Sunday Re Cap (19th August 2012)

Mark & Linda Drake

The Mystery of Christ Living in and Through us

1 John 1:19

Confidence or Condemnation before God?

Do we read our Bible correctly?

The single greatest problem that many Christians make; pulling sentences out of context from the Bible and building a belief around it. We would never do that with any other literature or reading. If we read the text above out of context we will be condemned. If we keep reading the next verse, we understand what the Apostle John was really saying.

The Commandment is simple: put your faith and trust in the Name of Jesus Christ. The result would be Christ Himself would live inside us and would lead us from the inside out. We would then no longer need a list of do's and don'ts; because the Lawgiver Himself, Jesus Christ, would be living and leading us from the inside out. This is a crucial truth as it would either lead us into condemnation or confidence before God.

Paul said that the Old Covenant was a ministry of condemnation which was a list of rules that never gave us the power to obey it.

One of the questions we are going to look at is; is God ever going to be angry or unhappy with us if we live under the New Covenant? Is it ever possible for God to be disappointed with us?

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:1. There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus....this is an absolute statement and not just a possibility. Then why is CONDEMNATION the most common experience of most believers worldwide? There is only one possibility; that we do NOT believe what the early believers believed in. We need to be fully aware of "The Mystery of Christ Living in and Through us" to have CONFIDENCE before God!

Come for The Seminar on the 23-25th Aug at Rivers of Water Bkt Mertajam to fully discover "The Mystery of Christ Living in and Through Us" starting at 8pm.

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Sunday Re Cap (12th Aug 2012)

PASSION. ENCOUNTER. OBEDIENCE.

Acts 9:1-19

PAUL
Paul was zealous - he approved of the killing of Stephen and was on his way to bust up the Damascus church.
But it wasn't just a zeal for killing - when he was confronted on the road to Damascus, he asked "Who are you LORD?"...he was zealous to really know (and serve God), and he recognized his hand, even if he didn’t understand what he was doing at the time.
Paul was used to calling the shots...but when Jesus said "GO, and I'll TELL you what to DO.", he went.
Those around him heard the sound, saw the light, but couldn't understand...sometimes, when God speaks to you, even those closest to you won't get it.

ANANIAS
Ananias was scared, but obedient...with his whole heart ("BROTHER Saul").

JACOB - from "jake the fake" to "contender WITH God", all from one encounter. 

DAVID - a filthy sinner...prepared to admit his sin and cry out for mercy when confronted by God ("YOU ARE THE MAN").

PETER - A big mouth...and a big heart. Went from failure to leader of the church when he met Jesus at his weakest point.

SAUL - from persecutor to proselytizer, Saul wanted God more than his own agenda, and turned 180 degrees when he met Jesus face to face.

• You need passion to begin, but passion itself is not enough.
• You need to encounter God, face to face...but even that is not enough.
• It's when your passion leads to an encounter, and that encounter changes your life, and God calls you to radical obedience...that's when the rubber hits the road.

Aaron and Alison Boots

Passion. Encounter. Obedience.

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By Rev Aaron Boots
5ONE4 Foursquare Church
Perth, WA.
Australia

Sunday Re Cap (29th July 2012)

Jesus Name Made This Man Strong-Part 3

Acts 3:1-16

1. The content of the word;

2. The content of the wonder;

3. The relationship between the wonder and the word of God preached—is it a pattern that God wants us to use today?

1. The Content of the Word (Acts 3:13-15)

a. Five Exaltations of Jesus

b. Four Charges against the People

2. The Content of the Wonder

In verse 12 "Why do you stare at us as though by our power or piety we had made him walk?". It was not Peter’s power or piety that healed this man.

First, notice that the faith to heal is "through Jesus"—that is Jesus gave it. It came through the working of Jesus. The living Jesus did something in Peter, and Peter knew it was the day. Jesus gave the faith to heal, and Peter acted on it.

But the first part of v 16 says, "Jesus' name, by faith in his name has made this man strong." So here the healing agent is said to be the NAME of Jesus.

So if we put the two statements together (16b: faith has given the man health; and 16a: the name of Jesus has made him strong) the point becomes this: the faith Jesus gives to heal is effective because it is faith in the NAME of Jesus; and, in fact, the NAME of Jesus is bringing about healing.

How is that? Because the name of Jesus stands for the reality of Jesus. His name stands for who he is. When I speak in his NAME, with the faith that HE has now given me for your healing, HE is acting not me."

So who stretches out his hand to heal? God the Father. And through what means? Through the NAME of his holy servant Jesus. The Father is the ultimate source of all healing. Through Jesus the Father does his healing will. Jesus, in agreement with the Father's will, gives the faith to Peter. Peter recognizes that this is the time for the man to be healed. And by the faith given him, he speaks the healing in Jesus' name. And God gets the praise.

3. The Relationship between Wonder and Word

The relationship between the wonder and the word of God preached is that the wonder attracts the crowd to hear the word (3:11) and the wonder testifies to the living truth of the exalted Jesus in the word. In other words, the wonder is a powerful pointer to the truth that Jesus is alive and that he is all Peter says He is.

We believe that one of the forms this pattern (of the HOLY SPIRIT through Peter) takes today is in the exercise of the spiritual gifts given to the church according to 1 Corinthians 12—including gifts of faith, healings, and miracles (1 Corinthians 12:9–10). The church is called to desire the spiritual gifts:

1 Cor 12:31; 1 Cor 14:1 The gifts are not an end in themselves, they testify and point to Jesus!

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