Momentum Church Podcast

Dr Martin Lloyd Jones said - “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. What Would Jesus, Think, Say, Do?

We can all make the mistake that this Christian walk is about us, about our lives and our dreams and our desires but Revelation Chapter 13 verse 8 shows us that before anything was ever created there was a book and this book was called the "Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." for those of us that have come to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour we are in His book.

The book of Isaiah in chapter 35 tells us that the excellency of God will strengthen weak hands, firm feeble knees and encourage fearful-hearted. Ps Bec shares from her testimony and how God will bring us through every battle, sometimes quickly but often times slowly remembering that God has given us every tool we need to walk this journey of faith.

Our God is immutable, that is, He cannot change, He is who He is and God desires to display His glory to all of creation. God doesn't do this out of ego or self-centredness but because His goodness, His love, His mercy, His compassionate can do nothing but radiate from our amazing God because He is God.

Reverend Billy Graham once said: “When we come to Christ, we’re no longer the most important person in the world to us; Christ is. Instead of living only for ourselves, we have a higher goal: to live for Jesus.” - The life of a Christian is one devoted to walking the journey of discovery of the glory of God and it starts with a revelation that our God is infinite.

This Resurrection Sunday we look at three stories about Centurions that are written in the Bible. The first sees a response of faith, the third sees a response of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles and the second we see a response from this hardened Centurion with "Truly this Man was the Son of God"

As Christians we are called, and we are called not because we’re special but because we are ordinary people just like all the other ordinary people God has called through the ages. Whenever God wants to do something extraordinary in Gods good creation, God turns to ordinary people, throughout history God has asked ordinary people to do the extraordinary on His behalf.

When is comes to sowing we need to be purposeful according to the word of God and to make sure our giving is Valuable, our giving is Holy and our giving is Worship. The enemy will always try and steal our seed not our harvest and we often settle with what we have instead of believing for God's harvest over our lives.

The Practice of the Presence of God is a book of conversations and letters from Brother Lawrence a 17th Century monk who devoted his life to seeking God. He said "I know that for the right practice of it, the heart must be empty of all other things; because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they are sent? Romans chapter 10 poses us these four questions and then give us the answer. As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot be accepted at all. Grace is not self effort, grace is not self improvement, grace is not self esteem in fact grace is not self anything, it is soemthing that is a free gift that is given by God. The gospel of grace is all about what has been done for us; the fruit of the gospel is what is being done in us.

The Apostle John was not always known as an Apostle of love, he was flawed, he was brash and presumptuous, he wanted to call down fire from heaven. John developed a relationship with Jesus over his lifetime that saw him change from a firebrand to on fire for Jesus.

Jesus in His time on earth made many trips to a town called Bethany. During some of these visits Jesus showed us how to come into the presence of God through sitting at His feet to coming into the presence in humility and worship, in His presence there is fullness of joy and His blessing.

The Story of King Hezekiah and Sennacherib is one that highlights the incredible mercy and grace of God. Hezekiah had hit a low point in his faith, a testing like he had never experienced before, he even writes to Isaiah can you pray to the Lord your God. Despite this in 2 Kings 19:34 God declares that because of His own sake and for the promise He made King David that God would come through and help Hezekiah.

Today is Vison Sunday and we believe God has some incredible things in store for His people who are called by His Name.

In Luke Chapter 11 the disciples decided to ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, they had already been sent out to minister and had seen many miracles and yet here they are asking about prayer. The disciples knew that there still needed to be change in their lives and pray is a foundational key. Change isn't change until it's changed.

There are consequences to our actions, there’s a link between what we do and what happens afterwards and there are consequences to the sin that we do and the bad decisions we make even if we are forgiven. The aim of the consequences of forgiven sin is not to settle the accounts demanded by retributed justice but to show the evil of sin and that God does not take sin lightly. We must not equate forgiveness with the absence of painful impact, being forgiven does not remove the consequences of our actions.

There are many gifts we will all receive this Christmas, some wanted, some re-gifted, some delightful and some rejected but at that very first Christmas a gift was given to humanity that we may not fully appreciate until we meet Him in glory. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16.

We all sing the famous carol written by Charles Wesley called "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" but his original line was actually Hark! How all the Welkin Rings, Glory to the King of Kings. Charles had a desire that all men and woman should know the Gospel so he wrote hymns over 6000 in fact to share the Peace of God to all.

This Christmas Season let's lay aside the hustle and bustle of busyness to pause and reflect that our Saviour, the Messiah, Jesus was born into this earth. Isaiah Chapter 9 tells us: "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."