2013 - The Power of The Prophetic (notes)

2013 - The Power of The Prophetic

2013 - The Power of The Prophetic this message was given on 12-30-12

The Gift 3 - The First Day of History (notes)

The Gift 3 - The First Day of History

This Is An Exciting To Be Alive In History

The possibilities are…

• The rapture or 2nd coming of Jesus.
• The greatest revival in history.
• The greatest harvest ever.
• The greatest blessings upon the people of God.
• The greatest breakthroughs in our local church.

Christmas is the first day of history. Why? Because it is the day that God came to earth in human flesh and became the savior of the world.

If The World Needed:

• Pleasure God would have sent an entertainer.
• Technology God would have sent a scientist.
• A song God would have sent a composer.
• Knowledge God would have sent a professor. But the world needed forgiveness so God sent a Savior.

Jesus Came

• To save us from sin.
• Deliver us from satan’s power.
• Heal all sickness.
• Heal our brokenness.
• To prepare us for Heaven.

The Birth of Jesus

• Joseph was from Royal lineage of Israel and went to David’s home town to be registered in the census.
• The Roman Emperor had issued a decree for this to take place all over the empire.
• You had to go to your home town to register.

The King of Glory is born in the city of David, the house of bread. There were shepherds. Shepherds were considered low life people, men who couldn’t be trusted yet the angel of the Lord appeared to them and God’s glory was all around them and caused them to be terrified. They knew their sinful condition.

The Angel of the Lord tells them, don’t be afraid. I have good news for you that will cause great joy for all people in every generation in every corner of the planet. The Gospel is good news for everyone in every time period in every place. The Savior is born. The only hope for humanity is Jesus the Savior of the world.

Let’s Go To Bethlehem and find Mary & Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. After seeing Jesus they spread the Word concerning what the angel of the Lord had said to them.

Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for the events they had just experienced and what the Lord had said to them.

Our Job is to do what the shepherds did. Go and tell everyone what we have experienced. We need an experience with the Savior if we are going to be able to give this great gift away to hurting people, lost broken folks who need the good news.

The Gift 3 - The First Day of History

The Gift 2 - The Story of Christmas (notes)

The Gift 2 - The Story of Christmas

Amazing Grace

• Let’s look at the word Gift and what it means.
• Gift means Grace and Grace means Gift. The Greek word for Grace is Charis, the root word for Charismatic or Charisma. The Charismatic movement was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Catholic Church and mainline denominations in the 1970’s and 80’s. I consider our church a result of that move of God.

The Gift

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

(NKJV)

We Believe

• In the Charismatic gifts or Grace gifts. These are spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 12 &14.
• That the Word Grace defines who we are as a body of believers. The gifts are for us today and we totally embrace the move of the Spirit in our daily lives and in our church life.
• Grace is God’s favor, which is not dependent on our earning power but on His power to accept us.

When We Know God accepts us, we also know all that God is and has is for us today. Every gift (grace) is for the church today. Healing, miracles, prophecy, faith, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, discernment, and tongues are all for us today because of Grace.  

Grace Brings Us

• Into God’s presence. Grace means that we don’t have to do anything but believe in what Jesus has done.
• Grace also means that we belong to Him and He belongs to us. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. It was written by a former slave trader (John Newton 1725-1807) an Englishman who became a poet and clergyman.

Grace is one of the major themes in the New Testament.

John 1:14-18, Romans 5:1-2, 15-17, 20-21, & 6:1-11.

Grace Invokes God’s favor when anyone calls upon the name of Jesus. Jesus was full of grace and truth. There is a grace in our lives because of His grace. When we see Jesus we see the Father.

We Are Justified By Faith

Let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things He has for us in the future. (Romans 5:1-2)

Grace Gives Us a gift and that gift is God Himself. When we get Him we get everything. Without Him we are empty, lost, and miserable. With Him we have abundant life, and we get all that God has for us.

On The First Christmas

• God sent His Son, the free gift of grace and the result is justification before God. When we are justified before God nothing else matters but the fact that we are right with God.
• During This Season Let’s
• Concentrate on the greatest gift ever given to us. Salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.
• Ask God to give us an opportunity to give this gift to someone who does not have Jesus.

The Gift 2 - The Story of Christmas

The Gift 2 - The Story of Christmas this message was given on 12-16-12

The Gift - The Story of Christmas (notes)

The Gift - The Story of Christmas

The Greatest Gift Was Given To The World Around 2,000 Years Ago.

A gift is a thing given willingly to someone without payment, a present, a Christmas gift. An act of giving something as a present.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

The Gift

John 3:16 (NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God

• Gave the very best of Heaven, part of Himself, His only begotten Son.
• Did not expect anything in return but because He is all knowing, He knew that the return would be the church, billions of people over the centuries will one day stand before the Lamb of God and give thanks to God for that great gift.

Who Ever Believes

• In Him, will not perish but have everlasting life. The result of the gift is eternal life. God sent His Son Jesus Christ because of His love.
• Lives because Jesus gave His life.  

A Gift is given without expectation of payment. As believers we all understand that salvation is a gift, it is not earned but received by faith. It is by Grace, not of works.

When I think of Christmas I think of the greatest gift ever given to anyone, the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ the Savior.

Jesus came to give us abundant life as His gift of eternal life.

The Word Life is Zoe or life in the absolute sense. John 10:10 says that the thief steals, kills and destroys but Jesus came to give us life and life in the absolute. Life that is the very essence of Almighty God. This is what John 3:16 means.

When God Sent Jesus it was out of His great heart of love and generosity that He gave. We now have eternal life because of His great love. Eternal Life is the free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith.

When We Talk about a gift in the Bible the Word is charis or grace. The gift of God is by Grace, it is not by working for it. We all know that when we work we get paid. We get educated, we go into a field to get paid. But when we come to God, we don’t need an education to get the payment God offers.

Eternal life is given by Grace not by works.

We Will Look At:

• What the Word of God says about the coming of the Savior into the world. We will look at the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus. We will look at His parents, Joseph and Mary. We will look at what Heaven did when Jesus was born. We will look at the outcome of the coming of the Son of God into the World.
• How the life of God works in us daily as a result of Jesus coming into the World and into our hearts.
• The little town of Bethlehem. A town about 5 miles south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. A town today of about 14,000 people the native city of King David. It was known for its bread. Isn’t it ironic that the city where Jesus is born was known for its bread when Jesus said, I am the bread of life. John 6:35 If we come to Him we will never be hungry again.

The Gift of Salvation is for everyone who receives it. There is no way to put a price on salvation. Our eternal destiny was paid for by the blood of the Son of God. This is why the blood of Jesus is God’s number one priority. There is nothing more precious than the blood of Jesus. The Blood will never loose its power, it reaches to the highest mountain and it flows to the lowest valley. The blood was shed on Calvary that hill outside of Jerusalem.

Matt. 27:33

During This Season Let’s:

• Concentrate on the greatest gift ever given to us. Salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.
• Ask God to give us an opportunity to give this gift to someone who does not have Jesus. It could be at the mall, at Walmart, at Safeway, at the office, to our neighbor or a fellow worker or an employee or a friend. Let’s give this gift away.

The Gift - The Story of Christmas

The Gift - The Story of Christmas this message was given on 12-9-12

Acts 22-23 - Testimony (notes)

Acts 22-23 - Testimony

Acts 22-23 - Testimony this message was given on 12-2-12