The Implanted Word Podcast

A healthy church shouldn’t feel like a chore to belong to. The Church in Acts chapter 2 was made up of closely knit relationships, of people from all walks of life bound together by the common thread that they had been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Pastor Bill shares with you today that it’s so important to feel unity with your brothers and sisters. This world is hard enough on its own, but it’s even more difficult if you try and forgo the fellowship and community of the Church.

Some people navigate very carefully through life, pausing frequently to evaluate where they find themselves and if they’re in a healthy place. Especially in a new church, it can be difficult to determine if the community is actually healthy, or if it’s just putting on a facade to draw in new members. But Pastor Bill gives you a surefire way to identify a healthy church: Are they teaching the word of God? If a church focuses on something other than the Bible, it is not built on a foundation that will last.

It’s easy to take a passionate person the wrong way. When you hear a street preacher sharing the Gospel, your first reaction might be one of anger or annoyance. But when someone stops for a moment and listens to the words being said, they may just realize that the passion doesn’t come from someone’s mental instability, but from a real-life change that has taken place in the speaker’s heart! Pastor Bill reminds you that Peter was able to address entire crowds once he was emboldened by the Holy Spirit.

When you have a dirty coffee cup, do you just wash the outside of the cup before using it again? No, you need to wash the inside of the cup in order to remove the dirt and residue that has built up on the inside. Pastor Bill wants you to recognize today that in order for your life to be restored to the way God created you to be, the Holy Spirit needs to work from the inside out. If you try to fix yourself, you’re going from the outside in, and you won’t be able to weed out the deep-seated sin on your own.

When the prophet Elijah fled into the wilderness, God told Him to meet on top of a mountain. A strong wind, an earthquake, and a great wildfire passed by, but God’s presence wasn’t in those phenomena. His voice cut through the silence right to the prophet’s heart. Pastor Bill teaches you today that the Holy Spirit works in the same way: He doesn’t speak to you through signs and wonders, but through the quiet moments spent meditating on God’s Word. He’s ready to speak to you in the silence.

God is a God of surprises! You may think that you know the exact way that He is going to bring something to pass, but when He follows through, He uses a way that you had completely failed to consider beforehand. Pastor Bill teaches you today about the early Church in Acts chapter 2, and how they could not have predicted the way that God would bring new believers into the Body of Christ. The Lord loves to break humanity’s expectations, reminding you to never underestimate Him.

The message of the Gospel should give you urgency! You don’t know when Jesus is going to return for His Church. Although it is a basic instinct to anticipate the time that you are going to spend with the Lord in Heaven, you should also be concerned for your brothers and sisters who haven’t encountered Jesus yet. Pastor Bill wants you to be concerned for those who are going to be left behind when Jesus returns, because the Lord’s heart breaks for those who are going to miss out on Heaven.

The amazing thing about the Gospel is that it opens up communion with God to people of all walks of life, any ethnic background, and even of any age. In Old Testament times, only those consecrated by God could approach His presence. But Pastor Bill reminds you that once Jesus died on the cross, the connection was restored for all humanity. Anyone who recognizes the sickness of sin in their own hearts and calls on the name of Jesus will be welcomed into the Kingdom.

Trying to be a witness for God without the power of the Holy Spirit is like trying to drive a car without gas in it. Yes, you have the passion and the drive to reach people for Jesus, but you need that supernatural fuel to get things really going. Pastor Bill teaches you today about how the early Church was driven by the Holy Spirit, empowered to spread the Gospel in a world that was still hostile to the teachings of Jesus. The Lord can and will do amazing things through you by His Holy Spirit.

In order to experience the plans that God has for us in this life, we need to accept the Holy Spirit into our lives. Pastor Bill teaches us today that just like Mary listened to the words of the angel Gabriel and received the blessing of carrying Jesus, you and I have the privilege to carry the power of God around with us as well. When we accept the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives, He will work in our hearts and change the world around us. But He won’t do any of that if we don’t accept Him with a cheerful heart.