Jesus is Real Radio with Daniel Fusco

As we begin our study in Ephesians Pastor Daniel teaches, we need to consider Paul's letter to the Ephesians as a whole. In it's entirety it focuses on what God did through the historical work of Jesus and does through His Spirit today, in order to build His new society, in the midst of the old. With the foundation laid in it's proper context, we'll be able to understand and apply God's grace and peace, which is the remedy for the mess in our lives. Let's be honest, life's messy and we need all the help we can get!

We can't hear this enough...Jesus. is. real. Somehow it happens, we get so wrapped up in doing life, doing church, just doing, that we forget Who we're doing it for. Throughout this series we've focused on letters written to specific churches targeted for specific reasons by Christ Himself. In every case He took the time to reveal Himself. Todays text says, all authority has been given to Him in Heaven and on earth. Let's recognize Him for who He is and what He wants to do through us because...Jesus is real!

Today as Pastor Daniel digs deeper into John's letter to the Laodiceans to help us understand who we really are. He points out that they were blind to their true spiritual condition. They had fallen into the trap that satan had set for them, and uses on us today. They were lured in by pride. Their financial success and popularity kept them from fulfilling what God called them to do. Listen in to learn how to identify the areas of your own life where Jesus is standing outside, wanting to come in.

Amen does more than just signify the ending of a prayer. It's not that at all. Today Pastor Daniel teaches us that it means we acknowledge that which is sure and valid. He say's it's a word of human response, to a divine truth or action. We learn that Jesus is the ultimate Amen, in the sense that He's the picture of the perfect, human, obedient response, to the divine promises of God. As Christians we should embody the essence of our statement, since we are called to be little amens after the example of Christ.

God's chosen people are most certainly Israel. But, for those of us who have accepted Jesus as our LORD and Savior, we have been grafted into Jesus, the root! We can now be called members of God's family. And God is continuing to do that work in each of us as we submit to Him. He is adding people to His family. There's coming a time when those that have persecuted the Body of Christ will recognize Jesus and worship Him for who He is.

The God that we serve knows our beginning to our end. He knows the very number of hairs on your head! Like Pastor Daniel just described...like an artist...God is slowly working on His masterpiece that is you. The important part of this process is that we continue to say yes to Him … allowing Him to make those changes that only He can make.

There's pretty much no wiggle room there :-)...Pastor Daniel most certainly just described all of the various categories that we place ourselves in. And since the time that this message was shared at Crossroads Community Church, the Supreme Court of our land has legalized same sex marriage. This is a topic that has become hotly debated in the Body of Christ. Today Pastor Daniel brings us back to a foundational truth about ALL sinners...we are called to LOVE them and share the truth with them.

Sometimes we let the cares of this world have so much more of a place of importance in our lives than we should. Stop and think about what we say we believe as Christians. We believe in a God we've never seen, who sent His only son to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. We believe that when we die, or when Jesus returns, we will spend eternity with God in a place called heaven...again, a place we've never seen. And yet, we struggle to believe that our God is able to help us make the rent the next month. Brothers and sisters, we serve a BIG GOD!

Senior pastor and founder of the Calvary Chapel movement...Chuck Smith once said...you can call yourself a cheeseburger all you want, but it won't make you one! Or you have heard it this way...you can walk into a parking garage, but it won't make you a car. Brothers and sisters, Christianity is no different. God doesn't expect us to be perfect...but, He does expect us to say Yes to Him and allow Him to continually change and make us into the image of Christ.

Reputation is what people think that you are...but, really character is who God knows that we are. WOW...so true. We strive in this life to put on the best front we can. And many times...that's just what it is...a front...when really, our hearts are so far from God. Pastor Daniel will begin a three part message exhorting each of us to cry out to God for a fresh move of the Holy Spirit in our lives!