A Godly Appetite

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. I Timothy 6:6-7

Appetite

• An instinctive physical desire, a strong wish or urge
• <Latin> appettus, strong desire, to strive after, to seek.
• Old Testament – nephesh = soul
  • self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion;
  • that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, soul, the inner being of man; seat of the appetites; seat of emotions and passions

Oh, those New Years Resolutions

Question?
Is there a way to live, a process to incorporate (actions, habits) that will produce stability in life, effect growth and acquire wisdom and peace?

The Overcoming Life

• I John 5:4-5 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Overcomer

• Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’

The Gate of Hope

Celebrating our 9th Anniversary
Vision
History

A church that is doing WELL

• W - Worshipping
• E - Evangelizing
• L - Learning
• L - Loving

Acts 2:41-47

Testimonies?

The Gate of Hope
Hosea 2:14-15
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.
I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

The Gate of the Year

I said to the man at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I might pass safely into the unknown.”
He responded, “Go out into the darkness and place your hand into the hand of God. It will be to you safer than the light and better than the known.”

Hope

• We are dead without hope
• Hope effects our passion
• Hope inspires our desires
• Hope directs our actions
• Hope fills our future
• There is an audacity to hope
• Hope defines our purpose
• Hope focuses our effects
• Hope is a dream, a desire, faith!!
• Dream of an alternative future.

Hopes Response
Hosea 6:1-3
Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

I Will Trust In the Lord
Psalm 37:3-4
Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

A Fresh Start
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation5:9-10

The Mystery and the Power of the Blood

• Life is In the Blood
• The Covenant Flow
• The Cup of Blessing

Pleading the blood!

The Spiritual Connection

• A Sacred Substance
  • Leviticus 17:11
  • Hebrews 9:22
• Blood has a voice!
  • Genesis 4:10-11
  • Genesis 9:4,6
  • Hebrews 11:4

Sin is Forgiven

• Past
• Present
• Future

Past

• Genesis 3:15 – proto-prophecy
• Ephesians 1:7-9
  • “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself”

Present

• Proverbs 28:13
  • “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Future

• Hebrews 13:12
  • “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”

By Will or Weakness
II Samuel 12
Psalm 51

Caught or Confessed

• There are two times that one may confess sin; before and after getting caught!
  • Before = confession
  • After = owning up
• The pain of owning up after being caught is worse than confession and the heaviness burdens the confession.
• Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”
  • There is born in all of us a strong need to confess our sin.
  • Neediness is not only the unrepentant heart, it is its glory.
  • Confession is the way back to our lost relationship with God.

Continual Cleansing

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. I John 1:5-10

People who continually congratulate themselves on their own OK-ness are not good candidates for grace. Need is the best incentive to entice us to the all sufficient Christ. Those who know they are spiritually hungry are swift to find the bread of God.
- Calvin Miller “Into the Depths of God”

Hebrews 10:26

• We can sin by weakness or by will
• Warning!
  • There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.
• Three accusations:
  • he who has trampled the Son of God underfoot
  • he who has counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing
  • he who has insulted the Spirit of grace
• A most dangerous place to be!
  • Certainly NOT walking in the light.
  • Therefore, no fellowship.

A Fresh Start

• Holiness is not the way to Christ, but Christ is the way to holiness.
• Sanctification requires consecration without reservation.
• No man is ever more than four steps from God:
  • Conviction
  • Repentance
  • Consecration
  • Faith