Heritage Press Sermons: Recent Episodes
Heritage Press
Presenters: Amanda and Dan Lancaster, Asahel Adams and Gabe Barbieri
There is a power in expectation, in believing the best of one another. We can believe the narrative of the accuser of the brethren and the correct interpretation of facts. Or we can know the God who is truth and who sees each of us as a new creation in Christ.
Presenters: Rita Jreijiri, Gabe Barbieri, Howard Wheeler & Asahel Adams
We can’t just declare ourselves to be in right standing with God; we have a mandate to manifest His reality through the expression of His corporate people. Our individual identities can be transformed as we see Jesus in the unveiled faces of His body. Additionally, our service to God cannot substitute for a relationship with Him. As a community facing a generational transition, our roles of service may change, but our most important role remains that we are our Father’s child.
Presenter: Asahel Adams
As individuals, we are inherently incomplete and need each other, trusting in God's voice as it comes to us through imperfect people. Jesus is the cornerstone, the rock of offense we must fall upon. As we each submit to the relational expression of humility, we find our places as lively stones relative to all the other stones.
Presenters: Kevin Durkin & Asahel Adams
There are two spheres or categories in our lives: God’s domain, or the givens, and our domain, which is our responsibility to change. When we find ourselves in personality conflicts, we think we need to change the givens of our circumstances. Instead, we need to change our attitudes, lowering and humbling ourselves so that we see how great God’s people and purposes are, and how small we are.
Presenters: Regina Adams, Howard Wheeler & Asahel Adams
Many nominal Christians teach a message of identity change, based on claiming what they have not actually received. But our baptism into Christ must correspond to the reality of a new life lived under the authority of the Spirit. The Spirit gives us the exousia or power to become God’s sons, not as individuals but as part of the community of believers. Our sonship is demonstrated by the dominion and leading of the Spirit in our lives.
Presenter: Asahel Adams
We need God’s acceptance and favor in our lives. When we feel His abiding presence leading us, this is His grace. We each have only a portion of the Spirit, so we must continually seek, grope and thirst for more. As we reduce and silence our flesh through humility, we break down the firewall that separates us from God’s presence. Then He is able to intercede through our prayers and anoint and animate our decisions.
Presenters: Simeon Adams & Dan Lancaster
God wants His people to be possessed by a zeal for His kingdom that will motivate every area of our lives. We can overcome fear and pride as we focus on God’s purpose and seek the anointing of His Spirit. Anointing usually expresses itself in these three ways: inspiration, indignation, or compassion. The anointing of compassion is what animated the Lord during His ministry on earth, and He desires to fill His people with that same love.
Presenters: Howard Wheeler, Asi Adams & Dan Lancaster
Glory, the radiant reputation of God, is revealed when the divine is joined with the mortal. Just as the fullness of God was incarnated in Christ, the church's mission is to become the corporate tabernacle where God can dwell on earth. Each member of Christ’s body receives a deposit of only a measure of the Spirit when we are born again. Then, we must embark upon a lifelong course as the fivefold ministry equips and disciples each of us to fit into that corporate tabernacle.
Presenter: Gabe Barbieri and Asi Adams
As believers, we are loved and accepted by God as His children when we experience spiritual rebirth. However, if we desire to receive our full inheritance as His children, we must be adopted and placed as sons. This process requires us to undergo discipline, which marks us as legitimate heirs. Our initial experience of conversion is analogous to the crossing of the Red Sea by the children of Israel, while the crossing of the Jordan represents us finding our designated places of inheritance. In the period in between, we must go through a wilderness of training and discipleship.
Presenter: Brother Blair Adams
From a Sunday service on August 14, 2005. In contemporary Christianity, faith has been reduced to a mere mental assent to certain creeds and doctrines, which are believed to eradicate the need for an ongoing dependence on God's Spirit. However, the examples of faith in the Bible are marked by an unfolding walk of obedience. The people of God trusted in God's promises in spite of failures and seemingly insurmountable circumstances. Despite not receiving the ultimate promise of the Holy Spirit, these BIblical heroes paved the way for us to continue on the path they have charted for us with steadfast determination and unwavering faith.
Presenters: Howard Wheeler, Kevin Durkin & Asi Adams
We will be safe from the attacks of the enemy if we do not lose the light of complete openness with God and each other, the love that binds us and a regard for the anointing. Faith is the escape velocity that frees us to run the race; pride—our ego, our images—is the weight that inhibits and entangles us. God wants to possess us to the extent that His power is demonstrated in the extremity of our weakness, a power that swallows ego.
Presenter: Brother Blair Adams
Preached July 26, 1978, Brother Blair discusses life's challenges and temptations that can lead one to become bitter or cynical. He highlights the necessity of remaining open to God and trusting within the Christian community, urging that this trust is the secret to experiencing joy, brotherhood, and love within the Body of Christ. He presents the spiritual pilgrimage of learning to trust and grow into a mature expression of the Body of Christ as the "last frontier," wherein we assail spiritual mountains and promised lands and finally possess our inheritance.
Presenters: Abraham Adams, Asi Adams & Dan Lancaster
Only through the suffering and affliction God allows in our lives can we bring to birth the ministry and purpose He has for each of us. A great cloud of witnesses—even the Lord Jesus—have gone before us and have persevered through discipline and pain. In the fire of our trials, we encounter His reality, and He teaches us to depend on Him as we recognize our weakness.
Presenter: Brother Blair Adams
From a Sunday service on September 25th, 2005. The light of God shines through a community of people who reflect Him to one another with unveiled faces. However, to become a part of this collective light, we must first let go of the individuality that creates pockets of darkness that tarnish the image and glory of Christ. We must surrender our identity and independence to His collective image by making a covenant commitment that binds us to His sacrifice.
Presenters: Asi Adams, Dan Lancaster & Randy Brim
Envy and human rationalism separated from God form the essential bulwarks of man’s pursuit of godhood. The only way to change this mechanism is by repenting of our perspective of who God is and trusting that His plans and design are inherently good.
Presenter: Asi Adams
As members of God's body, we are all deficient in ourselves and dependent on the other members. We must humble ourselves to trust other imperfect people who bring discipleship into our lives. However, we can only trust them to the same extent that we distrust ourselves. Although we are accepted as God's children because we are born into His family, we can only become true sons by taking initiative, being responsible, and persevering in our relationship with our Father.
Presenter: Asi Adams
As we walk in the light, we experience a shared fellowship with God’s people and have communion, which cleanses us in the blood of Jesus. The original sin was suspicion, which gives rise to mistrust. To discern the body is to live in the light of an unsuspicious love. We continue to eat His flesh and drink His blood as we give and receive the spiritual gifts that cleanse us. During communion, we remember what Jesus did for us and recommit ourselves to actively embody His love and forgiveness towards each other.
Presenter: Asi Adams
Humans are hardwired to crave harmony between what we believe, think, say and do. When we recognize inconsistencies in ourselves, we feel the tension of cognitive dissonance. Excuses are artificial attempts to correct that dissonance, rather than face our need to change. God would empower us to engage in the difficult task of transformation by choosing humility and consecration of every thought and word.
Presenter: Asi Adams at the Texas Mini-Conference (Day 04)
When Nicodemus visited Jesus at night, Jesus understood that the reason for the meeting was to discuss the Davidic kingdom. Although Jesus' response to Nicodemus may have confused some, it should have made his audience happy because the promise of kingdom power had been foretold for centuries and all Jewish believers should have been anticipating it. Even today, this power is available to those who seek God's promised kingdom—a kingdom that is not of this world.
Presenter: Asi Adams at the Texas Mini-Conference (Day 04)
Peter, who first introduces believers' baptism in Acts 2, clarifies its meaning in his epistle when he compares baptism, not to a bath, but to the Noaic flood. As in Noah’s flood, where the waters both judged the ungodly and saved the obedient, baptism represents our voluntary submission to the judgment of sin on the cross and the subsequent resurrection to spiritual life. This act of baptism is a vow of commitment to the saving relationship with Jesus that constitutes salvation.
Presenter: Asi Adams at the Texas Mini-Conference (Day 04)
Repentance is an essential step in paving the way for God’s kingdom. Any false teachings that suggest repentance is merely a feeling of remorse or a decision to change one’s ways are nothing but deceptions. In reality, repentance requires acknowledging and removing the tyranny of self-will and submitting to the authority and lordship of Jesus. By demolishing the rubble of our own plans, ambitions, and control, we create a suitable environment for God’s kingdom to reign without any competition from other demigods.
Presenter: Dan Lancaster at the Texas Mini-Conference (Day 03)
Satan's promise of godhood to Adam and Eve pivoted on a singular axiom: "You shall know for yourself, good and evil." This promise has been central to mankind's efforts to displace God. Yet how do we really know what we know, and what assumptions must predicate our decisions?
Presenter: Asi Adams
The promises offered to the Jewish people were predicated on their ability to hear and obey the voice of God, in keeping with the example of the patriarch Abraham. The primary purpose of this cultivated people was to prepare the way for the Messiah. Yet this promise was not intended to be exclusive to the Jewish community, for God clearly states that through them all the families of the earth would be blessed. What was God’s purpose in creating this special family, how do Gentiles become a part of it, and what is God’s purpose in allowing the Jews to return to their homeland in Israel?
Presenter: Asi Adams at the Texas Mini-Conference (Day 01).
God has granted every member of His Body a measure of His Spirit. However, this poses a challenge as the size of each individual measure restricts the ability of each member. But God has provided a solution to overcome this limitation: the fivefold ministry. In this arrangement, the weakness or smallness of one member is compensated by all the other members, filling the gaps and making up for what is lacking.
Presenters: Simeon Adams, Asi Adams & Randy Brim
We fear vulnerability because we fear disconnection, weakness and our own frailty. But as we lower our egos within the kingdom of God—as we lower the walls that separate us from each other—we will step into the Great I Am and into His walls of salvation. We will find the courage to tell the stories of our lives with all our hearts.
Presenter: Asi Adams
The collapse of western civilization will be a catalyst for the birth of the final revelation of the church. Through the tribulations precipitated by the fracturing of pillars of justice, God will raise up a remnant of Christians who will be willing to come under the yoke of true unity. God is preparing us now—in the years of plenty— to be a Joseph people who can share a plan of exodus. He has called us as a Zionist camp to help prepare others for the day when the mountain of the Lord is exalted and the church is a holy nation.
Presenter: Dan Lancaster
Marriage forces us to look at our selfishness and lovelessness as does no other union on earth. It requires increasing vulnerability and self-sacrifice beyond what many are willing to give. Yet God doesn’t merely intend that marriage be survived—as if the passing of time were itself the purpose. He desires instead that marriage would stretch us into the dynamic, ever-expanding vessels of His love that He created us to be. So don’t fear the changes and adjustments; fear instead that they might cease and thus abort the very purpose of the union.
Presenters: Dan Lancaster, Howard Wheeler & Asi Adams
As a church, we are in the midst of many dangerous transitions that poise us for either unprecedented victory or equally potential derailment. Transition is an awful time, filled with intense pain, yet unavoidable in order to bring something to birth. In these times, the natural propensity is to imagine the pain is a result of our circumstance, and to believe that a change of environment would make the process easier. In this message, God is telling the church: it is supposed to be this hard.
Presenters: Howard Wheeler & Asi Adams
The enemy cannot counterfeit the unity God has for His people, so he attempts to fragment us by accusing our brothers and sisters so that we categorize and judge one another through our carnal minds. But God has provided an antidote to the fracturing of categorization. God wants to fill our hearts with a love for His people that is radiant hope in the midst of darkness and isolation.
Presenter: Asi Adams
The collapse of western civilization will be a catalyst for the birth of the final revelation of the church. Through the tribulations precipitated by the fracturing of pillars of justice, God will raise up a remnant of Christians who will be willing to come under the yoke of true unity. God is preparing us now—in the years of plenty—to be a Joseph people who can share a plan of exodus. He has called us as a Zionist camp to help prepare others for the day when the mountain of the Lord is exalted and the church is a holy nation.
Presenter: Josiah Wheeler
Today’s western culture is marked by depression, anxiety and loneliness. As marriages fail and loneliness becomes an epidemic, it may be good for us to question the basis of our view of commitment. Western culture suggests: look out for yourself—become who you were meant to be—and then find the relationships that will support your purpose. Yet God’s plan flips this equation on its head—He created us with an innate need for connection that is best met by reaching out and offering love-service to someone else. As we fit our individual lives into the concentric circles of marriage, family and community, the ripple of our choices will start to reverse the culture of loneliness and isolation all around us.
Presenter: Asi Adams
Whenever human beings face difficult times, we grapple with the question of sovereignty. Yet in what sense is God sovereign?—in the micro details of everyday life or in the macro design of an eternal plan? Some of God’s sovereignty depends on us: in our willingness to submit our response to circumstances beyond our control. This voluntary submission to God’s sovereignty is our opportunity to experience glory otherwise never revealed.
Presenter: Asi Adams
All false religions have the goodness of man as their root premise, claiming that we are the results of our environment. But God placed man in the perfect garden, with a perfect companion, and with Himself as the perfect parent, and yet man fell. Since then humans have sought to blame and to change every external circumstance, from geographical location to gender. God instead offers us the freedom to recognize our culpability, repent and allow Him to change our hearts.
Presenter: Asi Adams
When Jesus instituted communion at the Last Supper, He spoke of the covenant which comes through His blood for the remission of sin. Using the same phrasing, Peter instructs the crowd on the day of Pentecost to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins. How is Jesus’ blood applied to our sin through baptism? Is it merely an outward sign of an inward change (as some teachers erroneously claim) or does it somehow inaugurate our saving relationship with Jesus Christ?
Presenter: Asi Adams
Jesus says that truth provides the path to sustained victory over sin. We assume that God accepts us based on our performance or perfection; instead, He accepts us because of our relationship with Him. Our victorious status with God as His child remains dependent on us accepting the correction and discipline that cleans our dead branches, increases our fruit and cures our instabilities. This corrective word of truth ensures our place as adopted heirs for whom the inheritance is destined.
Presenter: Asi Adams
As this community celebrates the completion of fifty years, we stand as a testimony to hope. The founders and first generation members of this community believed in a dream that God would raise up a people, even when that seemed impossible. They had faith to take every small step of exodus that God spoke to them.
Others all over the world who feel like dry stumps have smelled the scent of water, and they too have begun to believe in the dream. If we each continue to honor our inheritance of faith by taking the steps God speaks to us, God’s dream of a restoration of spiritual Zion will come to pass. Where will we be in 100 years if we value our inheritance by persevering in the faith that was passed down to us?
Presenter: Asi Adams
God’s Word is a promise of creation, a miracle in the works, and the labyrinth of our natural thinking represents the most likely place for opportunity to die and the miracle to stall. The mind’s calculus of unbelief can result in a type of spiritual bulimia, distorting the nature of our battles and deceiving us into pursuing false, even harmful, solutions. But God provides us with enabling grace, through His people, to escape the deadly bonds of self-deception.
Presenter: Asi Adams
All godly authority is derived from love, and without authority, love cannot be effective. Oftentimes, God’s word proves ineffective because those listening have misplaced their honor for God and placed it in self. But God is merciful and will allow the circumstances of life to pulverize our pride until we can once again be supple to His loving authority.
Presenter: Asi Adams
In Matthew 9, Jesus said that we cannot pour "new wine into old wineskins." This chapter portrays people who threw aside their perspectives and expectations of what God could do and so received unprecedented miracles. In the same way, God calls us to follow Him immediately, without consulting the flesh. This instant obedience is humility and faith.
Presenter: Tim Anz
Unlike adults, children view the world with eager expectation, seeing the ordinary with the same wonder as the extraordinary. A child trusts realities beyond his understanding, allowing him to experience phenomena unknown to the proud. This childlike trust is ultimately rooted in a love known experientially—in a God who is love. That is why Scripture commands us to come to the kingdom as a little child, anchored in faith and trusting that God works all things for the good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Presenter: Dan Lancaster
God is always calling His servants out, to the edge of where the flesh feels comfortable. We sometimes expect that, when God beckons us to a new step, we should automatically feel competent. However the call of God comes to people who never feel ready or adequate. Does God intentionally choose men and women with weakness so that His power may become perfected?”
Presenter: Jim Truax
This message is the second part of two sessions on Christian education from the 2017 symposium.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul instructs believers to bring up their children “in the training [paideia] and admonition [nouthesis] of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). Both these Greek words assumed broader connotations for Paul’s audience than would be readily apparent for us today. Paideia can succinctly be translated as “culture,”—encompassing every area of life.
Nouthesis refers to teaching and training by word and instruction, and is most effective when brought forth in the context of Christian paideia. This message follows “Don’t Leave Your Children in Egypt,” and explains the necessity of Christian education being rooted in a culture alternative to the world’s paideia.
Presenter: Jim Truax
This message is the first part of two sessions on Christian education from the 2017 Symposium.
Culture can be defined as one’s lived religion. Christian parents who desire to raise successful children, must ask themselves: what culture am I rooted in? Once children are trained to be successful in Egypt, they may refuse to leave. Parents who take their children on excursions to worship God in the wilderness, ignore that fact that their identity remains firmly rooted in a hostile culture. This message poses a challenge: embark on a thorough archeological dig throughout your home to remove every artifact that remains from the counterposing culture.
Presenters: Howard Wheeler & Asi Adams
God’s grace appears to us in “various” and manifold ways; His invisible attributes are even seen in creation. But can we humble ourselves enough to truly see, receive and steward such grace, through the mundane and unexpected? This requires relinquishing control of our will in order to become transparent vessels of anointed grace to those who need it.
Presenter: Josiah Wheeler
When we reach the end of our rope, sometimes we must become a rope. When our gifts, talents and all the tools that have served us well in other situations, can’t quite reach the need facing us, something else must come from inside. It may be painful—it may even feel like it’s pulling-out our joints—but self-sacrificing love is always its own reward. And when faced with a friend’s need, each of us must, as the song says, “like a bridge over troubled water,” “lay me down.”
Presenters: Asi Adams & Howard Wheeler
The apostle James describes a type of wisdom that is earthly, sensual and demonic. This type of “wisdom” is activated whenever someone perceives that another has brought an acceptable sacrifice, fueling competition and envy. Conversely, the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruit, without partiality and without hypocrisy. We see the counterintuitive wisdom of God exhibited at the cross, when Jesus overcame the authority of satan through the power of weakness and surrender.
Presenters: Kevin Durkin, Abraham Adams & Amanda Lancaster
The first generation of this church was a determined, driven bunch. Yet mere neglect could easily dissipate the fire that burned so hotly inside them. This message is a challenge: will you put off your own ambitions, plans and dreams and make a cross of them? And will you commit to wear the skis of the first generation and finish the journey they began?
Presenter: Asi Adams
Oftentimes, we face circumstances beyond our control where God requires steps of obedience that are humanly impossible to accomplish. Based on our human proclivities, this causes our control-freak nature to react in three primary ways: anxiety, depression or anger. Yet God demands we take responsibility for powerlessness, rather than pity ourselves. When we assume the posture of humility, we align ourselves with God’s grace.
How do we differentiate between the strength and power of God and the authority of human bravado? Counterfeit authority strikes poses and constantly clashes with those who seek to disciple us. Godly authority, although decisive, comes through tenderness—even weeping—so that the un-adulterated power of God becomes visible.
Presenters: Asi Adams, Howard Wheeler & Dan Lancaster
God has deposited a small measure of His Spirit into each member of His body. The term measure indicates that by ourselves, we are incomplete. Yet whenever God’s people speak anointed truth to our brothers and sisters, we complement (fill) those areas that still lack. As we each do our part, “we all attain to the unity of the faith, … to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
Presenters: Eder Badilo, Nathaniel Klingensmith, Gretchen Deines, Dadi Lev-Cochav, Tsafrir Yarden, Warren Owen & Nathan Tittley
Brother John was a man of integrity, genuine love and a faithful servant who diligently met the needs of those around him. As portrayed in Matthew 25, his life can be likened to the wise torch bearers, whose lamps were burning brightly at the coming of the bridegroom; the men who diligently invested the master’s money to bring a fruitful return for his investment; but maybe most tellingly, he quietly and faithfully met the needs of those his life touched as did the sheep in the final parable of this chapter. In the end, Brother John heard the words that every human soul wants to hear—well done, my good and faithful servant, because you were faithful in little, you will be given much. Enter into the joy of your Lord!
Presenter: Evan Birdsong
In an era now described as post-postmodern, we are beset on every side by perpetual revolution—a seemingly indiscriminate discarding of the old in relentless pursuit of the new. But in the age of “infinite progress,” some still ask, “Just what are we progressing toward? And how will we know when we’ve arrived?” Offering a glimpse behind the mask of modern culture, this seminar proposes an escape from the conveyor belt of constant change, and discovery instead of the enduring city of the God “who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Presenters: Asi Adams & Nathan Tittley
All of human society pivots on the question of sin's origins. Every major revolution has been founded on temporary solutions that man attempts to bring change. Yet the Biblical account of history begins in paradise to illustrate a pivotal truth: no matter how perfect man's circumstance is, he will choose sin because his nature is sinful. Repentance is the only path to true freedom.
Presenter: Dan Lancaster
Each human being has the ability to recognize love and truth by the emotive response that resonates within our hearts. Yet how do we discern between all the competing voices, as well as our own appetites, and that of the Good Shepherd? Is it possible to encounter the Divine and be forever changed?
Presenter Zach Herbert
By default, each generation inherits the socio-economic structures of those who came before them. These unexamined cultural assumptions often result in an existence riddled with mental dissonance–especially for believers–as so many elements of daily life seem to interfere with their highest goals. Yet a pathway to meaningful change is not evident, and the pressure to go along with the current model of living can feel inescapable. Are the foundations of our economic models by design hostile to a life of faith? Is there a viable alternative?
Presenter: Evan Birdsong
The Industrial Revolution has been described as “the most fundamental transformation of human life in the history of the world.” The shift from the land to the city has shaped every aspect of human culture, from the way we live to the way we work and even the way we think. This message offers a brief historical survey of this seminal movement, underscoring its cultural consequences and spiritual significance.
Presenter: Asi Adams
The Founders’ generation, now considered religiously stilted and strict, initiated the freest government known to man. Conversely, the current age of moral release parallels unprecedented spikes in violence, depression, isolation and social breakdown, which have precipitated greater government intrusion and the consequent loss of Constitutional liberties. Were the freedoms afforded the American people contingent on a vibrant Christian society? If so, can America survive without a revival and recovery of the same?
Presenter: Asi Adams How do we hear the word of God? Simply hearing words about God does not constitutes salvation—only an encounter with God Himself will transfer us out of death into eternal life. What’s more, Paul says we are saved by faith—faith that comes by hearing God’s anointed word. As we learn to recognize God’s anointed word coming to us through imperfect vessels, we encounter and experience Jesus.
Presenter: Nathaniel Adams The Bible is filled with parables that depict the kingdom of God taking longer than people imagined, promises from God that were only realized generations later and admonitions to not grow weary in well-doing. Yet, tragically, many people who lose out with God do so because they grow discouraged by the length of time between the promise spoken and the promise received. Do we expect God to move according to our own timeframe, or do we trust for what we cannot see?
Presenter: Nathaniel Adams "It is well known that Christ consistently used the expression 'follower.' He never asks for admirers, worshippers, or adherents. No, He calls disciples." —Søren Kierkegaard The person who says, "I am a Christian," but has no cross, is not a Christian—he may be an admirer of Christ, but his lack of sacrifice reveals his lack of commitment. Are we content to enjoy the benefits of Christian living (admirers) or have we surrendered our lordship in commitment to follow wherever He leads?
Presenter: Dan Lancaster The joy of the Lord is not something peripheral or optional. Rather, the Bible tells us, "The joy of the Lord is our strength," connoting that without it we are weak and defenseless against the devil's schemes. This posture is integral for kingdom life—even something God requires—because childlike joy expresses our gratitude for what God has done and our eager expectancy of what He will do. Includes: "I Still Have Joy"
Presenter: Asi Adams The world doesn’t need more out-of-wedlock successes, shooting star ministries or test-tube babies. It needs the witness of ministries who will consider their flesh as good as dead but not grow weak in faith as they seek the birth of God’s recovered patterns for generational faithfulness. The miracle we pursue is the restoration of the spiritual family—a ministry whose light and witness will never be snuffed out. Includes: "Our Father Is Alive"
Presenter: Asi Adams Throughout Scripture, Yahweh portrays Himself as compassionate, abounding in lovingkindness and, above all, eager to forgive our iniquity. Forgiveness can be illustrated as the untying of a cord that is legitimately holding a debt owed. To withhold forgiveness is to entangle ourselves in the same knot, alienating us from the grace by which we are saved. Includes: "Your Grace and Mercy"
Presenter: Asi Adams Jesus heralded the church as the sole entity capable of withstanding the authority and power of hell. The church receives this promised power when all its members are aligned and united with each other according to God’s design. As recorded in Revelations, God is calling His people out of Babylon and consolidating them in order to fulfill His ultimate purpose for these last days.
Presenter: Andrew Amador Brother Andrew encountered many junctures along his journey where he made a decision to walk through an open door and take a step closer to God, rather than hardening his heart and remaining where he was. His testimony speaks of God's abundant faithfulness to those who respond to His voice.
Presenter: Dan Lancaster What does it mean to be a faith-filled person? When dealing with something so germane to our salvation as faith, can we really deem it optional? Or can we settle for a puny version of belief that only springs forth at momentary intervals (after all, didn’t Jesus compare faith to a minuscule mustard seed), and call that sufficient? Paul poignantly states, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Similarly, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). So even attitudes and thoughts that are not faith-filled are sinful attitudes and thoughts. Another ditch of faith believes that God is obligated to answer our every wish because we asked for it. Maybe we call ourselves “realists” to avoid this ditch. However, God’s reality is framed by His Word, and faith is the assurance that because God spoke it, it must be. When it comes to believing for change in people’s hearts, do we invest ourselves unreservedly in the change and allow a faith that says, “This can and must be,” to possess us?
Presenters: Matthew Pressly, Dan Lancaster & Asi Adams The writer or Hebrews points out that Moses’ first great act of faith was in refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing the reproach of Christ over the identity of a prince (Heb. 11:24-26). God has planted gifts inside each one of us for the advancement of His kingdom. However, the devil would squeeze us into a mold that is contrary to God’s calling for our lives. How much stock do we place in an identity that we think we have outside of being the Lord’s servant? Could we, as Moses did, willingly strip off our fleshly identity and assume the burden and mantle of the Lord’s purpose?
Presenter: Asi Adams The harvest promised to this church nearly 50 years ago is upon us. Yet it is possible to remain fruitless and withered even amidst the outpouring of God’s grace. Those who feel sidelined on the perimeter of God’s purpose should consider: have we given everything for love, or have we given a faulty, grudging sacrifice? Do we look for what we can receive from the kingdom, or do we look for how we can give?
Presenter: Dan Lancaster In Luke 12, Jesus tells His disciples to “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy is a mask that hides our weaknesses by portraying a pseudo righteousness. Yet how do we overcome our fleshly attempts to please God and become authentic Christians?
Some of life‘s choices must be taken in faith. You will not know the outcome before you commit to a lifelong course. If you delay decision until all future consequences can be assessed and known, then no decision can ever be made. We must trust the guidance of one who sees the end from the beginning, or else remain paralyzed, deprived of ever finding the risks or rewards of living by faith.
None escape the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;” there is no discharge from the struggle that that ultimately culminates each individual‘s life on earth. Yet, is it possible for every blow, setback, pain or hardship to become part of a design and eternal purpose when placed in the hands of life‘s Master Architect? Then our daily vicissitudes might be seen as a cross, and the cross, as the art of life.
The world’s greatest economists agree that trust forms the basis for every enduring society, even economy. When two Soviet prisoners were once placed in separate cells, their tormentors tried to convince them that their partner had betrayed them and capitulated to the state. Yet, their covenant with each other, their trust and mutual integrity, prevented this deception. Ultimately, the fabric of Christian community depends on the trust we can maintain in each other— a trust to love at all costs, never betray, and never break covenant.
This podcast is adapted from chapter five of the book “Knowing God by Name” by Blair Adams, and is read by the author. Brother Blair is the founding minister of Heritage ministries and the Homestead Heritage communities. He has devoted his entire life to explaining and proclaiming the liberating word of God— in countless spoken messages and in scores of published books. In this message, “A Very Great Trembling,” we will see that although Isaac is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, God asks Abraham if he is willing to sacrifice this promise back to God. Has the promise replaced the Promise Giver as Abraham’s god? This willingness to sacrifice the very fulfillment of God’s promise requires unshakable trust in the One who gave the promise. God requires this same trust of all those who would follow in the steps and faith of Abraham.
Presenter: Asi Adams It's a simple word and ubiquitous concept: sin. It's what makes salvation relevant, for without sin, redemption remains unnecessary. What truth is often distorted is just how sin is removed, as well as its stains and guilt, from the believer's life. This podcast comes from a Wednesday night meeting where Brother Asi spoke on discovering the antidote to sin: the Word of God.