God doesn't simply desire to tell us things, His purpose is to spend time with us - to personally intersect with us as His individual children. His purpose in creation and redemption is to walk with us in life so that we may know him, love Him and enjoy Him. This first message in the Divine Encounters series sets the table for the other messages which will follow. This passage from the ancient prophet, Zephaniah, shows us the degree to which God delights in us as His beloved children. Very few places in Scripture allow us the opportunity to clearly visualize how God feels about His children like this passage does. You may be astounded to learn how God the Father feels about us. So, will you have courage to believe that God feels this way even about you?

Transforming Truth (audio)

The God Who Loves Encounter

Stretched. Tired. Frazzled. Worn out. Beaten, Bruised. Broken. Sound familiar? This life can weigh us down with countless pains, losses and burdens. This is not a new thing. The human experience has always carried heaviness. When Jesus went to the masses in His day, He did not pretend that their lives were easy. Even His own followers would nod their heads when He mentioned the weariness of life to them. Yet, in the midst of all that might stretch us thin and wear us down, there is a beautiful invitation from Jesus. This message unpacks the simple call from the son of God to everyone who wonders if they can make it another day. Jesus is no distant King. He steps up to us in the midst of our heavy struggles and invites us with the relieving summons, “Come to Me."

A Beautiful Invitation

The subject of the return of Jesus Christ to earth intrigues all Christians and even provokes the curiosity of non-Christians. Because the mission of the New Testament Church is to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus, we who follow Him should be eager to understand all that is said about His return. What if I told you that this subject, perhaps more than any other in the Bible, must properly affect our normal day-to-day lives. In this message, the Apostle Paul shares with us how we can be prepared as individuals for the tings which immediately precede the return of Jesus to earth. These verses are willed with wisdom, warning and deep comfort as we consider what is toga-pen just before Jesus comes back. Our lives can be aligned accordingly so that we are fully prepared for this monumental future event.

Remaining Ready For The Return

When God brings a person’s mind into wisdom and revelation, He has won that person to Himself forever. An ancient passage of Scripture holds some extremely relevant guidance for today’s Christian pertaining how we step into spiritual breakthrough and continue there. So much of the Christian life hinges on how we think. Listening, believing and responding to God’s ways and words result in powerfully transformed lives that are no longer enslaved to what is happening in this world. We are able to rise above and triumph over anything which life throws at us. This is not some religious self-help rah-rah message. This is a message grounded in ancient truth that welcomes God to capture and hold our attention for breakthrough. If you seem to always be waiting on Kingdom breakthrough and not actually experiencing it, these ancient verses may hold the key for you.

Your Road To Breakthrough

In your Bible, the life of faith is likened to many different things. It has been called a fight, a journey, a flight, a valley, a marriage, a crucifixion, a voyage, a race, a pursuit, a birth, and even a death. These metaphors, along with others, bring the concepts which incorporate our lives of faith down to earth. One word the Bible never uses to describe the believer’s life is convenient. The fact of the matter is that life is often difficult whether you are a Christian or not. The difference between the Christian’s difficulties and the non-Christian’s is that we have the sure-fire promise of eventual and ultimate victory. Yet, in the midst of impossibilities, challenges and wearisome routine, there are moments wherein God works in such a mighty way that we can never forget. Sometimes, nothing short of a fiery display of breakthrough power will suffice. In this message, Elijah not only needed a display of power like that from God, he unapologetically set up circumstances wherein, if God did not show up, Elijah would have lost everything including his own life. These moments are when we are all reminded that fire works. God is willing to release His fire into your impossibility.

Fire Works

Who among us has not known what it is to become the target of someone’s intentional attempts to verbally wound us? Whereas the old children’s saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” may be popular, it could not be farther from the truth. The impact of someone’s verbal assault against us can potentially remain in our memories for decades. Our identities can take severe blows and become misshapen if we put stock in foul things spoken over our lives. Satan traffics in accusation and, if we do not walk in the Spirit, we might become one who speaks his words over others, or one who believe what others have spoken wickedly over us. This message teaches us from the life of King David what it means to overcome days of slander and shaming. It is impossible to always dodge the sinful words of others against us, but it is entirely possible to live free from having perpetually offended hearts. David helps us to see how this refusal of living offended looks in live action.

Crushing The Spirit Of Offense

Nobody gets into Heaven apart from personally, intentionally surrendering to Jesus Christ as Lord. In this sense, sinners are saved through their own personal faith. Yet, it is also true that nobody gets into Heaven apart from God sovereignly initiating, continuing and completing their salvation by His grace. Remove sovereign grace, there will be no salvation. Remove personal faith, there will be no salvation. So, what does it look like when God goes after a soul? This message spotlights the testimony of one man who desired to know God and His truth. The visible means by which God brought this man to Himself help us to discern what saving love in action looks like. May we worship God for His sovereign grace, and may we also be sobered to recognize that God uses human commitment to accomplish His divine plan.

When God Goes After A Soul

When the story of planet earth and its inhabitants comes to an end, all the strategies of Satan and the demonic realm will be fully and forever exposed. Each redeemed saint of God will bet made aware of any and all lies we believed while we were alive on earth. Though we will be forgiven and justified before Holy God, we will, no about, be brokenhearted about the lies we believed. Chief among those demonic lies will be the notion that abortion was a debatable issue. From God’s perspective, there is no fog surrounding the issue of abortion. God Himself speaks His position concerning innocent life in the womb. It is Satan and his host of demons that has planted the lie that abortion is permitted by God. This message takes us through the clear teaching of Scripture concerning the damnable practice of abortion. This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue from which the Church in America has departed and sided, in many instances, with the demonic strategy to exterminate life that God has ordained. Christians should listen carefully, inspect their own position on the issue of abortion, and immediately align with the heart of God.

The Demonic Strategy Behind Abortion

Frequently, God will move in a generation of His people to bring them to a deep level of truth and repentance. Before God releases a fresh move of the Spirit, He first moves within His own people to acknowledge their deep need for His presence and power. What does it look like when God has determined to restore His people to Himself? He stirs internal hunger. He exposes an unhealthy tolerance for sin. He reveals the apathy of our hearts toward His Kingdom. Then…He places His love, grace and mercy on full display until we can no longer resist His call for us to return home to Him. This message walks us through a time of generational restoration to God. We are in need of such a move in this present hour.

Restore Us, O God!

The Bible teaches the unconditional love of God for people. That is not to say that people are unconditionally accepted by God, but His love is simply offered because it is who He is in His nature. Not as easily received is the truth that God’s children are to love others in this same way. Jesus taught that we are to intentionally love those around us without conditions. He even tells us to press in to loving our very enemies. Of all that Jesus taught, this may be the hardest for us to embrace. We are to love all others just as we ourselves are loved by God. This message unpacks this teaching from the King and exposes how often we fall short of His command to love. How will we ever arrive to this level? By trusting in the One who will pour His love through us.

Remaining Committed To Love

Jesus calls His followers to live out well-seasoned and brightly shining lives. We are not to hide from the world. Christians do not live in retreat or recluse. The goal of the Gospel points upward in worship and outward in mission. In these verses from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us who we are in Him, and what He has fully accomplished for us. He exposes the weakness of trusting in moral religion. Jesus declares that He has fulfilled all that the Law demands so that we are free to live motivated by trust and love rather than fear and striving. He is calling us to put Him on full and public display as we live out our lives in a world that does not know Him. Religion demands that we behave. Jesus demands that we believe. Between these two demands, eternity hangs in the balance for us.

Conspicuous Christianity

Many people understand and believe in a literal devil. the Bible teaches that he exists. Jesus was fully aware of the reality of Satan and He battled Satan in the wilderness. But where did the devil come from? How did he become what he is today? This message unpacks one of the rare Old Testament passages that serves to reveal to us how Lucifer, a once-glorious angel in Heaven, became Satan, the evil dragon whom God cast out of Heaven and destined for destruction. If you know your enemy, you are better equipped to defeat him. Here is the story that the devil hates to be told.

The Desire & Destiny Of Satan

This is the media outreach of Jeff Lyle, Senior Pastor of Meadow Baptist Church.

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Transforming Truth (audio)

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