Restoring Hope through the Church

Romans 12:11-13 CEV “Never give up. Eagerly follow the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord. Let your hope make you glad. Be patient in time of trouble and never stop praying. Take care of God's needy people and welcome strangers into your home.”

All of us have something we are hopeful for. It is a hope which will take us from where we are into something better tomorrow. Without hope, we would live lives of despair.

What is it you are hoping for? What is it you hope to see the church accomplish and hope to see changed in our community?

(1) The Church can never give up hope!

Psalm 71:14 CEV “I will never give up hope or stop praising you.”

Psalm 10:17 CEV “You listen to the longings of those who suffer. You offer them hope, and you pay attention to their cries for help.”

What do you trust in? The Bible says, “Some people trust the power of chariots or horses, but we trust you, LORD God.” Psalm 20:7

(2) The Church must hope to follow the Hoy Spirit and serve Christ!

Psalm 34: 18 CEV “The LORD is there to rescue all who are discouraged and have given up hope.”

Psalm 119:114 CEV “You are my place of safety and my shield. Your word is my only hope.”

 (3) The Church must rejoice in hope!

 1 Timothy 4: 10 CEV “We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, but especially of those who have faith. That's why we work and struggle so hard.”

 

(4) The Church must hope in times of trouble and never stop praying!

 Romans 5:3-5 CEV “But that's not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.”

 

1 Peter 3:14-16 CEV “Even if you have to suffer for doing good things, God will bless you. So stop being afraid and don't worry about what people might do. Honor Christ and let him be the Lord of your life. Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope. Give a kind and respectful answer and keep your conscience clear. This way you will make people ashamed for saying bad things about your good conduct as a follower of Christ.”

(5) The Church must help those in need and welcome them into their midst!

 Psalm 143:4 CEV “I have given up all hope, and I feel numb all over.”

 Hebrews 2:2-4 CEV “The message spoken by angels proved to be true and all who disobeyed or rejected it were punished as they deserved. So if we refuse this great way of being saved, how can we hope to escape? The Lord himself was the first to tell about it, and people who heard the message proved to us that it was true. God himself showed that his message was true by working all kinds of powerful miracles and wonders. He also gave his Holy Spirit to anyone he chose to.”

 

 

The Beginning Of A Revolution (Part 2)

How do you start a revolution for Christ?

-You pray.

2 Chronicles 7:13-16 CEV “Suppose I hold back the rain or send locusts to eat the crops or make my people suffer with deadly diseases. If my own people will humbly pray and turn back to me and stop sinning, then I will answer them from heaven. I will forgive them and make their land fertile once again. I will hear the prayers made in this temple, because it belongs to me, and this is where I will be worshiped forever. I will never stop watching over it.”

How long have you felt the heavens have been shut up, that locusts in the form of immorality, drugs, criminal activity and the such, have been devouring our land and plagues of calamity have befallen us? That the rain from heaven has not been raining in our lives? God said, when that happens, if the people of God will call on him, and humble themselves, seeking his face and turn from their sins, he will not only forgive them, but heal the land around them.

Prayer is only the first step. What you sow in prayer, you will reap in power. Power is designed to be transferred. Power lines do not hold onto the electricity, which flows from the power station. They are merely the means of carrying the power so it can be put to use. We are the power lines of God, carrying His power to the place it can be best put to use in transformation of our world. Power is not something to be held onto.

-You reach out beyond the four walls of a building.

Luke 14:23 AMP “Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and urge and constrain [them] to yield and come in, so that my house may be filled.”

People will never know the truth of Christ and how He can bring a life changing revolution into their lives unless someone reaches out to them. Who will you reach this year? Who will you reach out to this month? Who will you reach out to this week? People who do not create a plan by default are planning to fail. The early church was not lead by a hierarchy, but by people reaching out to people, worshiping from house to house, studying the word together in community groups, and living life together in those same groups. Reaching out to their neighbors, friends and strangers with something that so totally changed their lives they could not keep from sharing Christ with others. Oh, that we could become so empowered as the church of the Book of Acts.

-You make every effort to win the lost for Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:3-5 CEV “This kind of prayer is good, and it pleases God our Savior. God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth, which is, there is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and he gave himself to rescue all of us.”

You can reach out to your neighbors, but unless you get them to cross the line and sign up with Jesus as their Lord and Savior, you have planted a seed, but not reaped the harvest. Do you see what I am saying? Reaching people is only one step in the equations. They must also be won to Jesus Christ if a revolution is to begin in a city. They need to be shown why He is necessary and how they can get connected to Him and change their heart and mind.

-You must be willing to teach and train them.

1 Timothy 4:6 CEV “If you teach these things to other followers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you have grown up on the teachings about our faith and on the good instructions you have obeyed.”

Training begins by assimilating them into the church and then by going from house to house. If you want to accomplish something you need to be trained in what it is you desire to accomplish. If you want to be accomplished in your Christian life, you need to get involved in training situations which will educate and transform you. This will prepare you for understanding the revolution God desires to bring within a city.

-You must send them out to reproduce.

Matthew 28:19 CEV “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…”

Not away from the group necessarily, but send them to reduplicate the process so more people are coming into the Kingdom. So they will not be the dead end of the power line. So they are connecting more people with the truth of Jesus Christ. All of this is revolutionary to the way we do things now. So often we expect just the professional clergy to do the soul-winning job, and fail to recognize the way of growth is through us individually helping souls to Christ.

It is time to let the revolution begin by saying in 2015, I am going to get connected to Jesus and I am going to work on connecting others to Him as well. My church is one door of entry, but my personal contact is a far greater way to help people grow in their faith and have a relationship with Jesus because of my accountability to Christ and His church.

Let the revolution begin! Lord, send revival to my neighborhood, community, and city in the name of Jesus I pray!

 

The Beginning of a Revolution (Part 1)

Nehemiah 1:3-11 CEV "They told me, “Those captives who have come back are having all kinds of troubles. They are terribly disgraced, Jerusalem’s walls are broken down, and its gates have been burned.” When I heard this, I sat down and cried. Then for several days, I mourned; I went without eating to show my sorrow, and I prayed: Lord God of heaven, you are great and fearsome. And you faithfully keep your promises to everyone who loves you and obeys your commands.  I am your servant, so please have mercy on me and answer the prayer that I make day and night for these people of Israel who serve you. I, my family, and the rest of your people have sinned  by choosing to disobey you and the laws and teachings you gave to your servant Moses. Please remember the promise you made to Moses. You told him that if we were unfaithful, you would scatter us among foreign nations.  But you also said that no matter how far away we were, we could turn to you and start obeying your laws. Then you would bring us back to the place where you have chosen to be worshiped. Our Lord, I am praying for your servants-those you rescued by your great strength and mighty power.  Please answer my prayer and the prayer of your other servants who gladly honor your name. When I serve the king his wine today, make him pleased with me and have him do what I ask."

Ezekiel 22:30 CEV “I looked for someone to defend the city and to protect it from my anger, as well as to stop me from destroying it. But I found no one.”

The church has been in exile in America far too long. The walls have been broken down and it is time for a fresh revolution of change to take place. It is time for streams of revival to flow from believers, through the buildings, into the streets as living streams of revival into our city. I believe this hour holds the promised victory of God for those who are willing to stand and fight in the name of Jesus Christ. It is time to let the revolution begin.

In Nehemiah 1 the prophet said he had heard of the plight of those who had returned home from exile. Their walls of protection had been broken down and they needed help. He also was a man who knew the Word of God which brings victory. Pointing out in prayer God’s words to Moses, he said the unfaithful will be scattered, but for those who obey God’s commands  will be drawn together and bring them to a place of gathering in His name.

We repent today for our nation and church and call upon the Name of the Lord to redeem us. I believe He is drawing us together to restore the walls of faith which have been broken down in our city, to see a life transforming revolution begin starting with us and spreading out into the streets of our city. Let the Revolution begin!

Nehemiah was informed the walls had been broken down. Perhaps the walls of our faith have also been broken because we moved from the Biblical example of Acts into what we perceived to be a better form of worship. If it is better, then why do we find less genuine Christianity and more pseudo-Christianity today? Have we neglected the principles, which caused the church to grow 2,000 years ago by developing a new form of godliness, which is not seeing growth but is leading to decay?

Most of us want to be changed to become more like Christ. But is it happening? According to a Gallup poll, nine of ten Americans say they pray daily, and 84 million Americans, almost a third of the population, say they have made a personal commitment to Christ as Savior. A wise man once wrote, "A pound of meat would surely be affected by a quarter pound of salt. If this is real Christianity, the ’salt of the earth,’ where is the effect of which Jesus spoke?" Because by and large we do not expect people to experience ongoing transformation, we are not led to question whether perhaps the standard prescriptions for spiritual growth being given in the church are truly adequate to lead people into a transformed way of life.”

Let the revolution begin. Lets come to a place of understanding of our call, venturing out to grasp hold of God’s hand through the power of the Holy Spirit and see life transformation taking place within us, through us, reaching out and touching others around us. It is time to get back to the basic understanding of Biblical Christianity so we are not wandering about aimlessly; so we are connecting with Christ and through that connection connecting with a lost world in order to being hope into their hopeless situations.

Seasons

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…”

Psalm 90:10 “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” 

(1) The Foundational Years of Childhood!

(2) The Experimentation of Teen Years!

(3) The Preparations of the Twenties!

(4) The Location of the Thirties!

(5) The Advancement of the Forties!

(6) The Peak Years of the Fifties!

(7) The Ticking Clock of the Sixties!

(8) The Changes of the Seventies!

(1) Former seasons are just that-former.

Ecclesiastes 1:3, 4 “What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.”

(2) Your present season has an ending as well.

Ecclesiastes 5:6, 7 “Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.”

(3) God has prepared you for every season.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” 

(4) The challenge of the next season.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him.” 

(5) Planning for your new season.

Ecclesiastes 11:8-10 “But if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is coming is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity.” 

3 Things That Defile A Person Of God (Part 1)

Matthew 15:16-20 " So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Can you think of anyone who defiled their walk with God because of anything on that list? I’m sure you can. In fact, I know far more stories of failure rooted in these issues than those resulting from a lack of competence or skill.

The simple truth is that those who fail to monitor their hearts jeopardize their walk with Christ. If we neglect the arduous work of monitoring what’s going on inside of us, our relationship with God will suffer.

Look at Jesus’ words again. It's not what we eat that necessary defile us. The body through its natural process eliminates those things. It's not even eating with unwashed hands that causes us contamination. But it is what comes from inside our heart that causes the defilement.

Everything we say and do springs from our hearts. The implications of this verse are huge for those who serve God and want to influence people. What’s in your heart eventually affects your ability to minister effectively. Consequently, learning to guard your heart is critical to your success as a believer.

There are three things in particular that if ignored have the potential to create chaos in the heart of a Christian and, consequently, in his or her sphere of spiritual influence.

(1) The first is guilt.
Ezekiel 18:24 " But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die."

People that carry unresolved guilt are forced to hide a part of themselves from those closest to them.

-They have secret sins that they want no one to know about.

-They expend time and energy ensuring that no one finds out their secret sins because they know they are not completely trustworthy.

-Because they themselves are suspect, they begin to suspect others. Their inability to trust others makes it almost impossible for them to build cohesive relationships that can help them in this journey through life.

James 2:10 "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all."

What does guilt do?

-It stifles the energy of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

-It brings a dark cloud of doubt that seems to follow you constantly.

-It provokes an uneasy mindset of constantly worrying about what will happen if you get caught.

-It stimulates an atmosphere of frustration because it seems it can never be defeated or detached from your life.

 

3 Things That Defile A Person Of God (Part 3)

(3) The third is jealousy.

Song of Solomon 8:6 "Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame."

Professional jealousy is understandable, maybe even unavoidable to some extent. But when it is unrecognized and ignored, it has the potential to destroy the strength of a believer.

-Jealous believers measure their success by the failure of others.

a. A jealous organization cannot sustain momentum when its leadership is focused on how well others are not doing rather than looking for ways to move forward.

b. Maybe most crippling of all is that jealous people rarely surround themselves with competent and talented people. They feel threatened and their insecurity stifles the growth that all believers and churches need.

 If you can identify with the ailments cited above, welcome to the human race. We all wrestle with guilt, anger, and jealousy at some level. That’s why we need a Savior. The good news is that through Christ we can bring these enemies of our life under control. They might never be eliminated, but they certainly don’t have to control our lives or contaminate our churches or faith.

Here's what the Bible says for us to do.

-Confess ALL of your sins.

James 5:16 "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

 Confession eradicates guilt. Chances are you’ve confessed to God. Now go confess to the person you’ve wronged.

 -Forgive.

Matthew 5:23, 24 " Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."  

Forgiveness is simply a decision to cancel a debt. Take time to decipher what you think the people who’ve hurt you owe you and cancel those debts. Otherwise, you will make the people closest to you pay.

-Celebrate others.

1 Corinthians 12:26 " And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it."

Look for ways to celebrate the successes of people who’ve pulled ahead of you. Write them a letter. Praise their accomplishments in public. Refuse to allow jealousy to take up residence in your heart.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

-You live from the heart.

-You love from the heart.

-You lead from your heart.

So pay attention to your heart. It impacts everything you do, not just in this life, but for all of eternity.

 

3 Things That Defile A Person Of God (Part 2)

(2) The second is anger.

Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath..."

-Angry people live as if the world owes them something—something they can never quite identify.

-Angry people are impossible to please.

a. In business, they attract employees that are more concerned with making their bosses happy than doing what’s best for the organization. This leads to poor decisions, eventually putting them at odds with their angry bosses and the cycle of dysfunction continues.

b. In life they are filled with negativity and bitterness and always looking for someone to blame for their behavior, their lack, or their lifestyle. They are constantly finding fault with everyone and everything around them and are generally mad with life.

-Angry people are controlled people. They are controlled by their hatred, attitude, racism, bickering, and gossip. They are not happy unless someone else is unhappy and they desire for revenge dominates and clouds their future.

Romans 12:19 "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord."

Psalm 94:1 " O Lord God, to whom vengeance belong-O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!"