CrossPoint Fellowship Messages

God gave Moses his name as YHWH translated the “I Am.” God simply is whatever he needs to be - all powerful, all knowing, all everything - to his people. On this day, we discuss the Father. 

• God the Father is the head of the Trinity and the creator of the universe. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving and all wise. God is the foundation of love and truth. As His creation we are subject to His teaching, guidance and correction revealed through His Son, the Holy Spirit and His Scriptures. 
• Genesis establishes God as the beginning of all things. 
• Who better to lay out the guidelines for a creation than its creator.
• God’s reply to Moses speaks to His self-existence and all sufficiency.
• God is what you need Him to be when you need Him to be it.

In the end, it’s all about love. It’s why his Father sent him to Earth and it’s why he died for us.

• The original Greek for the words translated into "gave" and "loved", are both written in the Aorist Active Indicative. Which indicates actions undefined by time that are present and future occurring. 
• The love of Christ focuses on sacrifice and servitude.
• You are loved by God.
• One of the reasons people fail to believe that they are loved by God is that they haven’t been loved by God’s people.
• We genuinely desire others to experience and be changed by the love of God.

Joy is what we experience when hope is realized. For many, Jesus brought about joy that they didn’t know existed. 

• Jesus is an eternal giver of joy.
• Jesus promises those who experience sorrow that it won't be a permanent condition.
• We experience joy because Jesus went to the cross to solidify our faith, and did so for our joy.
• Joy is a sign that salvation has taken place.
• The cure for discouragement is to find joy that can be had.
• “Happiness is an emotion, whereas joy is more of a state of being. When you are joyful it doesn’t mean you are always giddy or happy, but it means you can appreciate moments of happiness within the bigger context of life.” - Dr. Rebekkah Frunzac

Peace is the gift brought by Jesus for all mankind. We can find peace in Jesus regardless of our circumstances!

• The first way that Jesus' peace is made present in our lives is through the restoration of relationships. 
• Our propensity to sin leads us to hurting each other. 
• When we realize that what’s most important is the connection we have to one another through our commonality of being loved by Christ, that which separates us disappears and is replaced with peace.
• The second thing that comes with Jesus' gift of peace is order and balance. 
• When the world is in Chaos, we are in Christ. 
• Jesus inspires peace in us by assuring our eternal destiny.
• Any peace obtained from worldly sources is temporary.

Hope - that’s what people were looking for with the coming Messiah. It may not have gone down exactly as they had wanted it to. But, hope is what he came to bring and that’s what we have with him today.

• The first great thing about receiving gifts is the anticipation.
• Jesus is our reason to hope in what otherwise feels like a hopeless situation.
• The second great thing about gifts is realizing what you have received.
• This is the hope we have in Jesus - that we can approach Jesus while crippled by sin.
• We can experience grace and forgiveness. And leave his presence forever changed.
• A good present is one that lasts.
• Hope in Christ is hope unwasted.

God is so good to us. But do we want him to be good to others? Jonah was glad that God had been merciful to him but was angry that he had been merciful to the Ninevites. God sends an object lesson to Jonah to show him there’s a real irony in that. 

• We have no right to be angry with God for being God.
• Too many of us get upset because others experience the goodness of God which we so willingly accept ourselves.
• God, slow to anger, seeks to reason with Jonah rather than punish him.
• Too often our anger stems from our affection being directed in the wrong places. 
• We get upset about others receiving blessings that we don’t think they deserve while ignoring the blessings we have received that we didn’t deserve either.

When we run and we repent the next right step is obedience. Jonah does what he should have done in the first place, which was to step outside of his comfort zone in faith.

• There is no running from God's command on your life.
• We have no control over how people respond to the message God calls us to deliver, but that doesn’t lessen our responsibility to deliver it.
• We see that repentance is marked by response and reaction.
• Leaders lead in word and deed.
• God's heart is that all repent and none be punished.

Jonah sank to the bottom of the sea until God sent a giant fish to swallow him up and therefore save his life. God sometimes gives second chances and Jonah was certainly a recipient of that. What should be our response to God in those moments? Is it possible we are drawn closer to God during valleys rather than mountaintops?

• The natural reaction to finding ourselves in the belly of the whale would be to ask for deliverance, but Jonah’s prayer was one of thanksgiving.
• Circumstances often lead us to repentance and renewal. 
• God often uses less than ideal circumstances to solidify our deliverance. 
• Lay your trials at the feet of the Father, follow the feet of the Son, and trust the feat of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus mentioned Jonah while he walked on earth, but who was this man? Over the next 4 weeks, we’ll be diving deep into one chapter at a time from the book of Jonah, learning what we can from his story. This week, we’re looking at how God called Jonah to run to Nineveh to preach to them … but instead he ran in the opposite direction. And away from God himself.

• Pray
• Listen to God
• Don’t run from God
• Care for others

It’s tempting and, some days, easier to “fly solo” and say we can do this life on our own. But all of us can point to times where we’ve not only needed God but also others to stoop down and pick us up. The 11 disciples knew they needed a 12th man to help them build the church Jesus started. The fact is that they needed each other - and his disciples are the same today.

• Major discussions should be approached in accord with other believers through prayer and petition. 
• Sometimes there's no wrong choice.
• Both fame and failure are from the Lord.
• We find success in one another.