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"The resurrection is at the core of our beliefs as Christians. Without it, our faith is meaningless." - Joseph B. Wirthlin. In his book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism", Tim Keller states, "If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead." In this sermon we will focus on a well-known passage of scripture, and I will start with the end of the passage which is one of my favourite verses. 2 Cor 5:21 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Website: https://gochurch.co.za/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gochurchsa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gochurchcenturion/
Website: https://gochurch.co.za/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gochurchsa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gochurchcenturion/
When I say to you ‘the fear of God’ it probably conjures up a wide variety of thoughts and emotions in different people. Possibly even questions around God. Today I would like to do a dive into this important uncommon virtue which is the fear of the Lord. I am going to unpack what it is not and explain what it is and of course, why it is so important for us as believers. I will also look at how we can grow in the fear of the Lord.
Gen 1:28 – God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God invented sex and thought it was good. In fact, it was the first thing God referred to in the blessing. In the right context (marriage) this is true. Outside of God’s protective boundaries there are negative consequences. How do you view sex in general? How do you view sex in the context of marriage? Do you feel awkward talking about sex? What and who has influenced and shaped your view of sex? It is important to thoroughly examine this subject so that we embrace the blessing God has intended and avoid the negative consequences of violating His principles in this area.
Gentleness is of great worth to God. There are virtues that God values greatly. Gentleness is one of them. We have a choice. What will we make of great value to ourselves? How much time do we spend working on our outward selves compared to the inner self. It is essentially a spirit. Why is a gentle and quiet spirit worth a lot to God? I believe that when we don’t walk in gentleness, we short circuit the anointing. Often God can only use us when we are in this state of a gentle and quiet spirit. Gentleness is enhanced by other attributes.
We all know that love is the chief of all virtues. But the question is, what is love?The biblical ideas of love referred to: A desire for the best for another, even if it cost us something. A shorter way of saying this would be to say that biblical love is "Sacrificial Love". Obtaining the best for another, even an enemy, at our cost. When we talk about Agape love, we are talking about a much deeper dimension of love, a virtue so supreme that it distinguishes Christians from everyone else. Love is so important to the Bible’s teachings that John tells us “God is love”
Wisdom: It is the understanding and attitude that result in true piety and godliness. Wisdom is insight that leads one to make good decisions in life. God’s wisdom protects us from taking a detour into humanistic ideas and hopeless error.
2 Tim 2: 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. God is faithful. We can only be faithful because He is. This is one of His core characteristics and He calls to be likewise. Faithfulness is a key virtue because the degree to which you walk in it will determine your promotion in God’s Kingdom. There are various manifestations of faithfulness that I will outline in this message
A portrait is a verbal picture or description of a person. We tend to be familiar with portraits when we are referring to just the picture of an individual, that captures their shoulders and above including their facial features and so on. Sometimes however, when we are referring to the description of a particular entity we also call that a portrait. Mt 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus described Himself as humble. Many people talk about being humble and humility, but what does that actually look like? Is being humble using everyone’s title and calling them “Chief”? Is being humble muttering, and crouching down in deference, before you do whatever you have to do in relation to the people around you? It is so important for us to define humility so that we understand what the Bible means when it says that, “God resists the proud, But gives grace [shows favour] to the humble.”” James 4:6 NLT. Grace and favour are when God raises you up but it is unmerited. You can pray as much as you want for favour and breakthrough but the Bible gives us this “key” where it tells you that you ought to be humble.
Inheritance can occur at multiple levels. There is the inheritance we have as believers but there is also the individual inheritance we experience based on God’s promises to us. In addition, our focus today is on a spiritual inheritance we have as a community of faith.
Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus. Regardless of which path we each walk down; God is always with us and inevitably always at least, one step ahead of us. No matter what mountains you come up against, just know He has already climbed them. No matter what journey of uncertainty you encounter, God is faithfully walking ahead of you. Sometimes, it can be easy to make the mistake of thinking that we are walking through this world alone, especially when life happens or when our current reality does not match up with what God has spoken over us. Please do not allow temporary realities to sway you from the knowledge that God is with you. He is leading and guiding you, ordering your footsteps, preparing the way for you and going ahead of you to make every crooked path straight. I encourage you to be attentive and listen for his voice, listen for his leading, consult Him in everything before you make your next move.
Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. We are called to value the words of Jesus. His words are lifegiving. In the sermon on the mount, He picks out specific characteristics and virtues and highlights that those who walk in them are blessed. One of these is being a peacemaker. It is important for us and behoves us to study what this really means so that we may walk in this blessing. The word “maker” here comes from a word meaning to manufacture, construct or cause. The word “blessed” is Makarios which means “to be envied, fortunate, one who has God’s favour extended in their lives. God’s benefits are made long and large in their lives.” The word peace means to tie together as a whole or wholeness, when the essential parts are tied together, rest and quietness. It has connotations of unity. So when someone gossips and causes division they are doing the opposite of this. When I speak to you words that refresh and quiet your soul I am being a peacemaker. Peace here is God’s gift of wholeness. Being a peacemaker is a core characteristic of a child of God. Elsewhere Jesus teaches that if we walk in love for each other, they will know we are His disciples. Here He is saying that if we are peacemakers, we will be called children of God. By whom I wonder. I believe that people will recognize Christ in us, but heaven will also identify us. When you are a child of someone it means you have their DNA. You are like them. When we are called children of God because we are peacemakers it means that God is that too. We are that because He is. This must always be our starting point. God is described as the God of Peace. Jesus is described as the Prince of Peace.
Morning is my favourite time of the day: • The whole day stretches out, with opportunities and possibilities. • His mercies are new every morning. • It’s an opportunity to reset. We got a smart exercise bike in the holidays. It is in need of calibration! The readings and measures it gives me are not accurate indications of reality. And so it is with us. Morning reset time was wonderful during the holiday. We have a chance right now – the beginning of the year on a much grander scale. It’s an opportunity to recalibrate our lives. To hit the reset button, to make sure we are measuring things accurately and with the correct measures. So that we have an accurate indication of reality.
This message is a continuation from what we started last week,. Today we will continue to explore how to activate God’s glory in our midst. As mentioned before, the key is to glorify Him. There are many ways of glorifying God, beyond just saying, “Lord I glorify you.” We mentioned that the Holy Spirit is a person and therefore has preferences. There are things that grieve Him and things that He is drawn to. He becomes more manifest in such environments. Let’s continue with our study.
The Holy Spirit is a person. There are environments He likes and others He does not like. He is grieved by certain climates. I need to find out what activates His glory and do it more. Jesus manifest. Skia – Shadow of God’s light. The Glory manifests to the degree to which we glorify Him. If we want to experience the glory (all His attributes) we need to glorify Him. What would the Church look like if each member was consumed with the sole purpose of glorifying God every minute of their lives?
This week we will conclude our sermons on being positioned in love. I encourage you to listen to the previous 2 if you have not done so as I build upon that foundation. We will be studying the last 5 of the ten commandments today and exploring their application to our everyday lives.
We saw last time that in order to be positioned in His love and remain in His love, we need to walk in obedience to His commands. We looked at God’s heart behind His commandments and the interpretive principle we need to apply when looking at these commandments. If you haven’t listened to the message, I encourage you to do so. I explained how the Mosaic law was fulfilled in Christ and so has no bearing on the New testament believer. Yet there are many other types of “law” mentioned in the Bible, including God’s moral law. Because God is perfect and unchanging, his moral law remains the same. This law or these commandments have great value for us as believers, providing a form of guidance and instruction for our lives. It is these commandments that we will explore today in deeper detail and their implications for our everyday life.
Why do I need to be Fully Devoted to Jesus, as opposed to just being devoted? You may think it is just semantics, and you could even be 100% correct, but, I think you will agree with me that being partially devoted to something or someone is simply not devotion at all. Living a life that is Fully Devoted to Jesus is one of those All or Nothing decisions that we have to make. Because if we are only halfway in or partially in, we may be surprised to find out one day that when we stand in front of Jesus, He says: depart from me, you were never Fully Committed.
We will be continuing our series on spiritual positioning. Today I will be starting a few messages on positioned in love. Positioned in love. I need to take a few messages to unpack this so that we understand the context and the principles for what I'm going to be sharing regarding being positioned love.
We will be continuing our series on spiritual positioning. Today I will be starting a few messages on positioned in love. Positioned in love. I need to take a few messages to unpack this so that we understand the context and the principles for what I'm going to be sharing regarding being positioned love.
What is faith? Heb 11:1 (NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, faith is like a spiritual currency. Faith is based upon our persuasion and conviction of. It is the response of obedience to God’s word. God’s Word is critical. Without God’s Word, there can be no faith.
It’s one thing to make a decision, it’s another thing to commit heart and soul to the implications of those decisions. For example, I can decide to get married, but have I truly committed heart and soul to serve and sacrifice for my wife’s dreams. There are degrees of decisiveness. It is difficult to become successful in something you are not willing to fully commit to. Reflect on your life and think of the most important decisions you have made. Were they made for you? Were you forced to make these decisions or were they an act of your will? I believe God is in the business of restoring the will and He wants to show us that we are powerful and can decide. To whom have you abdicated certain decisions in your life? I remember asking my former VC at varsity where he thought I should study a specific postgraduate course. He responded by asking me what I wanted to do. I was surprised as I thought he would just tell me. It’s important for us to understand the benefits of decisiveness and how central it is to Godly leadership. The ability to make wise decisions and timeously align others in the same direction is one of the most important leadership capabilities. Jesus’ ministry was embedded in this.
For relationships to go deeper, for us to really know God, we have to be in communication with Him. We have to be able to hear, recognise and understand what He is saying. We can determine the level of our own relationship with the Lord. And relationship is not about appearances. Appearances can say one thing… for a time, but we can never pull the wool over God’s eyes. Often hearing is about positioning. This is especially true when there is other “noise” in our lives. This is why positioning ourselves to hear is so important. We can very easily find ourselves in a place where our hearts our dull of understanding, our spiritual eyes are blind and our spiritual ears are deaf to God. Today I am going to look at 5 things that I believe will help us position ourselves to hear God. – Tracy Joy Nyamuda
We have been discussing and exploring various spiritual positions in life. We've looked at the power of being positioned in thanksgiving, being positioned in praise, the importance of the position of forgiveness, and last week we looked at how crucial it is for us to be continually positioned in worship. Today we are going to explore the importance of being positioned in purpose. Positioned in purpose.
We will discover as we look at this spiritual position that God is seeking those who are positioned in true worship. Joh 4:23-24 (NKJV) But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. [24] God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Isn’t it interesting who Jesus taught this to? And where He was? Worship is not about a geographical place, it’s not about culture or nationality or status, or even religious qualifications of the person. The worshippers God is looking for are those who worship in spirit and truth.
God is taking His Church to a place of greatness. Jesus is coming for a powerful bride. We know the destiny of the Church is great but we need to figure out how to unlock this greatness. It is clear in God’s Word but many are not walking in this dimension. My passion in life is to see greatness unlocked. There are keys to greatness. There are keys to spiritual promotion. Many people use worldly methods. You can pursue greatness through self-promotion. You can pursue greatness through coercion. You can pursue greatness through manipulation and domination. Many have taken the carnal route because they not entrusted themselves to God’s methods of elevation. In this message I want to share with you keys to unlocking greatness as I believe this is your portion. Some of you have been discouraged and stopped dreaming. It’s time to dream again.
Last week we spoke about how generally in life, positioning is important. And we spoke about how just as positioning in the natural realm is key, so spiritual positioning is key. We need to be constantly checking that we are positioned aright for God’s next move. Positioned aright for the season we are in. Positioned in belief, because belief positions us aright for the next God move. We need to take responsibility for our spiritual positioning. We can’t be passive. Eph 2:4-6 (NKJV) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, [5] even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), [6] and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, I am saved and forgiven. Redeemed from death. Found in Christ Jesus, seated in heavenly places. FB Meyer says: In the purpose of God we have been raised from the grave of sin and are seated with the risen Lord in the place of acceptance and victory. We were one with Christ when He lay in the grave and arose. In God’s thought we have already taken our seat with the glorified Christ upon the throne; only the pity is that we do not believe this or act as if we had done so. We need to live as believers seated in heavenly places in Christ. We need to position ourselves regularly. By using the terms spiritual positioning, I am referring to your heart disposition, the disposition of your spirit, how you show up in the spirit realm. How are you positioned in terms of spiritual attributes and qualities? Last week we looked at positioned ourselves in thanksgiving and the power of that. Today we will look at 2 more positions we can and must assume.
In life in general, we know that positioning is important. For instance, when you buy a new bicycle, you have to take it to someone who can do a bike fit for you to ensure that when you cycle you are positioned correctly. This is to protect you from unnecessary injuries and to ensure you get the best out of your body and bike. In a similar way, we are all familiar with the saying, “you have to be present to win”. It sounds obvious, right? You have to position yourself in the correct place (i.e. enter the race and show up on race morning), and of course follow the rules, in order for “winning” (whatever that is in the instance) is a possibility. I remember a number of years ago watching one our boys playing a soccer match. He was playing right wing. He got the ball quite near the back and passed it to a central player. He then stopped running and started walking. We shouted for him to run up and support his player who was alone. I could see by the set of his shoulders and the way he was walking, he didn’t believe they would score a goal, or that there was any point in him running up for support. And you know what? They didn’t score that goal. But the Holy Spirit spoke to me in that moment when we were shouting for him to run up and support his player…He said to me, “belief positions you aright for the next move”. Positioning. It’s so important. Positioning. In the same way we need to be positioned correctly in life, in the spirit, we need to be constantly checking we are positioned aright for God’s next move. Positioned aright for the season we are in. In the same way poor positioning in the natural negatively impacts us, so poor positioning in the spirit impacts us. We need to position ourselves correctly. Let me say that again, we need to position ourselves correctly. We need to take responsibility for our spiritual positioning. We can’t be passive.
We often quote Mt 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” Seeking first the kingdom will often be seen in how you relate to the local church. The church is God’s vehicle for the extension of His Kingdom.
