Archive for the ‘I AM Series’ Category

I Am The Resurrection And The Life

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

I want to declare to you this morning that Jesus Christ is the God of the Come Back.

He is the God of the Resurrection.
Jesus said I am The resurrection and the life.

The story in John where this statement comes from is written and recorded that we might know that it is never too late for God to turn a situation around. Never too late for God to turn your life around.
It’s never too late For God to bring about your comeback.

In this life things die. Sometimes it is time and we ask God to help us through the loss.
But sometimes the enemy comes in to steal away the life, the hope, the blessing, the joy ahead of time.

Jesus said John 10:10 the devil comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy
1 Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

  • Some of you have had things stolen that were not meant to be stolen
  • Some of you have had things killed that were not meant to die so early
  • Some of you have had things destroyed that you were still meant to be enjoying.

But I want to declare to you today, with the authority of God’s word.
It’s time for your come back.
It’s time for you to get back what has been stolen.
To get back on track with God’s purpose and dream for you.

It’s time to get your joy back.
It’s time to get your hope back.
It’s time to get your love back.
it’s time to get your faith back.

  • It’s time to take back what the devil has stolen
  • It’s time to repair what has been destroyed
  • And it’s time to see resurrection in the things that were never meant to die.

He is the God of the all things are possible for those who believe.
He is the God of the nothing is impossible for God.
He is the God of the All things work together for good for those who believe God

Story of Lazarus.

1. Being Close to Jesus does not mean you wont go through any storms.
Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus. He stayed in their home when he wanted a break. They were some of his closest friends. Mary was the one who poured expensive perfume on his head and washed her feet with her hair.
And still this tragedy came into their world. The devil was trying to take Lazarus before his time.
The devil will try it on with you. See what he can get away with. Did you know your were in a fight? Why do you think we need weapons?

2. God’s delay may not mean denial.
 John 11:5-6 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,
Our timing is not his timing. We pray and pray and pray and then we think it is too late. He hasn’t come through. God let me down

3. You have to get the IF out of here.
John 11.21 If you had been here my brother would not have died

  • If I had got that deal my business wouldn’t have gone bankrupt
  • If only he was more loving, my marriage wouldn’t have ended
  • If I crawled more to the boss, I wouldn’t have been made redundant
  • If I had eaten healthier, I wouldn’t have gotten cancer.
  • If only I was younger, It’s too late for me to start again.
  • If only I was older
  • If only I had more money

Too late to change career
Too late to get into property market
Too late to go to uni

You have to get the If out of here.
God is not interested in the IF only- It’s the offspring of doubt and unbelief
He is interested in the But Even Now

John 11:22 But even now, I know God will give you whatever you ask
This is the faith that moves mountains. This is the God kind of faith.
This comes from God’s words. It comes from God.

Allowed Abraham to believe God:
Rom 4:19:21 Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless.

4. Do What you CAN do

  • You have a part to play in your come back

John 11:39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

  • There are always reason why not to believe

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

  • Live By faith and not by sight

John 11:40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

5. Jesus is the God of the Comeback
Your testimony will bring glory to God and reap eternal rewards.

John 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

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I Am The Good Shepherd

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
It is another self disclosure of Jesus for the purpose of helping us understand Just exactly who he is and why he came. In this passage we get another insight into the nature of Jesus. His heart and his purpose.

Good
The word for “good” here is not the usual word for “good” in the New Testament. The usual word is “agathos” which describes moral quality; as in-he’s a good person
Here the word is “kalos” and that is a word that means not only that a person is good, but in his goodness, beautiful. Not as in pretty, but as in delighting, inspiring.

It denotes:
beautiful, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable,

Is this the Jesus you have discovered?
It’s in the following of Jesus that you discover him to be good, gracious, loving and kind.

From afar you may agree with Isaiah who said Isaiah 53:2
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

But up close. As you get to know him. As you walk with him and follow after him you may declare with like the writer of Song Of Solomon  5:10 He’s one in a million. There’s no one quite like him!

There is more than faithfulness in Him; there is more than virtue in Him; there is more than truth in Him; he is all together wonderful.

Shepherd
But he is not just good, and removed, isolated, seperate
He is the good shepherd.

Since the industrial revolution we have moved further away from the agrarian lifestyle that was once common to most people.
When Jesus said he was the good shepherd people knew what a shepherd was and what a shepherd did.

They knew that:

1.  A shepherd knows His sheep intimately.
A shepherd in the days of Jesus was very close to his sheep.
He lived with his sheep. Slept with the sheep.
He never left his sheep unattended or alone.
He knew them all by name.

Jesus knows you very well. He knows everything about you and still loves you.
Matthew 10:30 And even the very hairs on your head are numbered.
That’s means more than he knows how many there are, but that every one has a number. So if you lose a hair he knows that was hair number 13,654.

2. The shepherd desires the very best for His sheep.
They were not just his job, they were his life. He saw them as friends.
He would seek the greenest pastures and still waters, he would protect them and fight for them. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and that more abundantly.”

The sheep would learn to trust the shepherd.

John 10: 3-4 He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Several groups in one pen over night. In morning shepherd would call and begin to walk and his sheep would hear his voice and follow.
They would then here his voice and follow him. Why? Because they had learnt to trust the shepherd.

Do you hear his voice leading you?
If we understood the nature of a shepherd and understood the nature of Jesus, we would also be willing to follow him.

3. The shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
John 10:11,13 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.

1. How much does Jesus care about you? Enough to give His life for you.

The cross always brings a wide variety of responses.
Some see the horrible cruelty of man.
Some see excruciating pain.
Some see a bloody, gory sight.
I see infinite love; love beyond comprehension. The love of my Shepherd for me.

It was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was his love for you and his desire to see you living whole, healed, purposeful lives.

Posted in I AM Series | 101 Comments »

I Am The Light Of The World

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

If your on any journey, through any terrain, in making it to the end safely and successfully, light is really, really important.

Lighthouses are critical for revealing the presence of danger While voyaging on their journey.

Did you know that you also are on a journey?

PAUL IN HIS WRITINGS OFTEN LIKENED THE CHRISTIAN LIFE TO RUNNING A RACE.

A. At the end of his life he wrote to Timothy, “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

B. To the elders of Ephesus, “But none of these things move me, neither do I count my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.” (Acts 20:24)

C. The Letter to the Hebrew Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1)

You have a race marked out for you. We are all running. Your journey has begun. Some of us have been running longer than others. But we are all moving somewhere.

But are you running in the right direction? Or have you drifted off your course? Are you headed for danger or even catastrophe? How can you know?

You see, to discover the course and to stay the path you need to be running in the light.

  • When we are not running in the light, we are likely to lose our way.
  • When we don’t have the light we can assume we are heading in the right direction, that all is well.

It is the light that allows us to adjust our stride and our direction. To see where we are and where we need to go.
In John 8 Jesus says, I am The light of the world…

As with I am the bread of life, he says it in response to a situation. It comes out of a context. Just before he says this He has been dealing with the woman caught in adultery.

Here is a woman who had lost her way. She found herself in a situation far from where, I’m sure, she set out to arrive. I don’t think this was her plan for her life, but circumstances, events, previous relationships, hardships, heartbreaks. It doesn’t say, but she was lost and in the midst of her darkness, and in the midst of her pain, came the light of the world. Jesus Christ. Not to condemn, but to save.

Jesus uses this situation to announce, I am the light of the world, whoever comes to me will never walk in darkness.

You don’t have to commit adultery to have lost your way or drifted off course. Even as believers we can drift from the path that Jesus has set out for us. I don’t think any of us run a perfect race.

If only it was like a running track, with lines and perfectly smooth. Sometimes is, But other times more like a cross country, man v wild, survival spectacle. Easy to lose your course, your sense of direction, when you don’t know where your going, or if your not sure your heading in the right direction..

So how do we stay orientated toward the finish line?
Ps 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Jesus is the Word and is his word is the light of life. Have you ever been in a black out? Ever been caught in the dark in a place you are not familiar with?

In life sometimes we do end up in places that maybe we never planned to be. Headed somewhere and yet now its dark and it’s unfamiliar and we are trying to find the way out.

Maybe in marriage, maybe in our career, maybe our dream or plans.

If you look at the life of King David, you see that at times he found himself in a number of places like that.
>Minding the sheep
>Cave of addullum
>Ziklag
>Absolom
I’m sure it was during these times that David discovered which he later wrote in Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path

When you don’t know what to do, when you don’t know where to go. You can go to God in his word and find a lamp. A lamp unto your feet and a light to your path.

Posted in I AM Series | 153 Comments »

I AM The Bread Of Life

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Seven times in gospel of John, Jesus uses the term “I am” to give us insight into his nature and purpose. Who he is and why he came.

John 6:25-33

Jesus is encouraging these people to live their lives with an eternal perspective. With a God filter on. He is saying there is bread, and then there is bread.

1. Live your life with a God inspired purpose
God’s purpose for you is to work and to produce.  Working is a divine calling. The question is not should we working? The question is, what are we working for and what are we producing?

What’s your purpose, your motivation, what drives you? Do you see what you do as a holy calling?

Even as a Christian we can live our lives at a base level. Where even our relationship with God revolves around meeting and securing our temporal needs and desires. Our focus is on , getting the house or unit, building our business, a new car, our next overseas holiday, the new kitchen, the new bathroom, the new 3d TV, the promotion, the new job.
John 6:26 I tell you, you have been searching for Me, not because you saw the miracles and signs but because you were fed with the loaves and were filled and satisfied.

Jesus never said that having possessions was wrong or that temporal things weren’t important. He had just fed the multitude with an amazing miracle. Were they going to starve to death if he didn’t feed them? No.
Jesus has no problem working miracles to provide for us.

It’s when they are the reason we are following him. Seeking him. When they are the focus of our life and we are living for them. That is what he says is a waste of a life.

John 6:27 (Amplified) Stop toiling and doing and producing for the food that perishes and decomposes [in the using], but strive and work and produce rather for the [lasting] food which endures [continually] unto life eternal; the Son of Man will give (furnish) you that.
Jesus says to focus on the things that matter. That make a difference. That are lasting. That bring real satisfaction. Even into eternity.

As a church we have a calling, a purpose, a job to do, given by God. When you tithe. when you give. When you invest your time. when you serve. When you lead. You are working and producing things that matter for eternity.

We can put our whole focus on our career. Our home. Our next holiday. None of these things will bring you lasting satisfaction. They are like food. You can stuff yourself today and think I could never eat another thing.
But come lunch time or dinner the next day, your hungry again.

2. Look for God’s Approval
Mat 3:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
So often we think our motives for doing things are pure, but we are all driven by our need for approval. To get someone’s nod in our direction.
Even Jesus was given approval by the Father. At baptism Matt 3 and at transfiguration Matt 17 God spoke about his Son.
I encourage you to look for God’s approval. For what pleases the father.

3. Recognise the source of your blessing
Matt 3:32 “I tell you the truth, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it was my Father”

How often do we look at the faucet as the source of our water supply, rather then the dam. We look at our boss, our super, our home, the company we work for and say they are giving us security, or prosperity, or peace.

But it is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth Deut 8:18
But does not want our increases in blessing to mean simply an increase in our standard of living, but an increase in our standard of giving.

When Jesus says I am the bread of life, he is saying I am the substance of real life. I am the source and I am the critical element.

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