set us free and there is no condemnation for those in Christ. People in our body have been burdened by shame for promiscuity, abortion, pornography, homosexual desires, racism and many other things. We must remember that our sins are no better or worse than anyone else's, but we are all first and foremost, children of God and that is how He sees us. What we have done is not who we are. The Word tells us to make allowances for each others' sin and to show mercy. Let's not continue the trend in so many churches of further injuring our wounded. Let's allow honesty and vulnerability and show God's grace to all so that all who come to Sandbox can leave different than they were when they arrived!
Amen!
How many of us are tired of the slick marketing and false advertising of commercial church? How many don't have time to go through the motions anymore? The church's answer to leprosy has always been to put the leper outside the church/city. This was true in the Bible and it's true now. Drugs, adultery, addiction to porn, etc - these things happen in the church today, but if you ask people how they are doing, you will get the "oh I'm good, we're all good" answer. So many put on the mask and an act on Sunday when they are falling apart. Why? Who are we trying to impress? We have to be like the leper who approached Jesus and asked to be healed. He wasn't afraid of his mess and Jesus wasn't either. We think we have committed unforgiveable sins, but the only unforgiveable sin is an ongoing rejection of Jesus. Our church has to be a place where people can bring their ugliness and their brokenness and we meet them exactly where they are - just as Jesus did. James 5:16 says to confess our sin so that we can be healed. If you look throughout the gospels, Jesus saved his criticism for the religious people, not for the sinners. We can be bound up by the destructive force of shame, but if we look at the people God used to do amazing things, many of them had really messed up and sinned. Our bodies were not designed to carry shame and it starts to break down our lives - our minds, our souls, our bodies - so that we can't do what God has for us to do. It's then that we need to remember Jesus paid it all so we don't have to. Knowledge doesn't solve everything and God doesn't expect perfection from us, but we shouldn't lower our expectations or stop trying to be like our Father. We just have to remember we need His help and can't do it in our own power or works. As imperfect people, we can share about a perfect Jesus and impact the lives of those around us. Satan will remind us of what we have done and we can remind him of what Jesus has done! As we read our Bibles and pray, our heart should be to come to know God, not just to check a box, to please Him, or try to attain righteousness through our actions. It's how we will come to know our worth so that we can find freedom. As we close, ask yourself, are you willing to go after your freedom, your righteousness that Jesus already gave and not accept anything less?
Amen!
John 8:36 tells us if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed. Galatians 5:1 tells us "do not be burdened AGAIN by a yoke of slavery". We can be free and then go back into slavery. How free are we, really? Even as Christians, we have accepted a certain level of fear in our lives. Jesus did the work, but if we don't fully accept the freedom He offers, we will be ineffective in helping others find freedom. Why aren't we free? John 10:10 tells us that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is the ultimate con artist, leading us to doubt our freedom by lying and doing all he can to distract us from God's plan. Our circumstances may not change and we may be in a storm, but with freedom, we can have peace in the storm that surpasses understanding. It's like that old adage - we are what we eat. The same is true for our minds. If we fill our minds with God's Word and good things, that is what we will believe. The opposite is also true - fill your mind with garbage, and you'll see the effect in your life. If we don't know the truth, we can't walk in it. A lot of our beliefs don't come from the Bible - they come from men. We may rely on our leaders or teachers too much and not know the Word ourselves. When we look back at Genesis chapter 2, we see the tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In chapter 3, Satan tempted Eve with a level of godliness. When we get wrapped up in the knowledge part and focus on that instead of the relationship of knowing God, it is easy to see how we can get off target and focus on the man-made rules. God is all about the relationship. Look at John 5:39-40. The pharisees had thousands of rules and knew the scriptures, but they didn't accept Jesus. Jesus distilled all of the rules down to two basic ones: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Our confidence must come from how good and faithful God is, not how good we are, or we will always be disappointed. We can never do enough, but Jesus has already done it and we just have to receive it. Every human relationship is performance-based, but God loves us no matter our performance. We search scripture so that we can learn more about God, not to earn His approval. If we truly understand the love of God, sin will lose its allure. We must remember that we will not be righteous based on our works, but on Jesus. James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another and be healed and that the prayer of a righteous man is effective. Once we confess and Jesus forgives us, by that forgiveness, we are now righteous! Look also at 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 14:15; and Deuteronomy 30:15-16. If we fall in love with Jesus, the rest will take care of itself! Our love for Him will lead us to follow His commands and walk in relationship with Him.
Amen!
The ultimate purpose for reading the Bible is to come into a place of worship. Like other things in life, things that amaze us today in the Bible become common over time. We lose our wonder. Being on guard for this is the first step to avoiding it. God doesn't need our worship, but it is how we encounter Him and how He imparts to us. Without Scripture, we can't know God. It is His greatest gift to us - Himself and the ability to worship Him. Worship is one of the only things we get to do here on earth that we will also do in Heaven! By reading our Bibles with faith and expectation, worshiping Him for His supreme worth and beauty, we will become more like Him, drawing more people into the family of God.
We often face challenges and think "if only Jesus were here". The reality is that we are to be the ones to be His hands and feet in the world! John 14:12 reminds us that we will do greater works than Jesus did. So many Christians today pray small, weak prayers and churches limit them with small ideas about who God is and what He does. God is looking for people to redefine what is possible in the kingdom. God is with us (that's what Emmanuel, one of the names of Jesus, means), so we are called to do the same works as Jesus did. God's grace is sufficient for us. It is huge, overwhelming, and all-encompassing. Let's move forward and leave the poverty mentality behind! Ephesians 4:11-15 calls us to serve - as pastors, apostles, teachers, evangelists, and prophets. This is how Sandbox will serve in God's kingdom. Challenge yourself to think about where you are and whether you are doing what God has for you to do.
There is a force that wants to keep us from spending time in God's Word. It is very easy for us to miss experiencing the fullness of God's Word when we don't realize what we have in our hands. John 1:1 tells us "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." If we think about that - when we hold the Bible in our hands, we are holding God - it will change how we read. No more will we just be reading another book or performing a task to check off our list of how to be a Christian. Instead, we will have the chance to encounter God every time we pick up our Bibles. We will come in faith, with ready hearts to receive, and with the Holy Spirit to guide us. Our hunger for God will lead us to be fed and deepen our relationship with Him.
In 1 Chronicles 11:22-24, we learn about Benaiah. He was a doer of great deeds as listed in these verses. When we are gone, what will people say about us? He battled the best men of Moab and a mighty Egyptian, even killed a lion - going after the lion to do so. Why would he pursue the lion?! The lion was a danger to his people. If he didn't do something about it, someone would be hurt. This is a special message for fathers: Whatever you don't conquer in your own life will visit itself on your family, especially your children. They will have to deal with the lions you don't fight. We sometimes forget that we have access to unlimited power to do battle and we find excuses why we "can't" conquer our trials. Moses and Gideon had excuses why they couldn't do what the Lord was telling them to do. Fortunately, He didn't accept them. What excuses are we making for why we don't step out and do what God calls us to do? What are we passing on to others in our lives? We can be either the ceiling that holds people in or the propulsion to spur others to victory. In 2 Samuel 6:16-23, we see the story of David coming into the City of David with the ark and his undignified dancing in praise to the Lord. We witness Michal, his wife, despising him in her heart and when he returns home after the celebration, voicing her displeasure with him. David rebukes her and says he will celebrate this way and even more and then we see that Michal dies a barren woman. This is a picture of the state of her heart - angry and bitter at God for her lack of a child and she takes it out on her husband. It also shows us a snapshot of the ugly side of Christianity - where people of different denominations mock and ridicule others for laying on of hands, dancing, or praying in tongues to name a few. This is wrapped up in pride, religiosity, and anger. The Bible clearly talks about all of these things, so if it is in scripture, why wouldn't we do it and let it penetrate our hearts? So many things can be our personal lions - insecurity, feeling ashamed of our bodies, feeling inadequate in our jobs - and we can pass these things along to our families if we don't deal with them. We can become jealous of what others have - a child, a nicer car, a better job - and become self-righteous about it, thinking we are holier because we are not as well off as they are. This is not right! Poverty is not a symbol of holiness and neither is richness. The sign of holiness is contentment no matter what we have. Psalm 149: 3-4 encourages us to praise His name with dancing and make music to the Lord, for He delights in it. What if dancing isn't about what we like, but rather what God likes and what blesses Him? The devil wants us to be insecure and afraid to really praise God. Psalm 150 tells us to praise, Praise, PRAISE! Praise is biblical. We are called to do it with all our hearts. Parents love to do things for their kids that their kids love and they love it when their kids do things for them too. Our Father is no different! He loves when we do things for Him - like dance. Just like we don't want to have friends over to a house that is not prepared to receive them, we need to receive people into a place of freedom at Sandbox, so let's act out that freedom and dance to the Lord!
Amen!
Heb 11:1 defines faith: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Heb 11:6 tells us without faith, it is impossible to please God and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Romans 4:3 reminds us that Abraham believed God (had faith) and it was credited to him as righteousness. Back in Hebrews 11, often called the Hall of Fame of Faith, we see that the phrase “by faith” is used twenty times. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son as God called him to do, because he trusted that God could raise him from the dead. We may ask ourselves, when people talk of me, will they say “By Faith, (your name here) did ______.”?
Living by faith is awkward, uncomfortable, and often downright scary. God cares more about our maturing and growing as a Christian than about our comfort. Most people focus on wanting good relationships, good health, good job, security through our finances, etc., but God calls us to walk by faith, and not to focus on these things.
Many of these heroes of the faith made lots of mistakes and sinned, but that isn't what God focuses on. We can take comfort that when we meet Jesus, our sins, poor choices, and failures will not be talked about, but the things we accomplished through faith will be. Heroes of the faith were ordinary people, not especially talented or royalty, but they stepped out in faith. To recap, walking in faith: 1) Pleases God; 2) Is credited to us as righteousness:, and 3) Has an impact for God’s Kingdom.
If God calls you to step outside your comfort zone, consider this, “God may go with me.”, as Jonathan says in 1 Samuel 14:6. Whether it be sharing the gospel, starting a business, starting a ministry, do not focus on what you think you can do, but rather “God may go with me.”
Another result of walking by faith is it can lead to an extraordinary life. We can experience miracles in our regular lives - getting money to travel to a new country, getting through school against tough odds, healing at just the right time, or even “finding” front row rodeo seats unoccupied in the midst of a sold out arena.
Ask yourself, “How often do I really give God an opportunity to move?” Do we truly look at God as the answer to every problem we face? Also, when someone we know steps out in this kind of faith, do we truly support them? Are we like Jonathan’s armor-bearer who stepped up and said, “I will go with you.”? Let's be those kind of people!
Amen!
All of us know that Brent pushes us to do things we don't want to do. Sometimes we all need a little push to do things (spiritual) that make us uncomfortable in order to grow. We hear great sermons, but if we don't receive them in faith and act on them, they are just a good talk. We should feel spiritually awkward about fear, anxiety, worry - all the things that Jesus says we shouldn't have in our lives. 2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us God does not give us a spirit of fear, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. We don't overcome fear by prayer alone: it must be attached to action and stepping out in faith to do the things that cause us fear. Prayer empowers us to take action! Fear of public speaking is the #1 fear in America. Moses was called to deliver a nation, but his fear of speaking was holding him back. Lucky for Moses, God wouldn't accept his excuses. The phrase "do not fear" is repeated over 80 times in the Bible. We must remember that God is bigger than our mistakes. He can still use us in our faith if we respect, honor, and obey Him. God doesn't have favorites. The people we see doing great things were just normal people who were obedient to God's call on their lives. We see in Matthew 15:22-29, the story of the Canaanite woman seeking healing for her child. First, Jesus ignores her. Then he tells her what he has isn't for her, but she doesn't accept it. She presses him, believing in faith that he has healing for her daughter, and he gives it to her because she asks. We have to ask! In Matthew 5:16 - Your light can only shine if you take action. Daniel 3:16-20 tells the story of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednigo defying Nebuchadnezzar's order to worship his statue. They didn't know if God would rescue them from the furnace, but they were willing to fail (and die) for their faith. Are we willing to fail for our faith? God is looking for our obedience, not perfection. Only God can give freedom, but it can be up to us to press people to step out to be who God has for them to be. We get too comfortable and don't want to leave what is familiar so we don't reach where we want to be. In Mark 10:46-48, we see blind Bartimaeus calling out to Jesus. The people tell him to be quiet. He persists and then Jesus calls him. Those same people who were telling him to be quiet are now the ones telling him to go to Jesus. He threw off his cloak - his most prized possession - knowing he had healing and wouldn't need it anymore when he was done. He wouldn't be silenced and he received healing. What will it take to silence us from what God has called us? As we go out this week, let's remember that it takes faith to live a life of laying treasures in Heaven, but it doesn't take faith to lay them here on Earth. Amen!
As Christians, we believe that God created the Earth. We don't worry about whether the earth will keep spinning on its axis or the sun will come up tomorrow because we have faith and believe in what God created. So why do we struggle with having faith that God will take care of our next job, or our relationship, or anything else that we worry about? The members of the hall of faith have story after story about what God can do - if we could only hear the voices of those who have gone before us reassuring us that He can. If we aren't excited about what God is doing, we might be submitting to the world. Jesus said all things are possible to him who believes. We have to accept the empowerment behind those words. When we are bogged down by the things that enslave us, sometimes we have to preach the truth to ourselves if there is no one else around to encourage us and repent from believing the lies of the enemy. Lest we be too hard on ourselves, though, it's good to realize that even the disciples would not always have been in the hall of faith. Look at Matthew 8:23-26 - the story of the disciples in the boat in the storm. Jesus rebuked them for having little faith because they could have quieted the storm themselves. He wanted to show them about having great faith. What are we afraid of? When God rebukes us, it is a kindness, but we can easily react in the flesh. If we do, then we are still being ruled by sin. God's correction is a sign that He loves us. When Jesus rebukes us, we have to learn not to be offended. This often happens in churches - people get offended over little things. Don't take the bait of the enemy. At some point, we have to take steps of faith to do what He has called us to do. The fear of man lives in each of us. We need to resolve that we will be rejected and accept it. However, faith from above wants to run in our veins, so we should listen to scripture and let the truth bring freedom. Matthew 10:22, 24-25. Resolve that you are accepted by God. If you are liked by everyone, you should be concerned. Luke 6:26 We need to repent of being more concerned about being accepted than being true to God. As a faithful follower of Jesus, we should respond as in Luke 6:22-23. Rejoice and praise God when the little stuff happens and we will be prepared for the bigger things when they come. Amen!
We all need someone to push us. Who is pushing you? Yourself? God? John 10:10 says the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy; Jesus comes that we may have life and have it to the full. Do we believe who the enemy says we are or do we believe who God says we are? Our identity is formed when we are young - from our parents. Our identity is never what we believe about ourselves that defines us. It is our Father's opinion of us that defines us. Our opinion of ourselves only defines the experience we will have in this life. Do we like the person God says we are or the person that we have created? When we are in the valley, instead of getting anxious and fearful, we should see all things as Kingdom opportunities. Our identity can block us from letting the Holy Spirit do his work. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says we are a new creation, but we don't necessarily feel new every day. We wake up with our old mindset or react to things the way we used to and can question if we are really new. We have to ask God how He defines us and go back to the Word to see it. Constantly ask - God, how do you define me? The old is gone. Let it go! Hang on to what God says. Go to the Word. Galatians 2:20 says I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. John 1:12-13 reminds us we are Children of God, born of God. John 15:15 tells us we are no longer slaves, but He has called us friends. Whenever you are struggling or questioning your identity, the right question to ask is always: Father, how do you define me?
Can you have real faith without passion? Where are all the passionate people? Do we get more excited about our football team than about the Savior of our souls? Mark 12:28-30 talks about the greatest commandment. It starts with loving the Lord your God with all your heart, then soul, mind, and strength. The heart has to come first - for there to be passion, not just Bible knowledge. Genuine faith will impact every area of our lives. Matthew 12:33-34 tells us that out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths speak. Whatever words are prevalent in our conversation will show what is really in our hearts. If it is mainly negative, this shows we have a heart problem that we need to address. It's a sobering thought to realize that if we do not live by faith, there will be consequences in our lives and the lives of others. In 2 Kings 13, we see the story about some of the many kings of Israel who did evil in the eyes of the Lord and caused the people to sin. In the case of Jehoash, he asked Elisha for help against the Syrians, but he had little faith and had only a small breakthrough instead of great victory, leading Israel to remain in bondage. If we don't exercise our faith, there are people in our lives who may not come to know Jesus.
A half-hearted response for God's commands will yield less fruit and have less impact than it should have. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 says if we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly. We can expect that the opposite is also true: if we sow generously, we will reap generously. Hebrews 11:6 tells us it is impossible to please God without faith. When we are giving and we don't give generously because we don't trust that God will provide, this is a sign of a lack of faith. In Mark 2, we see the story of the paralytic whose friends bring him to see Jesus to be healed, but it is so crowded they can't get inside. His friends cut a hole in the roof to let him down. They had such faith that he would be healed that they did whatever it took to get him to Jesus. Our belief has to be big enough that God has to be in it for it to happen. Our faith will be contagious when it is passionate and authentic!
We have a bible jammed packed with stories and events of normal men and women whose lives were anything but normal? But for the most part, that is not what we see today, Christians are very normal people, living very normal lives… Why? I am convinced that we are suppose to see far more amazing works of God in our lives. Our lives should be the evidence to the existence of God and a witness that what the Bible says is true. In the Bible, those who believed and trusted in God compared to those who didn’t, there was clear, tangible distinction, old testament and new. Let’s answer this question through the question of Gideon.
As we celebrate Jesus's birthday, we might ask ourselves whose party is it anyway? Lots of times, you see parties for really young children and they seem to be more for the parents to have the experience since the child is too young to appreciate it. Do we make Jesus's birthday more about us than him? It's really easy to make our prayers a monologue and tell God all that we want, but He doesn't want a monologue - He wants a dialogue with us - a conversation. Joseph heard from God and that led him to stay with Mary when he could have divorced her. Because he was listening to God, he was able to decide to lead his house for the Lord. Who would Jesus want at his party? It would be the people he speaks to and who call on Him frequently, with whom He has a true relationship. Jesus becomes the gift giver to us. James 1:17 tells us every good and perfect gift comes from above. God knows who to give which specific gifts to, making them perfect for each person. Acts 1:8 tells us that power comes after we receive the Holy Spirit. Do we focus sometimes more on the gifts than on the giver? Do we try to cherry-pick the gifts and decide which ones we want? God gives us the gifts He knows will best help us grow in our relationship with Him. We can get stagnant in our gifts. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 is a reminder that gifts need to be stirred up and refreshed to keep the flame going. Ask yourself as we start 2018: Is the Lord happy with my current level of faithfulness? How is my consistency? What can I pray into that I've given up on or feel a sense of powerlessness?
In the USA, there is a pressure to live a lifestyle that is not in scripture. We hang on tightly to the things we have and try to get more. But that's not what we see in the Bible. We have to ask ourselves - What if I gave it all? What would happen? We read our Bibles and agree, but that doesn't mean we do what it says. Christianity is not education, it is application. Simple love and obedience have to come before we can expect to see God work miracles. In Judges, Gideon asks about miracles and God tells him to go. He'll take care of the miracles. God doesn't need our help. He wants our obedience. Then He can use us to work the miracles He has for us. Ask yourself how quickly you respond in obedience when you hear a message from God. Zaccheus responded immediately and Jesus told him that he had salvation. Are we willing to give up our blessings to pursue the one who gives them to us? What does giving it all look like for you? More financial sacrifice to invest in His kingdom? More of your time in prayer? More of your time to do His work? God doesn't call us to do things we can do in our own strength. Be obedient to His call for more and He will give you what you need to give it all for Him.
Throughout history, mankind has battled slavery in every nation, but this evil was never part of God's plan. Most people think of slavery only in terms of race, but there is another kind of slavery we all battle. It is slavery that the enemy brings upon us, whether it is to negative thoughts, our jobs, material things, or to trying to please everyone around us. The enemy keeps us wrapped up in bondage - and we allow him to unless we turn to Jesus to help us with our insecurities and fears. The demon-possessed man in Mark 5 was run by the legion of demons until he encountered Jesus. Once he came to Jesus, he was set free and his life was changed. The other people asked Jesus to leave because they were more comfortable in the slavery they were in than accepting this awesome change. Inspect your own life. Are you too comfortable in your slavery? Is it time for you to step out into freedom with Jesus?
In the Old Testament, people sacrificed animals to move God. Jesus sacrificed his live to save humanity. What will you sacrifice for God to bring fire in your life and be a light to His kingdom.
In 2 King 6, we find an amazing story about absolute desperation and deliverance. The heroes of the story are the most unlikely of people. There is so much to apply to our lives from this rich passage.
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, what does that mean for us in regards to fighting of temptation, lies from the enemy and staying strong in our identity as Christians?
From one extreme to the other. From the aspect of the prisoner to the parent, listen to these powerful testimonies.
How is it, for the most part, those people who claim to truth in God have just as many insecurities, anxieties and worries as those who don’t claim any faith? Is it possible to truly live free of insecurities that plague our mind and hearts? Not only is it possible but this is what our lives should look like.
Suffering is subject that been so mishandled from a biblical perspective. Jesus clearly states what real suffering is. One of the times we are most tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness is when suffering strikes our lives. How we respond in these times reveal our true faith and trust in God. This message will change your perspective on suffering and open your eyes to the opportunities to see God do something great during tough times.
Have you ever spent time around a couple who are unhappily married.. and wondered how did it get this? One small choice at a time. It is no different for our lives as followers of Christ. We can begin the journey red hot with passion and love and find ourselves down the road cynical and cold. This message is dedicated to living a life with Christ that remains “hot” for your entire life.
When we think of church, most of expect to worship and to be challenged by the preaching of God’s word but do we have an expectation of how much God wants to use us when we gather together? The bible says “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” How are you inspiring your church community, your family, your spouse, your children and your work colleagues?
Whether in business, marriage or our relationship with God, complexity can rob us of the beauty of why we began the journey in the first place. The longer we are in church, the more we run the risk of becoming sermon critics instead of students, the more we become worship judges instead of true worshipers. The more we read the Bible, the more it can become just adding knowledge to knowledge, instead of revelation to transformation.
Many of us claim to be living God’s plan for our life, but is that really the case? The phrase “Be strong and courageous” appears 10 times in the old testament, and the words “fear not” over 80 times in their context. Why is that? Because we are suppose to be living a life that take great courage, a life that is dependent on God for success. Be inspired and transformed as God challenges your life’s plan.
The heart behind Jesus' ministry was a servant heart. An awesome quote I read says, "If serving is beneath you then leadership is beyond you". Imagine the impact if this style of leadership was used in the corporate world. Imagine if we lead by serving everyone around us.
We often talk about us being the hands and feet of Jesus, but how far are you willing to go to be those hands and feet? How hard are you willing to work to take Jesus to places that he is not represented? What price are you willing to pay for Jesus?
What if you forgot who you are? What if you forgot your purpose, your mission or who you were created to be? What would be the effect on your life? And what would be the effect on the world because of it. Many of us have buried our dreams. The reasons can be anything from tragedy to bad advice. Are you truly living the life you were made to live?
There are times in our life where we cannot pray for breakthrough. God is wanting to develop us and show us that He has given us the strength to breakthrough.
Tim O'Keefe of Crossroads Church Glenwood talks about his introduction to church planting and the things God has taught him and his wife Marina over that past five years. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, urges us to be expert builders like him as we lay the foundation of the church.
in Acts 10 we find a powerful story about a man named Cornelius. An angel appears to him and says "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering." In Luke 21 we see another story where a women's gift catches the attention of Jesus. Does our giving catch Jesus' attention, does our prayer life move heaven to action? Allow this sermon to both challenge and inspire you to step beyond the normal.
What the devil has tried to use as a set back in my life, God will use to set up your life in His Kingdom. Your past can accomplish one of two things. Either you are defined by your past or you are prepared by your past.
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
In Acts chapter 9 we see God choosing a very unlikely candidate in Saul. His past was atrocious and his present circumstances weren't must better yet this is who God chose to take the gospel across the world. Is your past more powerful that God's promises for your life? Is your current situation greater than God's power?
If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small ~ Prov 24:10. Are you a person who can remain standing under trail, tribulation and persecution? Anyone can talk about service to God in the sunshine. It’s not hard loving one another when everyone around us loves us. How we respond in tough times truly shows who we are. When we are squeezed, what comes out? True leaders are forged on the battlefield not in the classroom.
What is honor and why does the Bible call for us to honor one another? In a world where people are trying to elevate themselves over others, learn the incredible power that giving honor releases in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
In the book Acts the disciples were commanded to wait until they were empowered with the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish God’s purpose. This is reinforced when the disciples chose those to wait on tables, they chose men full of the Holy Spirit. The most menial of tasks required God’s empowerment because the Kingdom of God is far greater than our job title, our God-given assignment is not limited by our title. Are you living and leading from a position of empowerment or out of your own strength?
What makes a successful marriage is a commitment to faithfulness over feeling and it is no different in the life that God has called us to. There will be seasons and times where it doesn’t feel comfortable, where we are challenged and stretched but it is our commitment to faithfulness because of His faithfulness to us that leads us fulfill His purpose for us. If you can conquer fear, there is nothing that you cannot accomplish.
In Acts 3, we see a miraculous exchange. A man crippled from birth encounters a power even greater than his condition. The crippled man is asking for money but Peter responds, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”. In an instant, an entire life of limitations are removed. Do we carry something that we can give away? Are we convinced of the power that we carry in Jesus? Are our lives affecting the lives of others? Does your gospel carry power? In this sermon, hear from men whose lives have been transformed by a gospel with power!
An aspect of growth and development that we often undervalue is found in the power of waiting and time. It took Moses 40 years to become the leader he needed to be, Abraham 20 years to become a father, Joseph waited 22 years for a dream to come true and Jesus spent 30 year preparing. Waiting reveals our true motives & maturity, waiting builds patience in our lives, waiting builds anticipation, waiting transforms our character and waiting builds intimacy and dependency upon God. How we choose to spend our time will determine the outcome of our lives.
When we talk about revival as a church, often times we find ourselves trying to do the next cool thing when all God is actually asking of us is to have a willing heart to get on our knees as we go before Him. As a church God is birthing something on the inside of us that is different than what we have seen in the past. At times it is going to get a little uncomfortable as this baby is getting bigger and our body is shifting, preparing for the new that He has in store. As it is constantly growing and changing we need to ask ourselves what it is that we really need in this season in order to live out who He has called us to be.
When Jesus called the disciples, He first said, “Come, Follow me.” We often want to do God’s plan but on our own terms, but it doesn’t work like that. In order to become what God is calling us to be, we have to learn to leave our nets in order to follow Him whole heartedly.
God plan and desire for us is not to accomplish the possible but the impossible. There should be a God-given desire in each of us to challenge the giants and scale the mountains that so often stand between the land of ordinary and the land of purpose.
We are living in a culture where Jesus has become what we want Him to be. We have created a Jesus that fits in with our likes, our schedule and our lives. What are the consequences of this fake Jesus and how can we find once again the real Jesus? These questions and so much more are answered in this life-changing message.
We are living in a culture where Jesus has become what we want Him to be. We have created a Jesus that fits in with our likes, our schedule and our lives. What are the consequences of this fake Jesus and how can we find once again the real Jesus? These questions and so much more are answered in this life-changing message.
this week Steve Woodrow, directional pastor at Crossroads Church, spoke about the awareness and awakening of our spiritual appetite
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. We cannot discover new oceans unless we the courage to lose sight of the shore. The Israelites were living in caves and holes because of fear. God used one man to change the state of a nation. What could God do through you if you had the courage to obey Him?
We all have secrets that we keep to ourselves. We keep things a secret because we are ashamed and feel guilty. We keep secrets because we want people to see us a certain way. What we need to realize is that these secrets are keeping us from experiencing God in His fullness and all of the things that He has in store for us. People can’t save you, people can’t change you, and people can’t recover what has already been broken. But there is One that does and He already knows your secrets and calls for you.
Do you know God loves you? This seems like such an obvious question and scores of people would say yes, but our lives, our worries, our stresses and our regrets tell a different story. Just because you know something doesn’t mean you are experiencing it. You know that God loves you, but are you truly experiencing His love? Right now, if you stopped for a moment... and thought, “How would I feel right now if I truly believed God loved me?” If we are honest, most of us don't believe that God really does love us, at least not consistently, because we know who we are behind closed doors, we know what we have done... how could God love that?
As believers we should have an appetite for the impossible, we should have an excitement to encounter opportunities that are impossible. Seeing the impossible is an opportunity to see how great God truly is. “The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” – Robert Schuller
We have all spoken ourselves out of a dream that we once dreamed and we have all have or have tried to talk ourselves out of what God has put on our heart to do. If what you are dreaming about doesn’t require an infinite God to step in to your finite life to accomplish that dream, you are dreaming to small! We should be praying big and bold prayers, asking God to do the impossible through us!
Fight for Freedom - 2 Corinthians 3:17 - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston - When was the last time you experienced God’s presence and power? When last was your heart set on fire with a burning desire to do whatever it is that God is asking you ...
The Party Has Just Begun – John 2 – Encounter Houston – Brent Phillip
We have the greatest invitation of all time. We have the invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace. God is unlimited and He can do all things for you and through you.
We often believe that the greatest ministry happens in the church, but the greatest ministry happens through the church. For Jesus ministry and is where you are. He loves to be with the people!
John 2:1-3 “The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”
Right now in your life you may be facing some situations where the wine that has run out in your life. Circumstances have caused your peace and joy to run out. Maybe you feel like your fire and passion has run out and you need to be filled back up. We must remember problems are a part of life, but they do not define our life. The One who saved us is the One who can define us!
When you are going through a hard time and are facing difficulties who are you running to? Why are we looking to the world for a miracle when there is only one Miracle Maker?
John 2:4-5 “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Jesus’ time had not yet come, but Mary’s faith moved the heart of God and it changed the timeline of heaven and the course of when Jesus would reveal who He was to the people. Just like Mary, you are in a situation where the wine has run out in your life, are you going to just sit back and let the wine run out or will you do what Mary did and put your faith into action and have the opportunity to see God fill it back up?
Faith is not playing it safe. Faith is looking at the impossible and saying, “God will you do something about it?”
John 2:6-11 “Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
Mary had no idea who Jesus was going to fix this problem and she didn’t really care either. She just had faith and knew that some way, some how He would fix it. Mary’s faith made it Jesus’ problem, and when it became Jesus’ problem it became Mary’s solution.
Video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video
Faith That Can Stop The Sun – Joshua 10 – Encounter Houston – Brent Phillips
Our expectation makes all the difference when it comes to experiencing God
John 1:47-50 “As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.” “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.” Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!” Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”
God wants to show us greater things, but we have to know that He will only meet us at the level of which we are expecting Him. So many times we allow our disappointments or our limited outlook on God to limit the way that we read scripture.
You can live life two ways; you can either live with a positive expectation or with a negative expectation.
Mark 9:23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
What are you thinking and expecting when it comes to God? God wants to invest in your life and help you succeed, He isn’t trying to limit you or stop you. He is trying to push you forward.
Are you creating an atmosphere for God to move? What you expect from God will determine how much you see of God in your life.
Joshua 10:12-13 “On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies.”
The Lord heard Joshua’s prayers and He stopped the moon and the sun for him! Can you imagine what it is that He could to do for us all if only we would start to expect Him to do the impossible once again
Video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video?p=faith-that-can-stop-the-son-joshua-10
Beauty in Unexpected Places – John 1 – Encounter Houston – Brent Phillips
“You cannot judge others and be free.”
We are all guilty of prejudging people, places, or situations before we ever truly have any information on which we can base it on. How many times have we missed the opportunities to receive from God because we prejudged something or someone because they didn’t come packaged the way we thought they should?
We need to realize that more times than not God is going to come shaped in a box that we are not expecting. We see it all throughout The Bible, God showing up in the most unexpected ways – He even did it through His son Jesus Christ.
John 1:43-46 “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Prejudice is defined as the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
We are all guilty of prejudging and forming an opinion based off of what other people have experienced or what one person might have done to us. And if we are not careful we can prejudge a whole group of people based on our experience or the experience that someone else had with one person. Don’t let one person determine how you will choose to love and see others that are similar to them.
“Judgment prevents us from seeing the good that lies beyond the appearances.” –Wayne Dyer
Jesus came to raise up a body of believers and not a denomination. We must realize that Jesus isn’t coming back for just the Charismatics, or the Baptist, or the Presbyterians, or Catholics. He is coming back for all people that call upon His name.
“When we judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa
God is always refining us and teaching us new things and there are going to be times when you are going to experience God in a way that others have never experienced Him. And there are going to be times when they experience Him in a way that you never have.
Take the opportunity to love one another and learn from each other instead of judging each other!
The video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video
Pastor Brent Phillips, Encounter God Houston, Brent Phillips, Encounter God Bible study, Beauty in Unexpected Places, John 1:43-46, Prejudgment, freedom, unexpected ways, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Beauty, Mother Teresa, Experience God, love, accept others, learn from others, love one another
Do You Matter? – John 1 – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Do you matter? How you answer this question will determine how you will live your life. The way you live your life will always be a reflection of what you believe about yourself.
Somewhere along the way we have created this scale on how to determine if someone is important. We think that just because someone is famous or has more influence than us that must mean they are more important.
John 1:19-23 “This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.” “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “No,” he replied. “Are you the Prophet we are expecting?” “No.” “Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’”
“A human being is so irreplaceable. So valuable and so unique.” –Goran Persson
Often we can’t see the value and power of our own gift because we are too busy focusing on somebody else’s gift. We devalue the gifts that The Lord has given us when we say, “If I only had this gift like someone else has, than I would really be making a difference…”
Matthew 11:11 “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is!
Don’t discredit the gifts that God has given you by wondering if you are really making a difference with them? There are no ordinary people in the kingdom of God and you were created to be a difference maker!
You matter because, nobody else has your gifts, nobody else has your personality, nobody else has your sense of humor, and nobody else can give the way that you can give.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”— St. Catherine of Siena
the video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video
Do you know God? – John 1 – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Have you ever stopped and wondered, “Do I really know God?
Some of us would be offended if someone were to ask us this question? We would say, “How could you? I attend church every Sunday?” or “I have been in church for 20 years?” But it is one thing to know about God and it is another to know God.
John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.”
Sometimes we can be so certain that we are right about something, when the reality is we are wrong. That was the case for the Pharisees. They were certain that Jesus was wrong in being the son of God, that when He actually proved that He was right all they could do was try to kill Him.
Could that be the case for us in the church today? How many times have we as Christians tried to remove someone or something rather than deal with the fact that they may be right when it comes to knowing God? Is it possible that we have missed an incredible aspect of God in all of our arguing about theology and who we think God is or who we know God to be? Is it possible that there is more to God than what we realize?
You can go to seminary every single day and learn all the incredible truth, there is to know about God, yet it is possible to not know Him at all. You can sit it church for many years and attend all the bible studies you could possibly think of, yet still not know God.
God is un-relatable, yet knowable through Jesus Christ because He is the exact representation of God.
There is nothing wrong with being wrong when the upside is something more incredible than what you thought you already knew. Allow God to reveal Himself to you in a new way. It is okay to ask yourself, "Do I really know God?" it will be in our asking that we find out just how incredible God truly is.
The video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video
Releasing the Power of Grace – John 1 – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Are you giving away the grace that God gives you daily? Whether you realize it or not, your actions are either inspiring or uninspiring to others.
When you have been touched by grace and receive something that you didn’t deserve you can’t keep it to yourself, it is like a burning desire that you must pass on to someone else. And when you show someone grace you are literally showing them Jesus. It is transforming and life changing for that person.
John 1:14-16 “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’” From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”
That is the thing about grace, when you have met Him, when you know Him, and when you have Encountered Him like John had in this scripture you can’t keep quiet. You can’t help but get excited and tell anyone about Him.
We represent Him in everything that we do. And every day we have the opportunity to extend the same grace that was shown to us onto others. His grace never runs out, but in order for the world to see God, they need to see God.
His grace should be flowing through you constantly. Every day you are encountering people that are being beaten up by this world and you have the greatest opportunity to give them a gift straight out of heaven! What is it that you can be doing in order for others to see Him through you?
Jesus is enough. His grace is enough. His grace saves, it transforms, and heals lives! Don’t miss the opportunity to experience His grace daily and to extend His grace to others!
The video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video?p=releasing-the-power-of-grace-john-1
Live Before You Die – John 1- Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
It is possible to live a life without really living at all.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” -John 1:1-5
When we live with a sense of purpose and destiny, we begin to learn how to live our lives and not just prolong them.
As a Christian we have the very thing that others are waiting for living right inside of us. We are carriers of that Light John talks about, and we can’t allow ourselves to get so caught up in a rut that we completely lose the dreams and visions that God has given us.
So many people are living with regret these days and we should be living a life that is impacting to others, that it helps and encourages them dream and plan in ways they didn’t even know were possible...
Ask yourself, is there anything I regret and what is it that I can I do today to change that regret into vision and purpose once again?
What dreams has God put into your heart that you have just been putting off? I dare you to dream again!
What passions has He put in your heart? Dare to be passionate again!
What has He purposed you for? I dare you to live that purpose out!
It is time that we all begin to LIVE AGAIN and dare to do be all that God has called us to be!
video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video?p=live-before-you-die-john-1
Never Just A Donkey - Numbers 22:21-33 - Church 3.0 - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
There are moments in our lives when we feel overwhelmed and inadequate and when the task or opportunity at hand feels like it is too much. You don’t feel sufficient enough to complete the task.
The devil knows our purpose better than we do at times and he wants to constantly make us feel like we are not enough. He will do whatever he can to try and make you shrink back and devalue yourself so that you won’t live out your God purpose.
You must remember that the greatest part about you is Jesus Christ and in your weakness He is made strong. He doesn’t care what you look like, or the education that you have, or what mistakes you’ve made. Don’t allow the enemy to devalue you. Be who God has called you to be!
Numbers 22:21-33 “So the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey, and started off with the Moabite officials. But God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the Lord to stand in the road to block his way. As Balaam and two servants were riding along, Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it tried to squeeze by and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So Balaam beat the donkey again. Then the angel of the Lord moved farther down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all. This time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam. In a fit of rage Balaam beat the animal again with his staff. Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam. “You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!” “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?” “No,” Balaam admitted. Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him. “Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the Lord demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me. Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey.”
Being as stubborn as a donkey can be the right thing when it is for the right reasons and when we hurt for others and when we have a heart for others we are being like our Father God. There is no way to get through this Christian life without loving others and not having to take a few beatings for the sake of others. Yes, we will take some beatings, but there will be some lives that are changed and saved through it when we pull from the strength of God instead of our own.
video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com
Are you bitter or better because of your pain? Are you willing to trust the Lord and allow Him to help you recycle your pain by helping others in similar situations?
It is often the moments that seem the most painful and the most overwhelming that become the defining moments in our life. It produces understanding and compassion in our hearts. When you have gone through the valley you understand and you know what it feels like to be in a certain situation. When you encounter somebody else that is going through that same valley you aren’t moved to help because you feel sorry for that person, but rather because you know what it feels like to be in that situation.
You are moved by compassion to help them. You remember what it felt like when you were there and you had no one to help you through your pain. You chose to recycle your pain by helping others in similar situations. It is in those moments of helping others that you begin to heal and you begin to become whole.
Luke 10:30-37 “Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Sometimes our greatest moments and opportunities come at the most inconvenient times. The priest and the temple assistant missed an opportunity to serve God while on their way to serve God.
But the Samaritan who was a despised man stopped. Why? Because; he knew what it was like for that Jewish man. He knew what it felt like to be rejected and left alone. He chose to recycle his pain by helping this Jewish man out and taking care of him.
We must be careful that we don’t get so caught up in getting from one bible study or church service to another that we that we completely miss the opportunity to help somebody that really needs us. Church should never be our destination, but rather our filling station.
God is always greater than any pain that you will ever face and He isn’t some coach on the sidelines telling you that will get through this pain, He is on the field with you lifting you up and helping you get through it. He will heal you from that pain and bring healing through you by recycling your pain.
The video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com
Bring Your Broken - 2 Corinthians 12:9 – Church 3.0 - Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Jesus is not scared of your sin, He is not overwhelmed by your mistakes, He is not embarrassed of your shame and He is not limited by your limitations.
2 Corinthians 12:9 “Each time he said, My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."
Jesus came to conquer sin, no matter what form it is in. He is saying come to Him and bring your broken, bring your shame, and bring your pain. It is in our brokenness and shame that we discover the power of Jesus Christ.
His grace is all that you need. Your sin isn’t more powerful than the blood of Christ. Stop being hard on yourself and start giving Christ credit for what He did on the cross for you!
Because of Christ you are enough! With Jesus you have a purpose. God wants to do something amazing in you and through you. He isn’t asking you to figure out how to do it. He already knows what to do. He isn’t looking for your ability; He is looking for your availability. It is your “yes” that He wants.
Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
The ones that show up and accept the call are the ones that have been chosen.
You must be willing to show up so that He can equip and enable you; in order to use you. It is in your following and doing that you begin to learn and become transformed. Don’t hide your brokenness, bring it to Him. His grace is enough and He will give you all the strength that you need
Redefined – Proverbs 14 - Church 3.0 – Brent Phillips - Encounter God Houston
Proverbs 14:4 “Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”
God has called us for a large harvest, but we have tried to accomplish a large harvest without having an ox in the stable.
What does that mean?
We want our church experience to be nice and clean and all in order, we want to call the shots and know what exactly is coming next. But in doing so, we have traded the power of the Holy Spirit for programs and structure. The Holy Spirit is our Ox in the stable, He is the one that is working on our hearts and preparing us for the harvest.
Where the ox is the harvest will come! Don’t fear the mess and the things that are out of our control, because there is One that is always in control. Our programs will only get us so far, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to have His way He can take us further than we ever imagined.
When you ask Him to help you will, but there has to be faith attached to whatever it is that you are asking.
Matthew 17:14-20 “At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well. Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
We need to stop being so prideful. All we need to do is admit that we have unbelief and God can begin to do a work. We can’t allow failure to define who we are or what we can accomplish. We can’t get so caught up in our failures that it stops us from ever having the opportunity to succeed.
What or who have you allowed to define you?
A failure with God is never fatal because He is Hope.
We must be spending time with God, allowing Him to fill our hearts with His Word. We must learn to accept the fact that sometimes when we spend time with God there will be a conviction. Where there is conviction, there is growth. Let Jesus tell you how it is, He wants to grow you and take you further than you could ever imagine but we must be honest with Him.
videos to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com
You Were Made for This – 1 Corinthians 2 - Church 3.0 – Brent Phillips
As believers, we are really good at talking ourselves out of praying with others, sharing what God has put on our hearts, or sharing our faith with others. It’s not that we can’t do it. So why do we talk ourselves out of it?
Somewhere along the way we have bought into a lie, and somehow convinced ourselves that we weren’t made for this. We have convinced ourselves that we are meant to be silent and to keep what God has put on our hearts to ourselves and that someone else will share their faith with the lost.
You must know that you were made for this!
What is it about being, among other believers that makes us feel unsafe? Being surrounded by like-minded people is where we should feel the safest. But that isn’t the cases. Why? Because; it has become one of the most judgmental places to be.
We have begun to buy into a lie that we don’t know enough and we have become terrified to speak up or pray for what God has put on their heart in case get it wrong, but who set the rule of what is right?
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.”
Are you listening to man-made rules and regulations on how we are to do something or are you listening to what God is telling you? You are enough, you are worthy, and you are sufficient enough to share the Word of God. You were made for this and you are enough because of Jesus Christ.
Paul came with simple words so that ordinary people could grab hold of it and realize that He died for them just as much as He did for the person next to them. It is never about us using fancy words. It is always about Jesus plain and simple, because without Jesus, none of it matters.
You are a part of the body of Christ and Jesus died so that you would be enough and the Holy Spirit was sent to live inside of you to empower you and strengthen you to do whatever it is that God is asking you to do. You were made for this and have been equipped with everything that you need in order to accomplish it.
This video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com
Blind to Change - 1 Peter 2 - Church 3.0 - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
We have all had the thought of changing. But the results of those thoughts often end with no change. Why is that? As Christians, we know that change needs to happen in our lives and in our churches. Why doesn’t it? Could it be because we don’t know why we are to change or how we are to change?
As a Christian our reason behind changing should always be to look more like Christ than we did yesterday.
Change isn’t easy. A matter of fact, it is often more difficult than easy. At times it can even be scary. But we can no longer accept what is broken as normal. Either way, change must happen and we must know that we will change no matter what.
How will we change? We have the Most High God living inside of strengthening us, encouraging us, and guiding us every step of the way in our change. He will not fail us.
God has called us to go from glory to glory. He wants to make a difference through you. We can’t get stuck in a moment of glory. He wants to build upon the revelation that He has given you. We must ask ourselves the question; “Am I really making a difference?”
70-90% of Christians will go to their grave having never shared the gospel with anyone.
1 Peter 2:9 "But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light."
We can no longer sit in church or a bible study and receive a message and do absolutely nothing with it. Our decision in Christ is personal but our faith was never to be personal. Our faith was to be lived out. It is living by faith that we become the light of the world.
It is time that we had church be all that God intended for it to be!
The video to this podcast @ http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video?p=blind-to-change-1-peter-2
How is your Wineskin? – Be the change - [LIFE] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
Matthew 9:14-17 “One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?” Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
Have you ever heard the phrase change or die?
This is an entrepreneurialism motto when it comes to business. In many places in our lives and throughout the global church we have applied this motto to our lives and our styles. And Jesus is saying that if we aren’t willing to get a new wineskin in order to receive the new wine that He wants to put in our lives, then our old wineskins are going to be put under pressure and burst and it is going to become offensive. We must be willing to be the change.
How is your wineskin?
Sure, your experiences in the past with God were genuine and amazing in that moment and we are to remember those moments, but it doesn’t mean that we are suppose to stay in that moment forever. We must be willing to change and do some things differently in our live in order to see the new thing that God is wanting to doing in our life. Are you willing to change by getting a new wineskin?
Psalm 96:1 says; “Sing a new song to the Lord!”
Why does it say for us to sing a new song? Because if not we will get so comfortable in the old songs and they will begin to lose its meaning and and just become a ritual in our lives. Don't let your worship become a ritual that you forget why you were singing in the first place. It is time to sing a new song!
Matthew 13:53-57 “When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country. He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph,[a] Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.”
Jesus is never going to come packaged the way that you want Him or looking the way that you think He should. Why? Because He wants us to lie down our man made traditions and embrace Him in faith and believe in Him once again.
Don’t let rituals and traditions keep you from seeing what God is doing in your life. Be the change you have wanted to see and put on a new wineskin and allow God to do something new in your life
Video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com
Making Room for the Amazing - Luke 19 - [LIFE] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
When last were you absolutely amazed by God and His word?
In Psalm 119 it says, “My gaze is fixed on Your commandments.”
Are you taking the time to sit and be still in His word? Do you ever find yourself rushing through your daily quiet time with God because you know it is something that you are suppose to do, instead just be still and know that He is God and allow His word to amaze you once again.
What are you doing to stop and just be still before the Lord?
“If I really want to experience God, I must underwhelm my schedule so God has room to overwhelm my heart.”
Luke 19:1-4 “Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.”
Zacchaeus knew that there would be obstacles in his way that would prevent him from seeing Jesus. So, he decided to climb a sycamore tree and not let his excuses stop him from encountering Jesus.
We need to ask ourselves, “Are there any excuses that are hindering me from The Word and keeping me from going deeper with God?"
The Lord wants you to can hear Him above all the noise and see above the crowd, He want you to hear His voice so clearly and see His hand on your situation. Just like Zacchaeus it is going to require you to make the climb and leave your excuses behind.
Are you willing to climb up and out of the noise and out of the crowd to encounter God?
The video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com
Life Changing Words - Romans 12 - [LIFE] - Clint Phillips - Encounter Houston
We have all been influenced by words. We have all had negative and positive words that have been spoken over us transforming us and changing our lives.
Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
For us to really understand Gods thinking, we have to understand His words. And His Life Changing words can be found all throughout scripture.
His words are a road map for our lives. We have to learn how to speak His words over our lives, allowing them transforms us and guide us.
We must remember that Isaiah 55:11 says that God’s word does not return void.
There is a difference between positive thinking and transforming your mind. Transforming your mind is to understand Gods thoughts; you have got to align your thoughts with His thoughts in order to be transformed.
Are you meditating on His word? Are you allowing His word to transform you daily? Wake up everyday with the realization that this is the Day that the Lord has made; rejoice and be glad in it!
For more videos: www.brentgphillips.com
The King in the Cave – 1 Samuel 22 - [LIFE] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
1 Samuel 16:12-13 "So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes. And the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him. ”So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah."
Sometimes we look at the lives of those in The Bible and we immediately remember where God took them. But, we often forget that there has to be a beginning and a middle before there can be the end.
And we think that our stories and our situations are to hard for God to step in and make anything extraordinary happen from our past and current situations, when the real reason for their testimonies is so that we can take courage and we can take faith and face anything that comes our way and God can and will do something extraordinary!
God sometimes gives us a glimpse of what He going to do in our lives and we get so excited and then the next day or a couple of months later that picture that was once so clear begins to seem like it is falling apart.
1 Samuel 22:1-3 "So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men.
One moment we see David being anointed as king and then a little while later we see David the king in the cave. And it looking like everything is scattered and falling apart.
Have you had a word from God? Found a promise from Him and you’re standing on that word or promise? One day it seemed so clear and then the next day came and nothing happen the next month still nothing happen and eventually it felt like all the pieces to make that promise come together has fallen apart.
We must know that God shows us the picture of what He wants to build and then He begins to position us in a way that all the pieces begin to come together. He sets us up for the greatest comeback ever!
For more videos: www.brentgphillips.com
Get Out Of The Mud – Genesis 12 - [LIFE] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
Genesis 12:1-4 "The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran."
Just like Abram, we are all a promise in the making. God has a purpose and calling on our life. When we first have revelation of that calling we are all for it. It seems like nothing can get in the way of that calling on our life. But as time goes on… our perspective changes, it gets foggy.
Genesis 15:1-3 "Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.” But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir."
In Genesis 15 we see that Abram begins to question God and His faithfulness, and many of us have been in similar situations before. We question His character and if He will really come through on His promises for our life?
Why does this happen? How do we get to a place of doubt? The problem is that we allow time to determine if Gods promises are true or not. God will not be limited by our time frame. God is rewriting our names to live up to who it is that He has created us to be in His perfect timing..
Isaiah 40:30 "Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion."
If you have found yourself stuck in the mud of disappointment, regret, not waiting for Gods timing. Don’t give up. Get out of the mud. Know that you are going to fail, you are going to fall down, you will make mistakes, and you are going to grow weary. But this is not the end of your story. God has a plan for you and He wants to take you further than you can ever imagine.
For more videos: www.brentgphillip.com
Miracles Ahead – Expecting Miracles – [LIFE] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Are you expecting miracles in your life? As Christians we cannot live by the natural. We aren’t here to be normal; we are to live a life that is supernatural. We are here to bring heavens ways to earth. Heavens ways are miraculous, spectacular, and abundant.
There is a difference between working for something and positioning ourselves for something. We don’t have to beg God to do something for us; all we need to do is position ourselves to what it is that God has already done.
How are you positioning yourself to reap a harvest of miracles? What you are sowing into your life will determine the harvest that you are reaping.
What do you have in your hand right now? Because that is what God wants to use for your miracle.
God doesn’t need much, but He needs something. All He wants from us is to take what He has already put in our hand and plant it. Every harvest is miraculous. What are you sowing into your life? What are you expecting a miracle for?
1 Kings 17:11-14 “And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.”
The Lord promises that He will come through; and he will make sure that there is fulfillment to that promise. Just like the women in 1 Kings your container is not going to run empty. Expecting miracles are normal but we must be willing to use what is already in our hand to sow a seed for that miracle.
The video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com
Friendship with God - John 15 - [Life] – Steve Woodrow – Encounter Houston
How important are your friendships to you? Have you really evaluated the quality, the depth, and the quantity of them? Do you have deep lasting friendship?
Friendship with the Lord is an incredible thing. God, who created you, wants to know you and journey with you.
Psalm 25:14 "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant."
Are you in friendship with The Creator? God’s Friendship opens doors of opportunities for us. Jesus came to give us life through friendship and to give it to us abundantly. He wants to invite you into what He is doing.
John 15:14-17 "You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."
A lack of love can be a direct indicator that there is a lack of friendship with God. There is a healthy fear of God; we have to ask is my fear of God under grace or under the law?
God didn’t have to save us but He did. He reached down from heaven and grabbed ahold of our hearts and opened it up to seek His face. He chose us. That is grace!
Are you trying to bear fruit for God by greater performance for God or greater intimate friendship with God?
We are called to bear fruit that last. We are able to bear fruit through greater friendship and intimacy with God. How did Jesus model His love for us? He loved people in their entirety. He set out to heal their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, to make them whole again.
video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com or www.neverjustexist.org
Young At Heart - 2 Corinthians - [Life] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
2 Corinthians 4:16 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
Although our physical appearance may be changing, inwardly we are getting younger and stronger as we begin to grab hold of Gods promises. We are becoming young at heart.
What does your inward appearance look like? Are you young at heart?
There has been a lot of kicking and fighting over passionate worship and which side of the fence we should be on. We must not get caught up in the fight between the two fences.
We say that we want to see God move. We want to encounter God. We want to see revival come and we to see new things of Him. But we say, “Just don’t ask me to be flexible or change anything about myself.”
Seeing any type of change or revival doesn’t come easily. We must to be willing to stretch and change something’s about ourselves in order to position ourselves to see God in a new way or to have revival come. Are you willing to stretch? Are you allowing God to renew you daily, which allows you to feel young at heart?
One of the ways we stretch and begin to make changes in our lives is through passionate worship. God has created you to be passionate worshipper.
C.S. Lewis says, “It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.”
2 Chronicles 20:22 “At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves.”
He is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. And if He loved worship in the Old Testament, then He loves it in the New Testament. The aroma of our worship is pleasing to Him and when we begin to lift up our praises to Him, He can’t help but show up and do something through our worship as we begin to surrender it all to Him.
For more videos: brentgphillips.com or neverjustexist.org
Get Back Up - Galatians 5 - [Life] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
Are you experiencing God in your daily life? Or is He just someone that you are hearing about on Sundays? We shouldn’t just want to learn about scripture but we should want to see scripture come to life in our lives.
Galatians 5:7 “You were running the race beautifully. Who cut in on you and stopped you from obeying the truth?”
Who has sucked the life right out of you that has stopped you or kept you from experiencing God?
It is time to get back up in our expectation of what our faith can do on earth and it is time to get back up in what we believe God can do in our life.
It is time to get back up with the basics of who God is for us..
Mark 9:22-23 … Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
Anything is possible for a person who believes that God can do anything. When we come in agreement He will do anything that we ask. Who or what has cut in on your faith that has caused you to change the way that you believe. Telling you that you can’t believe in certain thing.
It doesn’t matter how good a message it isn’t the words of the speakers
1 Corinthians 2:4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.
It doesn’t matter how good a speaker’s message is, what you are feeling in your heart isn’t because of the speaker. If anything good happens in your heart and you walk away transformed it is because of The Holy Spirit speaking to your heart. It is based off your pleading and looking to the Holy Spirit allowing Him to transform us.
Video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com
I Wish - Matthew 11 - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
Have those words, I WISH; ever run through your mind? Do you sometimes wish that your life could be different, that the choices that you made could be re-made? You carry with you the heavy luggage of IF ONLY and I WISH. Every morning you put on a smile for the people around you but the truth is, we feel alone, often overwhelmed and most days, the pain of regret rings all too loud.
In Matt 11:28 Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Rest? You might be thinking, how can I get REST from my past? How can I get rest from my mistakes and regrets? How can I get rest from this nightmare that I call life? How can I get rest from the loneliness and pain that I feel? How can I get rest from wishing I was someone else, somewhere else? I have good news for you!
In the Olympics, the favorite event, the most watched event is the 100m dash. What everyone knows about this event is the start is absolutely critical. If you have a bad start, it is almost impossible to recover. If you don’t start well, you don't finish well. This is exactly the same when it comes to life. The statistics are overwhelming when it comes kids who have a bad start in life; they finish in a bad place in life. What hope is there for the person who started badly, who started their life with abuse, who started with brokenness, who started with hopelessness, who started with tragedy? How can they ever finish well?
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
The reason Jesus can make such massive statement like “I WILL GIVE YOU REST” is because there nothing that is out of his reach or beyond his power. There is no situation or circumstance that is greater than His ability.
The REST that Jesus offers is not a patch job.. not a repair job, He is not just super glue. He is the one that makes us brand new. He is the one who takes away “I WISH” and replaces it with “I DID”. He is the only one who can take a life of ashes, and out of it build a life of beauty.
the video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com or www.neverjustexist.com
Never Hopeless - Romans 4 - [REAL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
The moment that we give up on hope we lose our strength to survive. Hope is the very ability to keep going and with God we are never hopeless. When the world tells us that it time to give up, it is hope that tells us to keep going.
Romans 4:18 "Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping--believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, "That's how many descendants you will have!"
There was no reason for Abraham to have hope, but he kept hoping. Just like Abraham we are never hopeless because we know the promises that God has given to us.
As a believer you should always live optimistic, we should never live as a pessimist. Why?
Because we have a Father who breathes out planets, who created the world out of nothing, a Savior who walks on water, who multiplies food, and heals disease and raises the dead!
We have a Savior that is unstoppable, not even death could stop Him. That is why we are never hopeless
Where are you placing your hope? Are you placing it into something or someone that can be destroyed, or are you placing your hope in the One who cannot be shaken?
For more videos: www.brentgphillips.com or www.neverjustexist.com
Just As I Am - Luke 15 - [REAL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
I hear all the time that Jesus wants me to come just as I am, but what does that really mean? You may be a new believer or a believer for twenty plus years, and we have the concept of what it means to come to Jesus, but somewhere along the way you and I have forgotten the concept of what it means to walk with Jesus just as I am or just as you are.
When did the rumor get started that sinners aren’t celebrated and welcomed in the church? We weren’t meant to get our lives together before ever stepping into the church.
We love when someone becomes a new believer, but the moment they are saved we have the expectation that they are suppose to change over night. We can encounter God just as we are! The Gospel wan never intended to be an exclusive club, it was meant for everybody. Everyone is welcome to come and have the opportunity to know Jesus
Luke 15:12-21 "The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son."
The story of the prodigal son isn't about a new believer. The father was celebrating the new life that had just begun; he didn't give the son an “I told you so” speech, he didn't shake his head at him. He never pointed out the son’s sin. If you continue reading on in the scripture you will see that brother had a much different response toward him. What would have happened if the father hadn’t been at the gate that day and instead the brother was standing in his place? There would have been bitterness and condemnation.
As a Christian we are called to show grace and mercy. You and I should be able to come just as we are, That is what makes Christianity so incredible!
The video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillips.com or www.neverjustexist.com
Isaiah 61 says, “that to all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes.”
God can take a situation that is so tough and turn it into something beautiful. He can do something incredible in any situation. Un-forgiveness in our lives has the ability wreck our past and even our future. Un-forgiveness in our lives has the ability wreck our past and even our future.
Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.
What does this have to do with forgiveness?
We tend to hold on to the bitterness we have towards those who have done wrong to us. Scripture doesn’t say to just be “nice” to them, but “love” them and do good to them.
When we are going to go before The Lord we must go and first make right what has been done wrong even if we weren’t in the wrongdoing. As a believer we must walk in the way that Christ has set forth.
video to this podcast @ www.brentgphillip.com or www.neverjustexist.org
Laugh out Loud - Proverbs 17 - [REAL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
“Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.” -Bill Cosby
Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for everything, laughing is good for us and it is okay if we do it often. Life becomes much harder when you forget to laugh; and you have stopped looking for the opportunity to laugh or be cheerful, and have joy. It is amazing how your body changes when you take the time to laugh. Scripture tells us that laughter is medicine to the body.
Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Laughter is a gift from heaven; it can bring hope to any situation. Sometimes we forget to look for the things that God has given us and instead we focus on the things that He hasn’t given us.
Nehemiah 8:10 “Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
The world has tried to counterfeit the things that God has created. It takes things that God has created it and corrupts it to have a negative purpose that was originally intended.
But even in the darkest areas of our lives and situations the LORD is our strength; and He can redeem all our circumstances.
http://www.brentgphillips.com/brent-phillips-video?p=laugh-out-loud-proverbs-17 http://www.neverjustexist.org/laugh-out-loud-proverbs-17/
Shame - Philippians 3 - [REAL] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Shame is defined as the painful feeling of humiliation arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, wrong or improper done by oneself or another: a fact or circumstance bringing disgrace or regret.
We are all dealing or have dealt with some sort of shame from our past that we wonder if God could really forgive us for what we have done or what has been done to us.
In our lives when it comes to shame, we often think, “what can we do to get rid of it?” We weren’t meant to carry shame with us, but shame is persistent and it makes sure to follow us wherever we go and comes up and reminds us of the past when we are all alone, when you see somebody else that has overcome a similar situation and makes you think that you can never overcome it yourself.
Shame causes destruction in our lives and makes us want to run away from it all. But you can’t run away from shame because it lives inside of you.
Luke 5:8 “When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.”
This is what shame does, it makes us believe that everybody else can be forgiven and changed but not us. We are so badly broken and abused and what happen to us is to dark and dirty. We become angry and bitter with God and want nothing to do with Him in that certain area in our lives. Shame makes us want to run from the One that can help us overcome it all.
Take courage because we have the greatest hope that has ever been to help us overcome our shame and embarrassment.
James 5:16 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
You have a God that has gone through it with you and will stand with you when others turn their back on you. He still loves you, He is still rooting for you, and He still believes in you... His love will heal you!
Regret - Philippians 3 - [REAL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
Regret is defined as feeling sad or sorry about (something that you did or did not do)
We have all dealt with regret. Many of us are still dealing with that regret, and we all have moments that we could go back and do it differently. We have tried everything we know possible to help fix our regrets by doing many things to help fill a void but it never goes away it always stays the same.
“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.” –Mercedes Lackey
Our choices and decisions can never be undone once they are made. The regret that we are dealing with can cause us much anguish and pain and constantly have us thinking “if only” I had done things differently. We tend to look at how great other people’s lives look compared to ours and think, “if only my life looked like theirs things would be different.”
How can we fix something that is broken? How to we make something whole once again? How can we restore a life that has been shattered?
Philippians 3:13-14 “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
Paul is saying that there is nothing in our past that disqualifies you from a future in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that robs you from moving forward in Jesus Christ. No matter what choices you have made He can turn your regrets into something beautiful if you would only allow Him to.
For more videos: www.brentgphillips.com or www.neverjustexist.org
Broken Lives - 1 Kings - [REAL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
How can we recover from broken lives?
We must know that God is always for us and never against us. He wants to come into the center of our brokenness and break any chains that are binding us up and give us hope by setting us free. But we often treat God as if He is the reason for our broken lives. That because He seems to have left us in the middle of our brokenness and all these bad things are happening.
The Bible is very clear on who is doing the killing, stealing, and destroying. It is also very clear on where the good and perfect gifts come from and they come from above.
We must be certain that our hope comes from the LORD just like David was. And if He is for you what or who can come against you?
1 Kings 17:8-12 "Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup? As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.” But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die."
In the natural we see that this woman was finished, she was hopeless and there was nothing left her.
God had instructed (promised) her that He was going to send her a prophet on her behalf. But it didn’t happen right away and she had forgotten about that promise. It seemed like it was forever ago and she didn't feel like there was still hope in that promise.
There are many of us that can relate to this women today. We have broken lives and we truly feel like God has forgotten about us. We don't feel like there is much hope left in the promises that we once believed in whole heartily and you are not sure if anyone even notices you and your brokenness.
But God sees you and He has plans that are much different then ours and He is only beginning. God hasn’t forgotten you and He is waiting for the perfect time to show up in our broken lives to do a miracle that will give Him the most glory and turn our lives into something beautiful!
For more videos: www.brentgphillips.com or www.neverjustexist.com
Doubt - Matthew 14 - [REAL] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
In this series of REAL we are going to cover real issues that real people have that need a real God to come in and help them with their problems. People that are saying you know this is who I may be now but this isn’t who I want to be a year from now.
Doubt is all something that we have struggled with somewhere in our walk as a Christian.
As a believer we have hope because the grave is empty. Nothing could keep Jesus down and He conquered death. No matter what we are facing He is always the answer.
Doubt is a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction.
Matthew 14:22-23 "Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone."
Dale Carnegie says: “Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.”
When you are fatigued or tired you do crazy things that we wouldn’t normally do. Fatigue and doubt go hand in hand. It is when we are fatigued we begin to question our circumstances and have doubt in the things that we know we heard God say.
Your soul needs to be replenished regularly by having a drink from God. Don’t make yourself so busy that you aren’t taking the time to allow yourself to be refreshed.
Matthew 14:24-27 "But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking in the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid."
No matter what it is that you may be facing right now, God is speaking a word to you that can squash any doubt that you may have about your circumstance He wants to give you joy, peace, and He wants to bring you back to life. He wants you to trade your fake smile for the real smile.
To women with love - Luke 8 - [REBEL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
GENESIS 1:27 "SO GOD CREATED HUMAN BEINGS IN HIS OWN IMAGE. IN THE IMAGE OF GOD HE CREATED THEM; MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM."
God created you to be in His image and not in the image of each other. When God made YOU He said it was good. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. It is time that we start living in that identity.
We know that men are different from women, but we have allowed our differences to be exaggerated by the enemy to cause division between man and woman. The same God speaks to women that speaks to man.
GENESIS 3:4-5 "YOU WON’T DIE!” THE SERPENT REPLIED TO THE WOMAN. GOD KNOWS THAT YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED AS SOON AS YOU EAT IT, AND YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD, KNOWING BOTH GOOD AND EVIL."
The problem is that Eve was already like God the enemy knew that he needed to steal the belief of who she was and it is still the same problem for today.
The enemy hasn’t changed it strategy. Stop letting him steal your identity and remind him that you are already made in the image of God. Don’t let him have authority over what isn’t his.
There is only person who can tell us what our full potential is and that is our Creator. We need to stop asking an average person who it is that we were created to be. Don’t allow disappointment and failure tell you who you are anymore. What you focus on is what you become.
You must know that - You are loved, favored, being sang over, and being celebrated! Renew your mind with the thoughts of who God says that you are.
I know a God who in the blink of an eye creates something out of nothing. I serve a God who transforms the hopeless into the hopeful. I love a God who takes the broken and makes them whole. I seek a God who takes the rejected and makes them the chosen. I trust a God who takes the overwhelmed and makes them over-comers. And I rest in a God who transforms victims into the victorious
And He will do the same for you!
All for One and One for All - Ezekiel 37- [REBEL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
Together we can do far more things than we can alone. What does All for one and one for all mean? it means that all are for the one and one is for the all. We are weak on our own but together we are strong.
In the body of Christ we have found reasons to divide instead of reasons to come together. It is amazing what we can accomplish when we unite together and love one another.
The Spiritual gifts that God gives us are most effective when used one other people. As the body of Christ we should be All for one, one for all.
That the all are for the one and the one is for the all. When we as a group come together for one in the body of Christ we can be more effective together than if we tried to do it on our own.
EZEKIEL 37:1-6 "THE LORD TOOK HOLD OF ME, AND I WAS CARRIED AWAY BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD TO A VALLEY FILLED WITH BONES. HE LED ME ALL AROUND AMONG THE BONES THAT COVERED THE VALLEY FLOOR. THEY WERE SCATTERED EVERYWHERE ACROSS THE GROUND AND WERE COMPLETELY DRIED OUT. THEN HE ASKED ME, “SON OF MAN, CAN THESE BONES BECOME LIVING PEOPLE AGAIN?” “O SOVEREIGN LORD,” I REPLIED, “YOU ALONE KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT.” THEN HE SAID TO ME, “SPEAK A PROPHETIC MESSAGE TO THESE BONES AND SAY, ‘DRY BONES, LISTEN TO THE WORD OF THE LORD! THIS IS WHAT THE SOVEREIGN LORD SAYS: LOOK! I AM GOING TO PUT BREATH INTO YOU AND MAKE YOU LIVE AGAIN! I WILL PUT FLESH AND MUSCLES ON YOU AND COVER YOU WITH SKIN. I WILL PUT BREATH INTO YOU, AND YOU WILL COME TO LIFE. THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD."
Can we truly live again, and fully be who God created us to be. When you may be feeling like a body of dry bones, that are drained and feeling forgotten.
Do you know what God has chosen to use man to live out His purposes? You hold the power to refreshing, renewing, and restoring those around you. To bring life to dry bones that around you.
PROVERBS 11:25 "THE GENEROUS WILL PROSPER; THOSE WHO REFRESH OTHERS WILL THEMSELVES BE REFRESHED."
We have the Spirit of the Living God living inside of us not to just be bones in a valley but to be mighty warriors, bold, and daring to stand in the face of a giant and say not today!
You are not alone – Matthew 26 – [REBEL] – Encounter Houston – Brent Phillips
When you feel alone nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter if it is really true or not. When you feel alone it is debilitating.
We have been created to be in the community to receive and give love. And when we feel alone we feel completely out of our creation and what we are suppose to be.
But there is something we must know, “You are not alone!”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”
We can see that this scripture is true from the actions of people in society that have felt alone. When they have fallen down and their was no one there to help pick them back up. They choose to do things that aren’t necessarily the best decisions.
But you must remember, “You are not alone!” There is one person that has been through it all
Matthew 26:36-38 “Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Remember you are not alone, Jesus knows what you are feeling!
We like to be able to relate with others that have walked a path that we are walking. Someone who can meet up where we are at and lets know that, “You are not alone” that we will get through whatever situation it is that we might be in.
The problem with the God of religion is that we can’t relate to him. Which makes he distant and far, which makes him un-relatable. But that is not the God that we serve.
Hebrews 4:14-16 “So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
We serve a God who took on flesh so that He could go through everything that we go through and experience everything that we experience just so we could say “I am not alone.” He understands our weaknesses.
The video to this Podcast http://www.neverjustexist.org
The Power of the People - 2 Samuel 17 - [REBEL] - Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
You cannot be a revolutionist unless you’re backed up with the power of the people. You are sure to lose the battle without them.
We must understand that we are those people.
It only takes one person to spark the idea of a revolution, but it takes an army of people willing to rise up and unite together to win the fight.
In order for a revival to begin the people must be willing to rise up. And when you get enough people together you have the potential to see a revival, the potential to see something change.
We must be willing to receive the power instead of shutting our doors and hoping a few other brave people will make a difference. You have the same potential to make a difference as they do.
2 Samuel 17:13-14 "As he was walking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out from the Philistine ranks. Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel. As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright."
If we continue reading in 2 Samuel 17 we see in that moment that there was one young boy named David who was counter-culture. What made him so different? His relationship with God is what made him different and because of that his response was:
2 Samuel "Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!"
When you know that God loves what do you have nothing to be scared of because love cast out fear.
The revolution didn’t happen at the moment David cut off Goliath’s head. David only sparked the interest revolution by his one death. The Revolution happened in the power of the people rising up!
2 Samuel 17:50 "So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran."
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/the-power-of-the-people-2-samuel/
How to Overcome Evil – Luke 6 – [REBEL] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Can we really make a difference? Can we really do anything about the conditions of evil? Will we ever be able to overcome it?
We are called to war and to overcome evil by doing good.
Romans 12:17-21 "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Overcome the evil of others by doing good and being good to them."
How do we change the evil in people? By overcoming their evil and doing good to them!
Our God is good. And we defeat evil by doing good to others!
Evil comes in many forms. We often feel that people are our enemies. People that are a thorn in our flesh, a person that you feel was put on this earth to simply make your life miserable. But we must remember that people are not our enemy! There is an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy you!
Scripture tells to resist the devil and he will flee. That greater is He that is in me than the one who is in the world. We have the greatest force on our side and that is the Holy Spirit. He is leading us into all truth. He is for us. And He is fighting with us!
1 Corinthians 3:6 "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow."
We overcome evil by planting one seed at a time. To way to overcome evil is to do good to one person at a time. Plant the seeds of good and God will begin to make it grow.
If we aren’t taking the opportunity to plant seeds of good God cant make them grow. When we choose to plant seeds of good God cant help but show up and change that situation.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/how-to-overcome-evil-luke-6/
You are Made for MORE! – Jeremiah 12 – [REBEL] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
John 8:32 "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free."
We have to ask ourselves do we really want to hear the truth?
George Whitefield says, “It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher”
We don’t like change and we often like to try and find the path with least resistance. A path that is easy and comfortable to walk along.on our day to day lives. But the Christian life is often the path of most resistance.
And when we pray for peace in our resistance it doesn’t often come in our circumstance but in our hearts. You might be thinking, “ Then why would we sign up for this path?”
We need to be honest with ourselves and understand that there was no other option other than to choose Jesus. Because; the other path that we were on led to death.
Know that you are made for more than sitting in bible study. You are made for more than just sitting in church.
You were made to walk on water with our Savior!
The Word of God should be like a snow globe in our life, that when we go before Him and His Word that He begins shake things up inside of us. That our hearts would begin to be revived into what it was created to be. We weren’t made to just sit and be complacent. We were made to be in motion with our Heavenly Father People would rather pretend that things aren’t going on. That everything is okay and we don’t have to do anything! But that isn’t the case and as a Christian you have been commanded to get up and do something about it!
How many scriptures do we need to read and how many sermons do we need to hear about going and doing before we actually get up and do something?
You are an answer to someone’s pain!
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/you-are-made-for-more-jeremiah-12/
Paying it Forward – Luke 10 – [REBEL] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
The world that we live in today teaches us to take care of ourselves before taking care of others. But as a Christian we need to be paying it forward by putting others needs before ours.
Revolutionaries and rebels are known as people who are idiots by societies standards for paying it forward by standing up for what they believe in and taking a risk.
Somewhere along the line we started to lose hope in the fact that our prayers could make a difference because we didn’t see the results that we wanted or they didn’t change things in the time frame that we were hoping for.
The world tells that we have to be crazy to think that our lives can make a difference in this world but then you read The Bible, which is full of crazy stories of people being rebels against the culture that went and made a difference when everyone around them told them it was impossible. All they had to do was believe!
Luke 10:25-28 "One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? ”Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!"
Our purpose in life doesn’t come from just reading the Bible. It comes living out what we have read. We can listen to thousands of sermons and not have life if we aren’t willing to live out what we are reading and being taught.
Don’t just settle for reading when we can be doing. You have to be a rebel against culture in order to give to those who don’t deserve it.
Luke 10:29 "The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?"
Just like this man we try and justify our reasons and actions as to why we cant give to someone that is in need. Our giving should never come with condition!
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/paying-it-forward-luke-10/
Standing for Righteousness – Judges 6 – [REBEL] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
How can we still be the light of the world when darkness seems to be pressing in a little more each day? We are living in a world today where you can stand for anything other than righteousness.
Are you willing to stand for righteousness?
America is in the place that it is in today because we did not stand when we needed to and we remained silent when we should have spoken up.
A belief came into the church that in order to be like Jesus we need to be relevant to the culture but if we were to really take a look at our bibles we would see that Jesus touched a culture without becoming apart of the world.
Jesus took a stand for righteousness and stood out in a culture; yet we have been told that we need to blend in.
For far to long we have just sat around hoping that someone else would take a stand for righteousness and do something about all the darkness that is in the world. When all along that “somebody” to take a stand was us.
Judges 6:1 "The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years."
We are taught that compromise is a positive thing in order to avoid conflict with our culture.
In order to seem loving to the culture we try compromise our need to take a stand to love yet not be apart of the world. We need to realize that it is the difference that truly sets people free.
Judges 6:14 "Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!"
God didn’t give Gideon the strength to do what he needed to do in that moment? He already had the strength to do it.
God has given you the same strength to stand for righteousness and do whatever it is that He is calling you to do!
The video of this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/stand-for-righteousness-judges-6/
One A Day – Stand in the Gap – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
God’s word needs to become who we are and how we are to do things.
Bible study should never be something that we go to learn some scriptures and go about our day-to-day lives, but that we come and allow His word to transform our lives and to do everything that we can to make a difference in the lives of others we come in contact with on a daily basis.
Are you a one a day type of person?
We no longer just talk about helping other. We have been called and equipped to go and help others rebuild their walls.
James 2:14-17 "What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless."
You can talk about your faith all that you want. But can anyone see your faith when you are going about your daily business? Because what Paul says is “faith without works is dead.”
Many of us are probably not as far long in our faith as we would like to think we are because a lot of us are talking about our faith but aren’t really doing that much to live out our faith. We talk a really good game but aren’t willing to put it to the test.
Does your faith convince anyone? Because; we will be held accountable for the information that we obtain while in bible study.
God was looking for someone to stand in the gap, someone that would take his righteousness and make a difference. Where has The Lord sent you to make a difference in someone else’s life and you didn’t because you were to busy looking at yourself?
God is looking for a bunch of wall builders to stand in the gap and make a difference in this world. You aren’t just someone who attends bible study you are the resistance of darkness because of who Jesus Christ is in your life.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/stand-in-the-gap-against-the-odds/
Does The Word Still Move You? – Nehemiah 8 – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Nehemiah 8:1-3 "All the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey. So on October 8 Ezra the priest brought the Book of the Law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people listened closely to the Book of the Law."
Are we allowing The Word of God to truly fill up or lives and give us the strength to do what it is that God has called us to do? Gaining a wealth of knowledge from The Word means nothing if we aren’t willing to act on it and live it out.
The moment we start saying, “We aren’t going to allow The word to change us” is the moment that God will stop speaking.
When last did The Word move you?
You know when you hear a word from God, and you didn’t have to write a single word down but something got written down on your heart. When last did you allow The Word to move you like that?
We must ask the question: “What are we going to do with The Word once we have heard it?”
Nehemiah 9:1-3O "October 31 the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors. They remained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them. Then for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord their God."
How we deal with the truth when you realize there is sin in your life? We can’t fill ourselves up with a bunch of “almost” verses. To almost give our all to God, to almost give all our life to God, to almost allow God to take it all.. Because almost doesn’t count we must be willing to do it all for Him.
We must repent for every little sin and with that repentance comes joy. It brings freedom.
No longer can we accept our little sins we must repent so that The Word can move us to live a life that reflects a life found in Jesus Christ.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/does-the-word-still-move-you-nehemiah-8/
The Strain of Battle – Nehemiah 4 – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
There’s a tiredness that sleeping cannot fix, it doesn’t matter how much rest you get, you always wake up feeling more exhausted and fatigue than the night before. It is because the tiredness is in your soul. You have been in the battle for so long and you have yet to see the breakthrough.
You can probably think of a time when you wanted to give up? When you threw up your hands and said “I can’t do this anymore!” Everybody has had a moment like this and some of us are in that moment right now and others are bound to experience it in the future.
Up to this point in our series we have seen the multiple obstacles that Nehemiah has had to face with people trying to set him off course. This week we will see the strain that Nehemiah is going through to keep everyone in the battle.
Nehemiah 4:10-11 "Then the people of Judah began to complain, “The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves.” Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, “Before they know what’s happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work."
Not only does Nehemiah and these people have an impossible task of rebuilding the walls, now they have people that want to kill them, you now have difficulties coming up again impossibilities.
Nehemiah 4:12-13 "The Jews who lived near the enemy came and told us again and again, “They will come from all directions and attack us!” So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families, armed with swords, spears, and bows."
The devil likes to make you think that everyone is talking bad about you when in reality it is only one person that is saying all of that and the enemy has amplified their voice in order to try and get you to quit.
We will lose some battles but we must remember that the war has already been won.
When Nehemiah facing some of the most difficult obstacles he never let that stop him from planting the seeds that God has called him to plant. We too must continue planting the seeds that we have been called too.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/the-strain-of-battle-nehemiah-4-never-give-up/
Build your Gate – Nehemiah 3 – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Courageous(n.) – the ability to do something that frightens one. Even when you are scared you are able to do it because what is waiting on the other side is worth is all.
Only a courageous person can step out of the comforts of Heaven knowing that where He was going that man would tear Him apart, hate Him, reject Him, and try and destroy him. Yet, because of the reward at the end He did it. We must remember that The Spirit of the most courageous person that ever walked on the earth is inside of us and we have the ability to do something even when we are scared of it.
Our life is like a bag of seeds and we can choose to sow God or chose to sow the world with the life we are living. Are you living it with a great cause? Are you truly living for something great? Living your life for Jesus is a great cause and He wants us to give it our all. The moment that we give Him everything is the moment that He can give us everything and we can begin to find our satisfaction in Him.
Until we are willing to risk it all for Him we will never know how much He has for us.
Nehemiah 3:1-3“Then Eliashib the high priest and the other priests started to rebuild at the Sheep Gate. People from the town of Jericho worked next to them, and beyond them was Zaccur son of Imri. The Fish Gate was built by the sons of Hassenaah.”
We were created to be extraordinary. And all it takes is for you to speak up inspire those around you to be extraordinary.
Nehemiah 3:13-15 “The Valley Gate was repaired by the people from Zanoah. The Dung Gate was repaired by Malkijah son of Recab, the leader of the Beth-hakkerem district. The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallum son of Col-hozeh”
Have you ever noticed that a church stops growing at a certain size? It stops because the people of the church forget that they were called to be wall builders. And as a believer we are all called to be a wall builder. It is time that we are start building the church and stop maintaining it.
Nehemiah 3:28 “Above the Horse Gate, the priests repaired the wall. Each one repaired the section immediately across from his own house.” All that Nehemiah did was come and show the people the problem that they had become to accept in their everyday lives. The same God that enabled Nehemiah to inspire a nation of people to rebuild the walls of their city is the same God that is inspiring us to rebuild the church in our nation."
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/build-your-gate-by-brent-phillips/
Dealing with Difficult People – Nehemiah 2 – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
As long as you’re on this earth you are going to be dealing with difficult people but the good news is that you do not have to let difficult people limit or ruin your life or stop you from accomplishing what God has for you.
We see in Chapter 1 of Nehemiah that Nehemiah had received immense favor from the king to go and make a difference by helping rebuild the walls in Jerusalem but Nehemiah was about to encounter the most difficult situation he had yet encounter and that was difficult people
Nehemiah 2:10 “But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of my arrival, they were very displeased that someone had come to help the people of Israel."
When you decide to step out and do something great or do something to make a difference not everybody is not going to be willing to support you. Why, because we expose things in peoples lives. When everybody is complacent everybody is happy, when one person wants to get out and make difference it makes everyone else look bad so that want to pull them back in to the background or back into the system to keep them quiet.
The Devil is happy with a church that is full, but the devil is not happy when the church is effective.
Jesus didn’t have any trouble from anybody until He wanted to make a difference and Nehemiah didn’t have any trouble until he was willing to make a difference.
When you decide to go after God and make your life count you’re going to face opposition every time because you are becoming some one who is dangerous to the enemy because you began to expose the light into the darkness.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/dealing-with-difficult-people-nehemiah-2-2/
There is so much that God has for us to experience and yet we have become content and comfortable with the bare minimum. We should be making the most of what the Lord has for us.
You are favored, you are the head and not the tail, you are above and not beneath, you are more than a conqueror, and He gave His son to die for you! Favor means advantaged and as a child of God we are favored by our Father. He loves you no matter the conditions.
We should be showing others what living for the Lord looks like. It won’t always be easy but it will be worth it and one day we will be delivered from it all..
The video this this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/favor/
The Power of One – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Something that we hear so often and fall into the trap of, is that it isn’t about you, but truth be told it is absolutely about you. You matter!
God made it all about you when we sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins.
This is your time! The power of one has a huge influence and there is always something that you can do to make a difference. Will you be the one that is willing to make a difference in our world today
Nehemiah 1:10-11 "The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me. ”In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.”
Nehemiah’s prayer wasn’t a prayer saying Lord would you please send somebody to make a difference and solve this problem. It was Nehemiah praying Lord I am going to go and I am going to make a difference and I need your help doing it.
Nehemiah knew what the power of one meant and was willing to make a difference for his people! He didn’t say Lord if it’s your will he just assumed that it was and believed that The Lord would show him how.
It is the power of one that is willing to stand up and make a difference when everyone else is sitting that soon becomes the majority.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/the-power-of-one-nehemiah/
Risky Business – Nehemiah 1 – [Against the Odds] – Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Many times we go to bible study, church or we will even read a book and we are looking for something that we don’t know. When the power of the Christian life is what we already do know. Its living for Jesus, its giving it all for Jesus, its prayer, and being transformed by His Word. Our walk with the Lord isn’t about doing something brand new, but doing what has already been said.
A hero can be defined as somebody who is willing to risk his or her own life in order to save someone else’s.
There is a big disconnect between where our heart longs to be and where our heart actually are. We long to be a hero but our culture has taught us that we need to play it safe, that we shouldn’t take risk. A smart person is a safe person.
But, What if in order to truly experience life we had to take some risk? The bible is filled with a bunch of people who were risk takers such as Nehemiah
Nehemiah 1:1-3 "In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”
Nehemiah was concerned with the conditions of Jerusalem and asked how things were going. And in Nehemiah 4 we see his response to the how things were.
Nehemiah 1:4 "When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven."
Nehemiah’s response is much different than how we tend to respond to questions we ask today. When situations are critical and in desperate need of someone’s help our response should be the same response as Nehemiah’s was. But instead we stay comfortable and assume others will handle the situation.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/risky-business-nehemiah-1/
How will I respond? Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
2 timothy 1:6 "This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you."
When did he receive the gift? When he had hands laid on him, the laying of hands is something that is very important. Something special happens when we lay hands on others like God has told us to.
Is there something you have let go of or have forgotten that needs to be fanned into flames again? Maybe it was missions, sharing the Gospel with loved ones, healing, prophecy etc..
God wants to use you we just need to have our flames fanned once again.
It is amazing what we allow ourselves to get use to once we live with it for a while. We have become to use to living like normal human beings that we’ve forgotten that we are sons and daughters oh the most high God.
What is considered normal behavior in the Kingdom of God isn’t normal behavior on earth. We need to realize where it is that we really come from and not conform to a world that is telling us to go another way.
Where are we today when it comes to the word of God? Does God’s word still have the authority to change our lives or do we hear a sermon that stretches us and we think twice about it because we just aren’t sure.
Acts 19:1-6 "While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “We haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.” Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.” As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied."
When we come to Christ we are sealed with the Holy Spirit for all of eternity, but God has so much more for us to encounter and to pull out of heaven that we didn’t know was there.
God’s word has laid it out for us so clearly if we would just read it with fresh eyes and an open heart instead of depending on commentary to do it for us.
Are we willing to experience the things of God that we have not heard of with the chance of going to even greater places that we have not yet experienced or will we allow our unwillingness to to stop us at the door?
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/how-will-i-respond-by-brent-phillips/
Why do we need the gifts? Brent Phillips - Encounter Houston
There is always the temptation to have a bible study that does what people are comfortable with because we must keep the people happy. NO! Not that we don’t to make people happy but their is One that we are to keep happy far more than people.
If we aren’t making Him happy then what does it matter, if we aren’t honoring him none of it matters. We so desperately need The Lord and in the face of pressure we must always choose to please the Lord over people.
Why do we have to talk about the gifts? Why do we need the gifts? Because you can’t carry out the plans of God without the tools of God and those tools are his gifts
We are told to lay our hands on the sick and heal them. Which is impossible, but when we do what God has said and operate in His gifts amazing things happen.
If you want to live a defeated life without the power that God has for us we don’t have to talk about the gifts but if you want everything that God has for us then we have to talk about the gifts, and if we didn’t have to talk about the gifts than it wouldn’t have been in The Bible.
All of us have been given a spiritual gift. We all have been told to be the light of the world and the gifts enable us to be what He has called us to be.
Acts 4:23-24 "As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them."
Acts 4:29-30 "As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them."
Why are they asking for something? Because they have a challenge that is greater than what they can do, they have to do something that is beyond their natural ability and they are in need a divine intervention to enable them to carry out the task that has been given to them.
Why do we need the gifts?
1 Corinthians 12:7 "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other."
How do I find my gifts?
Galatians 6:9-10 "So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone — especially to those in the family of faith."
We know that gifts have been given to us in order to help others, so when we begin to help others it is then that we can begin to discover what our gifts are.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/why-do-we-need-the-gifts/
Do our traditions block the Holy Spirit? Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
A tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.
There are some traditions that just don’t make sense but we do it for the sake of tradition. But can these traditions get in the way of the Holy Spirit being able to move through us?
How can we move past the traditions that have been handed down to us and have block us from being all in with our relationship with God?
Acts 7:51 "You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!"
A tradition was being handed down that stopped the Holy Spirit from being able to do what he needed to do in the lives of Gods children. This is scary because we see that we have been given far more authority and responsibility when it comes to the things of God than we realize, we have the ability to stop Gods working in our lives.
We think that just because God is all-powerful and sovereign that he is going to do whatever it is that he wants to do. But it can’t be considered love and faith if it just happens automatically. We have to be able to make a choice in order for it to be love and faith
The Holy Spirit came to these people because he wanted to reveal something to them but they resisted him and stopped him from coming and revealing all God had for them.
We need to ask our self, “Am I stopping the Holy Spirit from being able to reveal himself in my life for a man-made tradition that has been passed down for generations?”
Mark 7:6-12 "Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents."
Are we going to worship God how he desires our worship to be or will we continue to worship the way our ancestors have for the sake of tradition. It is time to break free from our man-made traditions and get back to the traditions of Heaven that are past down from God.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/do-our-traditions-block-the-holy-spirit-brent-phillips/
Who am I? Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
How many of us are living in a constant state of spiritual amnesia?
We go to church on Sunday and the next day we have already forgotten who we are. As long as we continue to forget who we are we will constantly be robbed of the things that we are suppose to have.
If you don’t know who you are, you open yourself up to the danger of allowing other people to tell you who are. If you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing you are in danger of allowing others to tell you what is that you’re suppose to be doing, and chances are it wont be the direction that you are to be going.
John 16:7-11 "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
The Holy Spirit’s job in us is to do what Jesus did with his disciples while on earth. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us to tell us who we are, and what it is that we are supposed to be doing.
You should never come away reading the word of God feeling condemned. If you are having a moment of condemnation then you can guarantee that is it is the voice of the enemy.
Romans 8:1 "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus."
It is he enemy who is wanting to condemn us.
There is no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit’s job is to remind us that there is no condemnation once we are in Christ.
Galatians 5:1 and 7 "So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. 7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?"
Christ has set us free, but it is possible for us to get tangled up in the law by trying to do everything right by ourselves. Listen to The Holy Spirit as he calls out the righteousness we have through Jesus Christ.
Stop allowing the enemies voice to count you out; Keep on running the race because it is in our weaknesses that Christ is made strong.
I am faithful (Ephesians 1:1) I am God’s child (John 1:12) I have been justified (Romans 5:1) I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15) I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20) I am a member of Christ’s Body (1 Corinthians 12:27) I am assured all things work together for good (Romans 8:28) I have been established, anointed and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) I am confident that God will perfect the work He has begun in me (Philippians 1:6) I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20) I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7) I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18) I am blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3) I am chosen before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 11) I am holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4) I am adopted as his child (Ephesians 1:5) I am given God’s glorious grace lavishly and without restriction (Ephesians 1:5,8) I am in Him (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30) I have redemption (Ephesians 1:8) I am forgiven (Ephesians 1:8; Colossians 1:14) I have purpose (Ephesians 1:9 & 3:11) I have hope (Ephesians 1:12) I am included (Ephesians 1:13) I am sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) I am a saint (Ephesians 1:18) I am salt and light of the earth (Matfthew 5:13-14) I have been chosen and God desires me to bear fruit (John 15:1,5) I am a personal witness of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8) I am God’s coworker (2 Corinthians 6:1) I am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-20) I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5) I am raised up with Christ (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12) I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) I have been shown the incomparable riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:7) God has expressed His kindness to me (Ephesians 2:7) I am God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10) I have been brought near to God through Christ’s blood (Ephesians 2:13) I have peace (Ephesians 2:14) I have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18) I am a member of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19) I am secure (Ephesians 2:20) I am a holy temple (Ephesians 2:21; 1 Corinthians 6:19) I am a dwelling for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22) I share in the promise of Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6) God’s power works through me (Ephesians 3:7) I can approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12) I know there is a purpose for my sufferings (Ephesians 3:13) I can grasp how wide, long, high and deep Christ’s love is (Ephesians 3:18) I am completed by God (Ephesians 3:19) I can bring glory to God (Ephesians 3:21) I have been called (Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:9) I can be humble, gentle, patient and lovingly tolerant of others (Ephesians 4:2) I can mature spiritually (Ephesians 4:15) I can be certain of God’s truths and the lifestyle which He has called me to (Ephesians 4:17) I can have a new attitude and a new lifestyle (Ephesians 4:21-32) I can be kind and compassionate to others (Ephesians 4:32) I can forgive others (Ephesians 4:32) I am a light to others, and can exhibit goodness, righteousness and truth (Ephesians 5:8-9) I can understand what God’s will is (Ephesians 5:17) I can give thanks for everything (Ephesians 5:20) I don’t have to always have my own agenda (Ephesians 5:21) I can honor God through marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33) I can parent my children with composure (Ephesians 6:4) I can be strong (Ephesians 6:10) I have God’s power (Ephesians 6:10) I can stand firm in the day of evil (Ephesians 6:13) I am dead to sin (Romans 1:12) I am not alone (Hebrews 13:5) I am growing (Colossians 2:7) I am His disciple (John 13:15) I am prayed for by Jesus Christ (John 17:20-23) I am united with other believers (John 17:20-23) I am not in want (Philippians 4:19) I possess the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16) I am promised eternal life (John 6:47) I am promised a full life (John 10:10) I am victorious (I John 5:4) My heart and mind is protected with God’s peace (Philippians 4:7) I am chosen and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12) I am blameless (I Corinthians 1:8) I am set free (Romans 8:2; John 8:32) I am crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) I am a light in the world (Matthew 5:14) I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37) I am the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21) I am safe (I John 5:18) I am part of God’s kingdom (Revelation 1:6) I am healed from sin (I Peter 2:24) I am no longer condemned (Romans 8:1, 2) I am not helpless (Philippians 4:13) I am overcoming (I John 4:4) I am persevering (Philippians 3:14) I am protected (John 10:28) I am born again (I Peter 1:23) I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) I am delivered (Colossians 1:13) I am redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13) I am qualified to share in His inheritance (Colossians 1:12) I am victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57)
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/who-am-i-brent-phillips/
Passion - Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Mark 12:30 "love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy."
When someone is passionate about something you don’t have to ask what their passion is because their actions show that passion. Where is our passion for the God that we serve? Have we forgotten what He has done for us? Do we love the lord with all of our passion, intelligence and energy?
Jeremiah 20:9 "But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!"
When you have a passion it can’t be hidden, you couldn’t try to hide it even if you tried because it is apart of who you are. True passion has to be expressed. We are built and created to be passionate and expressive.
1 Peter 2:2-3 "Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness."
We can’t just endure His word but we must crave it!
Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
Do we truly hunger and thirst for His presence or can we go days or maybe even months with out tasting. We can’t expect to be satisfied if we aren’t willing to eat or drink His word.
When we come to Him with expectancy, passion, and excitement we are coming to Him with faith.
The quality of his word is life changing! What are we doing with his word? Our passion for his word has everything do with our excitement and expectation in his word. We need to allow the passion inside of us overflow into a response to God.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/passion-by-brent-phillips/
What does it mean to be filled? Part 2 Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Habakkuk 3:2 "I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy."
We see that if God did it then through his people; than He can still do it today through his people. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Spirit of God enables us to do things that seem impossible. But, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to do those impossible things
God has given us an appetite for the impossible. Jesus spent three years training his disciples how to nurture that appetite by expecting God to do amazing things and then doing the impossible things through the Spirit of God. However, we can we limit Gods work in and through our life because of our unbelief.
Hebrews 3:15,19: "Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” 19 So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest."
God’s promises are available but they aren’t automatic.
Hebrews 8:6 "But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises."
We have been upgraded to a better covenant and better promises through Jesus Christ. But in order to see the greater things we must make the choice to have faith in order that we might see.
The video to this Podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-filled-part-2/
Diving into faith Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Galatians 3:14 "Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith."
Faith is the currency of the kingdom of God. Faith makes the exchanges possible. If we come to God with doubt and disbelief we will not see the kingdom of God coming forth. We must come to Him with faith. Faith is what allows us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
What is faith? Sometimes we may feel that God is too good to be true. We might get discouraged when our efforts in God’s work fail. Faith is the belief that it really is possible.
Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."
We cannot define faith by our own experience and what is happening around us. We cannot measure faith by the world’s standards, we must measure it by God’s standard. If we truly want to be who God created us to be we need him to have faith in him.
Hebrews 11:6 "And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him."
Do you believe that the God that you are serving will reward you? Our faith cannot be based on our own works. It is based on the nature of God. Your faith is not based on how much you love God but on how much he loves you.
Sometimes we make excuses for our spiritual laziness. We say that it is God’s will not to heal when we don’t have the faith to be healed. Instead of defending our faith we defend our doubts. Let’s stop trying to find reasons why God can’t, and press in to promises where he said he will. The failures of yesterday do not determine the possibilities of today and tomorrow.
Mark 9:23 …Anything is possible if a person believes.
Expect miracles!
The video of this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/diving-into-faith/
What does it mean to be filled? Part 1 Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Sometimes people are afraid of the Holy Spirit because they don’t understand it, but fear keeps us in a prison
1 John 4:18 "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love."
If we are afraid of God and what he has, it is because we have not come to the realization of how much he loves us. Don’t be afraid to receive all that God has for you.
Luke 11:11-13 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
The Holy Spirit is something good that God gives us because he loves us. Fear has kept us from receiving what God has for us. The power of God is in the Holy Spirit. Our ability to live a life of power is in proportion to the ability we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Are we willing to open up our lives to receive what God has for us? When you are filled with the Holy Spirit you are filled with Jesus. It is then that you can have a life filled wiht passion for the things of God.
Ephesians 5:18 "Don’t be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit."
This is a command to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It does not come automatically. It is something that we have to desire and seek after.
Ephesians 3:16 "That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being."
We can’t do God’s work without God’s power. Strength and power are some of the characteristics of the Holy Spirit.
We can be filled with the Holy Spirit through God’s Word, through prayer, and through faith. The Holy Spirit will help us understand God’s love for us and that knowledge will change our life. Are you ready to be filled?
The video to this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-filled/
Introduction of The Holy Spirit Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
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."
We spend a lot of time getting information but until you experience something you cannot know what it is really like. The Holy Spirit is how you experience God.
Don’t be afraid to let the Holy Spirit come into your life. When you are full of the Holy Spirit you are passionate about Jesus. When you are full of the Spirit of God you are full of God’s plans and purposes, His thoughts and His heart, His passion and power. This is why Satan uses our fear to keep us from the Holy Spirit.
John 16:5-7 "But now I’m going to him who sent me; and none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."
What could be of greater advantage than having Jesus right here doing miraculous things for you? Having the Holy Spirit inside of you so that you can do miraculous things.
Ephesians 3:20 "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."
You can expect God to do phenomenal things through you. Do you realize the power that is inside you? Having the Holy Spirit is the potential to be like God. You can make a difference in people’s lives.
When the apostles were threatened with death and told to stop teaching about Jesus, they prayed to have more boldness in spreading the gospel. In return they were filled with the Holy Spirit. When you are doing his work you will be craving more and more and will be filled more and more.
Luke 11:9 "And I tell you, ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you."
God will always open the door. He will fill us with the Holy Spirit. He is waiting for us to knock. Don’t let fear lock you out of the greatest gift that God can give you.
The video to this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/introduction-of-the-holy-spirit/
Living with Wonder Clint Phillips – Encounter Houston
Being with Lord can become tough with demands of today’s society where the odds always seem to be against us.
Psalms 34:1-2 David says: I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise. I live and breathe God, if things aren’t going well.
We tend to forget all the things God has done for us when the demands begin to weigh us down. But if we really looked through our life for God’s amazingness despite our circumstance we will find it. David sets the perfect example of how it is that we can find God all throughout our life. He was never a person that got stuck in his circumstances and always took the opportunity to bless God and tell others about him.
The video to this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/living-with-wonder/
Do we need churches any more? Some people have gone to church to find the things they have heard about only to find that the church doesn’t have what they need to heal their hearts. They couldn’t find the Jesus that they had heard about. Many people think church is just a building. Maybe we need to redefine church.
Ephesians 1:18-23 "I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength… 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
As individuals we are the light of the world but together we are the fullness of Jesus. We can do as much good as Jesus did because he has given us the Holy Spirit.
In John chapter 6 we read about when Jesus fed five thousand people with only a few loaves and fishes. There was a need. The people were hungry. Jesus knew what he was going to do but he asked his disciples what they were going to do about it. They thought it would be impossible to feed so many. But Jesus took what was available and performed a miracle.
God asks us to solve the world’s problems but he is right there to help us with what little we have. If you offer what you have to God, he will take that and perform a miracle. When we come together and give whatever we have to give, lives will start to change. The body of Christ can make a huge impact on the world.
2 Corinthians 8:2-5 "In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.”
When God touches your heart it always results in giving.
Stop attending church. Be the church.
The video to this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/do-we-still-need-churches-by-brent-phillips/
Can we talk about the nail? Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Is there something in your life that might be holding you back from God’s blessings for you? We may not recognize it or we may just refuse to admit it. We need to be honest enough with ourselves to ask the hard questions and act upon the answers.
2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
We need healing from the Lord. Healing is restoring something back to its proper condition. Revival is the same thing. When we seek revival we are seeking healing from God. But this healing will only come when we turn from our wicked ways. We must be willing to change our lifestyle.
James 1:23-24 "For if you listen to the word and do not obey is, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror; you see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like."
When you look in the mirror and see something that needs to be changed you cannot just walk away and do nothing. When you make excuses why you can’t change you empower yourself to stay in slavery to complacency.
1 Thessalonians 5:17-21 “Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good."
To hear truth and not act upon it is a complete waste of time. If a coach was telling you how to run better would you listen and change the way you run? If you don’t make the changes, you will stay where you are and never improve. God tells you what to do. What will you do about it?
The video to this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/can-we-talk-about-the-nails-experience-revial/
Do I look fat in these pants? Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Do we really want an honest answer to the question “Do these pants make me look fat?” Are we willing to make changes if the answer is not what we want to hear? Do we ask God to lead us but only where we want to go? We need to be honest and do an assessment of where we really are. Our ability to be honest is our ability to receive and to see God in ways that we never have.
James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."
A powerful prayer starts with honesty. Before you can confess your sin you have to admit that you have sinned. Can we take an honest look at our life? God is waiting for us to confess our sins and pray for each other so that he can come into our life with healing. When we are honest with ourselves God will meet us right where we are and strengthen us.
2Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Until you are able to love Jesus more than anything else in your life you will be unable to be the person you need to be.
You cannot claim to serve God but have conditions that he has to work with. You must give fully of yourself and hold nothing back. Only then can God work through you. We need to be willing to lay down everything and be willing to sacrifice anything. God will give you what you really need.
Revival will come when we are honest with ourselves and God. We need revival in our life so that God can work through us. Revive your heart and God will revive your spirit.
When you are willing to change God will change you.
The video to this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/do-i-look-fat-in-these-pants-experience-revival/
Religion vs Relationship Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Religion teaches us how we should act but it may leave us feeling empty. Religion will tell you that you’re broken but will tell you nothing about how to fix it. Religion will point fingers but not give you a hand. There is a difference between memorizing scripture and seeing scripture working in our life. Don’t mistake religion for a relationship with Christ. A person may wear a mask of religion but still not know Jesus.
John 8: 1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. go and sin no more.”
Jesus does not condemn the sinner because the sinner is what He came to earth for. When you experience a relationship with Christ it will change your life. You may have been in a church for many years but still not have encountered Jesus. When you encounter Jesus you will never be the same.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away; behold, new has come. “
Jesus doesn’t need perfect situations to do something amazing. To know Jesus is to be transformed.
Watch the video of this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/religion-vs-relationship-with-jesus/
Do you want to be the light of the world? Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Before you can be something, you need to believe you can. So many time we disqualify ourselves before we even get started because of our lack of knowledge, our past, our failures and our projections. God is looking for availability, not for ability. God is searching for a vessel to work through, He adds what is needed.
Watch this podcasts video @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/do-you-want-to-be-the-light-of-the-world/
Fighting off offense Brent Phillips – Encounter Houston
We have all been offended at some time or other. Offenses are sure to come because no one is perfect. We are all broken and need a Savior. But when you shut the door on something, you will miss out on a whole field of things that God has to offer. Because of one bad experience you cam imprison yourself from future good. When you are holding offense, you are holding sin willfully in your life. Offense is unforgiveness. It is a trap from the devil to stop you from getting to where God wants you to be.
We are all flawed but God is not flawed so we should not cut off God because of something that a flawed person may have said or done. Don’t punish yourself for something someone else did. Don’t judge all people by one person’s actions. You will miss things God wants to show you.
When a Canaanite woman came to ask Jesus for help she didn’t take offense.
Matt 15:26-28 “He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’ ‘Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that very moment.”
She showed great faith. Faith overcomes offense because you’re not looking at what’s happening right now; you’re looking at what can be. Desperate people are not easily offended.
When Jesus came to his hometown and started teaching in the synagogue the people thought they knew what to expect.
Matt 13:57-58 “And they took offense at him. And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”
Sometimes we pass judgment based on our ignorance. In doing so we limit the good that God can do in our life.
When many were leaving Jesus because they were offended he asked the Twelve if they would leave him, too.
John 6:68-69 “Simon Peter answered “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
What matters is Jesus Christ and our knowledge that God is good. Are you limiting God in your life because you have been offended by somebody else? The remedy for offense is forgiveness.
Watch the video of this podcast @ http://www.neverjustexist.org/fighting-off-offense-by-brent-phillips/
What fills You Up?
If you're hungry you might choose something not very nutritious that will fill you up quickly. But all too soon you will be hungry again because you didn't give your body what it truly needs for food. Have you every felt hungry or thirsty in your soul? Are you filling your thirsty soul with empty calories? There are so many things that we can fill our lives with. All that life has to offer can fill us for a short time but will not give us lasting happiness.
John 4:10-14 "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it was that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.' 'Sir,' the woman said, 'you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?' Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"
What do we try to quench our heart's thirst with?
If you do not know Jesus Christ there is an unquenchable thirst inside of your soul. There is nothing you can do to fill that void and to fill that desire inside of your heart. Only one source can quench our heart. Jesus has promised that he will fill us up.
Matt 11:28-29 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
If you give your life completely to God, he will give you life more abundantly. Sometimes he will ask you to sacrifice something, as he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. If you hold on to the things you think you want, God cannot give you what he has in store for you.
When your soul is thirsty what will you drink? The well is there but you have to be willing to drink from it. The choice is yours. Choose the source that will leave you full.
Watch the video of this podcast @ http:www.neverjustexist.org/what-fills-you-up-dealing-with-emptiness-by-brent-phillips