Notes from my sermon on Sunday December 13

El Shaddai = “I AM your all powerful God.”

1. When I am tired…
2. When I have nothing to offer…
3. When I am in pain…
4. When I am tempted…
5. Admit you are ___________________
6. Be connected to the source of _____________
7. Choose God’s ___________________

Notes from Activating Kingdom Agents class December 13

Yahweh Shammah = “I AM the God who is always there for you.”

1. His Presence is _______________over me.
2. His purpose is __________________ in me.
3. His place is ____________________ for me.

1. Does our singing of worship and praise address the Lord with honor and thanksgiving or is it chatter among the saints about themselves?
2. Does our presentation of tithes and offerings reflect worship and thanksgiving, our thanks to God, our rejoicing in doing together what we cannot do alone or are we raising money to pay the bills?
3. Does our regular practice of the Eucharist rehearse the Gospel making the message of the cross central to our life together or is it empty ritual?
4. Does the teaching of the Word of God explain living in the Kingdom of God practical and relevant for transforming impact? What are the take-a-ways?
5. Does the church give everyone an opportunity to receive personal ministry and prayer? Are there expressions of the gifts of the Spirit from the Body to the Body?
6. Does the church value the participation of all from the youngest to the oldest in the community of faith?
7. Do leadership, pastors and elders demonstrate lives of integrity and spiritual maturity and fruitfulness? What would their families say about their Christian life and witness?
8. Does the church value and practice caring for the poor, the widow, orphan, prisoner, and the dis-infranchised?
9. Does the church love, fellowship, and co-operate with the larger life giving church in the city?
10. Does the church report finances, income and expenditures, regularly in detail?

The Feast of Tabernacles was the final and most important holiday of the year. The importance of this festival is indicated by the statement, “This is to be a lasting ordinance.” The divine pronouncement, “I am the Lord your God,” concludes this section on the holidays of the seventh month. The Feast of Tabernacles begins five days after Yom Kippur on the fifteenth of Tishri (September or October). It is a drastic change from one of the most solemn holidays in our year to one of the most joyous. The word Sukkoth means “booths,” and refers to the temporary dwellings that Jews are commanded to live in during this holiday, just as the Jews did in the wilderness. The Feast of Tabernacles lasts for seven days and ends on the twenty-first day (3×7) of the Hebrew month of Tishri, which is Israel’s seventh month.

This holiday has a dual significance: historical and agricultural (just as Passover and Pentecost). Historically, it was to be kept in remembrance of the dwelling in tents in the wilderness for the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert.

It is expounded in Leviticus 23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

What were they to remember?

Matthew Henry’s commentary explains,

1.) The meanness of their beginning, and the low and desolate state out of which God advanced that people. Note: Those that are comfortably fixed ought often to call to mind their former unsettled state, when they were but little in their own eyes. 2.) The mercy of God to them, that, when they dwelt in tabernacles, God not only set up a tabernacle for Himself among them, but, with the utmost care and tenderness imaginable, hung a canopy over them, even the cloud that sheltered them from the heat of the sun. God’s former mercies to us and our fathers ought to be kept in everlasting remembrance. The eighth day was the great day of this holiday, because then they returned to their own houses again, and remembered how, after they had long dwelt in tents in the wilderness, at length they came to a happy settlement in the land of promise, where they dwelt in goodly houses. And they would the more sensibly value and be thankful for the comforts and conveniences of their houses when they had been seven days dwelling in booths. It is good for those that have ease and plenty sometimes to learn what it is to endure hardness.

They were to keep this holiday in thankfulness to God for all the increase of the year; however, the emphasis is that Israel’s life rested upon redemption which in its ultimate meaning is the forgiveness of sin. This fact separates this holiday from the harvest festivals of the neighboring nations whose roots lay in the mythological activity of the gods.

Isaiah 61:7  Because you got a double dose of trouble and more than your share of contempt, Your inheritance in the land will be doubled and your joy will go on forever.

No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

No matter what, we are not going to give up. We are going to keep pressing forward. We have a holy determination.

THE PEOPLE WHO SUCCEED IN LIFE ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE WHO ARE THE MOST TALENTED. BUT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE THIS IN COMMON. THEY ARE ALL DETERMINED. THEY PERSEVERE.

We walk in the midst of warfare. We are all facing opposition and obstacles. Life is a battle. We have to have a warrior mentality.

A person who continues to have faith in God is positioned for victory. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We therefore have staying power, keep on keeping on power.

God only permits in our lives that which will be redemptive for us.

Shake off self-pity and discouragement. God will not only bring you through, but He will bring you through to a better place than where you were in Him.

EVERY SET BACK IS A SET UP FOR A GREATER COME BACK.

We walk by faith, not by sight.

Our latter days will be greater than our former days.

LOSERS FOCUS ON WHAT THEY ARE GOING THROUGH, WINNERS FOCUS ON WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ.It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself for me.”

1. It is the relinquished life.  In identifying with Christ’s death on the cross, I am dead to sin and alive to God.
2. It is the exchanged life.  Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit lives His life through me.
3. It is the trusting life. We trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.

I am wholly available to God and totally unavailable to the enemy. My yes to God is so big and complete there is no room for any conversation with the evil one.

Here is the outline from my message at Heartland Church on August 30.

ABOUND IN HOPE!

Romans 15:13. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

WHERE DOES HOPE COME FROM?

Psalm 39:7. “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”

Ephesians 2:12. “. . . remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

WHAT IS HOPE? JOY AND PEACE, NOT SORROW AND STRESS!

Proverbs 13:12. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Romans 8:23-25. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

1 Peter 3:15-16. “. . . but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”

1 Corinthians 15:19. “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

HOW DO WE GET HOPE?

1. By Believing Patiently.

Hebrews 6:11-20. “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may  not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

2. By the Word.

Romans 15:4. “. . . through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

3. By the Holy Spirit. (5:13 itself)

HOW MUCH HOPE IS ENOUGH?

Ephesians 3:20. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us …”

WHAT DOES HOPE LOOK LIKE?

2 Corinthians 3:12. “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”