Whether you've been a Christian for long or for little you've probably wondered, "why am I here? What does God want me to be doing?" That's probably the number one question preachers get. We all want to know what God has for us to do and often we expect that will require leaving our job, our hometown, our friends or our extended family. But God's number one desire for you is to serve Him and live our your faith wherever you are and whatever you're doing. You will find greater satisfaction by being a light for Jesus in your current job, school, neighborhood than waiting for Him to lead you to some foreign country.

The New Year often brings new changes to our lives. Many of those changes come as we face the ups and downs of each day, life, marriage, decisions, death, but some of them come because of our desire to change the way we've been going through life. Sometimes the Christian life can seem difficult because we're too busy working for something we're trying to earn instead of for someone we're trying to please. A clearer vision of what God has done for you will help you live for Him.

Like babies who come into the world with nothing but the love of their parents, we come to Jesus with nothing except His love for us. We come to Him in weakness, unable to earn heaven and unworthy of it even if we somehow could. But Jesus overcame the weakness and frailty of humanity to live a perfect life so He can empathize with our weakness but He also can grant us grace and mercy for our sin so that even though we come with nothing, He has given us everything we need.

God's standards are often at odds with our cultures definition of accomplishment and success. Whether God was looking for sailor, a spokesman or a savior He didn't pick from the top of the pack but from the bottom of the barrel. That's because what's important to people isn't so important to God's plan. So if you want to be used by God it's far better to be a humble nobody than a haughty somebody.

Opening our eyes to see God in a fresh way by reminding ourselves of who He is, what He desires and How He communicates with His creation. The Israelites had returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon but they had not returned to God. Though they started the journey with much hope and happiness they were now struggling with hunger, few people and very little economy. But they were learning that God doesn't commend what He didn't command and their lack of faith and faithfulness was the cause of their own problems.

Opening our eyes to see God in a fresh way by reminding ourselves of who He is, what He desires and How He communicates with His creation. In the first message we saw God's love for His people, in part 2 we'll discover how God desires to be treated and how different we often treat Him. Since God loved us the proper response is to love Him in return.

Opening our eyes to see God in a fresh way by reminding ourselves of who He is, what He desires and How He communicates with His creation. We start off with how much God loves His people - that's you! While your circumstances may look bleak, He's always working and never leaves you.

God has always had the victory over Satan. Then Jesus won humanities freedom and victory over Satan at the cross and tomb. So there's never been a question about the place Satan takes on the stage - he always has and always will come in last. But that doesn't mean that from time to time we're not going to feel like satan won. Sometimes his victory seems secure, but in Christ we have this promise - God is FOR us and no one can come against us.

Satan is always setting the bait for our failures and he always uses exactly the right kind of bait to catch us. Like an expert fisherman he understands our likes and dislikes and puts the bait in the exact right spot at the exact right time for us to feel we have no other choice but to take it. But we do have a choice. And God is always right there with you urging you to endure when you want to indulge.

Because the fight for believers is not fought with flesh and blood, the weapons we use are not earthly weapons but spiritual. God has given us powerful weapons through which to stand and fight our spiritual enemy and they call come from knowing Him and His Word.