We can change our behaviors, but we cannot change our hearts. We are all born into sin. We can do everything right, we can be moral upstanding people, but what we cannot do is bathe our own hearts in the blood of Jesus. It is not our works of righteousness that will save us, it takes the blood. Jesus desires a relationship with each of us. He went to each disciple individually and ask them to follow Him. Peter knew the heights of victory and the lows of defeat. One of those highs is part of our text this morning as he preached on the day of Pentecost where he ask the crowd to save themselves from the untoward generation. When Moses lead Israel out of Egypt, God told them to follow the cloud. There were millions of people leaving Egypt. If they had just followed the crowd, they would have been lost. If we want to get where God wants us to be, we cannot follow the crowd. Some people in church will look around at others and let that influence their worship. Peer pressure is real. Studies have shown that many people will go along with the crowd rather than choose what they know is right. The crowd can also make us think that God does not know where we are. Jesus knows where we are.

We can change our behaviors, but we cannot change our hearts. We are all born into sin. We can do everything right, we can be moral upstanding people, but what we cannot do is bathe our own hearts in the blood of Jesus. It is not our works of righteousness that will save us, it takes the blood. Jesus desires a relationship with each of us. He went to each disciple individually and ask them to follow Him. Peter knew the heights of victory and the lows of defeat. One of those highs is part of our text this morning as he preached on the day of Pentecost where he ask the crowd to save themselves from the untoward generation. When Moses lead Israel out of Egypt, God told them to follow the cloud. There were millions of people leaving Egypt. If they had just followed the crowd, they would have been lost. If we want to get where God wants us to be, we cannot follow the crowd. Some people in church will look around at others and let that influence their worship. Peer pressure is real. Studies have shown that many people will go along with the crowd rather than choose what they know is right. The crowd can also make us think that God does not know where we are. Jesus knows where we are.

No matter what our culture says, we must define our lives by the bible. The bible tells us that we must love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. The heart speaks of emotions, the soul speaks of the possibility of sin, the mind is about our thinking and finally the strength is the things that build us up or bring us down. Our text refers to connections. These are the relationships, links and associations we have. We must understand that we become that with which we fellowship. Be that a person, what we read, what we see, or what we hear with our ears. Those influences will either build us up for tear us down. Paul says bad company produces bad manners. There are three areas to concern in this area: toxic people, toxic words and toxic influences. Bro. Hughes concludes his Detoxing the Soul series tonight by discussing Toxic Connections.

No matter what our culture says, we must define our lives by the bible. The bible tells us that we must love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. The heart speaks of emotions, the soul speaks of the possibility of sin, the mind is about our thinking and finally the strength is the things that build us up or bring us down. Our text refers to connections. These are the relationships, links and associations we have. We must understand that we become that with which we fellowship. Be that a person, what we read, what we see, or what we hear with our ears. Those influences will either build us up for tear us down. Paul says bad company produces bad manners. There are three areas to concern in this area: toxic people, toxic words and toxic influences. Bro. Hughes concludes his Detoxing the Soul series tonight by discussing Toxic Connections.

We live in an hour when perversity and evil are given free reign. Our world and our country has turned away from God. Too many people have learned to function without a touch from God. Even though there are great problems in our world, there are great promises waiting. God’s promises are greater than the world’s problems. God is poised to do His greatest works. Our text takes place in a low place in Israel's history. They were a defeated people with a bleak outlook. God rose up a prophet with a message that everything would change; all that was needed was a little rain. The rain spoke of God’s blessing to His people. Israel understood the importance of rain. Palestine lays on the edge of the Mediterranean plain. Often they would only receive sporadic rain. The rain would come in seasons. The most important of these seasons was the latter rain. It was this rain that had the largest affect on their crops and therefore their livelihood. Therefore this proclamation from Zechariah was a clear message to God’s people. Bro. Hughes has established this same principle as our theme this year. We are asking for God’s rain for Greater Life Church.

We live in an hour when perversity and evil are given free reign. Our world and our country has turned away from God. Too many people have learned to function without a touch from God. Even though there are great problems in our world, there are great promises waiting. God’s promises are greater than the world’s problems. God is poised to do His greatest works. Our text takes place in a low place in Israel's history. They were a defeated people with a bleak outlook. God rose up a prophet with a message that everything would change; all that was needed was a little rain. The rain spoke of God’s blessing to His people. Israel understood the importance of rain. Palestine lays on the edge of the Mediterranean plain. Often they would only receive sporadic rain. The rain would come in seasons. The most important of these seasons was the latter rain. It was this rain that had the largest affect on their crops and therefore their livelihood. Therefore this proclamation from Zechariah was a clear message to God’s people. Bro. Hughes has established this same principle as our theme this year. We are asking for God’s rain for Greater Life Church.

Toxic emotions are a large problem in our world. Our emotions are not wrong; they are God given. Every emotion that we have is a direct relations of the creation of God. The problem is that our world has changed these emotions from the original creation. Love and Hate are the primary of these. Research indicate that these emotions can cause the body to stop fighting disease. When our emotions get out of check, they can cause us physical problems. Emotions have a purpose. Love is the strongest of all emotions. It has the power to heal and change. It is love that gives us the ability to let others affect our life. Sometimes we are hurt by relationships with people that we love. This can lead to negative emotions of depression and anger. All of us can take control of our emotions, but our world does not encourage this. Fear has a purpose, but if we allow it to be changed into something that can do us great harm. We have become adrenaline addicts and taught our brains to crave the thrill of dangerous situations. This applies to not only roller coasters and haunted house rides, but into our relationships. Our brains know better, but we override them. We let things in our life that have the potential to destroy us get in. Things do not just happen. There is a series of events that lead to things. Cheating in a marriage relationship does not happen with out a series of events taking place. The brain has checks and balances to protect us from these choices, but too often the we over ride that conscious. Related to fear is anger. Anger produces a more powerful reaction than fear. When we let fear become our source of excitement, it is too easy for anger to take its place. Fear and anger can cause us to do and say things that we would never have imagined. Our flesh will lead us down a path we should not go. God has forgiven us, and erased the record of our sin, but our flesh has not. It keeps a record to remind us of our failure. We can control what our brain does if we want to. Children cannot control their emotions. The world encourages us to continue to live as if we are children. Some people are addicted to the drama and conflict that not controlling their emotions brings. We can change our lives. We do not have to live with these toxic emotions. Our life does not have to be toxic. God’s desire is that we have the best life possible. The secret is joy.

Toxic emotions are a large problem in our world. Our emotions are not wrong; they are God given. Every emotion that we have is a direct relations of the creation of God. The problem is that our world has changed these emotions from the original creation. Love and Hate are the primary of these. Research indicate that these emotions can cause the body to stop fighting disease. When our emotions get out of check, they can cause us physical problems. Emotions have a purpose. Love is the strongest of all emotions. It has the power to heal and change. It is love that gives us the ability to let others affect our life. Sometimes we are hurt by relationships with people that we love. This can lead to negative emotions of depression and anger. All of us can take control of our emotions, but our world does not encourage this. Fear has a purpose, but if we allow it to be changed into something that can do us great harm. We have become adrenaline addicts and taught our brains to crave the thrill of dangerous situations. This applies to not only roller coasters and haunted house rides, but into our relationships. Our brains know better, but we override them. We let things in our life that have the potential to destroy us get in. Things do not just happen. There is a series of events that lead to things. Cheating in a marriage relationship does not happen with out a series of events taking place. The brain has checks and balances to protect us from these choices, but too often the we over ride that conscious. Related to fear is anger. Anger produces a more powerful reaction than fear. When we let fear become our source of excitement, it is too easy for anger to take its place. Fear and anger can cause us to do and say things that we would never have imagined. Our flesh will lead us down a path we should not go. God has forgiven us, and erased the record of our sin, but our flesh has not. It keeps a record to remind us of our failure. We can control what our brain does if we want to. Children cannot control their emotions. The world encourages us to continue to live as if we are children. Some people are addicted to the drama and conflict that not controlling their emotions brings. We can change our lives. We do not have to live with these toxic emotions. Our life does not have to be toxic. God’s desire is that we have the best life possible. The secret is joy.

We read in this letter from Paul to the church he founded in Corinth a reminder of the things on which the church was established. He did not rely on eloquent speech or a feel good message. He reminds them that the church was founded on the power of the gospel of Jesus. All of Paul’s preaching was founded on who Jesus was and what He came to do. If we preach Jesus we will preach that God wanted fellowship with Him. God wanted to redeem us, so He established a plan for salvation. The one true God was revealed in Jesus. Jesus’ death paid the price for our sins, but if He had simply died, that would have been an incomplete story. So the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel message. When we preach Jesus, we must also preach the message of Acts 2:38. Paul tells us in Galatians, that we are crucified with Christ. We must live a life that is new and in pursuit of the holiness of God. This changes everything about how e approach life. It changes our speech, our relationships and our actions. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. After saying all that Paul explains that he was not trying to change them with his abilities, but with the message of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we make faith more difficult than it needs to be. The power of faith is in the object to that faith. It is not about a man, a building, or a program; it is about God. Followers of Buddha have great faith. They come, they pray, but at the end of the day, their faith is in a man what is dead and buried. Our faith is in a living God. We all have faith. Most of us have a car. We have faith that turning the key in the ignition will start the car. We have faith in that car. Most of us cannot explain how the car works, we just know that it works. The same is true in the spiritual realm. We can put our faith in the power of God and trust that it will just work. In Matthew 17 we read the story of Jesus healing a man’s son who was possessed of demons. The disciples who were not able to do it ask Jesus why. He explained that if they had faith even as a mustard seed, they could have heal the man. Seeds are small, but big things can come from them. The amount of our faith may be small, but the effect of it can be huge. If we step out by faith, we can turn our life around. We must put our faith in the power of God.

We read in this letter from Paul to the church he founded in Corinth a reminder of the things on which the church was established. He did not rely on eloquent speech or a feel good message. He reminds them that the church was founded on the power of the gospel of Jesus. All of Paul’s preaching was founded on who Jesus was and what He came to do. If we preach Jesus we will preach that God wanted fellowship with Him. God wanted to redeem us, so He established a plan for salvation. The one true God was revealed in Jesus. Jesus’ death paid the price for our sins, but if He had simply died, that would have been an incomplete story. So the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel message. When we preach Jesus, we must also preach the message of Acts 2:38. Paul tells us in Galatians, that we are crucified with Christ. We must live a life that is new and in pursuit of the holiness of God. This changes everything about how e approach life. It changes our speech, our relationships and our actions. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. After saying all that Paul explains that he was not trying to change them with his abilities, but with the message of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we make faith more difficult than it needs to be. The power of faith is in the object to that faith. It is not about a man, a building, or a program; it is about God. Followers of Buddha have great faith. They come, they pray, but at the end of the day, their faith is in a man what is dead and buried. Our faith is in a living God. We all have faith. Most of us have a car. We have faith that turning the key in the ignition will start the car. We have faith in that car. Most of us cannot explain how the car works, we just know that it works. The same is true in the spiritual realm. We can put our faith in the power of God and trust that it will just work. In Matthew 17 we read the story of Jesus healing a man’s son who was possessed of demons. The disciples who were not able to do it ask Jesus why. He explained that if they had faith even as a mustard seed, they could have heal the man. Seeds are small, but big things can come from them. The amount of our faith may be small, but the effect of it can be huge. If we step out by faith, we can turn our life around. We must put our faith in the power of God.