EveryManComplete Podcast

The Apostle Paul came to God three different times asking that He would remove some sort of thorn in the flesh that was causing him great turmoil. God responded that His grace would be sufficient. He didn't remove it from Paul's life but offered His grace instead. God's grace consisted of His favor and provision. God's favor and provision don't always remove the things in our lives that we desire to be gone but instead, He offers to us a personal presence that strengthens us beyond our imaginations. 
In learning this lesson I believe Paul was able to confidently say in Philippians that he desired to suffer the loss of all things that he could gain Christ. He desired the sufficiency of Christ's presence and provision of strength, comfort, and peace.  God has promised us a greater grace as we humble ourselves with the sufficiency of His presence. 
IS YOUR GRACE SUFFICIENT?

There is no such thing as a magic trick, it's nothing more than an illusion. An illusion is a misleading image. It's something that deceives or misleads intellectually causing a misinterpretation of the actual nature of something.
When we allow our comfort and convenience to take priority we allow the illusion of consumerism to lead us away from what is real. When those in the church begin to prefer comfort and convenience they will be drawn away to a consumer-oriented faith, which is not a faith at all but only an illusion. 
When we allow our freedom in Christ to become an opportunity for our flesh we are given a warning in Galatians 5 that we should be aware and take care that we are not consumed by one another.  Church conflict and church splits come about by consumer-oriented people who have become disappointed by their selfish illusion of church expectations. 
The mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God and does not subject itself to the righteousness of God; it's not even able to do so.  And when church-going people have their minds set on the flesh they attempt to create their own righteousness. 
When we become consumers we can no longer be the called. No one can serve two masters, he will either hate the one and love the other or he will hold to one and despise the other. We cannot serve God and mammon. Consumers cannot please God. 

Is the church really making any lasting impact on the lives of the people we have been placed in the midst of? The prophet Jeremiah stated that God's people were crying out peace, peace but there was no real peace. God was proclaiming to His people that they had been superficial in their efforts of bringing healing to the communities that they were in. 
Our government's welfare programs only offer sustained dependency to the people who are searching for assistance to get out of poverty.  The government's resources along with their accumulated debt do not allow them to make any lasting change on the people's lives they say they are assisting. 
The church as a whole finds itself in the very same position that our government finds itself sustaining dependency to those we claim to be serving. With most of our expenses going to salaries and church buildings we have very little to make any lasting difference to the lives we say that we are serving.
2021 leaves us with many unanswered questions as to how things are going to change but God's ways are not our ways and we must position our hearts to be obedient to what God has called us to, to seek the welfare of the city God has placed us for in their welfare we will discover our own.

Who is your God? With all that is going on and continues to go on in our world in the year 2020 who is your God. We quickly discover the foundations of our beliefs of who God is when life becomes filled with all kinds of uncertainty. 
The people of Israel after being set free from bondage in Egypt found themselves traveling through an unforgiving wilderness of pain and hardship. God said He took them through that wilderness for the purpose of humbling them. He said He was testing them to see what was in their hearts whether they would remain faithful. 
Could it be that God has allowed the church to go through 2020 for the purpose of humbling us? Could it be He desires for us to see that our hearts are not as faithful as we profess that they are? Could it be He is revealing the lack of reverence we have for Him? 
Much of the church's reverence today is nothing more than tradition that we have learned by repetition. If we are to face whatever comes our way in the year 2021 with confidence and joyful expectation we must repent and hunger and thirst for the living God that sent His Son to die on the cross for a sinful people.

The problem with laziness is that we get pretty efficient in redefining what success or faithfulness looks like. In order to continue being unfaithful or lazy, we must redefine everything that is attached to evangelism.
We want microwave results when it comes to our evangelism efforts. When we hold some ministry outreach in our communities we are laser-focused on those who seem to be more receptive to our being there. But yet God has called us to the least of these. 
The parable of the sower illustrates this when it speaks to the different types of soil and how the good soil brings forth fruit. That's what we are looking for is the low hanging fruit. We forget that those in the parable are all loved by God and even the good soil people had to have had people spend time with them in order to get their hearts to a place of acceptability. 
We have lost touch with the culture around us due to our inability to love them enough to build an honest relationship with them.  Love cost us. Love is work. But love never fails. 
We need to stop being lazy with our evangelism efforts and love people into the kingdom. 

The gospel is the power of God to salvation. Evangelism is the calling for every Christian to proclaim the message of the gospel. The power doesn't come from our ability or persuasiveness but by the Holy Spirit who works through our hearts of humility and reverence.
No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws Him. I believe that is an important factor to remember. It is our responsibility to build a relationship with the lost around us and share enough love and grace with them that we can be available to share the gospel with them as the Holy Spirit leads. 
Evangelism is laborious! We tend to focus on the harvest in order to see someone saved and join our church without realizing there is an even greater need for those who need planting, cultivating, and watering. We forget those that do get saved have had someone or maybe several other faithful servants that have loved them and labored over their lives before we got there.
Evangelism is not about building our church.  God builds the church. When we focus on building instead of evangelizing we have stepped into an area that does not belong to us. 
Love your neighbor! Build that relationship! Watch to see what God is doing and be faithful when He calls you to get involved. 

There is a thief prowling about your life attempting to steal the gift of life that God has designed for you. That thief is named "unforgiveness."  The Lord's Prayer comes to God asking that He forgive us just as we have been forgiven. It's not that God's forgiveness isn't available but many times we do not experience the freedom it brings because we are still holding onto the unforgiveness of others.
We selfishly hold onto our justifications and reasoning for not forgiving but in the eyes of God there is no room for justification.  He has promised us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God cannot lie but we may never experience the freedom that comes from His forgiveness when we are allowing our hearts to hold onto unforgiveness. 
Much of the discord and barriers we experience in our relationships is due to us holding onto our unforgiveness. We experience physical and emotional issues due to the bitterness that builds a stronghold in our lives due to unforgiveness. 
Could it be that we have never really known the forgiveness that God has offered to us through Jesus Christ. Could it be our lack of understanding of the price that was paid in order that we could have the forgiveness of God is keeping us from being able to offer true forgiveness? 
This Christmas season give the best gift of all; forgiveness!

What is the Father doing?  There is so much going on in the world today and many in the church are asking the question, what is God doing in our present circumstances? 
Most churches are desperately trying to get things back to where they used to be but are not really desiring to spend the time to see ask what the Lord truly is attempting to do through His church and His people.
God has told us that He has plans for us. Plans for a future and of hope. But He calls us to seek Him with all of our hearts with the promise that if we do so we will find Him. And in finding Him we will discover the plans that He has for us. 
Jesus while He walked here on the earth stated that He could do only what He saw the Father doing. Now He had the capability to do anything for He was God in the flesh but He came to accomplish that which the Father had sent Him to do. That required Him to seek with all of His heart to see what the Father was doing! 
So as followers of Jesus Christ is our calling any different? Will we continue to be busy doing things that we feel are important and convenient or will we seek out that which the Father has prepared for us to do?  Faithfulness is not a matter of being busy doing good things but doing what God has called us to do. 
This time of disruption is a time for us to seek the Father with all of our hearts that we may be found faithful in the time ahead. The needs are great but even Jesus did not fix every problem or heal every sickness, but He did what He saw the Father doing.
No one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him. It is our responsibility to seek what the Father is doing in the lives around us that we might be instruments of reconciliation and salvation.

Happy Thanksgiving from GospelLife360!
Here we are in the year 2020 Thanksgiving Day and this year has been filled with so much pain and suffering. We are still seeing the painful results of the COVID virus all across the world. Through this pandemic, we have seen the effects that stress and fear can create within our society as a whole.
Even this Thanksgiving season where many families are unable to gather around the same table to express what they are thankful for to one another; we can still give thanks.
Please listen to this Podcast to hear God's word as it expresses to us the foundation of our thanksgiving. It's the result of our gratitude for His eternal blessings of salvation freely given to us. Our temporary blessings are just that temporary. We should be thankful for them but if they are no longer there it seems our hearts of thanksgiving go with them. 
Rediscover the foundation of true thanksgiving in God's great salvation through Jesus Christ.

In our informational age, we can Google just about anything and find thousands if not millions of points of reference. We can get lost in the fog of what the world calls understanding, knowledge, and wisdom. How do we distinguish the true voices of wisdom from all the noise?
In our attempts to share the gospel message have we interjected a little of our worldly wisdom in order for it to make more sense to the listening world? The Bible calls that adulterating the word or peddling the word of God.
The Apostle Paul stated on a few occasions that he did not come in the superiority of speech or worldly wisdom but in the power of the gospel. He did not want men's salvation to rest upon the wisdom of men but on the power of God.
Our everyday living requires wisdom. We can receive instruction or acquire understanding but without the wisdom to know how to apply those things in our present-day circumstances, we will not discover the full results of what we think we know.
God is the giver of this heavenly wisdom that comes straight from HIs heart to ours. This communication must come from a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and revealed through the Holy Spirit living within us. It is not acquired through human effort.
THIS IS THE GOSPEL!