05/19/24 Sermon Recap: Sermon, Memes & Notes

Don’t build your life with things that won’t remain.

What are you building your life with: gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw that will all get burned away when revealed by fire? Some of us will someday stand before the Lord with nothing to give Him, because we built our lives for ourselves.

1 Corinthians 3:10: By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

Are you building your life on Him and the kingdom, or on this world?

Practice using your Spiritual Gifts.

We are all called to share our faith, even if we don’t “have the gift of evangelism”. When we came to Jesus Christ by accepting Him as our Lord, and were filled with the Holy Spirit, we were already given the fullness of the Spirit. We already have all the Spiritual Gifts in our toolbelt, we just need to learn how to choose and access them. It can be years after you come to the Lord for you to “know your gifts”, you need to try them all, and need to get good at moving in them all. As you practice in them, you will see certain ones rise up in you, and you will be able to use those to train and equip others.

Ephesians 4:11-13: So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11:There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Are you practicing using the Gifts of the Spirit?

As we align with the Spirit, our faith rises to a level that God can use us to heal others.

In scripture, whenever people came to Jesus, they were ALL healed. Jesus came to destroy Satan’s works, not to use His tools (for example, sickness). No one expected Lazarus to come forth after being dead for days, but Jesus was not governed by other people’s faith. To the degree that we align with the Spirit, our faith can arise to a level where God can also use His Spirit in us to heal others.

Is your faith aligned with the Holy Spirit so that healing can flow through you?

True faith produces fruit in our lives.

True faith always produces something in our lives. It has to come out somehow. Signs will follow those that BELIEVE, not those that confess Christianity. Mark 16:17-18: And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Do you have true faith, BELIEF, or are you just confessing Christianity?

The HOW is as important as the WHAT.

When evangelizing, HOW you say things, is just as important as WHAT you say. We need to meet people where they are at, after all, why should we expect unbelievers to act like believers? Every human is worthy of honor. The assignment, then, is to find God in pre-believers, to look at every person as a future family member.

Are you treating each person you meet as a future family member?

Prophecy reveals the heart of the Father.

Prophecy is just revealing the heart of the Father to His sons and daughters. It allows us to peek in to a word, a sentence, or even a chapter of the book of our life. What if your assignment here on earth is to be a friend that God can share His secrets with?

Are you open to hearing the heart of God for his children?