"26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Mary was a virgin, so how could she conceive? This is the way the natural world works. But God is the God of the supernatural! And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (ESV) When our hearts are pure to take the Lord at His word, and to believe He will do what he says he will do, we are blessed!

Doubt comes in many shapes and forms. It doesn't matter how righteous or obedient you are, no one is spared from the attack of doubt. The question is not if, but when doubt will attack your faith in God and in His goodness. So how do we guard our hearts in the midst of doubt's onslaught? Let's take a look at the journey of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, as well as Mary the mother of Jesus. Let's see how the Lord used their stories to show us how to guard our heart when we face unbelief.

As we approach our seasonal Thanksgiving holiday, we are encouraged to pause and to offer thanks to the Lord for the many blessings He has given to us.

In seasons of special blessing the need to guard our hearts would not seem to be as urgent. Hard times often encourage us to press in to seek the Lord. But when times are good, when the pain is a distant memory, when the lean season becomes a season of plenty, Satan employs a different strategy. We become satisfied and self-sufficient. How do we maintain prosperity with passion and purpose? How do we guard our hearts in this season?

Life is filled with seasons, and each season is different. Since each season often comes with its own temptation or demonic scheme, it necessitates its own strategy for guarding our hearts. The big temptation is to complain during these seasons of scarcity, but Paul admonishes us in Phil 4:12 - "I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, plenty or little." How do we keep out hearts free from complaining and fear when our outward needs are in short supply or worse yet, missing altogether? Find out in today's message.

It is the great business of every believer to keep and guard the heart through every season of life. Your heart is the very core, the center, of your inner being.

Even as a healthy physical heart is the core of one’s health and well-being, so the spiritual heart regulates the condition of our soul.

Last week we highlighted the truth that since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), we have been given great hope that God will continue to pour out the Holy Spirit upon His Church to empower her to fulfill the mission she has been given. But Pentecost was not a one-time, isolated event. We should pray for and expect great outpourings of the Holy Spirit until Christ returns! Today we will talk about the manifestation of God's presence - and that the Kingdom of God advances through revival!

Our God is a God of power through His Holy Spirit. He has poured out His spirit in amazing measures in the past, so why wouldn't He move again?

“Our view of revival shapes how we live. If revival is a pointless demonstration of religious fervor, we live to avoid it. If it is an emergency fix for the church, we sometimes seek it only when things get bad. But if revival moves history toward Jesus’ return, we do everything we can to live for the next wave.” - Mark Nysewander