Churches in Warwick

“True fellowship with the I am God requires that we see who I am. We're gonna see next week the the the conflict between the I am God and the almighty counterfeit I am of self, and God reveals, exposes in order to deliver the lie that goes back to the beginning. Oh, it'd be good for you to be like God. Be good for you to be in charge. Be good if things went your way. God's just not going your way. I love you enough to confront you with you and to deliver you from you. And I need that, and you need that, and that's what he's up to. It's his I am statements that save us from ours. And it's all through Jesus because we could never do it. He is the saving hand, the saving arm of God.”

“Israelites, there's no way you guys are getting yourselves out of here. Moses, there's no way you're gonna be able to accomplish this. God says, it's my mighty hand that's gonna get you free. As we've been saying along the way, if if we ourselves, if the big capital I, the pharaoh within is the one who gets us into all these messes, it's not gonna be the pharaoh within that gets us out. He's the problem in the first place. It's not just the circumstances, the surroundings, the other people. It's it's me. And God says, I'm the one with my strength. I'm gonna set you free. And I know that's humiliating for you because you don't wanna be the damsel in distress. You wanna have a little credit you can take, but God says, nope. It's all me from a to z.”

“K? Goshen was part of Egypt, the most fertile part of Egypt. And they were for hundreds of years flourishing, thriving, prospering. So why would God say way back then to Abram, they're going to be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years? When we find them in Exodus, they're enslaved. And here's a image of them working for pharaoh. But for hundreds of years, they were flourishing. Yet as God describes what they will go through, he says they were actually enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years, whole time, including the prosperous times. It's interesting.”

“And I wanna ask you to consider this question. Can you be enslaved in some way, oppressed in some way, we could say taxed in some way, distressed in some way, harmed in some way, and here's the key part of that question, and not even realize it. Can you be enslaved, oppressed, and not even realize it? And that sounds really strange. Maybe you're thinking, Jeff, I think I know what bothers me in life. Or maybe you'd say, I think I know who bothers me in life. So what do you mean? Can we be enslaved and in bondage and oppressed in ways we don't even realize? Well,”

“"The gospel is a message that offers hope offers mercy, forgiveness, freedom relief, not burdens and religious hierarchy and all that stuff but freedom and life and it's good news and I'm going to close with this years ago one of the most memorable baptisms I ever performed someone who is still a good friend of mine she and her husband I baptized this friend and she was in her 60's when she came to Christ and it was one of the most memorable because she shared her testimony there at the baptism service and this is what she said I'm paraphrasing but this is basically what she said she talked about how she had grown up with some belief in God and she had gone to church some as a child but as she became a young adult into her adult years she kind of left behind her religious part of her life but still had a belief in God and then life became increasingly difficult for her she went through a bitter divorce she went through a variety of other trials professionally in her personal life and other family types of situations that were very challenging and then came the real bombshell her brother with whom she was extremely close very close with her brother she probably would have considered him her best friend in the world he tragically died young he died young and in her testimony right before I baptized her she admitted to all of us how angry she was with God she admitted her hostility against God and she said it all came to a head one day when she was just so worked up and so upset that she stormed out of her house and she stood on her front step and she shook her fist in the air at God and said God I hate you so much and God I need you so much I don't know how to accept this you gotta help me you gotta forgive me you gotta save me you're my only hope and not long after that at a park a birthday party for her granddaughter throwing a football with her husband she didn't know him from Adam throwing the football we start talking he tells me and he's her second husband he had been in ministry before he had a story long story short they start attending our church she comes to faith in Jesus still a follower of Christ today and it all started with her admitting seeing clearly what was in her heart toward her creator seeing clearly what Romans 5 says is true of all of us if while we were yet enemies hostile toward God to him through the death of his son we were able to admit that hostility and found in Jesus amazing mercy and compassion and forgiveness and is still in love with him to this day sometimes we're aware of it sometimes we're not even aware of it can't even imagine feeling that way but in the right circumstances it would come out it would it's part of that fallen nature out of radical love purity says you're my child you belong to me forever no matter what you're in you're righteous in Christ that's great news that we get to share people around us and if they're going to hate us may they hate us for the right reasons may God help us let's pray."”

“"The hatred comes from the religious and the irreligious alike. And in some ways the most venomous the most tenacious opposition came from the religious world in Jesus' day. And that's probably primarily what he's talking about here in John 15. Is how the religious people hated him. And I want to show you evidence of that. Here as well. Verse 22. Look again what he says there. If I had not come and spoken to them they would not have sinned. But now they have no excuse for their sin."”

“"The Spirit of the truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about me. And you will testify about me. He will testify, that is, about me. And in that testimony about Christ, there will be a reaction of opposition, is what He's saying. So do you see how this is primarily aimed at God? You see that? It's primarily against God Himself and against Christ Himself."”

“"It's all about the love of God, and it's interesting that it takes this turn in verse 18 toward this topic of hatred. So we have the love of God, and then we have this idea of the hatred of the world. It's a fascinating contrast. It's a pretty stark contrast, and it again highlights just how great and how magnificent our God is. So let's talk first of all now, as we're in our passage, about the hatred being against God Himself."”

“"There is such thing as persecution. There is such thing as a hatred of God's people, of Jesus' followers. And there's some ways we can tell the difference between something that's just humans treating humans poorly and being disliked. But as a result of that, there's a difference between that and actually being persecuted, being hated for the sake of Jesus. And that's what this passage helps us to discern and understand is the difference between the two."”

“"We live in a world that is hostile as a result of the vertical hostility there is a great deal of horizontal hostility people fighting with one another verbally we have images and videos and messages on social media all day every day reminding us of that our own struggles our own frustrations and irritation and anger toward other people people on the other side politically or whatever we all experience these things common to us and thus we all need you we need your truth we need your light we need your love we need your mercy we have it we're so thankful that he came to live and to love to die and to rise that we might be brought into relationship with you that we might have eternity with you you are our hope you are our life we thank you we praise you we celebrate you for all that you have done for us thank you so much in Jesus name."”