#S3-044: What Is The Kingdom Of God [Podcast]

The Kingdom of God Series

Today, we begin a brand new series on the Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom? As we drill down into that question, we will see that it’s probably not what you thought it was. Matthew 6:33 is the kingdom verse almost every Christian knows, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” What does this verse mean and how do we apply it to our everyday lives? We trust that this verse will become more real to you than it ever has as this series progresses.

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[Tweet “Gospel means good news but gospel is shorthand for the gospel of the Kingdom of God.”]

#S3-043: Yet More of How You Know You Really Believe God [Podcast]

Take the Test!

We have already covered six tests in the last two podcasts. We covered the baseball bat test. We covered the gender test. We covered the acting test. Then last week, we took the will of God test, the fear test, and the tense test. This week we are going to last test, the forgiveness test. Walking in forgiveness protects your faith. Holding grudges against people dissipate your faith. The Bible speaks a lot about this area and we are going to drill down into it in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Forgiveness is a ‘from the heart lifestyle attitude’ to be exercised without limits.”]

#S3-042: More of How Do You Know You Really Believe God [Podcast]

Take The Test!

We can learn so much from looking at Abraham in the Old Testament. Abraham was fully persuaded and absolutely convinced that God would do what He had promised He would do. He is called the father of faith for a reason and rightly so. And here’s the marvelous truth you can be just like him in faith. But how can we get there? How can we grow our confidence in God? One way is to understand what it means to believe God? Let’s ask the question then. What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to stand on the Word of God? There are some tests you can take. And that’s what we’re talking about in this week’s Light On Life.

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[Tweet “You don’t want to bring God your opinion. Bring Him His Word. Take the will of God test.”]

#S3-040: Why the Awesome Hand of God Brings Blessing [Podcast]

God's Mighty Power and Anointing

Proverbs 21:1 says the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord. That means all the kings, not just the good ones, not just the righteous ones. So, in last week’s podcast, we honed in on the phrase ‘the Hand of the Lord’. What does that mean, ‘the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord?’ The Bible speaks of the ‘hand of the Lord’, the ‘finger of God,’ and the arm of the Lord. But here, in Proverbs twenty-one verse one, we have hand of God, not arm or finger. We saw that the phrase ‘the hand of the Lord’ or the phrase ‘the hand of God’ occurs fifty-five times in the Bible. What is the Hand of Lord? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is it something you want to experience or something you don’t want to experience? And so, we looked at the negative side, the judgment side of the hand of the Lord. We saw it manifest in the case of Israel’s sin. We saw it manifest in the New Testament of Ananias and Saphira and we pretty much determined that we don’t want any of that ‘hand of the Lord’ in judgment business because our God is a consuming fire. There is a positive side to the hand of the Lord. There is a blessing side and as believer’s we want all there is of the blessing which comes from the hand of God in our daily life. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. That’s what we are talking about in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Physical strength is rooted in the spirit of man not the muscles of man. It has spiritual roots.”]

#S3-039: Why the Awesome Hand of God Brings Growth [Podcast]

God's Mighty Power and Anointing

William J. Wolfe has called Abraham Lincoln “one of the greatest theologians of America.” He added that Lincoln’s theology was profound, “not in the technical meaning of producing a system of doctrine, certainly not as the defender of someone denomination, but in the sense of seeing the hand of God intimately in the affairs of nations.” 1 The hand of God is seen among the nations and is seen in the well-known verse in Proverbs 21:1. In today’s Light on Life, we will look at the phrase the ‘hand of the Lord’ and how it applies to the rulers of the nations.

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[Tweet “God’s little pinky finger is enough to knock the devil completely out of commission.”]

#S3-038: Why Diversity Empowers Us Actually to Overcome Racism [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

I heard this story this week from a good friend who has been following this series on ‘How to Overcome Racism’ in the church. And his story illustrates the reason why we need to teach and are teaching on the subject of racism. As it turns out, he was attending a church in Phoenix Arizona and volunteered to work with the Pastor in building up the work of God there. The Pastor was African-American as was most of the congregation. The volunteer was Caucasian. As it turns out, he was passing out fliers in the neighborhood with a young lady from the church who was all working for God. So both of them are going house to house. After a while, they decide to take a break from their labors. They hadn’t eaten anything, so they decide to go to a restaurant. Now mind you, he was not romantically interested in this lady. They were just hungry and wanted to replenish themselves. While they are in the restaurant, he notices someone staring at them to the point where it got to be uncomfortable. He didn’t think about it. He didn’t really put the pieces together. A few months after this, the pastor calls him into his office and tells him he has to leave the church.’Leave the church, why?’, he asks. The pastor tells him, ‘Because, you are demon possessed.’ So this man begins to quote the Word of God all the while confessing the Lordship of Jesus. So he says to the pastor, ‘Does this sound like I’m demon possessed?’ ‘No’, says the pastor but you’re still going to have to leave the church. The church, apparently, didn’t approve of anything interracial. Months later when judgment fell on that church this pastor reconnected with this man and apologized. He had gotten pressure from his deacons and constituents in the church and had caved into their demands. Racism in the church. It exists. There’s no need to hide from it. There’s no need to act like it’s not there. It shouldn’t be there but is there and that’s why we’re doing this series on ‘How to Overcome Racism in the Church’. We’re continuing on with it in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “Diversity is God’s idea. In His magnificent creation, He did not make everything the same.”]

#S3-037: Yet More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. What did he find? asked the cohort. A piece of the truth, the Devil replied. Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth? asked the cohort. No, said the Devil, I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it. 1 There has always been religion on the world. A shiny piece of the truth, not the whole truth just a piece of it. A piece of a truth can lead to a whole lie. Israel had descended from the truth of God’s Word into a miry pit of ‘piece religion.’ They had pieces of the truth but not the whole truth.

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[Tweet “Every person is noble and of royal blood. For from one blood, God made all men to dwell on earth.”]

#S3-036: Even More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

Vivian Malone, a young black woman, enrolled as a student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1963. Federal troops helped ensure her entrance into the school, but Governor George Wallace tried to block her way. When he failed, Malone became the first African-American student ever to graduate from the University of Alabama. Years later, Governor Wallace was taken in his wheelchair to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, where he asked black people to forgive him for his racism, bigotry, and specifically his ill-treatment of Vivian Malone. He asked Malone for forgiveness. Malone said she had forgiven the governor years before. When asked why she had done that, Malone said, “I’m a Christian, and I grew up in the church. I was taught that we are all equal in the eyes of God. I was also taught that you forgive people, no matter what. And that was why I had to do it. I didn’t feel as if I had a choice.” 1 Vivian Malone had it right. All are equal in the eyes of the Lord. We don’t have a choice about walking in love and forgiveness. Obeying the Bible; believing the Word of God just like it says; rising up against the spirit of division with the love of God, is the only real cure to racism.

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[Tweet “No matter how you cut it, prejudice and racism just has an icky feel to it, doesn’t it?”]

#S3-035: More of How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

A visitor to a mental hospital was astonished to note that there were only three guards watching over a hundred dangerous inmates. He asked his guide, “Don’t you fear that these people will overpower the guards and escape?” “No,” was the reply. “Lunatics never unite.” 1 Lunatics never unite, did you hear that? Racism is strife. Racism is lunacy. Lunatics never unite. In last week’s podcast, we drilled down into the word strife and we looked at some of the companions of strife. One of these companions is the word ‘disorder’ in 2 Corinthians 12:20. We are going to take a look at that and more as we continue looking at overcoming racism in the church in this week’s Light on Life.

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[Tweet “This mess we’re seeing in America is Bible Prophecy. Jesus prophesied it, so it’s not going away.”]

#S3:034: How to Overcome Racism in the Church [Podcast]

Overcoming the Spirit of Division

In the 1960’s the church deacon board mobilized lookout squads, and on Sundays, these took turns patrolling the entrances lest any black “troublemakers” try to integrate us. I still have one of the cards the deacons printed up to give to any civil rights demonstrators who might appear: Believing the motives of your group to be ulterior and foreign to the teaching of God’s word, we cannot extend a welcome to you and respectfully request you to leave the premises quietly. Scripture does NOT teach “the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.” He is the Creator of all, but only the Father of those who have been regenerated. If any one of you is here with a sincere desire to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, we shall be glad to deal individually with you from the Word of God. (Unanimous Statement of Pastor and Deacons, August 1960) When Congress passed the Civil Rights Acts, our church founded a private school as a haven for whites, expressly barring all black students. A few “liberal” members left the church in protest when the kindergarten turned down the daughter of a black Bible professor, but most of us approved of the decision. A year later the church board rejected a Carver Bible Institute student for membership (his name was Tony Evans).1. What is racism and how can we overcome it? We’ll be taking a look at this in this new series.

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[Tweet “Racism is a demonic spirit of division who’s aim is to magnify the difference between people.”]

#S3-033: How to Pray Practically for Presidents and Kings [Podcast]

How to Increase the Presence of God in Your Everyday Life

Someone once said these words concerning prayer. “Prayer should be the breath of our breathing. The thought of our thinking. The soul of our feeling. The life of our living. The sound of our hearing. The growth of our growing. Prayer in its magnitude is length without end. Width without bounds. Height without top. Depth without bottom. It is unlimited in its breadth. Exhaust-less in height. Fathomless in depths and infinite in extension.” How can we pray practically for those who are over us politically? We’ll take a look at the subject of prayer and praying and how it applies to our walk with God.

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[Tweet “Few and feeble prayers are always a sign of a low spiritual condition.”]

#S3-032: Why It’s Important to Pray for Government [Podcast]

How to Increase the Presence of God in Your Everyday Life

Tony Campolo, in his book ‘Stories that Feed the Soul’ says these words about the will of God. “Each of us is here by divine appointment. God looks upon each and every person as a parent looks on a growing child, and is filled with specific hopes and plans for each of us. Every person is viewed by God as a unique creation with a special calling. There is something special that God wants to do through you. There is some specific good that God wills for each person who is brought into the world, and if you do not do the good that you were ordained to do, something wonderful will be left undone. Your calling may not be to do something great in the eyes of the world, but what the world calls little is great if God is in it. 1 It’s our part to flow with the will of God. And one of these areas of His will concerns the church praying for government according to 1 Timothy 2:1-4.

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[Tweet “God’s arranging Jesus Second Coming. Our part is to pray in line with His purpose.”]