City Harvest Church, OC Audio Podcast | Derek Dunn

Church, God commands us to wake up! This week we focused on the Church at Sardis - the Dead Church! While this church had a reputation for being “alive”, they were in fact dead; they had no compassion, no warmth, no movement! Church, we must not allow our hearts to grow cold and our spirits to die down! We must be overcomers and continue fighting the good fight of faith!

Our series, Letters to the 7 Churches, just keeps getting better and better! This week we looked at the church in Thyatira - The Corrupted Church. They had become tolerant of sin and allowed mixture to come in! However, God also set apart a remnant; to them He promised that they would rule with Him! So let us be that remnant, holding on and remaining faithful!

Jesus offers us intimacy with Him! This week we continued with part 3 of our series by looking at The Church of Pergamos - The Compromising Church. As believers, we must not allow mixture to enter our churches! Jesus calls us to be set apart and repent if we’ve allowed ourselves to be compromised. In this manner, we’ll be able to reach a deeper level of intimacy, acceptance, and favor from Him!

Christianity is not for the faint hearted! As we continued with part 2 of our new series, we looked at the Church at Smyrna - The Persecuted Church. While many of us may face persecution for our faith, we know that God is in control of our circumstances, that He is our strength, and that He will see us through!

God wants and desires to send real revival! This Sunday we started our new series and looked at the first of the 7 letters written to the churches in the book of Revelation. The first letter was written to the Church at Ephesus. While they had many strengths, they had one significant weakness - they had left their first love. They had drifted away and their love had grown cold. We must ask ourselves: “Has my love for God drifted?” “Has my level of passion dwindled?” If so, we must not be like the church at Ephesus! We must remember our first love, what it was like when Jesus first became real in our lives. We must repent from our sin of allowing ourselves to fall out of love. Lastly, we must return to God.

The hope of the world is the church! In the times we are living in, revival will be the key to our survival! Revival is increased spiritual interest, a restoration of vital signs, the resuscitation of a person! We will know we are in revival because we will produce 5 distinct sounds! We will have an insatiable hunger for the things of God, with our voices we will pray without ceasing, we will proclaim the name of Christ everywhere we go, we will live a life in freedom, and exude a joy that cannot be contained!

We must learn the art of praise! Praising God requires that we use our voice to magnify God, to glorify God, and acknowledge His might! This allows us to grow our faith and understand that our faith is not in what we can believe for but rather in whom we can believe in! When we grow our faith, the size of our problem or situation becomes nothing compared to the size of our God! Praise is not only a way for us to grow our faith, it is also a spiritual weapon that prepares the way for God’s supernatural intervention! It is in praise that we can receive our victory and God’s blessing! Therefore, as a remnant people, we must build a throne room for God, praise Him constantly, and grow our faith.

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Faith! Throughout the Bible, when God wanted to change a city or a nation He would touch someone’s mouth! However, in this time and in this season the enemy is trying to wear down the church in order for us to lose our voice! If we lose our voice, lawlessness will abide and the church will be confined. Therefore, we must continue to use our voice! It is through our voice that we can overcome because our voice activates our faith and it is through faith that we will have the victory!

Mature sons and daughters (the Huios) are the faithful ones - those who are led by the Spirit of God! Because they are led by the Spirit, they will not fall away or go back to what is familiar when their faithfulness is tested. Instead, they will be the established Remnant of God on Earth! In today’s day, we must choose to be the Remnant! Remnants are those who will stand and be faithful regardless of the adversity, the challenges, or the setbacks! A remnant understands that faithfulness is the key to overcoming, the key to achieving the purpose and calling of God, and the key to being a true Huios. God is measuring the church right now to identify His remnants, to see who will endure through crises and come out stronger!

Ps. Troy brought a word in season as he broke down the 5 kinds of sons we find in the Bible. Nepios sons are likened to infants, who find it difficult to resolve conflict and are easily provoked. Padion sons are further along in their walk but lack consistency. Teknon sons walk in spiritual authority but they lack empathy and operate in immature love. Neanisko sons are brave, sharp, and able to operate in their giftings but do not carry the Father’s Heart. Lastly, there is the Huios son - a mature son and representative of the Father here on Earth. The world is crying out for the mature sons of God to rise up! As a church, we must be the Huios sons and daughters who are willing to endure hardship, willing to lay down our lives to push back the kingdom of darkness and be the Father’s representatives here on Earth!