The following is a message that was presented at Valley View Church by Pastor Mark Vincent on September 23, 2009. It is titled Do You Trust God?. The sermon is a message from Judges 6-7 about how Gideon grew in faith and courage
If you want to download this message you can go here
The following is a message that was presented at Valley View Church by Pastor Joel Carwile on September 13, 2009. It is titled The Dangers of Spiritual Rigor Mortis. The sermon is a warning from 1 Peter 2:1-3
about five dangers to spiritual life
If you want to download this message you can go here
Rom 1:18-32 speaks of apostasy or rejection of God. This process begins with supression of truth (vs 18-23). There are three distinct stages to this process that,when completed, result in a conscience that is so totally dead to God that it is impossible to bring such a person to repentance. The following video describes this process in detail.
Stage1: Perversion of Normal desires (vs 24-25)
Stage2: Perversion into vile affections (vs 25-27)
Stage3: Anti-God affections (vs 28-32)
One of the great truths of the Christian Faith is that Jesus Christ is both God and Man. How is this possible? We must first understand the nature of man in order to see how some can be God and Man
Man Created in the Image of God.|
Genesis declares that man is created in the image of God. When we read how man was created in the image of God the mystery of the God-Man is solved. God breathed into the first man the breath of life. The word for breath can also mean spirit. A finite puff of spirit from God entered into man. When God breathed the breath of life into mankind He imparted into man a finite copy of His own Spirit. When man became a living soul He had a body of flesh, a spirit that is a finite copy of the Spirit of God, and a soul which was the intersection of spirit and body
God with us.
Immanuel is one of the names for Jesus. It means God with us. Jesus had a body made of human flesh, he had a Spirit as we do, and the Spirit and body intersected in a soul.He is therefore 100% human. What was different about Jesus was that His Spirit was not a copy of the Spirit of God but is in fact the exact same Spirit of God that proceeds from God the Father. This means that Jesus is 100% God because His Spirit is the Spirit of God.
As I write this I am convinced that we are living in the cdays of the great apostasy. In the Scripture we are instructed that prior to the manifestation of the antichrist that there would be a great falling away. I personally know of several people that I never thought would turn away from God turn away from the truth and become involved in moral compromise(”Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; ” 2Th 2:1-3)
The Anatomy of Moral Failure.
Moral failure is never a sudden thing. It always begin with subtle compromises that are dismissed as things of little significance. It begins with things like taking a second look, laughing at something dirty or simply getting too close to the wrong crowd, or giving credibility to ungodly counsel. As the temptations of the world and it’s deceptions begin it’s pull then the next thing is to trust in the flesh. This might take the form of a virtuous young lady who is drawing close to the world thinking she is a big enough girl to handle these temptation or perhaps a young man believing he is strong enough to handle it or a mature person thinking that he or she is devout enough to handle the temptations. If someone as strong as Samson fell and if someone as smart as Solomon could be fooled by sin’s deceptions and if someone so devout as to be a man after God’s own heart like David could be overcome by temptation we are utterly naive to believe that we can manage or master sin through our own power. Either we fight sin or it masters us.
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Lou Engle of The Call has published on his website a series of devotionals called Facedown40. These devotionals are intended to be 40 days of devotionals. The emphasis of these devotionals, which are written by various authors, is toward national repentance. Lou Engle is burdened by the Lord to plead for America to repent, believing that God’s Judgment is imminent. In fact both the increasing pattern of natural disasters, such as hurricanes penetrating 1000 miles inland, and the newly arrived Second Great Depression indicate that God’s Judgment on America has already begun
The parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-8;18-23) is an excellent example of the power of multiplication. Here we find that that the seed of God’s word is sown in four types of hearts. The first three types of hearts do not produce fruit:Those who do not believe, those who do not become rooted and grounded in the word, and those who are not steadfastly devoted in love with God but are distracted by the cares of this world.
The key to bearing fruit is the proper spiritual formation. Things like understanding and claiming God’s promises through confession (Matt 12:33-35; Rom 10:8-10; 2 Peter2:2) will strengthen our faith. Prayer and worship, both personal and public will strengthen our relationship with God. Bible study allows our minds to be rooted and grounded in Scriptural principles. When we do these things, the Word that is planted in our hearts will produce much fruit.
The nature of the production of fruit is that of multiplication. We are told that the good heart produces 30, 60 and 100 times. This has implications manifold for individual success and for reproducing our selves through evangelism.
The charter below should illustrate the power of the principle of multiplication. Let’s say that you start a group with just a few people and you set a goal to reach at least 2-4 people a year per member. Let’s say that we keep 25-50 percent of these. Doubling a year would yield this. The following table assumes a 100% growth (2x) a year. I believe this is a conservative estimate
#Starting members:
2
4
8
16
32
8 (5x )
1st year
4
8
16
32
64
40
2nd year
8
16
32
64
128
200
3rd year
16
32
64
128
256
1,000
4th year
32
64
128
256
512
5,000
5th year
64
128
256
512
1,024
25,000
6th year
128
256
512
1,024
2,048
125,000
7th year
256
512
1,024
2,048
4,096
625,000
8th year
512
1,024
2,048
4,096
8,192
3,125,000
The key to maintaining this is to have people committed to this vision and to constantly train people in proper spiritual formation. This is how the New Testament Church multiplied. They multiplied from 120 people in AD 30 to 1 million people at AD 100 (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=320929)
This averages to a average annual multiplication of about 5x (400% growth a year!!!!) rather than merely doubling. The key to keeping people committed to this vision is the right spiritual formation in people.
The Children of Israel got a lesson in thinking outside of the box when God delivered out of bondage through the hand of Moses. After the ten plagues and after the Passover, when the Israelites reached the shores of the Red Sea, they found themselves in a predicament. The sea was blocking their path in front of them and the Egyptian army was pursuing them from behind. They were in what seemed to be an impossible situation. (Exodus 14)
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We have been having an excellent discussion this month about love In John chapter 15 We are to abide in Christ and particularly His love. We discussed several aspects of abiding in His Love.
To abide in Christ is to abide in love. We are told that Christ loves us with the same love that God loves Christ. What an awesome promise. God loves us with the same infinite love He loves Christ. This means that he wants to bless us with everything He has. A good way to explain the way God loves us is like a man who is in love with a woman. Just as that man wants to give her everything he is and everything he has God does with us. Relationship is the key to all of this. Just as the woman has access to everything that the man owns by being in relationship to him so we have access to everything God has by being in relationship to Christ-by abiding in him.
Read the rest of the article here.
Two New Discipleship Books
June 20, 2010 - 8 Tamuz, 5770I have uploaded two new discipleship booklets that are sure to be helpful in becoming better disciples of Jesus Christ. The first one, Basic Training:Basic Doctrines, is based on Heb 6:1-2. The second one, Basic Training:Basic Practices part 1, is part one of a series of booklets based on 2 peter 1.
Tags: Discipleship
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