CCW Podcast

This Sunday in our Study of Revelation we will begin to look at the Seven Churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3. Each of the messages to the churches have a three-fold meaning: primary, personal, and prophetic. The primary association has a local and direct bearing upon the church to which it was written. The personal application is for us today, as their message also applies to every Christian. Then, each church individually and the churches combined set forth prophetic anticipation as we look forward to the Rapture of the Church. The problems that took place in these churches are the same problems that the Church faces today. The first church addressed is the church at Ephesus. It was the first one on the pastoral route but also the most prominent church of the seven. This was the mother church out of whose ministry the other six churches were started (Acts 19:10). The contents of this letter form a pattern for the letters to the other six churches. This Sunday we will be looking at how the Church at Ephesus lost its first love.

This Sunday we begin our journey through The Book of Revelation. The word "revelation" means to uncover and unveil. It means to pull back a covering or a veil that is hiding something. It is a revelation of truth that man could never discover for himself. God Himself has drawn back the curtains and revealed mysteries to us and promised a special blessing to all who read and follow it. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book" Revelation 22:7.

This book is simply the great "Revealing" of Jesus Christ to his servants or followers. There are some things that God wants us to know, some things that we could never know if we were left on our own. It means that God cares about us, that He loves us enough to reveal these secrets to us. God cares so much about us that He has revealed a whole book of events to us. What are these events? They are events and truths that describe the victorious Christ, describe our current state and lay out a roadmap for the future events, particularly the end of the world.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." This Sunday's message is entitled, "The Protection of Prayer" as we look at the last phrase found in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:13. This prayer has a negative request - lead us not into temptation, and a positive request - deliver us from the evil one. These statements bring to our attention several thoughts. First of all, no one is above falling. No one is above yielding to temptation in its multiple forms. Secondly, we need to know how to pray for spiritual protection for ourselves. This Sunday, we'll look at two actions we must take in order to have victory over temptation.

Christians are characterized as those who forgive. In Matthew 5:43, we find that the traditional Jewish rabbis taught, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy." But Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the sons of the Father" (Matthew 5:44,45). It is characteristic of saints to forgive. We are forgiven, are we not? Have we so soon forgotten what has been forgiven us that we would not forgive someone else? When we fail to forgive someone else, we set ourselves up as a higher court than God because God infinitely forgives. This Sunday we will see why and how we are to forgive others.

We have been studying the Disciples' Prayer at great length, and we now come to verse 12 in Matthew 6, "And forgive us our debts"; and then a footnote on verse 12 in verses 14 and 15 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." These three verses, consisting of the statement in the prayer and the very important, yet very misunderstood footnote in verses 14 and 15, are going to be the subject of our study this Sunday. In this message, we will get close to the place where we all live. We will look at how we are to deal with sin in our lives as well as how we deal with the matter of sin in our relationships with others. God can do an amazing work of cleansing and freedom in our hearts, if are willing to hear Him!