Jim Cymbala says, “Prayer links us...

...to the promises and power of the Almighty.  Calling out to God threatens Satan’s kingdom because it brings the blessings of heaven to earth and grants salvation to the ungodly.” We have been speaking for some time of growing to one thousand and I truly believe that we are. The truth is that to grow in God’s way and grow biblically we must pray and invite Holy Spirit every day!

The early church devoted itself to prayer (Acts 2:42), it prayed the Apostle Peter out of prison the night before his scheduled execution (Acts 12), and they responded to persecution for the first time by prayer (Acts 4:42). God responded by granting them a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and a boldness to witness for Christ. When Ananias was so fearful to go in obedience to Saul who became Paul God gave him this sign to let him know he had changed: Acts 9:11 (NKJV) “...behold, he is praying.”

We all in one accord say that we want to grow and we all agree in growing to one thousand plus but that will come thru Holy Spirit prayer. Listen to the exhortation of our Lord: Luke 18:1 (NIV) “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” If you have not arrived at your destination yet...do not give up and do not stop praying. The Scriptures we read about putting on God’s armor also tells us: Ephesians 6:18 (NKJV) “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” Brothers and Sisters, keep praying and fasting and we will grow like they did in the Book of Acts! God multiplied His Church!

Today I want to do something that I have wanted to do for a long time...

...I want to tell all of you where to go!  Matthew 28:18 19 (NLT) “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus has told us to go and we must be obedient!  First, we must go after God with all of our hearts.  The truth is: we will never go after “them” until we go after Him! Tommy Tenny, “We must go after God until we catch Him or He catches us!”

Second, we must go after the lost. Ezekiel tells us there is a great and mighty army just waiting to come up out of their graves to be used for God. Ezek 37:13 (NKJV) "Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.” Third, we must go to the church and say it is time to wake up out of your sleep! Eph 5:14 (NKJV) “Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." Fourth, we must go after revival!!! Revival is when you are tired of the status quo and you truly want Jesus to be Lord. It is when you are tired of altars not being filled with those who need salvation, when you want Holy Spirit to lead a service instead of a man, when dry bones come to life! It is when God’s Word is believed and acted upon with signs following, when children and adults alike are in the altars pouring out their hearts to God, and revival is a blast of the breath of God coming into a church and community changing everything in its path.

Fifth, we must go on to maturity. Hebrews 6:1 (NLT) “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.” Finally, we must go to the gates of hell and rescue those who are about to fall off the edge. Life Church, Jesus said we must go, so we must go!! 

In 2 Kings 6 there is an incredible story...

... about Elisha and the sons of the prophets. The sons of the prophets came to Elisha and told him that they needed more space and could they have permission to go down to the Jordan River and cut down trees for building them more room.  2Kings 6:5-7 (NKJV) “But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, "Alas, master! For it was borrowed."  So the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.  Therefore he said, "Pick it up for yourself." So he reached out his hand and took it.” 

  Why in the world would God feel like it was important for us to know that He could make an ax head float?  Was it that He wanted the prophet to save face and not appear to be irresponsible?  I don’t think so.  God was wanting the prophet to know and is wanting us to know that He has the power of reversal, annulment, cancellation, negation, revocation, and undoing when it is needed in our lives.  If God has the power to reverse the natural order of gravity and make an ax head float then surely He has the power to reverse our situation.

The Word of God has to be our final authority when we face situations which need to be reversed. Listen to the faith of Abraham in these verses:  Romans 4:16 21 (NKJV) “...as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed  God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;  who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."  And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”  Please know that God has the power of divine reversal in your situation as you choose to stand in faith like Abraham did.  Amen!

Maybe you have a desire...

... to be faithful to Jesus but you are confused by so many voices speaking into your life. We hear so much political correctness and we have a fear of being intolerant of those who may believe differently than we do. The fear is further propagated by saying if you speak against certain lifestyles or people who may seem compromising to you that you are guilty of a “hate crime.” Even in the church there is confusion of where the lines are to be drawn between showing grace and mercy and being accepting of things contrary to God’s law.

So what is our standard?  How do we measure what is right and where we are to stand as a church? We want to reach the lost but we do not want to compromise our convictions to do so. Our standard has always been and will forever be the Word of God. Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 (NKJV) “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” Political correctness should never dictate what our standard should be on abortion, same sex marriage, adultery, Israel, or any other social issue of our day.

We need to be so careful in these last days that we are not presuming on the grace of God by believing the doctrines of man instead of the Living Word of God.  The writer of Hebrews says: Hebrews 4:12 (NLT) “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” It exposes sin and righteousness. Paul says: Romans 6:15 16 (NLT) “Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.” Obey God and His Word and you will be faithful to Him!

The Apostle Paul warns of something...

... in the New Testament that is definitely as relevant today as it was then, maybe even more so. In 2 Corinthians 10:12 (NLT) He says “Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!” Comparing ourselves with others is about as common as judging others but that is a subject for another time. We all get caught up in this trap of comparing ourselves with those around us.

My doctor tells me to lose weight but I can see others who are in worse shape than myself. When we are confronted with our disobedience before God we can always find someone else who is living more wrongly than we are. When our children do not want to be denied whatever the latest event that is happening, they want to compare themselves with their friends who seemingly get to always do whatever they want. “It is not fair” they say!  We always come back with the same proverbial answer, “If your friends wanted to jump off of a cliff would you want to jump off too?”

  What I believe the answer is for this horrendous habit of comparing ourselves with others is that we answer the question, “What is our standard?”  Is it my friends, are they my standard?  Is it the latest fad, is that our standard?  Is it that I am better than that person or the other?  What is our standard?  James 1:22 (NLT) “But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”  I make my choices based on what God’s Word says about my situation. Philippians 2:5 (NLT)  “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”  When I am faced with tough choices, instead of comparing myself with others, I should ask the question, “What would Jesus do?”  Comparing yourself to others is unwise...comparing yourself to Jesus can be life transforming! 

Hurricane Harvey devastates southern...

... Texas and Louisiana and our hearts are broken to see lives lost and property destroyed. I heard the governor of Texas say the water around Houston was the size of Lake Michigan…unbelievable!  Our hearts ached for the people there so we prayed and we gave. Then, Irma shows up…islands wiped out and the entire state of Florida is affected. Again, lives lost (elderly in a nursing home) and property destroyed from Key West to Jacksonville. Over half of the population of Florida was without electricity at one time and many are still without it. It is definitely easier to pray for others going through a storm and even, easier to give to help others going through such tragedy, than to go through it ourselves. 

Listen to the psalmist: Psalm 107:28-32 (NKJV)  “Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble, And He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, So that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people, And praise Him in the company of the elders.” He, God, calms the storm and He guides us to our desired haven. Do you just suppose God is trying to get us to return to Him? We should give Him thanks for His goodness, for His protection, for His provision, and for His unending love for us.

I kept hearing people say during and after the storm, “We have no power!” My friends and fellow followers of Christ, that is not true. We may not have electricity but we have power in the Name of Jesus. We have the power to pray, we have the power to help someone else in need, we have the power to give to bless those who are hurting…oh, we have power. Acts 1:8 “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…” Let us use the power we have to be hands-on witnesses during this time of devastation. Who knows, this power we have may just lead someone to Jesus! 

We are getting ready to welcome...

...new folks into covenant membership in the next couple of weeks and we are so excited about that. In this article I want to speak about covenant and the vision of what it means.  We shared these verses from Matthew 19:4 6 (NLT) “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’  And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’  Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”  We have examined how God compares the covenant we have with our local church to marriage between a man and woman.

The difference between an attender and a member is the difference between living together and getting married. A lot of people want to date the church, but they don't want to get married.  If someone or some church hotter comes along they will drop you and go to something more exciting.  God is serious about marriage and about His Church, “... let no one split apart what God has joined together.”  

Many have viewed church membership as being non-essential and even a type of manmade bondage.  The truth is God has emphasized covenant from the beginning.  Pastor Brandon Hovey from Calvary Chapel in a article wrote “What is the big deal about church membership or covenants?  Church membership is a good idea. You see church membership is not about having your name on a dusty roll sheet. It's not about secret clubs, silly handshakes or more rules. It's about something many in our culture are terrified of: commitment. It's about making a public promise to live according to Scripture and support the work of the congregation.”  Come on, Life Church, let us be one and let us be covenant members serving God, one another, and reaching the lost!