God's Priority for Us

   

Does God want us to be happy?  Is our happiness God's priority?  Listen as Pastor Rick considers this.

Gilbert Carter - God's Grace

 

Gilbert Carter visited our church and shared his powerful testimony.  What a blessing!

The Internal God

I urge you to reject the lie from Satan in the beginning that we can be gods within ourselves.  I also urge you to go beyond the place where you merely believe in an External God “out there,” but come to know Him as the INTERNAL God “in here.”  Get to know the Eternal One Internally where you are His and He is yours; where your spirit is intertwined with His Spirit; where you are never alone, but Christ liveth in you!  Live with the constant undercurrent of joy that sustains you no matter what the circumstance and that daily refines you to be more like Him!

2017 Advent Sunday 3 - The Joy of Shepherds

I am sure they never forgot that night.  I wonder if any of them ever went to hear him teach after he grew up.  I wonder if any of them were there the day He gave his life.  I wonder if any of them saw Him after His resurrection.  I wonder if any of them were there the day of Pentecost.  These things we may never know.  But this thing we do know, that night they met the source of all Hope, all Peace, and all Joy.  They went away from that place with great joy glorifying God.

Easter Sunday - 2017

 

Easter Sunday at Water of Life Fellowship is always special.  It is impossible to capture in a recording or even in pictures. You will have to be sure to join us sometime! Maybe next year?  Plan to join us if you can! Here is a snippet from the day:

    Isn’t it spectacular to realize the rejoicing of their hearts that day?  You have heard echoes of that same rejoicing still ringing in our hearts over two thousand years later!  It is the song of the redeemed!  “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up (Matthew 4:16).”  Jesus is the light of the world and He shattered the darkness of sin, death, and despair that wonderful Easter morning so long ago.  He shattered it forever!  “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).”
    Jesus came, “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:78-79).”
    “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men (John 1:3-4).”
    “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).”
    “…ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9).”
    Is your heart bound in darkness today?  You can be set free by His light! Is your life captive to despair?  You can discover His Joy!  Is death fearsome to you?  You need no longer fear.  He has conquered death too!  This is why we no longer sit in darkness but rejoice in the light!  “…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7).”  This is the Gospel – the Good News – of the Cross and the Resurrection: that we can leave the darkness and walk in the light with Him.  Today, we celebrate His Light and Life!  He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
 

Lessons from Lazarus

Some might think it strange that this miracle – probably the most powerful testament of the Christ and one of the strongest anchor points for faith in His own soon-coming resurrection – was excluded from those other narratives.  However, a reasonable case has been made by scholars that Lazarus was still alive during the writing of the other Gospels and the writers did not want to stir up the Jews against him afresh; but by the time John writes, it is believed that Lazarus had passed away (for the second time) and was no longer in any danger by the telling of the story.  We should also keep in mind that John writes his entire Gospel with the intent that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. He tells us this intent for his book in Chapter 20:31 – “31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”  This story of Lazarus is one of his anchoring arguments for that purpose.

We don’t know when this event happened, but it is reasonably believed to be close to the time of Passover at which time Jesus will be crucified.  Let us turn to the story now.  Today, I will read and expound as we go.

 Thanks to the Lumo Project & FreeBibleImages.org for this image!

ADVENT 2016 - Joy

Listen as Pastor Rick continues the Advent series with this sermon about joy.

"...through it all they were sustained by a deep abiding everlasting joy.  It is joy to know that sin is forgiven.  It is joy to no longer bear the shame and guilt of sin.  It is joy to hear the whisper of His voice in our spirit.  It is a joy to be saved by the Savior.  It is a joy to be restored to our Maker.  It is joy to live no longer for earth but for Him.  It is joy to look beyond any suffering here we might bear to Him Who loves us, who gave himself for us, and one day will come back to earth in person to restore us to everlasting joy."

ADVENT 2016 - The Hope of Forgiveness

Listen as Pastor Rick begins the Advent Series with a sermon about forgiveness.

What is your greatest hope? I would contend that your greatest hope is to be loved completely by someone who understands you, accepts you as you are, and forgives you when you are in need of it.  Someone who loves you with abandon without reservation.  May I introduce you to Jesus the Christ – the God Who loves you today just that way?  He designed you, created you, sustains you, and understands you.  He accepts you as you are when you come to him with a humble penitent heart.  He forgives every sin and wipes away every stain if you will only let Him in.  He loves you with abandon and without reservation as he demonstrated that first Christmas long ago when his tiny helpless form was wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in the hay. 

This is the hope we proclaim this first Sunday of Advent: the hope of forgiveness: the hope of being among the living forgiven!  Are you living in this hope today?  Are you forgiven?  Have you opened the door of your heart to the Christ: JESUS who came to save you from your sins?  He stands at the door knocking.  Won’t you let forgiveness in?

PLEASING

Oswald Chambers said, “I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, and to maintain it without any cessation. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please Him and be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how noble?”

What does it mean to please God?  Pastor Rick tackles this question in an effort to help us align our perspective with God's reality instead of many of the misperceptions we may have about the answer. 

THE PURPOSE OF SUFFERING

"My brothers and sisters in Christ, reckon it and count it all cheerfulness, calm delight, and exceeding great joy when you are surrounded and engulfed by many many many tests, adversities, and trials that prove you and test you; knowing and understanding that this testing and trying of your trustworthiness, faith, moral conviction, consistency, and entire reliance upon Christ for salvation accomplishes cheerful endurance, constancy, and patience.  Then hold onto that cheerful endurance and be held by it so that its accomplishing work may come to full maturity so that you also may reach full maturity and be complete and entire without blemish, lacking nothing: a completed masterpiece of God." James 1:2-4 (Pastor Rick's Version)