EKKLESIA - Love

Notes from Pastor Ken Wilde's sermon - 11/13/05 1st service Capital Christian Center, Meridian, Idaho

I am blessed to be a blessing - the purpose of prosperity

There should be celebration and excitement in the house.
Get it in your spirit!
Tell your sould to bless the Lord
Miracles are instant but some healings take time.
Delight in the word of the Lord.

Job 42:2 - I know that You can do all things, and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted.

Find the purose of God for your life and hang onto it.
Committment to Christ mandates transformation

Rom. 12:2 - Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Matt. 17:2 - His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light.

Transformed = changed

Mark 9:2 -Six days later, three of them did see it. Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes.

2 cor. 3:18 - All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

Metamorphoomai!!
We can be changed, not by our own will, but by receiving change.
By the Holy Spirit we are changed in form and substance
A lot of believers are satisfied with just being saved - we should WANT to be transformed also.
GOD IS LOVE.
We need to be changed into LOVE because God is love.
We should be able to mirror WHO God is

1 John 4:7-8, 11, 20 - 7My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. 8The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love--so you can't know him if you don't love. 11My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. 20 If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see?

We need to be God's representation of God's love - but we misunderstand the meaning of love.
Love can only be given.
Love is an action.
If you NEED love, you need to GIVE love.
When you love unconditionally, you are not enslaved to the people you love - when demanding love you actually become enslaved to the people you are expecting love from tot he degree in which they give you love or not.

John 7:37-38 - On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says."

God is not to blame for our lack of love

Ecc. 11:1 - Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns

The only way to hold onto love is to give it away. Even if no one loves you back, God will fill you up.
I don't need other people's love as much as I need God's love anyway.
You don't pray for love, you ACT upon it.
It's more blessed to give than to receive.

7 Love Languages - we are all different

1. Physical affection - these people see each person as a candidate for a hug.
2. Verbal - always saying "I love you" - these people must speak love and hear it.
3. Serving & Doing - these people are always volunteering, etc.
4. Providing - earning money for family, giving generously, etc.
5. Gift-giving - love to give and receive gifts.
6. Open doors and adventures - love to make memories, vacation, take people on adventures.
7. Quality Time - love to hang out, etc.

The challenge is figuring each person's love language, especially your children's.
We need to crawl out of our comfort zones and show love to others.
If you've been in church a long time, be careful that you don't cut out the new generation by not including hteir songs and by not ministering to them in THEIR love language. Each generation has their own love language.
The church is a place where people should feel welcome - reach out in diversity.
Who else will love people if the church doesn't.

6 ways to release love:
1. SAY IT - become a love waterfall
2. WRITE IT - encouraging notes, letters, etc.
3. DO AN OUTRAGEOUS THING - be extreme, be creative
4. REJOICE & WEEP - rejoice with those who are rejoicing and weep with those who are weeping - if someone is grieving just sit with them - it's not about what you SAY. If someone is rejoicing be happy for them (my words: don't be jealous or envious!!)
5. Learn to love people in THEIR love language
6. Continually encourage others

Love is forever.
People remember love, not sermons.
In the end it's only love that matters.
I don't want to be a dripping faucet of love, but a firehose of love!
Love is not for a rainy day to be saved up - makeup your mind to be an encourager, not a dream killer.
Be careful who you share your dreams with.
It doesn't matter if you complete the dream - but that God gave you one to begin with!
Don't listen to dream killers and don't be one.

Eph. 4:29 - Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

Don't ridicule and mock ideas that God probably gave to someone.
Encouraging people is like a medicine - it saves people from the grave
Be an encourager - a cheerleader!

FAVOR

Home Fellowship Group - Jeremiah Yancy

FAVOR - CONCEIVE - OVERSHADOW

Luke 1:26-38 - A Virgin Conceives 26In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth 27to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin's name, Mary. 28Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:
Good morning!
You're beautiful with God's beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.

29She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. 30But the angel assured her, "Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: 31You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

32He will be great,
be called "Son of the Highest.'
The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David;
33He will rule Jacob's house forever--
no end, ever, to his kingdom."

34Mary said to the angel, "But how? I've never slept with a man."
35The angel answered,
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
will be called Holy, Son of God.

36"And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months' pregnant! 37Nothing, you see, is impossible with God."
38And Mary said,
Yes, I see it all now:
I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me
just as you say.

Then the angel left her.

Favor - kindness upon, support, promote, vindicate them, give advantage, justify

Grace - unmerited favor not earned or deserved

We don't have victory sometimes because we don't believe God has favor on us.
God can only do what you let go of.
God is my vindication.
I AM FAVORED!

EKKLESIA - Church of Proclamation

Sermon preached at Capital Christian Center - 1st service - Pastor Ken

There needs to be a celebration in my heart because God is alive!
God dewells in the praises of His people.
The Holy Spirit wants to demonstrate himself.
God wants to show His power and show himself to people.
Signs and wonders follow those who believe.

Church of Proclamation

1 cor. 1:17-18 - 17God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center--Christ on the Cross--be trivialized into mere words. The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.

There's a biblical connection between the Word and power.

Luke 1:16 - He will turn many sons and daughters of Israel back to their God.

Hebrews 1:3 - This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says--powerful words!
After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God,

Heb. 4:12 - God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.

Power = Authority

Heb. 11:3 - Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.

Ps. 33:9 - Here's why: he spoke and there it was,
in place the moment he said so.

Is. 55:11 - 11So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty--handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.

The word of God is a result of three distinct miracles:

1. INSPIRATION: to man to write the Words of God = God-breathed!
2. PRESERVATION - guarantees the original message arrives at each generation safely. God has protected His Word.
Because the devil can't destroy the actual word of God, he goes after our DEPENDENCE on the Word....makes us believe we don't need it.
3. ILLUMINATION: revelation!

The Word of God is a person

John 1:1-5 - The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
2in readiness for God from day one.

3Everything was created through him;
nothing--not one thing!-
came into being without him.
4What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
5The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.

Ps. 148:5-6 - Praise, oh let them praise the name of GOD-
he spoke the word, and there they were!

6He set them in place
from all time to eternity;
He gave his orders,
and that's it!

2 Pet. 3:5-7 - They conveniently forget that long ago all the galaxies and this very planet were brought into existence out of watery chaos by God's word. 6Then God's word brought the chaos back in a flood that destroyed the world. 7The current galaxies and earth are fuel for the final fire. God is poised, ready to speak his word again, ready to give the signal for the judgment and destruction of the desecrating skeptics.

God's word is still breaing for thin the universe.
All creation knows the voice of God.

The Word of God is a document.
The Word of God is a life-source.
I have the spoken word living in me.

1 pet. 1:23 - Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God's living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself!

The Bible is a record of God's speaking voice when you read and say scripture you're saying what God is saying!
We should respond to the Wrod a certain way

Luke 1:31-33, 35, 37 -
31You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

32He will be great,
be called "Son of the Highest.'
The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David;
33He will rule Jacob's house forever--
no end, ever, to his kingdom."
35The angel answered,
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
will be called Holy, Son of God.
37Nothing, you see, is impossible with God."


No Rhema from God is without dynamic - every word of God has power.
We need to believe God's word MORE than we do
When we speak, our words become alive.

Ps. 107:20 - He spoke the word that healed you,
that pulled you back from the brink of death.

God uses the Spirit and the Word together to create life.

Ways to receive the Word:
1. Be constanly exposed to the Word
We're programmed by the world because we're constantly exposed to the world.
2. We must hear the word of God - get in a position of hearing the Word.
3. We must receive the word- make yourself available.
Faith doesn't need to understand and figure things out - when we hear we don't need the luxury of comprehension.
4. Confess the Word of God.
5. We must OBEY the Word.
Our role then becomes proclamation for the Word of God - God needs a voice

rom. 10:14-15 - But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? 15And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims,
A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
telling all the good things of God!

We have been tasked to be the voice of God.
Hearing the Word of God builds faith

1 cor. 2:1-5 - You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's master stroke, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. 2I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did--Jesus crucified.
3I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate--I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it-- 4and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, 5which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.

Acts. 5:42 - Every day they were in the Temple and homes, teaching and preaching Christ Jesus, not letting up for a minute.

2 Tim. 4:1-2 - I can't impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, 2so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple.

James 3 - When You Open Your Mouth 1Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. 2And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
3A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. 4A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. 5A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything--or destroy it!
It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. 6A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7This is scary: You can tame a tiger, 8but you can't tame a tongue--it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. 9With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. 10Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
My friends, this can't go on. 11A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? 12Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

Live Well, Live Wisely 13Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. 14Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. 15It's the furthest thing from wisdom--it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. 16Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.
17Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. 18You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Cleanse the church by taking more control of our tongue - maybe the church would have more authority - ONLY EDIFY!

Lord, lay a deeper channel of the Word in my life.

We need a cleansing. Listen to your spirit regarding when you need more of the word.