Pacific Church

What I Wish I Had Known

Philippians 4:12-13 NIV

12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

1. SEASONS

Philippians 4:4-9 NIV

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

2. SELAH

Two Hebrew Root Words for “Selah":

"Calah" (sä·lä' ) -  "weigh" this, "value" it.

"Salal" (saw-lal') - "build up", "lift up" or "exalt."

Psalm 3:1-8 NASB   A Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom.

1 Lord, how my enemies have increased! Many are rising up against me. 2 Many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah 3 But You, Lord, are a shield around me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. 4 I was crying out to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me. 6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around. 7 Arise, Lord; save me, my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; May Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah

Philippians 2:12-16 NIV

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, the 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

3. SACRED

1 Peter 2:9 NIV

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Simply Obey

Exodus 40:16 NIV

16 Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him.

Exodus 40:19, 25, 32 NIV

… [Moses did just] as the Lord commanded him.

Numbers 1:54 NIV

54 The Israelites did all this just as the Lord commanded Moses.

1. Obedience is an obligation, not an option.

Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

John 14:15 NIV

15 If you love me, keep my commands.

2. Obedience is the highest form of sacrifice.

1 Samuel 15:10-11a NIV

10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”...

1 Samuel 15:13 NIV

13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

1 Samuel 15:17-19 NIV

17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.  18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

1 Samuel 15:20-23 NIV

20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21  The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” 22 But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23  For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

3. Examine yourself to see if you are obedient.

2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV

5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

Father’s Day 2024

1. His eyes are COMPASSIONATE NEVER CONDEMNING

He sees you today through the LENSES of COMPASSION! Condemnation is non-existent when it comes to YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER!

John 3:17 (NIV)

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Psalm 86:15 (NIV)

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalm 103:8 (NIV)

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Psalm 145:8 (NIV)

The LORD is gracious and compassionate,  slow to anger and rich in love.

1 John 3:1 (NLT)

3 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

Matthew 10:29-31 (NLT)

29 What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. 30 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

2. His hand is GENEROUS NEVER GUARDED

John 3:16 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.   

Matthew 6:30-33  (NLT)

30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

3. HIS feet are ALWAYS PURSUING NEVER PASSIVE

Psalm 23:6 (KJV)

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23:6  (MSG)

6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.

Galatians // Grasping God’s Grace // Week 9 // Chapter 6:11-18

Galatians 6:11 NIV

11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

Galatians 6:12 NIV

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

1. Which direction is your change?

Galatians 6:12a NIV

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh…

Romans 8:30 NLT

30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

Galatians 6:12 NIV

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

Galatians 6:13-14 NIV

13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

2. What direction are you boasting?

Galatians 6:15 NIV

15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.

3. What do you send in their direction?

Galatians 6:16-17 NIV

16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. 17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Galatians 6:16-18 NIV

16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. 17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Galatians // Grasping God’s Grace // Week 8 // Chapter 6:1-8

Galatians 6:1a NIV 

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. 

1. Wood

Galatians 6:1 NIV 

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 

Matthew 7:1-5 NIV 

1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Galatians 6:2-4 NIV 

2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else

1) Wood

2) Glass 

Matthew 18:15 NIV 

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.

Matthew 18:35 NIV 

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Galatians 6:7 NIV 

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 

1) Wood

2) Glass

3) Seeds 

Galatians 6:7 NIV 

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 

Galatians 6:7-8 NIV 

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Galatians // Grasping God’s Grace // Week 7 // Chapter 5:16-26

Galatians 5:1 NIV

1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:13-14 NIV

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:16-17 NIV

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

3 Steps to help us know how to LIVE BY THE SPIRIT:

1. Understand that there is a GREAT CONFLICT

Romans 7:18 NIV

18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

2. Begin to recognize your FRUIT & SEASON

Galatians 5:18-23 NIV

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:24-26 NIV

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

3. Stop SUPPRESSING and start SURRENDERING!

Living Without Limits  // God’s Plan for Your Pain

Psalm 137:1-3 TLB

“Weeping, we sat beside the rivers of Babylon thinking of Jerusalem. We have put away our lyres, hanging them upon the branches of the willow trees, for how can we sing?”

Isaiah 43:1-2 GNT

Do not be afraid — I will save you. I have called you by name — you are mine. When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you.

1. Cry A River

2. Build a Bridge

3. Get Over It!

Galatians // Grasping God’s Grace // Week 5 // Chapter 4

Galatians 3:27-29 NLT

27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Galatians 4:1-3 NLT

4 Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world.

1. You are not a SUBJECT

Galatians 4:4-5 NIV

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

2. You can be His SON

3.  He wants you to be His SPITTING IMAGE

Galatians 4:6-7 NIV

6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child ; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Ephesians 1:14 NLT

14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

1 Corinthians 11:23b-26 NIV

23 The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Galatians // Grasping God’s Grace // Week 4 // Chapter 3

REMEMBER THE PREREQUISITES.

Galatians 3:1-3 NLT

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Galatians‬ ‭3:5-7‬ ‭NLT

5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. 6 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.

2. REMEMBER THE PURPOSE.

Galatians 3:19 NLT

19 Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised.

Galatians 3:24-26 NLT

24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; It protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the Law as our guardian.

26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:17-18 NLT

17 This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. 18 For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.

3. REMEMBER THE PROMISE.

Galatians 3:27-29 NLT

27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

Galatians // Grasping God’s Grace // Week 3 // Chapter 2

1. Your Choices

Galatians 2:1-5 NIV

Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

2. Your Comparisons

Galatians 2:6-9 NIV

6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were, makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

3. Your Crucifixion

Galatians 2:15-16; 19-21 NIV

15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”