Are you old enough to remember the old TV game show called, “To Tell the Truth”? In the game, they would describe a character’s accomplishments and then the contestants would try to guess which person on the panel was the right one. Sometimes people were so amazed at who the real person was!
In today’s message, we are going to discover something really amazing. It was something that King David discovered when he started thinking about building a house for the Lord. He thought, “Surely God wants a beautiful home, because…I have a beautiful home made from cedar”. Nathan encouraged him to dream big because…the Lord was with him.
But then the Sovereign Lord gave Nathan His word. “Did I ask for this? Now let me tell you what my plans are.”
Today, Pastor Steve encourages you not to dream big…but to sit before a sovereign lord and allow him to establish your house. Allow God to remain on His throne. If you think your plans are good, wait until you see God’s.
Phillip stood in the rubble of what used to be his together life. He faced a devastating announcement from his wife that she was leaving him. The preceding months had been a
step-by-step walk, away from the very principles that made his marriage seem rock solid. A betrayal of trust, an uncaring word and the refusal to admit anything was wrong were among the most devastating.
Is it any wonder that God consistently compares our relationship with HIM as a marriage? We walk along insisting everything is just fine, ignoring how God is speaking to us, betraying HIS trust in us, living how exactly how we want. And then we wonder where the relationship went. This morning God calls us back to proper relationship direction.
Have you ever played that old game “guess who”? It’s a simple game with several characters with distinct features, and by the process of elimination, one would throw down the other characters and shout out the identity of your opponent. One would say the phrase “You are…fill in the blank”.
Today, Pastor Johnny Diaz tells us that Jesus, our Lord, played that same game with His disciples.
As believers we look forward to the coming of the age when Christ will be the ruler of our world. But in scripture there is a message that even makes living this life all the more exciting! Even before the second coming, Jesus begins to establish a new kingdom. He told his disciples to go preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Shachah – the hebrew root word for worship, means to bow down, crouch, fall down flat, pay homage to.
It is in the new testament that we find God seeking for a specific kind of worshiper. One who openly and genuinely comes before him with lifted hands of surrender, and hearts available to transform…so that he can make them a new creation.
<a href=”http://lifespringonline.com/sundays/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/unison.jpg”><img title=”unison” src=”http://lifespringonline.com/sundays/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/unison.jpg” alt=”" width=”540″ height=”245″ /></a>Have you read the book of Acts, where it says that the apostles were together in the upper room and they were in one accord, which means in unison, or agreement? Now, that’s pretty surprising when you consider that we are told that there were something like 120 people there! When was the last time you saw 120 people “really” in unison? I mean together body, mind and soul for one purpose.
How wonderful would that be to really see unison. Pastor Steve O’Brien says, “I have dreamed of what that would look like but unfortunately, I have never seen it in reality.” One person put it this way… “It’s always something.” There is always something that brings discord. There is always something that sets us off to running in a direction directly opposing our brother or sister. Let’s read from Romans and Corinthians how this “Mosaic” should look.
Once upon a time Pastor Johnny was at the church on a rainy day. Later that night he walked out and found a man standing next to his car with a tiny umbrella over his head. Soaked to the gills, the man was staring at his back tire.
Immediately Johnny knew what to do, he went out to his car and talked to the man, asking him what he needed. The man said he had all the right equipment except a socket wrench for his tire.
Pastor went to his car and retrieved his own. Both men tried and tried to remove the tire, with no progress at all.
Soon a tow company came by and took care of the problem.
Curious, Pastor Johnny asked the tow truck driver why they couldn’t do the repair themselves. He answered “Your car is a Japanese model, his is an American model. There are two different measuring systems here, your tire wrench doesn’t fit his!”
leaving him. The preceding months had been a
