Sermon Notes & Videos
2021-10-29 | Genesis 23-25 | Bicycles Don’t Have Reverse
Have you ever been tempted to go backwards? You know, when you’ve chosen to do what was right and it still ain’t working out. It stinks when good decisions seem to yield bad results. What then? “Must you go back to, from where you came?” It’s certainly tempting to reverse your decisions when you’re sure you did things God’s way and it turned out to be a big mess. “No good deed goes unpunished” is the comical euphemism often inserted in these situations.
Nevertheless, it’s also abundantly clear that going in reverse is NOT the answer. I’d like you to consider your faith-walk like riding a bicycle. It can be wobbly at times, and truly, steering takes a million micro-corrections to get you where you want to go. But, bicycles don’t have reverse. Sometimes you just have to keep going forward until you find the right spot to make bigger turns. But don’t be mistaken, you are always going forward. I really like how Abraham said it, as he instructed his servant on finding a wife for Isaac. I’ll paraphrase it for you. “Go find a wife for my son, but under no circumstances are you to take him back to, from where I came. That life is over and all of God’s promises are right in front of us.”
2021-10-22 | Genesis 18-22 | Preconceived Notions
Preconceived Notions: having the foreknowledge or awareness of something before having any evidence of that something being real. It’s why Y’shua spoke in parables, and it’s what you are privy to when it comes to what Yahweh is doing in the earth. And let me add, it’s not simply a privilege; it’s an obligation. “Surely God does nothing without first revealing it to His servants the prophets.” Of course, He can do anything He wishes, He just chooses to include us in His plans as His human initiative partners. He wants us involved and we ought to take that responsibility seriously. The Holy Scriptures are rife with proof that Yahweh has chosen to operate this way, right from the beginning; “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?”
Y’shua continued His Father’s ways; “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” I think there is no better time in history, than right now, to learn what this means and how to discern what God is doing in the earth. The ongoing problem is that God’s people have a history of killing the prophets. Back then it was with swords and stones. Today, it is the church that keeps them in stone-cold silence!
2021-10-15 | Genesis 12-17 | You Have it in You
Have your ever heard the phrase that begins with the words, “You have it in you…?” Then, you fill in the blank to make your point. In a portion of scripture spanning six chapters, containing so many important moments in Biblical history, all focused on the life of Abraham, all relevant to you as a Christian, what jumped off the pages to me this week was this one responsibility. “You have it in you to bless all the families of the earth.”
In an era that features an outright assault on the family, what better time in history could there be to take on this duty? It’s a mandate that should not be overlooked.
And may I add one further job description for serious disciples, again considering the times in which we live. “You have it in you to execute God’s judgment on anyone who wishes to destroy the family.” You have it in you!
2021-10-08 | Genesis 6-11 | Cataclysmic Intervention
Are you contemplating the significance of the days in which we live? Given the events of the last 18 months and counting, you could be questioning things more now than at any other time in your life.
As history rushes headlong into what Christendom calls the last days, do you understand what Y’shua meant when He said, “just as in the days of Noah”? Speaking to His disciples, Y’shua pointed to how Noah was warned of Yahweh’s impending Cataclysmic Intervention in His creation, aimed at cleansing evil from the face the earth.
Anyone who has ever been to Church service, even a handful of times, has heard of Noah and his famous Ark. Why did Yahweh command him to build it? What exactly was going on at the time of Noah, and what was Y’shua warning about our future? Make no mistake my dear brothers and sisters, while Yahweh promised to never bring destruction through water again, He did promise another Cataclysmic Intervention. “Just as in the days of Noah” and the “Days of Lot”…”so will it be when the Son of Man is revealed.”
2021-10-01 | Genesis 1-6 | The Image of God
Yahweh, our Creator, desired that we know Him so He created humanity “in His Image”. First He created Adam, who we now know had both male and female DNA. All men do! Then He “extracted” the woman from Adam so we could see a man and a woman separately with all their distinct characteristics. He looked at them and said, “This is My image.” To further clarify, He commanded that they marry and be fruitful and multiply, thus completing the family—the perfect image of the Creator Himself. We learn that God is a Divine Family, the Father, Spirit and Son, and so His expressed image needed to be represented by all the distinct parts of a family. Thus, the human family, a father as the husband, a mother as the wife, and the child as the fruit of their love.
When you contemplate the existential crisis of our day, you can simplify it with two opposing viewpoints. One stance says men and women are distinct and definitive, marriage is a holy union between them, and that children are the blessed fruit of that union. The other stance says gender is a social construct and there has never been a distinction between a man and a woman, nor is gender limited to male or female. A person is born as one gender, both genders, or neither. Marriage is unnecessary, or if desired, may take place between any genders or no genders at all. And of course, the unborn child is the fruit of nothing, is not even human or alive, and has no rights to live, other than what the person carrying that lump of cells permits.
Think about it! One side believes in the family, as God presents it to us, as His image. The other has rejected all aspects of the family, and by inference has rejected the image of God Himself. In other words, there is no God! Could opposing positions be any more contrary to one another?
The destruction of the family is the enemy’s chief strategy and the restoration of the family to the image of our Creator is the most important work on earth today. When we do that, only then will the Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
2021-09-24 | Y’shua in the Feasts of the Yahweh
“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.” (Genesis 1:14) It’s easy to miss. The cycles of the sun and the moon are given for seasons, for days and for years. But what signs are we looking for? Y’shua rebuked the religious leaders of the day “…Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:3) What signs should we be discerning? “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night…We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (I Thessalonians 5:1-2, 4-6)
What signs should we be watching for?
I believe that the cycle of Biblical Feast Days is exactly what Yahweh, Y’shua, and Paul is referring to. They are God’s prophetic calendar for mankind’s history. However, if you are not familiar with their prophetic significance, you won’t be able to tell what time it is. So, this week we will take a journey through the Feasts of the Lord, so you may all synchronize your watches!