Only Jesus can do the signs and wonders that He has done and still continues to do. But He also uses His children to do our part in accomplishing His works through those things we can do by faith and obedience to His will.
Bible Book: John
On the night He was betrayed to die on the cross in our place so that we might be forgiven of our sins and restored into fellowship with God, Jesus gave His disciples “a new commandment” that we love one another, saying that people would recognize that we are His disciples through the love we exhibit for one another. But exactly how do we show this love that Jesus has commanded for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul tells us that our love for one another must be genuine, and gives some concise characteristics of this love in Romans 12:9-17.
This message begins a new series focused on Paul’s epistle to the churches surrounding Ephesus. It’s no secret that Christians are called to be different. We are to be “new” and not hold on to the “old”. In Ephesians Paul teaches what it’s truly like to be different. We live in a world of rapid moral decline. Therefore, as followers of Jesus Christ, we must train ourselves to function differently than the world. We must learn to fully commit to living a surrendered life and allow the power of God’s Spirit to help us walk in God’s ways and not our own.
Every believer understands the command by Jesus to “Go therefore and make disciples”, but very few strive to make evangelism part of their daily lives. When we allow our hearts to be in tune with our Savior’s, evangelism then becomes something which will flow from our mouths and our actions more naturally. It is the duty and privilege of every Jesus follower to set their life on a course which helps fulfill this great command from Jesus. Lives are at stake, and we must train ourselves for the work of an evangelist, whether we want to or not.
This is a re-recording of the message shared with the adults at our 2023 VBS. Our children are continually beset by a lying attack from our great enemy Satan. As parents, we have a duty to defend our children against these attacks by providing them a solid foundation of Biblical Truth by which they can fight against the lies of the enemy.
It’s safe to say that no one is immune to moments of fear, or doubt, or frustration, or weariness, or fatigue. When Jesus was arrested and eventually crucified on the cross, His followers fell apart and briefly struggled with His departure from their lives. They were frightened, discouraged, defeated, confused, demoralized, and perhaps even depressed. In a word, their world had just crashed in on them and they were left with empty tanks. At this point, they were running on “E”. Fortunately, Jesus’ appearance some three days later rejuvenated them and began the process of filling their tanks back up.
So far in our series on The Holy Spirit, we have discovered that He is fully God and He is fulfillment of yet another promise from God to us. The fulfillment of that promise means that every true believer receives the gift of The Holy Spirit at their moment of conversion. Once the Holy Spirit enters the mind and heart of the true believer, God’s seal of ownership, which is The Holy Spirit, is placed upon that person, and that person then becomes a permanently adopted son or daughter. And now that we know the foundational basics concerning the Holy Spirit in reference to the life of a believer, we need to consider the impact of The Holy Spirit on our lives. In other words, what is the role of The Holy Spirit in my life?
Why do you think it is we fail to understand the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? How is it that our helper, our comforter, our source for truth, our connection to Jesus, is so overlooked? Perhaps, it’s because we fail to embrace the gift, or we just simply do not want Him in charge of our life. Who is the third person of the Trinity and why is He important? The truth is, most Christians are fine with trusting in God the Father and allowing Jesus the Son to be their Savior, but most Christians have no idea what to think or what to do with the Holy Spirit.
It’s no secret that as we put our faith in God, we are commanded to love Him first and foremost. From there, we are to also love “one another” in the same manner as Christ loves us. But how do we do this? God’s Word is filled with practical ways which can help us understand how it’s possible to achieve something that seems impossible. Until our love inside the walls of the church rises above our emotions, above our sensitive feelings, above our petty differences, above our likes and dislikes, we will never experience the full power of God working in our lives, and we will struggle to make any impact in our community or for the Kingdom.
Reasons why the Word became flesh
