Isaac Bennett teaches on Christ being our foundation, from 1 Corinthians 3
Daniel Brown teaches about the fear of the Lord and seeking His help amid times of crisis. 1 Timothy 5:20
Isaac Bennett looks at Jesus' pastoral letter to the church of Laodicea.
All true strength is derived from the Lord. Human strength/wisdom gets in the way of the Spirit. Strength is what enables one to accomplish intention and will. What should be the aspiration of every Christian? To be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29) so he may participate in God’s glorious redemptive plan.
This is a great paradox of faith: weakness makes way for strength. The kingdom of God goes forth through the weakest of these. The degree to which we desire to partner with Jesus is commensurate to human weakness and humiliation.
Tracey Bickle shares on walking through disappointment.
We are priests before God. Jesus Christ is the High priest. His priestly business was to “give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mt. 20:28) Our priestly business is present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The sacrifice of the Cross removes our guilt before the Father. Our sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise doesn’t make peace, but proceeds from peace. It works to declare and exalt the sovereignty, beauty, and awe of God.
The Lord is committed to shaking all things; He is the Author of the quake and storm. We must anticipate, be clear when it comes, and embrace and respond when it does. These shakings come from God. He has an affinity for removing our misplaced affections and confidence.
Christmas Eve message from Isaac Bennett
The birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, set something into motion regarding peace. One aspect has been secured, and there are more to come. The biblical pattern seems to follow that peace with God precedes peace with others and will result in Jesus establishing peace with the nations. Easily forgotten is that Jesus is actively engaged and central to each phase of peace.
The gospel uniquely positions the Christian to go through difficulty and trouble with the capacity to rejoice and hope.
We often don’t equate kingly status with shepherds. Sheep are not found in royal courts but in fields and valleys. Kings are not found sleeping in fields or weathering storms but in royal courts. Shepherd leadership reveals something significant about a relationship to power. When God looks for a leader and king, He seeks a shepherd. Some of the great characters of the Bible were shepherds. This status of servant-leadership embodies that which reflects the heart of God Himself. That which God calls “great,” or royal, is a servant's heart.
Our culture has become experts at removing the symptoms of pain while leaving the root cause untreated. What do I run to in pain? Where is my comfort? Many Christians have convinced themselves that our spirituality is strongest when our fear and pain do not show. Yet, we know that Christ Himself did not shy away from the anguish of the human experience. God became a man.
Paul makes the incredible statement that all in Christ are made spiritually alive; totally reborn and new. The only way to describe this change of condition is that the Christian has become a new creation in Christ. The old dead things have passed away, and all things related to the spirit have become new.
This service was a special two part message addressing, The Significance of Loren Cunningham, and, The Seriousness of the War in Israel.
All of us can relate to this story. We have things that take hold of our lives that God never intended for us. Maybe it's a sin/addiction that you struggle with, you’ve become apathetic in your personal life in God, not reading the word, spending time with God in prayer, or maybe something that has happened to you that just broke you. It's shattered you, making you feel helpless and small, as though you have no way out or control over your life. Spiritually and emotionally, that's where some of us might be right now. But it was right there in Gideon's lowest, darkest moment–when sin, shame, and fear had overwhelmed him–that God's light tore through that darkness, and God spoke the words that would raise Gideon out of the wine press.
Therefore, the Lord wants to convince us of the glory and power of the gospel (Rom. 1:16). The gospel message is sufficient not only to save but to usher the church into spiritual maturity and fervent love as she engages the nations in the most important and powerful gospel witness of human history. In an hour of global hostility and trouble, the gospel will prevail, displaying Christ's virtues in wisdom, humility, and forgiveness amidst cataclysmic foolishness, arrogance, and betrayal.
God intentionally made the human heart desire and delight in interesting and beautiful things. First and foremost, this desire was put in us to draw us to Him, who is the origin and source of all that is good and beautiful in all existence. Unfortunately, the narrative that’s been told of God over the last six millennia is that He is not good, not beautiful, not worthy of knowing, or not there. Because very few have, by the help of the Spirit, pressed beyond the limits of their own dullness to “behold the beauty of the Lord,” much of the earth has been left to scratch their longing for wonder with waterfalls, food and drink, relationships, sex, and, perhaps worst of all, the endless and ubiquitous buffet of “entertainment,” we now have available to us.
Ephesians gives us the most succinct overview of the gospel of Christ. The gospel is the good news. Revelation calls it the everlasting gospel (Rev. 14:6). It shapes perspective, granting an eternal vision that lifts from the ashes and anguish of the temporary. It fills the “eye” with “light.” The eye is the perspective of the believer in light of this age and the next
In Eph. 1-3, Paul explains the mystery of God’s mercy strategy and the Father’s family plan, how God, in eternity past, desired to have a people near and precious to His heart. It is glorious to ponder how One Who needs nothing, desires. The God who owns everything, yet He wants something.
Caleb Culver is the Senior Worship and Prayer Pastor at Radiant Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and shared a powerful message during the first service focusing on the fragrance of Christ.
