Vineyard Morris Plains

By Vineyard Morris Plains

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How many episodes does Vineyard Morris Plains have?

The podcast currently has 44 episodes available.

Vineyard Morris Plains episodes:

August 13, 2017The Elijah Chronicles
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For those of you who weren’t here last Sunday, we had invited anyone who wanted to come,
To meet together after the service at Fort Nonsense, a fort built by George Washington in 1777 overlooking Morristown.
We met there to not only pray over this area… but to ask God to to impart into our own lives, His heart & vision for this area.

Honestly, I was really encouraged… and was full of faith for what God could do through us as a church.
I could see the possibilities… and it was exciting. But I could also see the obstacles.
And so, it would be up to us to decide whether to measure these obstacles against our own wisdom & strength…
Or against the wisdom & strength of our God who has given us everything we need to make an eternal difference in this area.

Well, as I’m thinking through all of this, I kept thinking about the Old Testament Prophet, Elijah…
Who, in spite of his fears & failures & doubts, made a difference in Israel like few others in Scripture.
I just believe that his life and all that God had taught him has significant relevance for all God is wanting to do through us, as a church.

And so, this morning, I’d like to look at the life of Elijah as chronicled in 1 Kings 16-18.
So, if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to 1 Kings 16:29.
And as you do, I’d like to unpack for you a little of what the political scene was like leading to Elijah’s introduction here.
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42min
July 30, 2017Lighting Torches of Faith
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While meeting with one of our leaders earlier this week, we found ourselves talking about how we can more effectively impact our area with the love of Jesus.
How we can more effectively make Him know in our area.
And as we were talking about that, for whatever reason, I kept thinking about Fort Nonsense,
A fort commissioned by General George Washington in Morristown in May of 1777.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, Washington arrived in Morristown in January of 1777 after victories at Princeton and Trenton.
In fact, with the worst of winter on its way, Washington decided that the Continental Army would remain here till spring.
But, before leaving Morristown in May, Washington ordered a number of troops to remain in the town to protect its citizenry and stores.

But he also ordered the construction of a fort on a hilltop overlooking Morristown…
where the troops stationed here could retreat to in the event of a British invasion.
Because it looked out over the valley, Washington could easily spot any movement coming from NYC, where the bulk of the British army was stationed.
But the British never came and, in spite of the time and resources required to build it, the fort was never used… which is probably why it was called Fort Nonsense.
So, we’re talking about how we can reach this area with light and love of Jesus… and I keep thinking of this fort.
In fact, I felt God saying that He’s going to rename that Fort.
So, that evening, Joyce and I and a handful of others went up to Fort Nonsense to pray and to seek God’s heart for our area.
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41min
July 23, 2017 Jude Part 2
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32min
July 16, 2017 Jude
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44min
July 10, 2017His Indwelling Presence
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When Joyce and I lived in Tajikistan back in the 90s, there were always those moments when we’d be really homesick for our families back home.
And, unfortunately, for the first few years that we lived there, there was just no reliable way to communicate with them.
In fact, if we wanted to talk with them, we’d have to go to the Post Office where we’d pay upfront for ten minutes and then wait an hour for the call to be connected.
If they managed to make the connection, we’d always never make it the full ten minutes without getting disconnected.
And so, we’d often get off the phone more homesick than when we got on!

At the time, I was leading a Business Development Center in the capital city of Dushanbe.
And it became clear that, if Tajikistan was going to connect to the world, they’re going to need email.
So, Joyce and I flew to Russia to get everything we needed to set up the first email node in Tajikistan.
In fact, that was the only email in Tajikistan for at least three or four years.
But, ultimately, as important as it was for the country, we were mostly driven by the desire to stay connected with our families.

But, we still wanted to hear their voices. And so, by our fourth year, our team got a satellite phone.
This thing was literally the size of a large briefcase… and cost nearly $5 per minute to use.
In fact, to use it, we had to go out onto the roof… use a compass to determine the location of the satellite…
And then we’d have to point the top of the case, which was the antenna, toward that satellite for it to work.
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23min
July 03, 2017Wired to Serve
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I was reading a Psychology Today article a few days ago about a very successful & wealthy businessman.
This guy, was filled with ambition and was at the top of his game. It was in his blood.
As young man, he was always reading profiles of all the heroes of Wall Street…
Stories of successful entrepreneurs and CEO’s who were higher up on the corporate ladder than he was.

Of course, he loved reading these stories because they fueled his own drive to the top.
Now, initially, the ages of everyone he was reading about were older than he was, which worked out great…
Because, he always had it as his goal that when he got to their age, he would at least be where they were.

But, one day, the incredibly successful entrepreneur he was reading about…
Who had climbed far higher than he had on the corporate ladder… turned out to be younger than he was.
And when he saw that, he felt a pain inside his gut.

You see, as long as the stories were about people who were older, he could tell himself that he would one day out-climb him or her.
But now there was someone on a faster track than he was.
And, as the years went by, there were more and more stories about men & women who were younger… and more successful… who had climbed higher than he had.
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39min
June 26, 2017Discerning the Voice of GOD
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As I get started this morning, I want you to think for a moment about expectations…
Because, whether you’re conscious about them or not, we all have a lot of expectations that we carry through our everyday lives.
Right now, for example, you might have some expectations about this sermon… whether it will be good or boring… long or short.
When you go to a restaurant you have certain expectations about how the food will taste or how good the service will be.

When your birthday comes, you may have expectations about the gifts you’ll receive.
When you’re having friends over whom you haven’t seen for a long time, you’ll no doubt have expectations about what that visit will be like.
When you turn on America’s Got Talent or Dancing with the Stars, you have certain expectations that you’ll be entertained!

And yet, there’s another side of expectation— the kind of expectations that we place on others or that are placed on you by those around you.
There are even those expectations placed on us by our culture regarding how we’re supposed to look, for example, or what you’re “supposed” to have achieved by a certain age.
You see, all of these expectations are the result of the different voices that have spoken into our lives through the years.

Some are voices of affirmation: “I believe in you… You are important to me… I know you can do it… I love who you are.”
And others are voices that hurt: “You can’t do anything right! You’ll never accomplish much in life! Why aren’t you as good as your brother? You’re not good enough.”
It’s these kinds of voices that really shape & influence who we are… especially when some of those negative voices have come from those you love the most like… demanding parent or demeaning sibling.
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45min
June 17, 2017GOD’s Masterpiece
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At some time in their lives, every human being who has ever walked the face of this planet will reflect on, and sometimes be haunted by questions like…
Who am I? What is my unique identity? How do I determine my significance in this world? Why am I here?
Back in 1988, a philosophy professor at Northeastern University named Dr. Hugh Moorhead, wrote a book called “The Meaning of Life.”

Now, if you’ve been around the church for more than a few years, I’m sure you’ve heard me quote the book before…
And you’ll probably hear me quoting some part of it again… because the idea behind the book is just so interesting to me!
In the book, the author asks 250 of the leading thinkers and writers of the 20th century to respond to the question… What is the meaning of life?

So, how would the brilliant minds of our day respond to the question of the meaning of life?
Well, unfortunately, their answers turn out to be pretty depressing… because the majority of them honestly have no idea!
Isaac Asimov, for example (who’s a famous American author & bio-chemist) says, “As far as I can see, there is no purpose.”
Albert Ellis, one of the preeminent psychologists of the 20th century, said, “Life has no intrinsic meaning.”
Here’s one that I’ve read before: This one really lays it out. Poet & Philosopher, Michael Anania, wrote this:
“I don’t want to retreat into the justly despised positivism,” he says, “but to question the meaning of life proposes its own answer. Life, if you think of it as an assertion of meaning and process, always exceeds assigned meaning. To offer a parody of technical language, the set of all meanings is included in life, which is an additional meaning, so expands the set by a hypo-set, and so forth. So, any statement, any such question expands the frame exponentially. What I’m saying in nutshell is the meaning of life is meaning.”
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40min
May 28, 2017Touching the Untouchable
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A few years ago, I was attending an evening service at a Vineyard in Arizona where my friend, Robby, was the main speaker.
And, pretty much out of nowhere, he asked if I’d come up to do some ministry.
Since he asked me publically to come up I couldn’t really say no, so off I went to the podium.

But God quickly gave me a word of knowledge that there was someone whose hands and wrists were in pain.
Now, I’ll tell you… it gets a bit scary when you put yourself out there like that.
But, a woman immediately raised her hand. So, I invited her up so I could have her share her story… and so I could pray for her.

She shared with everyone how she had recently lost her job as a dental assistant because she couldn’t hold even the lightest instrument for any amount of time.
She had been to various doctors… and surgery seemed to be the only option for her…
but, because it was related to damaged nerves, they couldn’t make any promises.
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18min
May 21, 2017Paying Attention
As we continue our series called “The Master Teacher,” I’d like to begin by looking at an amazing encounter between Jesus and a man who was, in almost every way, ignored by the world him.
Starting with verse 1 of John 9, we read that “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.”
His disciples asked him, “Rabbi… Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”3“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Just after he said this, Jesus does something very odd. We see, in verse 6, that He spat on the ground and made mud with his saliva and spread the mud over the man’s eyes.
Then he tells this blind man to go to the Pool of Siloam to wash the mud from his eyes.
Now, the Pool of Siloam was a reservoir of freshwater built by King Hezekiah 700 before this story took place.
By Jesus’ day, it was a major tourist spot for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city.
So, the man does just what Jesus asked him to do. And when he does, he’s suddenly able to see… for the first time in his life!
In verse 8, his neighbors… and all those who had known him as a blind beggar began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”
Some were saying, “He is.” The others were saying, “No, he just looks like him.”

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44min

FAQs about Vineyard Morris Plains:

How many episodes does Vineyard Morris Plains have?

The podcast currently has 44 episodes available.