CrossWay Fellowship Church: Recent Episodes
Pastor Dennis Walton
CrossWay Fellowhip Church is a non-denominational church in Willow Springs, Missouri. We've been having church together since 2007 and we'd love for you to join us in person or by subscribing to this podcast!
Jesus was not the king the Jews were looking for - born in a stable to poor parents and destined for a life of humility and servitude. Today, He’s not the God some people are looking for, either. Nevertheless, the King is coming and we don’t want to miss the hour of His visitation!
God did a lot to prepare the way for Jesus, making plans from the very beginning and sending prophets along the way. We did nothing to prepare for His first coming but sin. Pastor Dennis reminds us of the importance of preparing for His second coming.
“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land.” God’s blessings cannot be earned, but they are conditional upon our obedience to Him, our faith in Him and our willingness to humbly comply with His will.
Emotions are good in their proper place - God wired us with them to enhance our lives. Our emotions are not intended to lead us, though. Emotions are always changing and are impossible to tame. Devotion, on the other hand, is a more permanent thing - we will remain devoted to something tomorrow that we are devoted to today. Devotion is required to make the world operate and it’s required to be married to your faith if you are to truly serve God!
No matter who we are and what our past is, God is seeking us out to fill us with His Spirit, turning these worthless earthen vessels into great treasures!
Indecision is the wrong decision. This is a must-see, as we choose sides in today’s world.
We have all become accustomed to spending time apart due to the very necessary practice of quarantine. We must be careful not to become accustomed to growing apart - physically and spiritually. We need each other, we need to be gathered together!
Pastor Dennis Walton, Associate Pastor Jeff Conger, Brother Steve Russell and Brother Matt Knapp each share about how God's people can work together to become more than just a collection of people with a common cause, becoming an effective body of Christ.
When the plague of darkness fell upon the land of Egypt, the Egyptians were struggling to make it through three days of total, oppressive darkness. The Israelites in the land of Goshen, however, had light in their homes. God provides for us in the darkness!
When the temple was consecrated, God sent fire down from Heaven to light the fire for the altar of burnt offerings. The priests were to keep that fire burning all the time and any fire for sacrifice or for burning incense in the temple was to be taken from that fire God had initially started.
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu got fire from their own source, strange fire that God had not ordained and they were destroyed by fire from Heaven. Nadab and Abihu had the idea that they would worship God in their own way, but God wants us to do things His way - with our whole heart, in spirit and in truth.
An expression is the process of taking something you think or feel inside and making it known. Worship is the expression of honor and adoration. There was a time when the worship of God occurred in the temple and there were years of hard work put into having that place prepared for that purpose. Today, the temple of God is in the body of the believer! Let your body and mind be a temple of praise and worship to God!
The message of the Bible is extremely simple but we have a way of making simple things difficult. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees made serving God harder than it needed to be.
While Jesus dealt compassionately with people - he was kind to prostitutes and tax collectors - but He dealt harshly with the Pharisees. He called them hypocrites because, while they held religiously to their ritual traditions, the love of God was absent from their hearts.
Let us live our lives in a way that honors God and deals kindly with people, because that is the heart of the gospel.
The Earth is in the perfect position to support life. At the perfect moment, a baby’s heart begins to beat, supporting the child’s life. A seed contains life that sprouts out at the perfect moment. Why? Because God set it into motion and sustains it! God brings light and life to everything He touches!
Fear God and keep His commandments. We know that’s what we are supposed to do, but it sounds kind of rough. We fear spiders and snakes, but that’s not the way we fear God. We honor God’s authority and power, understanding that He alone stands in judgment of the way we have lived our lives. Our future is in His hands, so to be a God-fearing Christian is to have respect and reverence for Him.
Satan is very real and is in the world to cause as much pandemonium and chaos as he possibly can. As much as God wants to be in your life, the devil wants to be in your life, too! The child of God need not be afraid, however, for God has prepared for you a secret hiding place!
We hear a lot of voices - there are always people who are eager to provide advice, there are the desires of our fleshly bodies, and there are also spiritual voices guiding us to what is good and what is evil. In a world full of voices, we want to exercise discernment and tune in to the voice of God. Listen to find instruction in discerning the spirit of God among the voices of influence we hear every day.
Everyone gets discouraged sometimes. The more discouraged we are, the less effective we’re going to be for the Kingdom of God. However, God can take our discouragement and turn it into encouragement, putting us back on our feet again!
It takes some work on our part to figure out where we’re going to abide. We choose a town, and then a neighborhood, and then we find the right house. Our spiritual life requires a thoughtful approach to where we will abide, too. We have to choose the belief systems where our thoughts are going to live, where our mind is going to abide. Where we vacation is not where we live. If we’re only spiritual on Sunday morning, then that’s not where we abide, it’s where we vacation! If we choose to allow God to be in control of our lives and our thoughts, we need not fear anything that the world can bring against us!
This message should be a comfort to us - God has given us a peek at what eternity is going to be like! We’re not going to be floating around on clouds plucking harps - there will be a new heaven and a new earth on which we will live. The word pictures painted for us by John in the book of Revelation are not necessarily a detailed, complete description, but they do demonstrate that there will be a future for us that is beautiful and so much better than what we have now!
We all have good intentions, but we are weak... fortunately God doesn't give up on us because of our failures or weaknesses! He mends and heals us and gives us new life and purpose. He holds off His wrath against our sin, extending His grace instead. There is never a time when God withdraws and doesn't care anymore. There is always hope!
If God has been able to preserve His plans over all these years and all of the actions of the enemy, then we should be assured that anything negative that arises in our life is not going to be able to derail Gods plan, either! God is the same yesterday, today and forever, from cover to cover!
In the beginning, the world was formless and void… and then God applied His vision and creativity and it was very good! He has a way of taking something empty and filling it with joy and purpose. He did it in the universe and He will do it in your life!
At times, we get a hole in our spiritual bucket and the joy and fulfillment seems to leak out of our life. Let God refill you today!
Have you noticed that Jesus sometimes would say, “He who has ears, let him hear?” That’s always a clue something important is about to be said! This week, brother Steve Russell shares how the parable of the sower and the messages to the churches of Revelation are food for thought for the modern Christian. Do you have ears to hear?
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on land. Water flows down into this depression and evaporates, leaving behind the salt and minerals it carried, making the sea completely devoid of any life. Sometimes, when we’re in our low points where we are feeling tormented, confused, feeling the pain of guilt and regret, we feel like our lives are devoid of any life, any joy.
In Ezekiel 47, God gave the prophet a vision of a river flowing into the sea, bringing a refreshing and life to the Dead Sea. Jesus is the fountain of living water that refreshes us, bringing life to our dead existence, giving us purpose and joy!
If we compare ourselves to other people or measure ourselves with some metric of our own, we may come out looking pretty good. Compared to God, however, we are despicable, evil people.
God is good and, created in His image, we ought to be good, but instead, we are bad… how can that be? That’s where the “ugly” comes in - the sin within us is ugly. None of this is a problem or a surprise to God. He seeks out broken people, pays full price for us, and fixes us.
Contentment and covetousness are complete opposites. To be content is to be satisfied and free from anxiety, to need nothing else in order to be happy. Covetousness, on the other hand, is to desire unreasonably or unlawfully or to have an excessive love for gain. We tend to rank sins, finding something like murder or theft to be more problematic than something like wanting what’s not yours. God, however, saw fit to include covetousness in His top ten list of sins, probably because the sins of our hearts tend to become the sins of our hands... The Bible is very clear - we are better to be content with little and have peace than to seek great gain. Indeed, contentment with Godliness is great gain!
Often, we feel small and insignificant. We have just a little money with big bills to pay. We have just a little strength and so much to do. We have just a little faith with which to serve a great big God… The Bible is full of examples of people who had only a little. Little David versus the giant Goliath, the widow lady with only a little flour and oil and three mouths to feed, five little loaves and two fish with thousands needing to eat. Those accounts are in the Bible so that we can understand God still, our day, can do much when we have only a little! He prefers it that way because He gets all the credit for the gain! Bring the little you have to God today, yield it to Him and see what a mighty God He is!
Our carnal (fleshly) minds are wired to think a certain way - to fret over things that are of constant concern to the body. Though we know we are follow Jesus' example, we all must consider how much your minds have been influenced by the sinful world around us. Sin has an allure to it - it pulls us in and makes us think we still have control, but it tends to reshape us.
Animals operate on a purely carnal mind - what can I do to benefit myself? It's easy for us to default to that mode of thinking as well, but Jesus taught us to think and act as He did, a selfless servant.
When Moses revealed God’s law to the people, he told them he was presenting to them both a blessing and a curse. A blessing if they chose to follow God and His commands, a curse if they chose their own path. Even though the people said they chose God’s blessings, the choices they made in their lives indicated that they preferred the curse.
The curse of sin brings pain, tragedy and countless difficulties into the lives of every living creature on this planet. Fortunately, Jesus removed the sting of the curse from us by redeeming us on the cross. This broken world will continue to groan under the weight of the curse, but one day God will destroy it and make a new one free from the effects of sin!
We have our own definition of “blessed.” It might include things like having money, good health, an enjoyable career. Gods definition of “blessed” is much different… In Matthew 5, Jesus said we are blessed when we are selfless and merciful, when we are lied about and taken advantage of! We live in a society that teaches us to take everything we can get, but Jesus teaches it is a greater blessing to give than to receive!
Often, by the decisions we make, we choose the curse rather than the blessing because the things God considers a blessing are counterintuitive. What we know is that God will never lie to our or fail us - if He says it’s a blessing, then we can take that to the bank. Listen to this week’s message to learn what blessings you should seek this year!
The term “incarnate” means “in flesh.” Jesus became incarnate, God in flesh, the only begotten of the Father. God knows what if feels like to be sick, to be betrayed, to be angry, to be disappointed, because He has been in our skin. It is no small thing that the all-powerful God of the universe, the author of creation, stepped down out of timelessness, out of omnipotence, to be one of us so that He could save us!
King David was a man after God’s own heart and during his time as leader of Israel, the nation saw great prosperity. Even though enemies were on all sides and their king was the handsome runt of the litter, even though David made grave mistakes and sinned greatly, God blessed him and the people.
King Solomon had a kingdom at peace, had more wisdom than any other man to ever live, and had God’s temple to build. Even though Solomon had everything going for him, the nation was broken at the end of his rule and his own household fell apart. What made David successful while Solomon failed?
Ultimately, the issue is the heart. Is your heart and mind where it needs to be - are you seeking the path God has laid out for you? Whatever in your life stands between you and full devotion to God has to go! Sail away from your old life and then burn the ships so you never go back.
In this third entry in the series, we’re going to look into the virgin birth. We have all heard about that our whole lives, but it’s a deep concept and it’s very important to the special nature of Christ’s birth. In this message, Pastor Dennis delves into three fundamental questions surrounding the virgin birth.
How do we know Jesus was born of a virgin?
Why did God choose a virgin?
Why did God choose Mary?
Last week, we looked at the reliability and authority of scripture. So, if the Bible is reliable and has authority, then what does that mean?
Recognizing that the Bible is valuable, that it is profitable and that it has been given to us by God for our benefit, each Christian person must bring themselves under the authority of the Bible and align their lives with its words. When we commit to do that, we receive the blessings of God, and the rest that is provided by the peace that comes with knowing we are in submission to God’s authority.
If we don’t know why we believe what we believe, then what we believe doesn’t matter.
Like vaccinations that help defend you against diseases, knowing God’s truth will help you defend you. What you believe matters. Knowing WHY we believe what we believe, matters.
This week we look at some "proofs" that the Bible is real and true and trustworthy.
Dedication is defined as “committed and devoted to a particular task or purpose.” There’s a difference between being dedicated or just participating in something. Jesus said that people had to be willing to take up their cross to follow Him. Following Jesus, we die to ourselves so we can live for His purposes.
The term “communion” has become a religious term that we use to associate with grape juice and crackers. Communion, though, is a word that means “relationship.” When we commune with God, we know Him and He knows us on an individual level. Every action of God from the moment of creation to the triumph of the cross to this very day has been to have a relationship with us, to draw us closer to Him!
Brother Matt answers some big questions such as: Where does life come from? How do cavemen and dinosaurs fit into the Bible?
The purpose of the law was to establish a state of perfection for man, but it is a standard that we cannot meet! In Galatians, we learn that the whole purpose of the law that we could not keep was as a “schoolmaster,” preparing us for a life lived in the grace that Jesus offers us! We cannot be perfect, we cannot earn salvation, but we don’t have to! Because we could not do it ourselves, Jesus did it for us - because He loves us, because God loves us, He made a path for us to be redeemed and made perfect in His sacrifice!
In this "science and the Bible" segment, Brother Matt explores the probability of the Big Bang and weights this against the Biblical account.
There are times when our struggles are so deep, so impossible to express in words that we cannot share them with another person. In that moment, we are completely alone - but we are not alone! God is there with us through those difficulties! Jesus experienced every kind of pain, temptation, and loss that we do and He can carry us through those difficulties.
A look into how the Bible was written and preserved over time that will build your confidence in the authenticity and reliability of scripture. If the Bible cannot be accepted as trustworthy, then no book can!
Despite Moses’ weaknesses, God was able to use him to do mighty things. Eventually, Moses died and a new generation was going to have to be in place to pick up the mantel and move forward. It was God’s choice to raise up Joshua to be the next leader for Israel. Moses helped prepare Joshua for this calling by telling him three things:
Don’t be afraid… the Lord fights for you
Keep God’s word fresh in you
The presence of God is where you hear from God
A run-down of the logical arguments for the existence of God - the teleological (designer) argument, the cosmological (cause/effect) argument, the axiological (moral) argument, and the metaphysical (logical proof) argument.
The opposite of “adversity” is “easy.” Adversity is God’s university - the hardships and trials of life apply to all people and it’s God’s way of shaping us into who He wants us to be. And we all ask the same question, “Why is this happening to me?”
Adversity is more precious than gold which perishes. Our nature is to seek the easy path, though. Any time God is preparing to do something in our lives, He is going to require an act of faith on our part.
Plumb is an important word in a construction project. If something is perfectly straight up and down, then it is said to be plumb. When you’re building something, you want to make sure, right from the very start, that the structure you’re putting up is plumb and level because it will affect the entire building and will ultimately determine if the structure will stand or fall.
Our lives are like that. We have to make sure we get started the right way. Proverbs 14:2 says that there is a way that seems right to man but ends in death. We can’t set our own sense of what is plumb. We can’t plumb our life against someone else’s life, either! We can all benefit from examining ourselves to see if we’re plumb with God’s standard and, if we find we are not, allow Him to straighten our lives out.
When you come home from a good vacation, you say, “It was an experience!” God wants us to have experiences with Him! Thinking of an “experience with God” conjures visions of physical things, but a great experience with God may be a moment of prayer where your heart and soul cry out. And that’s no small thing!
Experiences with God take you from knowing about God to really knowing God, from just liking Jesus to being like Jesus!
When crowds gathered around Jesus, there were children among the people. Perhaps some people brought their children, hoping to get a blessing for them from Jesus. When his happened on one occasion, the disciples tried to send the children away, but Jesus became upset and said He wanted to have them brought to Him.
Jesus said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What did He mean by that? There are 5 things in the nature of children we can emulate. Listen to find out more!
The nation of Israel suffered for about 400 years as slaves to the nation of Egypt. When God sent Moses to deliver them, they must have been excited and relieved beyond imagination! But, shortly after they began their exodus from the land, they hit a huge obstacle. They found themselves trapped between the oncoming Egyptian army under the control of an angry Pharaoh who had changed his mind about releasing them and the insurmountable obstacle of the Red Sea.
We find ourselves in similar situations - trapped between a rock and a hard place. What do we do in situations like that? In that moment of Israel’s desperation, He told them “I will fight for you, you have only to be silent.” He would tell us the same thing! Be still and let God do what only He can do!
Scriptures: Exodus 14:13-14, Joshua 1:5-8, Joshua 5:14, Acts 9:7-9, Acts 9:17-20, Psalm 46:10
A dumpster diver’s purpose could be defined like this: That which has been thrown away and deemed useless by one person is rescued, restored, and made useful by another. Some have a knack for seeing value in something other people would just discard. No matter how good or how bad we have been in our past, in comparison to God’s holiness, we all belong in the dumpster… But God, rather than throwing us all out, sees value in each of us and seeks to restore us and rebuild us!
God is completely holy, completely incapable of failure or sin. God demands that we be holy, too. But, the Bible says that we are not capable of being holy… it sounds like an impossible problem! God is perfect and we are so incapable of perfection that it seems like it’s pointless to even try!
We are not holy because of what we do, we are made holy because of Who we know! We are holy by association! Jesus Christ cleanses us of all our sin.
When you work in a garden, you plant, then water, and eventually you harvest. You wouldn’t bother with a garden if you didn’t have the promise of the harvest, because that’s the payoff! Spiritually, we are called to sow the seeds of the gospel into people and to water them with love and attention. The hard truth of spiritual gardening is that there is no guarantee that we will get to see the harvest, but we can find joy in the sowing!
Everything God made is good. He said so when He made it. He made you and He made life, so life is good! Sometimes, life doesn’t seem good because of our circumstances and we are tempted to question God or question life’s goodness, but one day we will be able to see life as God sees it and we will conclude that God knew what He was doing. It is all for good. Jesus said He came to give us life and give it to us more abundantly. A life worth living, full of joy, purpose, and fulfillment.
We talk about Jesus being our “Lord and Savior,” and we know what that term “savior” means because Jesus saves us from our sin, from a punishment in hell. But, do we really know what it means that He is our Lord? A Lord is a master and owner, with complete might and power. The Lord is the person who is in charge. One way of looking at it might be that Jesus’ status as our Lord means the most after his life is over and His status as Lord matters most in our daily life. Jesus is the “Lord of all” because everything and everyone comes under His subjection.
Joy is often viewed as an emotion that changes like our other emotions - sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are not. But joy and happiness are not the same thing. Joy is more stable than our emotions because it’s not tied to our circumstances - joy is not an emotion. We need look no further than our relationship with God for our joy!
We have all heard of a wolf in sheep’s clothing but most of us probably don’t identify with that. We aren’t out, actively trying to deceive anyone. But there’s a little mule in all of us… we have a natural inclination to do things our own way, to stubbornly resist God’s guidance. We must be careful not to appear to follow God from the outside, but inside be harboring the nature of a mule.
In every person's life, there is a time of harvest. There is a time when our hearts are tilled and we are ready to be given the message of the gospel. The goal of being a Christian is not to merely choose Christ at this crucial moment, but to find others who are at that point and help them come to Christ as well! Jesus said that the harvest was ripe but the laborers are few and that has not changed. Let us be the workers ready for harvest time!
Jesus asks us all, "Who do you say that I am?" The fate of our eternal soul rests on how we answer that question. Unbelief is what gives sin power in our life, while belief turns that power over go God. Demonstrating true belief gives God the green light to do what He wants in our lives.
The world says "all paths lead to God," but Jesus said He was the only way to the Father. It's not always easy to walk in the way Jesus asks but we can't believe in Him and think there is any other way.
King Josiah was only 8 when he became king of Israel. He had his mind made up to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor David, sticking to the path ordained by God, deviating neither to the right or the left.
We should strive to have the same attitude. We are not built for sin nor equipped for its consequences. Stay on the path God has prepared!
Scriptures used: Matthew 7:13-14; 2 Chronicles 34:1-2, 24-28
There is a television show called "Temptation Island" where engaged couples go onto an island with a bunch of other men and women expressly for the purpose of tempting them as some kind of test of their relationship before they get married. As ridiculous as that sounds, we do something very similar in our own lives. We intentionally place ourselves in situations where we know we will be tempted!
This week's sermon is delivered by Associate Pastor Jeff Conger.
“A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,”
Proverbs 24:5 ESV
A man of knowledge takes what strength he has and enhances it, makes it stronger. A prayer that is good to focus on goes like this: Lord, strengthen my strengths and weaken my weaknesses.
Our strengths are the things we do well, the things we do right. The weaknesses are the things we trip on, the things we struggle with. God wants to strengthen our strengths so that those areas of our life are what leads us! It’s not good for our weaknesses to lead us, to drive our life. We need to be led by our strengths, operating in the strengths that God has given us.
We have already talked about the importance of repentance and how refreshing comes after that repentance until the time of restoration. Peter is talking, here, about the second coming of Jesus Christ. He came as a babe in a manger, but He’s coming back as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He came as a lamb, but He’ll come again as the Lion of Judah!
In this second installment of the series, Pastor Dennis Walton focuses on "refreshing." Once we have repented of our sins, God can send us spiritual refreshing! Having the monkey of sin off of your back, in-and-of-itself is nice, but the additional benefit of the refreshing from God's Holy Spirit is without comparison!
Repentance is not an experience purely to make you feel bad… conviction is the feeling you have of uneasiness, a feeling of guilt. You realize that you are not right with God and you need to repair the relationship. We hate conviction! We either run from it or we run to it when it comes… but it’s the tool God uses to draw us in.
No one goes to a hospital and voluntarily request for open heart surgery… you go in when you feel bad, when something feels wrong, and then you get it taken care of. Peter says, “Repent, so that the times of refreshing may come…” Repent, turn to Jesus. You want to get the best night of sleep you’ve had in a long time? Repent!
Repentance is not about being sorry that you got caught… it’s not about the mess your life is in that you need out of. True repentance is recognition that your sin has hurt God. In order for that to be able to happen, we must have the right view of God.
Our coming to God should be in response to God’s love, not just out of fear. If our view of God is that He is pure, holy, majestic, and He always has our best interests at heart. If you know that, how can you sin against Him? Knowing He will forgive you when you sin against Him should make you not want to do it!
“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation…”
2 Corinthians 7:10 KJV
God put all of His blessings on the table. The land, the blessings, everything. But Israel left them on the table because of their stubbornness and rebellion and doubt. God has to raise up another generation… the generation who bore the scars on their back from the Egyptian whips, the generation who walked through the Red Sea on dry land and survived 10 plagues doubted God and left His blessings on the table! When they arrived at the promised land, they doubted that God could make it possible for them to inherit the land from those who possessed it. With nothing but desert and slavery behind them, they refuse to step forward across the Jordan and possess it. As the church of Jesus Christ, the people who represent God today… with all that God wants us to do and to have today, aren’t we standing in that same place? What are we leaving on the table!?
We are all in a spiritual war, from the time we get out of bed, until we get back into it at the end of the day. The enemy cranks up the heat to spiritually drain us! There are just times when we feel like all of our strength is gone. We feel like we can't take one more step. But at that point, God can fill us up with His strength! It’s a wonderful blessing to be able to wear completely out, so God can show us His strength.
God doesn’t base His love for us on ours for Him… if He did, we’d be in trouble! While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It’s an amazing love!
Press in! Jesus is attainable, He is within reach!
It’s easy to say read your Bible, pray, come to church and you can get closer to God… but if you go home and just throw open your Bible, you might find yourself in some obscure verse and not really feel like it got you any closer to God...
Four simple ways to get closer to God:
Meditate. Give thought to and contemplate on the things of God. And meditate on the Word. Psalm 1:1-6
Short, Simple Prayers - It’s not about the length of our prayers, but the content, the heart, in them. We should be communicating with God in these short, simple prayers many times a day.
Slowly cut back on distractions. We don’t have to cut TV or smart phones from our lives to get close to God, but we could all use to dial them down a bit so we can hear God’s voice. He often speaks in a whisper so we must draw closer to hear Him.
Be Positive, Speak Positive. We’re living in a negative world and it needs some positivity. Quit griping! Romans 8:28
Scriptures used: Philippians 3:12-15, James 4:4-8, Mark 5:24-34, Acts 17:27-28, Psalms 1:1-6, Romans 8:28
The purpose of a sponge is cleaning. The purpose of Christians is affecting and ministering to others. A sponge is only effective when it soaks up water and then is squeezed so the water comes to the surface and is transferred to other things. Christians should sing songs of praise, listen to sermons, and soak up the message of the Gospel. But being a Christian doesn’t end there - we must get out there and find situations that put the squeeze on us so we can transfer that Gospel to the lives of others.
All soaking and no squeezing makes one soggy! We get “soggy” when we spend a lot of time soaking up the Gospel through messages and songs, but we don’t transfer it to others and really do the work of God.
You might be a soggy saint if…
...the sermons and the singing no longer move you.
...church has lost its excitement for you. (If it’s become just a duty or responsibility)
...the joy of salvation has turned to boredom. (David said, “Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation!)
...if you’re in a church-going rut. (You can get out of a rut! You might recognize that you're in a rut if you get bent out of shape any time something changes in the songs or sermons in service. Like a sponge, you can only take in so many songs and sermons before you’re waterlogged and you have to squeeze it out and share it! The more you a squeeze out, the more you’ll want to take in!)
We have to learn how to balance being ministered to and ministering to others.
On Time Ministry, a local program devoted to rescuing women from human trafficking, presented this Sunday. Victoria gave her personal testimony about being rescued and the new life she has in Christ.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
- Matthew 9:35-38
Anyone can make a contribution, but a contribution is not necessarily coming from a place of compassion. If we give without a willing heart, our gift misses the mark. If we are going to be compassionate, we must recognize a few things:
Compassion must be given with no strings attached.
When you show compassion, you must be willing to be taken advantage of.
Compassion is not a one-time event, it is a culture. It is a life of servitude.
It is compassion, not services that make a church effective. If our church suddenly closed, we would miss it... but would our community miss it?
Psalm 127:1 - Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Jesus said, if He be lifted up, all men would be drawn to him. It is our goal to lift up Jesus. We’re not trying to show off a new building, we’re trying to show off what God has done.
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 - We don’t proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. We are merely earthen vessels, just jars of clay.
Jesus chooses to place his light, his gospel, in these broken, flawed vessels. We would choose to put our valuables in a safe, but God chose to put it in us, imperfect as we are. This brand-new building we’re having church in is just an earthen vessel - made from elements of the earth. One day, God has promised us that the elements will burn in fervent heat and this church and our bodies will be gone.
God longs for a relationship with His people. In the day of the prophet Jeremiah, God was calling to His people to return to their first love, to the fountain of living water. Too many times, we find ourselves preferring our own way, our own will, but we’re looking to broken cisterns that don’t hold water…
Scriptures used: Jeremiah 2:1-13, John 7:37-39, Exodus 32:1-24, Zechariah 13:1-2
God gives us the ability to become fearproof. If we can only learn three things about the nature of God, then we can live full, peaceful lives without any fear.
Yesterday’s forgiveness
Today’s favor
Tomorrow’s faithfulness
We may have made mistakes in our past, and it may be hard to forgive ourselves. It may even be hard to really understand the forgiveness of God since it is so hard for us to let go of things that other people do to us. Forgiving and forgetting is something that is difficult for us, but is something God does every day! We can quit worrying about our past because His mercies are new every morning!
God shows us his favor for us, His beloved children, by providing four things every day: provision for us, protection from evil and danger, power to overcome the enemy, and His divine presence.
The real key, is our faithfulness for tomorrow. If we can throw our cares to God and truly be faithful that He will be there to provide for us, then we have nothing to fear!
God intended His church to stand out, not to be asleep, so that others may come to know Him. Satan has a lullaby - apathy and complacency. A lack of interest, a lack of concern, a lack of enthusiasm. The devil is not concerned that we’re in church, in fact he encourages is so long as we are ineffective while we do it. If we can attend church but be apathetic about the lives of other people, then we are no danger to him.
From the beginning of time God has sounded an alarm to wake His people and make them effective. The people Isaiah was preaching to in about 700 BC are not any different than we are now - they have gotten sleepy and need to have an alarm raised to draw them to attention.
Scriptures used: Isaiah 60:1-3, Proverbs 6:6-11
Fighting against people, to some degree, is inevitable. There are people who will stand in the way of the kingdom of God and that alone will bring us to a place of contention. What we must be careful of is that we never find ourselves in conflict with God! That is a fight that we cannot win!
Solomon and his offspring found themselves in conflict with God - they had turned away from the path God had laid out for His people. This resulted in the division of the kingdom and ultimately to its demise. Nebuchadnezzar found himself in conflict with God and that landed him in a position where he was completely humbled and broken.
Sometimes, God allows us to get knocked down, to be humbled, to have our world broken and destroyed - not to punish us or make us suffer, but to give us an opportunity to rebuild ourselves in accordance with His will which is always a better path!
Scriptures used: 2 Chronicles 13:10-18, Acts 5:34-39, Exodus 14:13, Daniel 4:28
Is God’s power limited? It shouldn’t be… In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus said, “may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This implies there are things that can prevent or limit God’s will and power on earth. God is limited by two things - willing hearts and willing hands.
During the three years of His earthly ministry, Jesus made a number of declarations about Himself that were completely outrageous to the Jews surrounding Him. Perhaps most outrageous of all was His claim to be God in flesh, the promised Messiah.
Our belief in Jesus’ declarations is crucial to our walk with God. In Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” He then asked, “Who do you say I am?” He was seeking to know if the disciples were being affected by the perceptions of the world or if they truly believed. He is asking us the same question today.
Interestingly, it is often not what Jesus said that the church of today argues about… it is what He didn’t say. We bicker over the appearance of our church building, what people wear to services, and even how the services are ordered and conducted.
The greatest, most powerful message that Jesus declared was love - His love for us and the need for us to extend that same love to one another. Listen to this powerful sermon for this and much more!
Scriptures used: Luke 4:14-21, Matthew 16:13, Mark 14:55-62, John 14:6, Mark 8:38, Mark 9:43-48, Matthew 6:14, John 15:12
We have a tendency, driven by some human nature within us, to believe a lie more easily than the truth. And that’s all a liar needs - someone to believe him, because that’s how lies gain power and influence.
Do not believe the lies of the enemy. There are thousands of them and they lead to nothing but destruction. Often, the trick we fall for are the “little” lies, the little compromises we can justify, the little sins that don’t seem, by our thinking, to matter much. But, the little lies become big lies quickly.
Scriptures used: John 8:39-44, Proverbs 23-29, Proverbs 6-7
You have a gift, whoever you are… don’t neglect it and don’t let them grow cold; fan your flames! The survival of the gospel and of this church relies upon each believer using their gifts.
Not everyone has the same gifts or gifts in the same magnitude. Yes, all believers can pray and all believers have faith, but some have a magnified ability. For some, their faith is so concrete that nothing can shake it. Some can pray for others with a heart that bleeds for that other person. Some have a gift to lead, but it is equally important that some have a gift to follow and give support to those leaders.
Even though everyone has had gifts “downloaded” to them by God, many Christians don’t use their gifts. That may be because they don’t have the confidence to use them or simply that they didn’t recognize the gift they were given. Be aware - we all have gifts, God wants us to put them to use and the enemy wants to keep them bottled up. We all should work to identify and mature the gifts we have been given, keeping in mind that we should be responsible with our talents and allow God to direct us in our use of them. We must also be patient with believers who are beginning to explore the gifts they’ve been given and allow them to have some space and understanding as they mature.
Scriptures used: 1 Tim. 4:11-16, 2 Tim. 1:3-7, Ephesians 4:11-16
In Luke 7, we find ourselves looking at the inevitable collision of two groups. One is a funeral procession bearing great sorrow as they carried the only son of a widowed woman to his grave. The other group was Jesus and His disciples who were joyously moving through the city.
Both groups were at the city gate, on a collision course. But when anything collides with Jesus, His power always overwhelms whatever it comes against! The joy of Jesus’ crowd quickly overcomes the sorrow of the funeral procession as Jesus heals the man and restores a widow’s son!
Today, Jesus is still colliding with our lives, with our burdens, and His way is always higher, His hand always stronger. He brings calm to chaos, healing to sickness, provision to poverty.
Scriptures used: Luke 7:11-17; Mark 5:21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 53-55; Matthew 21:42
A moment is a very brief portion of time. It’s just an instant. But to God, to whom a day is as a thousand years, a moment is plenty of time to do great and mighty things! God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime!
Often, a moment is all it takes to drastically change our life - for the better or the worse. In a moment, a doctor’s diagnosis can bring your life to a screeching halt. In a moment, the entire direction of our life can change based on a simple decision we make. These moments can be absolutely life-ruining… but, to a child of God, a moment can never rob us of our hope and can never take away that which is most valuable.
When life gives you only a moment, give that moment to God and see what He can do!
Scriptures used: 2 Peter 3:1-8, 1 Corinthians 15:52, Revelation 18:1-3,9
If we do not have a definite target in our efforts, whatever they may be, we run the risk of hurting people. If we’re not careful with our parenting, our children can be put in harm’s way. If we’re not thoughtful in our marriage, our spouse may get emotionally hurt.
This week, Dennis outlines several areas of our life where we need a target so our actions are guided and we can be successful in our endeavors.
What is your aim as a parent?
What is your aim as a spouse?
What is your aim as a Christian? (other than getting to Heaven…)
What is your aim as a member of the church?
What is Dennis’ aim as the pastor of this church?
What is the aim of CrossWay Fellowship Church?
Above all, we must remember our aim is always love.
We are not stable and cannot stand on our own, but if we lean on God, we become stable no matter how far from straight we are. There is no doubt about it, our faith will be tested and that’s okay because what has not been tested cannot be trusted!
All God has ever really wanted from His people was their trust.
Scriptures used: Proverbs 3:5-6, Mark 8:13-21, James 4:13-15, Proverbs 28:26, Isaiah 31:1, Jeremiah 17:5, 2 Kings 18, 2 Chronicles 20, Psalm 26:8, Psalm 125:1, Isaiah 12:2, Psalm 112:6-7
By kneeling, we are stating that we are of lower status than the one we kneel before and acknowledge their authority. When we kneel before God, we acknowledge that He is the Creator, the Shepherd, the Potter; we are the created, the sheep, the clay.
Kneeling, something within us gives way - both physically and spiritually, we are humbled and bowed before almighty God.
There will be a refreshing of our spirit when we enter the presence of the Lord... but why wait? Refreshing and revival is available right now!
What you talk the most about is what is most important to you - Jesus taught a lot of things, but He taught a lot about His second coming.
We often get weighed down by the cares of life, and to a degree that is inevitable. But we mustn’t let our tendency to well on this life to forget to be spiritually awake and aware of Jesus’ return.
The enemy wants to hide the fact that Jesus is returning or make it into a far-fetched idea that you’d have to be crazy to believe… It was one of Jesus’ most often taught concepts. He will return and it will be without warning. Some are moved to fear by this thought, but we can await the return of Christ with joy by simply being under the protection of His righteous blood.
When Jesus ascended into Heaven, that began the “end of the age.” There will never be another period in the relationship between God and man. Jesus’ first appearance on earth was to create a way to save man from sin, His second appearance will be to bring home those who are faithfully awaiting His return. The world may forget or ignore that He will return, but we cannot afford to be lax in our preparations for that coming day.
God cares for us so much! When He looks at us, he sees not only the outer appearance, but also the inner self. Many of us bear scars in our hearts, sometimes because of our own doing and sometimes at the hand of others. Be encouraged, God heals the brokenhearted - the scar may remain, but the memory reminds us of what healing He has done!
We are very important to the people around us, and they are important to us, in turn. We are not built to “do life” alone - we need other people. How we handle our relationship with God will ultimately determine how we handle our relationship to others. We will either be a blessing to them, or a curse.
We all deal with a lot of difficulty, a lot of stress and problems… and these are often the work of our own hands. We need to let God show us things about ourselves. “Lord, please save me from me,” is a good prayer for us to improve the quality of our life and learn to surrender to God.
Miracles are amazing, supernatural acts of God. It’s wonderful to witness or receive a miracle - we want to hold on to that moment. But, sometimes we have to let a miracle go to get to the next step. As hard as it is to move on from a miracle into a difficult situation, but the God who provides can and will provide again!
David surrounded himself with mighty men. In the traditional sense, they were mighty because they had performed amazing acts of strength and bravery - killing lions, winning battles. But they were also men of integrity.
The modern definition of a "man's man," unfortunately is far removed from the vision that God wants us to have.
How can God expect us to have His heart when none of us can find or have it? It is beyond us, beyond finding out… The answer is that our flesh cannot know God’s heart. We are made of flesh and spirit. We cannot understand God intellectually… it’s impossible. The Holy Spirit knows the heart of God! And the Holy Spirit dwells within us, revealing to us the heart of God - and that starts by revealing to us how wicked our own heart is.
We have many problems in the world today - and they truly are problems - but the real issue is not the individual problems... it is a lack of God in our lives.