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Overcoming Offenses
Fixing the #1 reason why people leave churches
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Finishing Your Course
Helping believers to purpose in their hearts to continue with God and His church
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How the Cleansing Blood and Cleansing Word Work Together
Helping believers to live an overcoming life, not just a forgiven life
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Guarding the Heart from Deception
Showing how the heart becomes deceived and how to guard or keep their heart
1. Overcoming offenses
This is my main assignment to the body of Christ.
Learning how to overcome offense is essential for every Christian. Overcoming Offenses will teach believers to recognize offense as a snare of the enemy, solely designed to entangle and hinder them. Believers will learn how to effectively respond to and overcome offense through God’s grace and power. This revelation will enable believers to walk in love, forgiveness, and unconquerable victory. We all have opportunities to receive offense, but we do not have to allow it to stay. The victory is in the believer’s response!
Reasons people leave churches:
- 10% leave to go be with the Lord
- 12% Job relocation
- 12% prefer another church
- 66% offended – bent out of shape
Included in these series of teachings:
- How Christians can live a victorious life, stay in church and not get offended. (Ps. 119:165)
- Even the bad things in life, God can turn around – we prove it with scripture.
- We reveal that Satan is behind every offensive situation that is designed to entrap.
- Blaming others will not work. We as individuals are responsible to follow Jesus Christ regardless of what others do.
- If we keep our eyes on Jesus we will stay on our Christian course with Him.
2. Finishers destiny – Start2Finish
Believers should be finish-minded like Christ and the Apostle Paul.
The 10 years I have pastored, I have seen over 1,000 people receive Christ as Savior. And yet, the best we grew to was approximately 275 people in a small town. It bothered me as a minister that over 700 people did not become a part of the church and grow in Christ or, they faded out of Christian growth. From that experience came a set of teachings to help all new and mature believers become finish-minded.
Jesus was very finish-minded from the beginning of His ministry. In John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” His last words were, “It is finished”. The Apostle Paul had the same spiritual mindset in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Included in these series of teachings:
- Reveal from the Word this mindset of being a finisher
- What steps can believers take to finish
- How to discover your purpose and destiny in Christ
- Receiving divine strength from God when life becomes difficult
The whole set of teachings is to help the church to purpose in their heart to continue with Christ.
Acts 11:23 – When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.
This would be a great time to promote discipleship!
3. How the cleansing blood and cleansing Word work together
The church will learn how the blood and the washing of the water of the word can lead to an overcoming life not just a forgiven life.
While I was in my office praying, I saw myself walk through a blood line and then a water line and they both covered me. Right after, the Holy Spirit said to me, “it’s important to know how they BOTH work together.” I received this revelation by the Spirit as 1 Cor. 2:13 says, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
Hebrews 10:22 – Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
The blood line: The cleansing blood
This deals with our conscience and when applied in the full assurance of faith, my conscience is clean and pure.
It is by FAITH that we walk through this “blood line” to receive full cleansing, forgiveness and move into righteousness. As we “walk” through (ask for forgiveness) with stain, sin, guilt, condemnation; being cleansed, we come out on the other side clean and forgiven. How? By having full assurance of faith in the blood; the reason it was shed for my forgiveness of sin.
Scriptures:
Heb. 10:2 (AMP) For if it were otherwise, would [these sacrifices] not have stopped being offered? Since the worshipers had once for all been cleansed, they would no longer have any guilt or consciousness of sin.
1 John 3:20-21 (AMP) Whenever our hearts in [tormenting] self-accusation make us feel guilty and condemn us. [For we are in God’s hands.] For He is above and greater than our consciences (our hearts), and He knows (perceives and understands) everything [nothing is hidden from Him]. And, beloved, if our consciences (our hearts) do not accuse us [if they do not make us feel guilty and condemn us], we have confidence (complete assurance and boldness) before God.
The water line: The cleansing Word
Psalms 119:9-11 – How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
As we walk out daily life, or day to day living, we can read and put the cleansing word in our mind and heart. Through the washing of the water by the word, we can cleanse our soul from the attitudes, contamination, the fallen condition and influences of the world. When we put the word in, it drives the world ways out! When we renew our mind and heart to God’s word, the word will constantly cleanse the soul (mind, will, emotions).
Bottom line: Through the blood of Christ, we are forgiven. After we are forgiven, we need to get God’s Word in our heart, so we can overcome. It is important for every believer to apply BOTH the cleansing blood and cleansing word together. As a result, the believer will be able to overcome and not have to ask for forgiveness.
4. Guarding Our Heart
The Bible instructs us that people can always go astray in their heart (Hebrews 3:10). In order to stope deception, we must guard our hearts!
I was counseling a mature Christian not to make a wrong decision that was plainly opposite to the Bible and what God commanded. Their reply was, “I’m following my heart” and yet it was against scripture. This person moved into deception. I sought God for an answer to how this can happen. He answered that prayer on how someone’s heart can be deceived and how to stop it.
Proverbs 4:23 – Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
In this series of teachings, we discuss:
- what makes up the heart and how it can be deceived
- Being aware of your heart and allowing the Word of God to be your guide in life’s decisions
- How we can stop deception
- We all have weaknesses and we all can receive grace over our weakness
James 2:22 & 25 – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
In the latter days, deception will become worse and worse. Christians need to be aware of this and be able to stop it. Many pastors have told me how important and insightful these messages have been. If you want me to teach this, you will be surprised at the understanding it gives to your church family.
Besides these 4 main messages that I minister, at times I will minister on:
STAYING POWER THROUGH FAITH & PATIENCE
Not giving up and/or losing heart
DOING THE BASICS CAN MAKE YOU EXTRAORDINARY
Most Christians are not reading their Bible on a consistent basis. Another teaching that would surprise you at it’s results of simple ideas deeply understood.