Grace Assembly Sermon Series

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Pastor John reminds us the Lord wants us to navigate through all of our circumstances - even what we may think is a failure.

The Lord wants to help you right where you are. After all, if Jesus raised the dead, can't He help with your circumstances? Do you believe that the Jesus you serve can (fill in the blank)? Then why not live what you believe?

The Lord took this service to again and again and again tell us He wants us to turn to Him, to take steps towards Him, to run to Him. He's drawn near to us and waits for our response.

Continuing to share from the Lord messages intended  to help us fight distractions, Pastor John focuses on two  things to simplify our lives. Looking at John 9:31-43 & 10:1-16, we must learn to hear His voice and follow His voice.

Pastor John starts by encouraging us to be aware of how we steward our time. He goes over the math again and reminds us we need to consider the biblical way of living - to honor God with what we do and make sure we spend time with Him.

He then goes on to challenge us when we struggle with the little things that mean so much to us and we get hung up on.  Instead, going to the Lord's words to Job, Pastor John asks us if we are the Lord's counselor or is He ours?

Pastor John wants to prepare us for upcoming trials. This requires us to be fearless - to trust in the Lord in all areas of our life.

Instead, he points out that God has given us the antidote for every possible fear and insecurity. It is love.

The youth who attended this year's National Fine Arts event opened today's service with the human video they presented there.

Service then takes an unexpected turn when the Lord waits and has us wait as He reaches out to restore the lost, restore those who turned from Him, and restore marriages. He doesn’t just heal our physical wounds but our emotional and relationship ones as well.

Pastor John wants to prepare us for what is coming. Not that he knows the specifics but simply that the Lord wants to reveal Himself in a magnificent way.

While the hundreds of voices we hear may be legitimate, they may only serve to  make us bad or make us busy. So don't let our perceptions deceive us. Instead, we need to accept God's truths, God's will, and God's perception. For even in Jesus' time, when there was revival (John 6:16-71), people quickly fell away when the Lord asked them to commit. Don't let that happen to you - God is on your side.

Pastor John reminds us that we are  in a different culture now. He doesn't want us to be deceived or fall away.

Instead Pastor John wants us to latch onto the following phrase as it  will serve us well - Pure pleasure of His presence. If we're not finding pleasure in the presence of God, we will fall away.

The desire of Pastor John's heart is that we will have a desire for Him. Ultimately, may we be as fond of Him as He is for us.

Angel Delgado and Alex Cleghorn then share about their trip to Africa and some of what the Lord did there.

This week we were separated, only temporarily, from a couple of loved ones. A few others are very sick. Even so, today's service starts with a slew of testimonies of God's faithfulness and love.

But Pastor John reminds us that the Word says:

"Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His godly ones (Psalms 116:15)."

But we are not abandoned! The Spirit Himself helps us in our weakness.

Returning to 1 Timothy 6:3-21, Pastor John reminds us that money is a wonderful servant but a wicked master. We shouldn't equate godliness to the amount of stuff we have. While wealth itself is not a sin, regardless of our temporal treasures, we need to focus all of our resources on creating heavenly wealth.