Hardwired with Jeff Wickwire

God doesn’t usually answer your prayer on the first time! When He knocked down the walls of Jericho, He made the Israelites march around the city’s walls for seven days! Pastor Jeff encourages you with today’s message that praying for something over and over again isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of great faith! It means that even though God hasn’t answered you just yet, you still believe that He has the power to grant your request! He is just waiting for the right time to say “yes”.

Sin is like an old man who’s lived in the same home his entire life. He never wants to leave it behind, and it may take a lot of effort to get him to completely leave, even if it’s what’s best for everyone involved. Pastor Jeff teaches you today that sin can be a stubborn thing to get rid of, but the power of Jesus can purge it from your life one piece at a time. But He won’t do the work unless you surrender those issues of sin to Him. You need to do the work of recognizing the sin issues within yourself.

Is it a bad thing for you to be hungry? When you break it down, hunger is just your body communicating a desire to eat food. Needing to eat is not a bad thing, but if you commit sin while obtaining the needed food, that becomes a problem. Pastor Jeff doesn’t want you to be ashamed of being hungry or of having needs and desires. The problem is when you turn to sinful behavior to meet the needs of the flesh. Trust in the Lord to be your provider, and let Him show you what He can do.

Something that many home cooks tend to overlook in their kitchens is having a working fire extinguisher. It’s much better to have one and never need it than to need one and not have it! That fire extinguisher can put out a dangerous fire before it spreads and destroys your entire home. Pastor Jeff reminds you today that when you begin to doubt your way in life, all you need to do is think back to the power of the blood of Jesus in your life! God has brought you this far, and He won’t let you down now.

In our fallen human nature, we are prone to behaviors such as jealousy. We crave possessions that others have, instead of being grateful for what we have already been given. Pastor Jeff warns us today that jealousy can turn into hatred, and hatred can lead to some dark and irreversible sins! When we have hatred towards our brother or sister, Jesus says we have committed murder in our hearts. The best way to avoid falling into this dark sin is to take control of jealousy and envy in our lives.

In the book of Acts, we see that followers of Jesus are empowered with the Holy Spirit to do good work in this world. But the Holy Spirit also serves the role of a guard on a watchtower. When you begin to allow sin into your life, the Holy Spirit rings the alarm within your soul! Pastor Jeff teaches you today that that conviction doesn’t go away once you have truly accepted Jesus, so even those who stray from Jesus still have someone on their side, reminding them of where they belong.

When we want to make changes in our lives, we usually have to start by building habits that make us a better reflection of the person we want to be. We’re starting from the outside and working our way into the core of our being. But salvation flips that formula on its head! Pastor Jeff teaches us today that when we accept Jesus into our lives, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and starts changing us from the inside out! We are made into new creations because of the power of Christ within us.

Following Jesus is a lot like running a marathon. See, there will be thousands, or maybe even millions of times throughout your life where you’re faced with the opportunity to choose to live righteously, or to give in to sin. You won’t make the right choice every single time. Pastor Jeff reminds you today that the only way that people who have been saved fall back into a life of sin is if they consciously choose a life of sin over a life of righteousness. It’s not something you fall back into by mistake.

So what do you do when it seems like the enemy has won? When things don’t work out the way you think they will? Pastor Jeff shows you how sometimes God will allow the enemy small victories, while giving you greater opportunities to serve Him in the process. The apostle Paul could have put his head between his legs and endured prison sentences, but instead he put his time to good use and wrote the letters that would become the Epistles: some of the most important New Testament books.

Do you hear the enemy trying to talk you down from doing something? Does he try and make you think that you’re doomed to fail, or that God has abandoned you? Well, Pastor Jeff shows you today how Nehemiah faced similar challenges when rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In order to complete the task that the Lord had given him, Nehemiah had to fend off both verbal and physical threats and trust in God to be his protector and Savior. Trust in the Lord, and He will see it all through.