More Than Bread

Send me a Text Message!

At Calvary we are currently making our way through Matthew 6-7, it's the last series of three that we are doing on Jesus mountain-top sermon. So every 5th episode of this series will by the teaching that I just gave the day before this episode drops. So it's also a bit longer than the other episodes.

In this episode, we are doing two things... painting a picture of God as our Father and making the challenge to live our one and only lives for Him, the One, our Father in Heaven! Live for ONE!

Send me a Text Message!

Jesus' sermon on the mountain connects the gospel with the Kingdom of God. The gospel is good news and here's the deal... The Kingdom of God is good news for  everyone, even people who don't believe in Jesus. It's good news because when people get it and become Jesus-apprentices; when an outbreak of the Kingdom happens; people start loving better and serving more and surrendering deeper. It's good news for your neighbors.  It brings better Sunday afternoon tips to waiters at the Waffleshop. The Kingdom of God in you, will be good news for the people that you work with, whether they are muslims, athiests or part of the LGBTQ+ community.  

In fact, if the Kingdom of God hasn't become good news to the people around you, it may not have come to you. If it isn't good news for our families, our neighbors, the people at work or school, maybe it hasn't really bcme good news for us. Because when it comes, it's good news for everyone!

Send me a Text Message!

You have to understand, when Jesus came on the scene announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven was here. Now.  The people understood him to say, "It's a new day. I know life has been hard, oppression, poverty, crucifixions every day. Death  and disease are your constant companion. But listen to me, don't quit; a new day is dawning!" Something's coming; like a great light in the darkness, in the land of death's shadow a new day is dawning. It's better than you know or can even imagine. You are on the threshold of a new day that will usher in new life that is as different from what you have now as darkness is from light. Don't quit. 

You'll hear me say this over and over again in this episode, because I think it's at the very heart of this message. Don't you dare give up!

Send me a Text Message!

You are seen, known and loved by Jesus. See in the end, the greatest blessing, the full description of the blessed life, it's not about lacking nothing, it's about having a shepherd. It's not about fearing no one, it's about having a champion. It's not about having a banquet, it's about being invited by God. It's not about having a house, it's about being part of a family.  It's about being pursued and found and loved by Jesus. It's not about having the gifts of the giver, it's about being had by the giver of the gifts and if we have nothing but we are had by God, we have everything!

You are seen, known and loved by Jesus!

Send me a Text Message!

I wonder if this might be true of you... "Somewhere along the way, you quit believing that God's blessing matters, or maybe you quit believing that God really
wants to bless you. But actually I believe that God wants us to be known as the people who are blessed by God. He is inviting you to get blessed! In this episode and the next, before we dive into the beatitudes, we are going to look at Psalm 23 to describe the blessed life!

Send me a Text Message!

So starting today we are going to hang out in Matthew's version of Jesus' sermon on the mount. Each Monday (or if you aren't listening as they drop, every 5th episode, I'll leave you my most recent message from Calvary's teaching series going through Matthew 6-7...and in between I'll review Matthew 5...or at times given an addendum to Matthew 6-7. So anyway, the whole focus for the next 40-50 episodes well be Jesus' sermon on the mountain.

This episode is all about living different!

Send me a Text Message!

The book of James has some of the most amazing prayer promises and principles of prayer. But more than anything it is all about making our lives a prayer to God. The practical wisdom of James gives us a picture of the life of prayer. In this last episode, I will read through the book with a few comments, encouraging you to listen, learn and more importantly lean in, one last time...with the prayer....

God, make my life a prayer to you!

Send me a Text Message!

In Romans 8 we find that creation groans, (travails) we groan, even the Spirit of God groans in expectancy. See when we dive into the gospel and begin to understand the glory that awaits those who believe in Christ, we can't help but groan for those who don't. The gospel causes us to groan for the redemption of all creation. It causes us to travail for the salvation of all people. It causes to groan for glory to be revealed in our families, on our campus, in our city. So let me ask you, "Are we willing to travail in prayer?

 Travailing prayer is not something you just work up. It requires hope, humility and hunger. Which one needs the most work in you; hope, humility or hunger? 

Send me a Text Message!

In this episode we are going to talk about a type of prayer that I believe is urgently important in our day. I believe that God is stirring up people globally and locally, a fresh move of God on the way. But I think He is still looking for people who will travail in prayer. I must have 100 books on prayer. Only a few of those written in the last 2-3 decades have even a chapter on travailing prayer. If you want to read about travailing prayer you have to go to the old books birthed in revival. And yet, the Bible is filled with examples of people who wrestled with God, travailed, groaned and cried out in prayer to see God's purposes birthed in their lives and the world around them. So I have to ask us, 

Who are the people in our day who will travail in prayer?

Send me a Text Message!

How can I get God's attention? That seems like an important question when it comes to prayer right? If I want to be a person whose prayers produce great results, I think I need to be a person who can get God's attention. This episode will give us a picture of the people whom God goes out of his way to give them His attention.

If you have ever asked the question, "How can I get God's attention?" the answer is "Be a tsaddiqim." What's that? Listen and find out.