Pastor Jeff introduces our guest, Erik Fish, with Student Church Movements.

mobilizing student-led church planting movements on university campuses

Our mission is to influence the universities of the world to help fulfill the Great Commission. ~ Reach the campus to reach the nations

A Banquet Invitation
Luke 14:15
“What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God”

The Prodigal God
Luke 15:11-32

• The parable:
  
  • It is directed at the Pharisees
    
  • It’s focus is the Father’s love
    
  • It exposes two lost sons
    
  • It reveals the sons hearts toward their father
    
  • It reveals the father’s heart toward his sons
    
• Jesus is the true elder brother

The Two Lost Sons

• The assumptions:
  
  • The double portion is the elder brothers
    
  • If two sons, then three portions
    
  • two for the elder and one for the younger
    
  • In order to accommodate the younger son, the father would have had to liquidate a portion of his wealth
  • The elder son has the primary responsibility of honoring and caring for his father (serving)
    
  • Searching for his younger brother!
    
  • Serving at the banquet!
  • The real cost of the banquet was given out of the abundance of the father’s wealth!
    
  • Though the banquet was given out of the father’s wealth, the elder son was ultimately paying for it out of the remaining inheritance
    
• The Attitudes:
  
  • We desperately need the initiating love of the Father!
    
  • Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer
    
  • If he has to do something to merit it, it is not mercy
    
  • Forgiveness always comes at the expense of the one granting forgiveness

The True Elder Brother

• Jesus is the true elder brother
  
• The younger brother’s restoration comes at an enormous cost to the elder brother!
  
• We can now follow Jesus’ example
  
• We are to bear the burden for the lost
• The Lost =
  
  • no longer in your possession or control
    
  • unable to be found or recovered or regained
    
  • confused: having lost your bearings
    
  • spiritually or physically doomed or destroyed
    
  • helpless: unable to function; without help
    
• Matthew 18:11 “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”

What is 750,000 miles long, reaches around the earth 30 times, and grows 20 miles longer each day?
Answer: The line of people who are without Christ.

Faith Promise
Disciple the nations
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel"

What is a Faith Promise? ~ 5 Things:

• One
  
  • A means of giving to God when you don’t have anything to give
    
  • Trusting God for some of His money to use for His Kingdom
    
  • An act of stewardship
    
  • CCC determines her missions outreach
• Two
  
  • It is a promise that is not based on your known resources, but on your faith
    
  • You promise to give what your Heavenly Father will supply!
    
  • “My daddy will pay for this”
• Three
  
  • An agreement between you and God
    
  • No one will come or call to collect it
    
  • We will not send you a bill!
    
  • This promise represents your personal desire, what you want to attempt for God
• Four
  
  • A plan for giving to God’s work in addition to your regular tithes and offerings
    
  • Tithe is 1/10 of your earned income
    
  • Offerings are your sacrificial gifts as the Holy Spirit leads
    
  • Alms are compassionate giving to relieve the oppressed or of giving to the poor
• Five
  
  • Faith Promise giving stretches our faith past its current boundaries
    
  • Then we see how God supplies the funds
    
  • Faith Promise giving enables every Christian to have a part in fulfilling the Great Commission

Watch Below

Be Prepared
Revelation 3:14-18

Prepare Your Hearts

• If we do not prepare our hearts with the truth, we will be overcome.
  
• John 16:33
  
• I John 5:3-5
  
• I John 4:4

Natural Thinking
~ does not prevent spiritual calamity ~

• Ephesians 6:12
  
• II Corinthians 10:4
  
  • We do not depend upon our own abilities for victory, but we depend upon the Holy Spirit and His means.
    
  • If we humble ourselves and listen, He will prepare us.
    
  • He seeks to prepare us even now.

Three Things To Acquire:

• Gold tried in the fire
  
• White garments
  
• Anointing for our eyes

Buy Gold Tried in the Fire

• This is a reference to truth that has been tested and proven reliable
  
• Proverbs 23:23
  
  • Only the truth will prepare us for crisis
    
  • And often it will prevent crisis
    
• The unexpected is usually the result of a failure to know the truth
  
  • If we prefer a lie because it offers temporary comfort, there will always be a lie available

Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Proverbs 23:23

Purchase White Garments

• This is a reference to righteousness that has been purchased for us if we receive it from Him.
  
• A refusal to walk in His ways opens us to immorality that will leave us naked and exposed in shame.
  
• Holiness is a way of life:
  
  • Separated for God
    
  • Separated from sin
    
  • All caught in popular and permissive culture will suffer culture’s judgment

I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
Isaiah 61:10

Purchase Eye Salve

• The Holy Spirit has been given to us to open our eyes to the condition of our lives and the world around us.
  
• The Holy Spirit enables us to see as God sees, not as we assume things to be, or wish that they were.
  
• He removes the naiveté that allows us to become ensnared.
  
• Truth is defined as reality from God’s perspective.

If We Have Eyes To See

• This then will result in repentance and obedience
  
• Repentance is the gift of God that comes to those who humble themselves before Him.
  
• It allows us to see, become sorrowful with God’s own sorrow, and return to Him.
  
• It enables us to see reality before it destroys us.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
II Timothy 2:24-26

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Watch Below

Help Comes From The Sanctuary
Psalm 20

Prepare Your Hearts

• If we do not prepare our hearts with the truth, we will be overcome.
  
• John 16:33
  
• I John 5:3-5
  
• I John 4:4

Psalm 20 - A Royal Psalm

• Vss 1-5 – My prayer for you
  
  • The prayer of faith
    
• Vs 6 – My assurance – Faith speaks!
  
• Vss 7-8 – Conclusion of trust – Faith rests!
  
• Vs 9 – Call to action! – Faith works!

Petition For Protection

• Vs 1 – a benediction – Beginning with Blessing!
  
  • Day of trouble – Establishes context
    
  • The preparation for battle
    
• Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
  
• John 10:28-30
• Vs 2 – Help comes from the Sanctuary
  
  • Ephesians 6 warfare of faith
    
  • Sanctuary = A sacred place
    
  • A place of refuge or asylum
• Vs 3 – Identity in worship & obedience
  
  • I Thessalonians 5:16-18
    
  • Romans 12:1-2
• Vss 4-5 – Faith believes before it see’s
  
  • Romans 8:31-35
• Vs 6 – Now I know!
  
  • The Confession of Faith
    
  • “Saves” is in prophetic perfect tense
    
  • This describes a future event as completed.
    
  • Following prayer comes assurance – anointing!
    
  • Ephesians 1:19-23
    
  • John 14:12
• Vss 7-8 – Trust is His Name
  
  • The Rest of Faith = Trust
    
  • II Corinthians 10:3-5
    
  • Philippians 2:9-11
• Vs 9 – Call For Deliverance
  
  • 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?”

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Watch Below

Peace Like A River
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3

The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.
Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock. Isaiah 26:3-4 NASB

It Is Well With My Soul

• Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
• Philippians 4:4 “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
• Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me"

Hope For The Future – Tools For Today!

• We all Invest
  
• We exchange current resources for a future hope.
  
• We delay an immediate pleasure in order to receive a greater long-term benefit.
  
• We may invest heavily in the intangibles; family, church, or other charitable activity.
  
• We may invest in the tangibles; education, property, business, stocks, etc.
• Wrong investing
  
  • sacrificing now based on false hopes which results I disillusionment and disaster
    
• As long as we live, we invest time and energy into the future.
• Optimism is only as good as the place where one has placed their trust.
  
• Misplaced trust is a recipe for crisis!

Isaiah 43:1b-3a “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior”

Peace Prerequisites

Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Isaiah 26:3 “ You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

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