Petra Podcast

As Christians, what sets us apart from secular scholarship? As a believer it’s not enough just to believe in a historical event. This isn’t just a doctrine.
For the believer, the death and resurrection of Jesus is an active force in my life. How do I access that force/power/life for myself? I want to answer that question this morning.

We’ve been learning how God our father doesn’t want his children to live lives clamped by worry and fear. We’ve been learning how to live courageously in the face of fear laying siege to our hearts.
- Rejection in our relationships
- In our financial calamity
- Fear of failure, disappointment with myself
- Fear for our families
- Apprehension about death
There’s one last topic we want to address. There seems to be a growing fear among Christians in the United States. The American church is feeling more and more like the outsider at the table. In our television shows and in our judicial decisions Christians are more frequently being painted into radicals who are infringing on the rights of others. Who are standing in the way. Fundamentalist is code word for radical. Evangelical is code word for judgmental. Christians are feeling this mounting sense of scapegoating, cultural labeling and ostracism. People are asking “where is this all heading.”

Fear of mounting societal ostracism, and impending persecution. If we’re not careful, we can pick up the shame attached to these accusations. Victim mentality. And we can let fear cramp us into a corner. Shame, Victimhood, Fear. Since when have those three been our friends. The Bible tells something completely different.

Today's message will specifically speak to parents and their fears for their children. But I do want to say that “Fearless about our Family” includes much more than the temptations that parents face regarding worrying about their children.
You might be a young teenage worrying over your last remaining grandparent because of recent health issues, perhaps you have a cousin who you love like a brother, or maybe you are knees pleading with the Lord to change her husband’s heart. Or great-grandparents who are watching their family in the 3rd and 4th generation drift away from the Lord—no matter if you are single or married, parent or grandparent, childless or just a child—you have family that you love and care for. So I trust that as I share, God will apply my words to your specific life situation and challenge you and encourage you towards a life that is free from worry and anxiety regarding your loved ones.

We are going to talk about some of the fears and worries that surround the issue of finances. Rob Heagy is joining me in sharing some insights and about he and Tara’s journey in the area of trusting God with their finances. Rob works for High Concrete and Tara has a hair salon.
The fear surrounding finances is one of the top fears and causes of anxiety in people’s lives. The fear of not having enough or the fear of losing what you do have is something people struggle with.
Jesus talked a lot about money. He taught 38 parables that dealt with money management. He talked more about the role of money in our lives then he did on prayer. I believe he did this because he knew the power money can have over us if we don’t learn how to handle this issue in our lives. One of these teachings of Jesus about material things in our lives is found in Matthew 6.

Isaiah lived around 700 B.C. He was called to the southern Kingdom of Judah. The northern Kingdom had already collapsed and been taken captive by Assyria and know Assyria was threatening Judah. Judah had reason to be afraid, their fortified cities were attacked and captured by Assyria and now they were coming to the capital city, Jerusalem.
Isaiah was a prophet, a seer which meant not only did he see the current situation and what God’s word was for that situation but he also saw into the future. He is seeing about 100 years into the future when the Jewish people would be slaves in Babylon and is speaking to these people as well.

Today we begin our 6-week series called “Fearless”. In addition to the many great passages in the bible we are also using the book called “The Fearless Life” by Jentezen Franklin as part of our personal devotional and small group discussion guide.
This study is about helping each of us to embrace a courageous faith. God our father does not want we his children to live lives full of worry and fear. It is possible to experience peace in the midst of all the pressures of life that come at us.
Max Lucado writes about the power of fear. He writes….
[Fear] turns us into control freaks … [for] … fear, at its center, is a perceived loss of control. When life spins wildly, we grab for a component of life we can manage: our diet, the tidiness of our home, the armrest of a plane, or, in many cases, people. The more insecure we feel, the meaner we become. We growl and bare our fangs. Why? Because we are bad? In part. But also because we feel cornered….. Fear releases the tyrant within.

Today is the last part of the series about our identity in Christ. Having a good understanding of our position in Christ is key to living a life of victory.
Identity is so important. None of us wants to just feel like a number. We want to have a sense of worth and value. We feel violated when someone steals our identity and identity theft is a big criminal enterprise today.
Well the Devil has stolen our identity and Jesus came to restore it back to us. Jesus gives us a brand new identity in him and invites us to sit with him in heavenly places. In other words, we no longer need to walk in defeat, instead Jesus gives us a new name and a new power to become more then conquerors.
In this last message I would like to focus on some of the titles and names God uses to help us understand both our roles and relationship we have with him. These names our powerful, freeing and life changing when we grasp the truth in them.
How we view ourselves is so important both in the natural as well as the spiritual. In the natural if we see ourselves as failures and victims we will tend to respond to life that way. If we see ourselves as holy and as overcomers we will rise up in strength. These images of ourselves become self-fulfilling prophecy in our lives.

Today is part four of the series we are doing about our identity in Christ. We are answering the question “Who am I”. We have embraced the truths that …..
- We are designed and created by God.
- We are chosen and adopted by our Heavenly Father.
- We have been born again and given a new nature – the old self or old nature has been crucified with Christ and we have a new nature that desires to please God.
- We have been set free to live in the newness of the Spirit –We are set free from earthly ambitions and given spiritual ambitions. We are here on a mission from God.
To walk in our freedom and to fulfill our mission assignment on earth we need to have our minds renewed or transformed by the power of God.
If we try to live the Christian life with an un-renewed mind we will live a life of frustration because we keep hitting the wall. Our un-renewed mind keeps us locked into old patterns and mindsets. It keeps us bound to a form of godliness or spirituality without the power to go with it.