Come Alive (Audio)

As we continue our journey with Christ, we may expect our trials and tests to get easier. Unfortunately, the reality is, things usually get harder. The temptations that trip us up as new believers may no longer be an issue, but God often allows us to face new challenges that will test us to our limits and beyond. As Pastor Mark explains in today’s message, if we don’t face these types of tests, we can’t expect to grow. As we confront these battles and hardships, our vulnerability and incompetence will be revealed and we will have the opportunity to lean into God’s power and place our trust more fully in Him.

We can pray till our lips are blue and our knees are calloused, but are we really willing to surrender ourselves over to God’s will? His ways generally look a lot different than our ways. We may struggle with doubt, wondering why He’s not answering our prayers, but as Pastor Mark reminds us in today’s message, when we bow to His will and allow Him to come in and work, we will start to experience spiritual growth. It will often be painful, and we may have to let go of our own dreams and aspirations, but the purpose He has in store is so much greater and it will be completely worth it in the end.

The Jebusites were a harmful stronghold that weakened Israel as a nation and held on to the land that would eventually become the site for God’s temple. Israel had taken the land that God promised them, but instead of following through and taking all of the land and getting rid of every remnant of the enemy, their doubts stood in the way and the Jebusites held them back for hundreds of years. As Pastor Mark explains in today’s message, we often have similar spiritual strongholds in our own hearts. We have been brought into a state of spiritual abundance, but instead of thriving, we allow some little sin to harbor in our hearts.

Are you making Jesus wait for you? If you've never fully surrendered to His authority over your life, He is waiting for you. King David waited years for the nation of Israel to acknowledge God's hand upon his life. They eventually yielded to God and were the better for it as a nation. David served them as a great king. God's authority and sovereignty ruled over them well and they prospered under his leadership. If you haven't surrendered to God's authority yet, what are you waiting for? What are you making Jesus wait for? In today's message, Pastor Mark will spur us on to commit ourselves to the authority of Jesus Christ.

In 2 Samuel 5, the nation of Israel gathered together to David at Hebron to officially accept and receive him as king over the entire nation of Israel. Though they knew that God had appointed him, and given him the throne, they still waited years before acknowledging his rightful place over them. What about you? Who has the final say in your life? Who is your king? Sometimes we set ourselves up as the final authority for ourselves, but if we've accepted Christ as our Savior, Jesus alone deserves to sit on the throne of our hearts. In today's message, Pastor Mark will encourage us to stop procrastinating, and finally make Jesus our Lord!

Have you ever had an idea about God and His nature, and then realize you were wrong once you opened up the Bible and started reading? The enemy is always actively trying to pervert and distort the image of God in our minds, and this is why we need to continually wash over our minds and renew them in the Word of God daily. We get enough negative and false ideas from our own flesh, the influence of the world and those around us. So the only way to stay grounded in the truth is to wash away those lies with the truth of God's Word. If you're not regularly making time to read God's Word, change that bad habit today!

In our text today, Pastor Mark will be teaching us not to be like Ishbosheth. Ishbosheth was weak because he trusted in man rather than trusting in God. Many times we grow impatient waiting on the Lord to answer our prayers and we take matters into our own hands by trusting in ourselves, or another person. This is the worst thing we can possibly do, because we are told to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and to not lean on our own understanding. We are to acknowledge God in all our way's and He will direct our paths the Bible says. We can count on God to work all things out for our good if we love Him.

God is a gentlemen and He doesn't force anyone to love Him and follow Him. If God were to make us love Him and serve Him then that wouldn't be love at all. Love is a choice that needs to be made, this is why God gave Adam and Eve all the fruit from every tree to eat from, except that one tree. God placed a choice before Adam and Eve because without having the choice to obey Him, they couldn't choose to love Him. God doesn't make robots, He desires us to have free will and decisions to make. Today, Pastor Mark will be encouraging us to choose to love God by obeying Him completely. Don't hold onto any sin, it's not worth it.

As Christians, we are the Bride of Christ and God made the institution of marriage a symbol of the union between His Church and Him being the Groom. This is the main reason marriage is so viciously attacked by the world and the Devil, because it's a picture that should point people to the relationship they could have with Jesus. The Devil tries to take everything God has said is good, and try to pervert it and twist it up and make it bad. We need to take marriage seriously and we need to keep marriage sacred! The world will try to change marriage into everything other then what God has intended it to be.

As Pastor Mark continues his teaching series through the book of 2 Samuel, he'll be reminding us that we can't serve two masters, we will either hate the one and love the other. It simply doesn't work trying to follow the Lord, and also trying to fulfill your own plans and lusts of your flesh. Jesus wants to sit on the throne of your heart and be Lord and Master over your entire life. If you're not willing to give your whole self over to the Lord, you simply haven't surrendered yourself over to His Lordship. Jesus doesn't allow any middle ground, He say's very clearly in Revelation that those who are lukewarm, He will vomit out of His mouth.