Powerful Prayers

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

The Barna Research Group reports that 84% of Americans claim to pray, yet we still see suffering, social disparities, racial hatred and hostility. The population of the United States is around 330 million people and if 84% are praying that means in the U.S. alone there almost 280 million people calling out to a god of some sort … yet, here we are. Why are we in the mess we are in if that many people are praying? How many people have to pray before God answers? According to the research, a lot of people are praying, but according to the Bible all prayers are not created equal. Anyone can pray, but does that mean God is listening to or answering every prayer the people are flinging toward heaven.

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

Can I Get A Witness?

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

John is telling the believers in Ephesus, they can be sure that the word they received and believed concerning Jesus Christ is the gospel truth. They can be confident that they have put their faith in the truth and know that they are walking in the light. The false teachers who left the church to promote their own distorted doctrines, were claiming that the message of John and the apostles was wrong. So, John appeals to the Jewish standard that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is established (Deut. 17:6; Matt. 18:16).

John opened this epistle by affirming that he and the other apostles had seen Jesus, heard Jesus, touched and examined Jesus, and their testimony was true. But as John brings the letter to a close, he emphasizes the truth of the message by again appealing to witnesses, but it’s not the witness of man, it is the historical witness of the life of Christ, the testimony of the Spirit, and the witness of God concerning His Son.

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

The Power of God’s Love

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

Love is a topic of much discussion in movies, books, TV, songs, and poetry, but the concept itself has become so diluted and polluted in the English language that “love” has lost much of its meaning. For example, it is not unusual to hear someone say they love pizza in one breath, and then tell their spouse that they love them in the next breath. Furthermore, love is not merely emotion but it is a decision, or John could not instruct us to love one another. Love in its purest form, is not selfish or self-seeking and it does not come and go or rise and falls like waves on the ocean. In Scripture love is powerful, persuasive, and persevering. Ultimately, true love comes from God, overcomes fear, turns enemies into friends, and moves us to selfless acts of kindness and compassion.

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

Greater Is He That Is In You

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , , , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t believe everything you hear, and only half of what you see”? Never has that pithy saying been truer than it is in our time; yet so many people seem willing to accept as the gospel truth, anything that confirms what they already want to believe. This is known in research as “confirmation bias,” which is when we believe what affirms what we want to believe, and reject what we don’t want to believe. However, truth is truth whether it affirms or disconfirms what we want to believe. Contemporary forms of false religions tend to prosper by telling people what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear.

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

Truth, Love & Answered Prayers

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

It is to the faithful flock who remained that John is writing to encourage and assure them that the gospel he preached, and the message by which they were saved, was the truth. He wanted them to know that they could be assured of their salvation through faith in Jesus, which manifested in their love for one another. As you can imagine, some in the church were conflicted. They were struggling to know with certainty that they were right to stay with John and the church, rather than going along with the deception of these persuasive teachers. To the faithful John says, “First of all, you can tell that they are wrong, because they do not live in the light according to the commandments of God, and second, because they are lacking in love.”

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

This Is How We Know

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

Have you ever noticed that there is world of difference between people who call themselves Christians? Of course, we would expect to see significant differences between those who are Christian and those who are not, but in case you haven’t noticed there is a big divide even among those who call themselves Christians (Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, Fundamentalist, Evangelical), and sometimes we look at each other and wonder how a person can do what they do, say what they say, believe what they believe, and still have the audacity to call themselves a Christian.

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

Easter Sermon: “Those Hands”

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

As I meditated upon this account I started thinking about “those hands.” Does anyone know what I’m talking about when I say, “those hands”? I thank God for my mother, and for the hands that fed me and clothed me, and every once in a while, spanked me, but I’m not talking about my mother’s hands today. I’m talking about “those hands.” I thank God for doctors and for the many men and women who have helped me in my times of sickness or during surgery, but I’m not talking about the doctor’s hands today. I’m talking about “those hands.”

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

The Choice: Lawlessness or Righteousness

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

It may be that God is sending the church into our prayer closets for a “time-out,” so that after we have thought about what we have done, we can come out restored, refreshed, revived and empowered and then come together again as the people of God walking, talking, witnessing and testifying in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that if we will yield our will to God’s will, and tarry in His presence, this could be our personal Pentecost, our Upper Room moment, our finest hour, so that we come back together in the power and anointing of God with renewed purpose and focus in a lost and dying world.

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

What We Are and What We Shall Be

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

Apostle John is amazed that God has chosen believers to be called the children of God. It’s the amazement John Newton expressed when he wrote the song, “Amazing Grace.” Newton had been a sailor and a slave trader, but he became a Christian and later worked to outlaw slavery in England. Newton writes, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register

The Blessing of Abiding

By Admin | Date: | Categories: 2020, Basic, Sermon | Tags: , , , , | Sermon Series: 1 John - Knowing The God of Love

Have you ever heard the terms “wishy-washy” or “flip-flopper”? A wishy-washy person is someone who is indecisive; they are easily pulled from one direction to another. A person who flip-flops is also someone who seems to shift positions from one day to the next. As apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:14, these are people who are “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”

This content is for Basic and Basic (Yearly) members only.
Log In Register