newlifepembrokepines

Trust God Completely

Series: The Blessed Life 6/17/12 Even in the pit of prison, facing the possibility of execution, Paul was contented. He was blessed. He was not pining away with a woe is me attitude.  He was not worried or anxious about his situation, or what he did or did not have. If he lost everything, as long as He had Christ, he had everything that He needed. His soul was at rest in all circumstances whether he had plenty or he had nothing.  He was content because he trusted God fully with all of his material needs and with his future. In this passage, Paul reveals 3 characteristics of trusting God fully.

Set It On Fire

Series: Experience the Spirit 5/27/12 H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., while preaching on Pentecost, said: “Jesus said set it on fire! If you want the church to have power, Jesus said set it on fire! If you want the church to be what Jesus intended for it to be, Jesus said set it on fire! How we need to be set on fire... The fire of the Spirit can change lives. It can melt those cold and stony hearts and make them receptive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It can take hearts that once burnt with the fire of worldly desire, and consume them with holy fire. The fire of the Spirit can change communities. The Fire of the Spirit can change nations. The fire of the Spirit can change the world. We sing a chorus: Fire, fire, fire, fire fall on me...On the day of Pentecost, let the fire fall on me.  Let that be the cry of our heart for the fire of the Spirit to fall upon us, His church. There are several important ways in which the fire of the Spirit is manifest in and through our lives.

An On-Fire Church, Pt 2

Series: Experience the Spirit 5/24/12 On the Day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit was inaugurated by supernatural signs, the sound of the rushing mighty wind, and cloven tongues as of fire. Wind and Fire are powerful images of God’s presence used throughout Scripture. Today again we are going to look at the fire that rested upon each of them, and I pray that we would have ears to hear, and heart to receive what God is speaking to us about this powerful experience of the fire of purification, the fire of preparation, and the fire of ignition.

An On-Fire Church, Pt 1

Series: Experience the Spirit 5/13/12 On the Day of Pentecost God set the church on fire.  Fire signifies habitation, holiness and heat.  When we seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit we are expressing a desire for God's presence, His purity, and His passion in our lives.

The Wind is Blowing, Pt 3

Series: Experience the Spirit 5/5/12 When the wind is blowing, it makes its presence felt: you hear its sound. When the Spirit of God stirs up a church or an individual or a community, there are palpable evidences of His working. Even the unbeliever becomes aware that something is happening. In Acts 2:5-6, thousands of unbelievers gathered.  They too had heard this sound.  When the Holy Spirit comes the effects can be seen. The sound can be heard.  After the Spirit blew upon the 120 in the upper room, even the hard hearted self-righteous religious leaders took note of them, that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). They saw something different. And the sin darkened pagan world of Greece and Rome identified them as those who turned the world upside down (acts 17:6). When our life is moved upon by the Wind of the Spirit, God does in and through us what would otherwise be impossible, and he makes our witness effective in the world.   As we look at the wind in nature it helps us to see what God can do in and through us by His Spirit.

The Wind is Blowing, Pt 2

Series: Experience the Spirit 4/29/12 Jesus compares the Spirit to wind.  We cannot see it; we don’t know where it goes; we cannot even explain how it works; but we know it is there and we see, feel and experience its effects.  The wind is one of the most common symbols fo the Holy Spirit in the Bible. In both the Testaments, in the original languages, the word "spirit" is also translated as “wind” and “breath.”  The Kingdom of God is about the Spirit at work in us bringing new life, the life God intends for us which was lost through sin, and it is about the Spirit empowering us to live the life God intends for us and to do His work to advance His Kingdom in this world. As we look again at this prominent symbol of the Spirit, we learn three more important parallels between wind and the Holy Spirit that reveal to us the nature and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Wind is Blowing!

Series: Experience the Spirit 4/22/12 When Jesus said, “You must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God,” Nicodemus did not understand. He was confined to think in terms of the material world. How can a man that is old enter his mothers womb? He was confused. So as Jesus explains in v8: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”   Though we often think of the point of this passage as dealing with salvation, it really deals with a much larger truth.  The focus is on the Kingdom of God.  Being born again is the entrance into the Kingdom, but there is much more to the Kingdom of God than salvation. That’s why we see the wind blowing again on the Day of Pentecost, empowering the church to live like Christ and minister as Christ in the world with signs and wonders. And as we consider the parallel between the wind and the Spirit, it reveals to us several important truths about the work of the Spirit.

A Triumphant Church

Series: The Church Jesus is Building 4/15/12 Though it is true that His Church encompasses everyone who believes everywhere in the world, throughout time: it is also true that His Church is being built in specific places, among specific communities of people, throughout the world.  All of the epistles in the New Testament are addressed to churches or leaders of churches located in specific cities, such as: the church of Ephesus, the church of Colossae, or the church of Phillippi.  Today, this message is addressed to the church at Pembroke Pines.  New Life Assembly is the church that Jesus is building in this location at this time. I believe that Jesus is speaking to New Life Assembly today through His words in Matt 16:18-19. This is Jesus’ own guarantee to us.  This is an absolute, 100% guarantee. No fine print. No exclusions. “I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” As I was praying over this passage of Scripture, Jesus spoke to me very clearly two words: invincible and indispensable.

Easter: Celebrate Your Resurrection

The resurrection is not just about something that happened in the distant past. Nor is it about something that will happen in the far future. Paul didn’t say “we shall be raised with Christ,” he said “since then you have been raised with Christ....”  The resurrection is an accomplished action; a victory won.  It has already occurred, and it is a present reality – a reality that all those who have personally trusted in Christ have experienced. And Paul is basically telling the believers at Ephesus, and us as well, that we need to live and act like resurrected people. There was a cartoon in a magazine, that depicted a pastor addressing an overflow congregation on Easter Sunday and asking, “Are you not just a little curious as to what goes on here between Easters?” Well today we want to talk about what goes on between Christ’s resurrection 2000 years ago, and our blessed hope, when Christ shall come and we shall be taken up to spend all eternity with Him..But between those two Easters, or resurrections, we need to live a resurrection life. Resurrection is the key, the guide, the power, the reason for living life now in this world.  The resurrection changes the way we live life on earth.  It makes a difference in our day to day life.

Stewards of the Kingdom

Series: The Church Jesus is Building 3/25/12 We live in the in between time, between the coming of His Kingdom and the completion of His Kingdom.  We are living in a time when a huge cosmic conflict is under way, a battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God, and as these two kingdoms confront one another the battle is for our hearts, for the heart of every person, for my heart and your heart, for the heart of the church.  The victory has been won, but the battle must be fought. The battle that is wagging right now is the battle for Lordship.  Who will reign?  The choice is up to us.  In the garden, through disobedience, Adam and Eve rejected the rule of God, and embraced the rule of Satan. As we today, embrace the rule of God through faith and obedience, Satan and the kingdom of darkness is defeated, and God’s kingdom is established in our lives, and we become instruments to advance His kingdom in the world. This kingdom parable that we are looking at this morning, reveals to us that until Christ’s return to consummate His Kingdom, He has entrusted the affairs of His kingdom here on earth into our hands. We are stewards of His Kingdom, and we need to understand what that means for us, because it will radically transform the way we live, even as the Kingdom of God is about radical transformation.