Transcript

The Jesus Way: Take Up Your Cross

The Jesus Way: Take Up Your Cross

There are ways of Jesus that are completely different than what our culture thrives on. So often in the church, we take all of these cultural ways and try to do the kingdom work the way that the culture does its work, and the two are diametrically opposed to each other. I'm excited to kind of start to really help us to go deeper from where Jeff has been digging and is digging. It's going to be a good year. It's going to be a good year to just discover more of the ways of Jesus while we are on the way with him. Hallelujah.

The Way On The Way With The Way

The Way On The Way With The Way

The way on the way with the way. I'm the way, the truth and the life. So many followers of Jesus, without thinking, actually embrace the ways and means of our culture. It's really easy to do because we are inundated with our culture and we are affected by our culture. Uh, this message today is not intended to be critical of anybody or anything we, as the church have done at all. I have no judgments to speak, but I do want to bring, in a sense, a caution to us all of how easy it is to fall into thinking like our culture instead of thinking like Jesus, because we are inundated with our culture.

Walking On the Way

Walking On the Way

I want to really talk about the walking on the way, walking on the way with the way or the way we are supposed to be on the way with the way. Of course, the way is Jesus. But there are a lot of people who, I think in their hearts have a desire to want to be a follower of Jesus, but we are inundated with the culture around us. Our culture's not evil necessarily. There are certainly evil things in our world, of course, but our culture's not evil. Our culture and the kingdom of God are two separate real entities.

Who Are You Following

Who Are You Following

We have a burden in the church today to cry out to people, to cry out for them to come and to be a part of us. That's a good mandate for us to have. Many, you hear this cry louder amongst the churches, and I mean the church, big seed church, the corporate church, the body of Christ. Sincerely, many of those churches believe that they are mimicking the Lord when they are crying out for the call to come and to be a part of him, just like he did for them to come and to be a part of him. But if we are really honest with ourselves, I think the evidence shows that although the call to come is there, the lingering question remains, what happens when the people come?

The Jesus Way: Believe

The Jesus Way: Believe

We were talking about the way of Jesus that is childlikeness. We were talking about what it means to be like a child and how, and what that means to our relationship with the father. One of the things that we said about that is that one thing that children do easily is they trust, they believe easily. That just really came alive to me. I'm going to share a little bit later in, in the message how I got inspired even to talk about this. But it really came alive to me. And so Cheryl and I have been kicking around this whole concept of childlike faith for a number of weeks now, and ticking it back and forth and talking a lot about it. I really think that it's, it's just worth spending a morning on.

Traditions Of Men vs. Biblical Truth

Traditions Of Men vs. Biblical Truth

One of the things that we are trying to establish through our ministry is just bringing us into a different place, a different level in Christ. To do that, there are some things that we have to reexamine within ourselves in the way that we do things. One of those things that we need to reexamine in our lives is in the area of tradition or tradition. I want to talk today about the traditions of men versus biblical truth. There are traditions of men versus biblical truth. If you look at kind of a textbook definition, I went online and looked at some definitions, and one of them, it says, "A tradition is a long established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another." The Britannica dictionary says that a tradition is a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, et cetera, for a long time. So tradition, we all have them. We all have traditions, whether it be on eating seafood at New Year's Day, or some of our families eating black-eyed peas for good luck.

All Human Life Is Precious To God

All Human Life Is Precious To God

It behooves us today to talk about, and we are going to talk about some issues, especially, there is a lot of pressing issues today concerning the sanctity of life. But we are going to talk today on four areas pertaining to human life. The first thing is foundational to me; we are going to talk about is being created in the image of God. Secondly we are going to talk about the beginning of life. Thirdly, we are going to talk about the end of life. And then lastly, we are going to talk about the treatment of children and the disabled and the elderly. 

Make Incarnation Your Model for Loving Well

Make Incarnation Your Model for Loving Well

Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If we want to know what our Father in heaven is like, all we have to do is look at Jesus. That was like one of the main reasons he came. To redeem us from our sins, of course, is uh, obviously a very important one to us. But he came to show us what the father was like.

The Picture He Reflects

The Picture He Reflects

Now, this is not a self-help message, okay? But if a person's image of themselves remains scarred and distorted or ugly, or inferior, then that person will continue to act out what they think of themselves regardless of the change of their physical appearance.

However, if the emotional scars can be removed from a person, then a person can truly be transformed.

The Christ of Christmas

The Christ of Christmas

There are people who have had various images of God throughout history and many people take those images, and they project them onto God. They project them in their own hearts as to this image that they have of God. How many know that your perception of something is your reality? Your perception of something is your reality. It may not be real, but it's your reality.

Not Just a Baby in a Manger

Not Just a Baby in a Manger

I'm a teacher of the word, and God put a burden in my heart in my teaching, to focus on what we call the whole narrative of the Bible, the whole story. Because oftentimes when we see people stumble at the mention of Jesus is because they don't have the whole story.

He Will Save His People

He Will Save His People

I wasn't even really old then. And the guys kept saying, "Hey, old guy." Finally, I turned around. He said, "Yeah, you." I said, "Yeah." He said, "What are you doing here?" Yeah. I said, "Well, I like this music." And he, about when I picked him up off the sidewalk. But one of the things that happens when you live a while, you have more history to draw from.

Born To Die

Born To Die

When we reflect upon the first Christmas, the night that Jesus was born, I think it's safe to say that on that very first Christmas, that the earth was pretty oblivious to all that was happening. Wouldn't you agree with that? The church was pretty oblivious to really what was happening on that first Christmas. But here's something that we need to understand. Heaven wasn't oblivious to what was happening.

Let Us Adore Him

Let Us Adore Him

How many know that's a good thing to adore Jesus? Come, let us adore him. At the very heart of Christmas, really is the celebration of the incarnation…

I love what the angels said to Mary when he came to her and explained to her what was in her future. How many like to have God talk to you about your future like that? How would you like to have been Mary that day? That'd be a little disconcerting, a little bit, right?

There's Strength in Humility

There's Strength in Humility

What a strange title: strength and humility. Strength and humility. What really is humility? There are many definitions, but we are just going to take common definition here for a minute. Humility can be viewed as the opposite of pride, arrogance, and an inflated sense of our importance and talents. It is based on a fundamentally caring and compassionate attitude toward others. That's humility. When we are talking about a strength in humility, the world doesn't understand it. The world doesn't equate humility with strength. But just because the world doesn't see strength in humility, let's not think that humility is a weakness either. The world views humility as a weakness, and that's because the world's culture is full of pride. to be blunt about it.

Enemy at the Gates

Enemy at the Gates

How much more would God's thoughts and God's ways be different from someone who actually has not really yet met the Lord and, and come to know him in a personal way? And so when our earthly kingdom that we are a part of with this dual citizenship, when that kingdom comes into conflict or tension with our heavenly kingdom, then we find ourselves in a place that I call the valley of decision. Aren't we?

The Jesus Way: Childlikeness

The Jesus Way: Childlikeness

Today, we are going to talk about another Jesus way, and that is child likeness. We are going to talk about being like children. Most of the world has lost that. Most of the adult world has lost that much of the child world has lost that much to my dismay. Too many children are being asked to grow up way too soon and grapple with issues that they should not have to grapple with when they are 10 years old. But such as our world. But Jesus has something better for us. We are going to look at the Jesus way of child likeness this morning.

Now and Then

Now and Then

It was much more about a message of getting heaven into those people while they lived. Because this new friend of mine that I was just talking to you about, if the only thing he had to look forward to was going to heaven when he died, there is no hope for him on the earth. The only hope is for him to die. That's where his hope would be.

A Conversation with Anatolii Tarasiuk

A Conversation with Anatolii Tarasiuk

I think we could take a lot of time. There is a lot that many miracles that this man can share with us about his life and especially much about his recent life. But let's start out, just tell us a little bit about your story. How you met Jesus, how you came into the ministry, what your ministry life was like in those years that I knew you and where God has taken you from there.

Character of Christ

Character of Christ

Truth, integrity, honesty, transparency, respect, responsibility, being kind to others, all of these things are not foreign to those of us who follow Christ, but these are the very things in which this world culture is tremendously lacking. But these are the very things that should be the trademark of the followers of Christ.