CCW Podcast

Seldom in history has there been a more urgent need for heroes of strong righteous character for our young men and women than today. We live in a time of great immortality, wickedness, injustice, oppression, and greed, a time when few individuals step up to take a stand for justice and righteousness. Daniel was born into a day like ours, an age of terrible immorality, lawlessness, and violence when there was little justice or righteousness on earth. Yet he rose above it. Despite the temptations and the enticements of a vastly different culture, Daniel stood strong for the Lord, even in the face of scheming, hatred, and certain death penalties. This Sunday we will be looking at Knowing a Powerful God. Daniel could stand strong because he knew his God.

A victorious, conquering life is the longing of every human heart. We all want to overcome the enemies of life, enemies that seek to defeat and destroy us, enemies such as destructive passions, hostility, drug addiction, disease, divorce, financial difficulties, abuse, alcoholism, mental or emotional problems, unemployment, the loss of a loved one, or greed. No matter what the challenge is, whether a person or a trial, each of us longs for the strength to drive away the force that seeks to defeat us.

In the book of Judges, the children of Israel lived in the constant dread of their enemies. Moses and Joshua were dead, Israel was left to drive out their remaining enemies. As long as the enemies remained, Israel would have no peace. Before Israel could fully enjoy the promised land, the people had to drive out the enemies. Because God shows mercy to repentant sinners, we can have victory. This Sunday we will see how we can drive out our enemies and live a life of victory in Jesus. The title of the message is "Knowing a Merciful God."

Every marriage vow that is not kept, every promise that is not fulfilled, every debt that is not paid, every promised prayer that is not prayed all touch on the issue of faithfulness. If there is anything humans are, it is unfaithful. And if there is anything God is, thankfully, it is faithful. This Sunday we will be looking at the difference God’s faithfulness makes in our lives. Join us as me consider "Knowing a Faithful God".

It’s a shame when words that have strong spiritual connotations become part of the slang language of a culture. Take the word “holy,” for instance; and think of all the ways it’s used that detract from its original meaning: “holy cow,” “holy smoke,” “holy mackerel, ”holy roller.” I can’t image what “holy” has to do with most of those words. All i know is that when an important word like “holy” is used as slang, people stop wondering what it means. It’s just an expression. Yet, the Bible clearly defines what it means to be holy for the Christian. Church history reveals that every major revival in the history of the church was sparked by the concept of the holiness of God. What does it mean that God is holy?

A change of leadership always requires adjustments. The children of Israel experienced this with King Uzziah in Isiaiah 6, as we studied a few weeks ago. They also experienced it when Moses died. The book of Joshua begins with this comment. "Moses, my servant has died..." (Joshua 1:2). Joshua is waiting, he is available which makes Him usable. All those years of Joshua’s service and training under Moses had prepared Joshua for leadership of an entire nation. Because Joshua was prepared, teachable, and available and eager to know and serve God, he was used to lead the nation of Israel into the Promised Land. The Lord may have a great task or work for us down the road too. Our responsibility is to spiritually prepare ourselves by getting to know God in an intimate way, so that when God appoints us for a specific role, we are ready. This Sunday we will look at how God encouraged Joshua before he took leadership over the nation Israel. This same encouragement is available to us!

God calls people to serve Him.

Just think who it is that calls us to serve Him: the Lord Himself, the great God and Savior who created the universe and sustains everything throughout the universe. It is the sovereign Lord who actually stoops down and offers us the wonderful privilege of serving Him. This should excite us. It should stir us to seek God’s call, to seek God’s hand upon our lives. Everyone who wants to serve God, everyone who wants God’s call on his or her life must seek to know God through God’s call. This Sunday we will see how God the Enabler called Moses in Exodus 3 and 4.

If you were to ask me, “Pastor Danny, why does CCW exist?” my reply would be, “CCW exists so that you might know God.” And when we know God, we want to share God with everybody we know. In fact, that is the purpose of man’s existence. For us to live our life apart from the knowledge of God is for us to be useless individuals. It does not matter what else you do because it won't matter for eternity’s sake. A person who doesn’t know God has no real meaning in life. We were made for Him as well as by Him, and our purpose is to know Him and spend eternity basking in the blessing of such knowledge. Jeremiah 9:23-24 says “Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord." In this life you may be strong, smart, and rich, but you are nothing unless you know God. God made us that we might know Him and fellowship with Him. When we come into the knowledge of God, we are given the key that unlocks the universe and we know the purpose for our existence. This Sunday, the title of the message is “Knowing God Is Seeing God.”

We'll begin our new series on Knowing the God We Love. Have you ever had a person come along and put his arm around you and say, “Cheer up, things could get worst.” That’s a lot of comfort! One fellow said, “I cheered up and sure enough, things got worst!” These are the things people say when they don’t understand who God is. But there are times when you, as a child of God, will find yourself in difficulty, darkness, discouragement or defeat. Furthermore, you won’t understand why. Things won’t make any sense whatsoever. There will seem to be no rhyme, no reason, no explanation for your trouble. Everything will just seem to go wrong. Then what do you do? This Sunday we will see what Joseph did when every thing when wrong for him. Don’t miss this exciting truth on Knowing God Through Difficult Times.