Recently Tracy placed a grocery order at Wal-Mart and I volunteered to go pick it up. I filled the back of my car with various items and brought it home. There were cartons of eggs, various seasonings and a number of things that you simply wouldn’t eat without food preparation.
The next day I looked in the refrigerator thinking about how hungry I was. It was as if we had nothing to eat because everything I brought home needed some kind of preparation to eat. I defaulted to my something like peanut butter that day thinking how ridiculous it was that I just came home with groceries but couldn’t find anything to eat.
That evening I came in from working outside and Tracy had prepared an exquisite meal! She really is an amazing cook. I thought about what a lousy cook I am and how I saw all kinds of ingredients for something wonderful but didn’t have the ability to make it happen.
I gave Tracy groceries and she gave me an amazing meal. As I pondered this I realized this is very much the way it is with God. What do you think would happen to your dreams if you actually gave them to God? If we are willing to give God our time, talent and treasure He promises to release His Kingdom in our lives in amazing ways!
Ephesians 6:10…Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you. TPT
Jesus suffered and died a horrible and tortuous death! He didn’t die so we could merely go to church. Jesus died so we could be the church that ushers God’s Kingdom into the world! We are not here trying to build a better church. We are here as the church trying to build a better world.
When God transforms a person He does so by transforming the heart. It is the same with a city. We simply need to understand the heart of the city. In any city you need an educational structure, business structure and government structure. If any one of these is missing the city cannot survive. These become the three main arteries to the heart of the city. When God’s people find their loving expression in the heart of any city the entire city begins to be transformed.
November 10th I begin our 3D Leadership Development Class in our Destiny Christian Leadership Institute. In this six week class on Sunday evenings from 5:30-8:30 we will be exploring an important framework God has revealed to help us discover how God’s purposes awaken our dreams. Something God wanted done makes you necessary. If you don’t discover his plan you’ll never know true fulfillment.
We will walk through a progression of information that will help you think more clearly and examine more specifically the deposits God has made in your heart.
Your life is perfectly equipped with the experiences, relationships and resources your dreams require. In these sessions we will be learning how to think about and understand God’s intention for our purposed and meaningful lives.
The outcome of this class is to leave each student with a well-developed plan that becomes a strategy to implement in moving in to the next level of your life and leadership skills. It really is never too late to become what you might have been. Look forward to walking through this session together.
Heb 5:9-12…(Jesus) became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because…You need milk, not solid food! NIV
The Bible says the truth of Melchizedek is for those who are ready to move from milk to solid food. I want to spend today preparing the atmosphere of our lives to be ready for more of what God desires to reveal on this important topic next week.
Author Brennan Manning, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyles… that is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.”
This could never have been spoken of the First Century Church. The First Century Church was a Jesus movement! One of the main differences between the First Century Church and today’s church is the intimate relationship with the Lord that wasn’t focused on “going to heaven”. Their focus was God’s power working in them while they were still in this world ushering heaven into earth!
First Century Christians knew their God so intimately that they sang His praises as they were burned at stake. There are historical accounts of Nero the Emperor sticking his fingers in his ears and saying, “Why must these Christians sing?”
This was a passionate and contagious Jesus movement! Historical accounts of Romans, when witnessing joy these Christians being martyred, jumping out of the stands rushing to them. They were doomed to the same fate, but they willingly accepted death so they could know God in the same close, intimate, and personal way as these Christians.
The challenging question for you and for me is, “How many people would die to have what you and I have?” Is relationship with Jesus moving & compelling to our world?
Something terrible happened to the church over time. Once the church was legalized, it got organized. Suddenly the church was less of a movement and more of an establishment. 2,000 years later, the church is still struggling to regain its original identity, purpose, and passion. Say the word, “church” today and few people think of a movement.
Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in Rome and 25 years after his death Emperor Julian took over and decided to return the Roman Empire to paganism. He began to fund the construction of pagan temples and pagan worship but the culture wasn’t shifting for him. He wrote a letter complaining “These Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well. He goes on to say how difficult it would be to get control of society when Christians have been so generous.
Early Christians understood their role was to actively establish God’s Kingdom of love and compassion in the earth.Today Christians understand that Jesus died for them and a decision is required for us to invite him into our lives. There is a vast difference in these two beliefs as one is totally about God’s Kingdom in the earth while the other is totally about my personal life and how Jesus can make my life better.
Many Christians have come to view the Gospel as simply the personal plan of salvation. The modern emphasis is to “fix the sin problem” in an individualized way. This private version of faith in Christ reduces the Gospel to knowing some facts about Jesus and then making a personal decision for Christ based on these facts. This dramatically alters the idea of our purpose and mission as Christians.
If you don't devote self to greater purposes of LOVE you confine yourself to self-serving existence. You were born for more than that!
Our world is diminished by the life you don’t live and the difference don’t make in other people’s lives. Restlessness and boredom abound in the church of our day. This is the result of smallness of purposerarely equipped to get past our own personal needs.
We need you in this fight. We need every one of you sacrificially involved in this fight. Sunday, October 6th will be 2020 Vision Sunday. We are asking every person to bring their gifts, time, talent and treasure to God.
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Fast and pray this week asking God to take us deeper as a church family!
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
Click here for a downloadable pdf file of this guide.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What were your first experiences of attending church? Were those positive or negative experiences in your faith journey and why?
2. What comes to mind when you think of the First Century Church?
Jesus didn’t die so we could merely go to church. Jesus died so we could be the church that ushers God’s Kingdom into the world!
Early Christians understood their role was to actively establish God’s Kingdom of love in the earth.
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
3. What does it mean to make disciples?
Matt 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” NIV
God’s plan is for us to use our time, talents and our treasure to make disciples. Not only to reach people personally but also to develop ministry expressions that will impact nations of people! We are to make disciples of all nations!
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
4. What happens to our talents and dreams once we are truly devoted to God’s will?
If you don’t devote self to greater purposes of LOVE you confine yourself to a self-serving existence. You were born for more than that! Restlessness and boredom abound in the church. This is largely the result of smallness of purpose because people are rarely equipped to get past their own personal needs.
Your world is diminished by the life you don’t live and the difference you don’t make in other people’s lives. We need you in this fight. We need every one of you sacrificially involved in this fight.
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Fast and pray this week asking God to take us deeper as a church family!