II Corinthians 6:11 - I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide open spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. Your lives aren’t small, but you are living them in a small way. Open up your life. Live openly and expansively.

A life that isn’t challenged is the life of a person who isn’t living to the level of potential God requires. God is living. Life is dynamic and growing. We are called to be moving, growing - living our Christian life to the full. We always want to be striving and moving towards a place we have never been before. God wants to bring us into new places and into new experiences that we’ve never had. We are the ones that hold ourselves back by focusing on why things can’t happen instead of walking in faith.
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 Pastor Dean Sweetman - April 13, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

II Corinthians 6:11 - (the Message) - “I can’t tell you much I long for you to enter this wide open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I am speaking as plainly as I can, and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively.”

Capacity and bigness - we are going to make this a “no small life zone”.
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 Pastor Dean Sweetman - April 9, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John 15:1-6 - When we’re connected to the vine and growing from the vine we become round, plump, appealing and ready to pick. We should be the fruit that people want to take a big bite out of! Not the fruit that’s round, hard and stuck on the vine.

Being on the vine means that we’re put through a process in order to become the appealing, plump fruit we desire to be. Because of the different seasons of life we must go through different processes and endure various weathers before we are complete.
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 Pastor Jill Sweetman - April 6, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When we want God to move, we have to shift our minds off of the disaster and on to God. God will move on the disaster, but he is not the disaster. When we dwell on the pain and dwell on the negative, our minds go there. Half of the battle is in our minds. When we focus on God and on the positive, it actually starts us moving and gets us on the journey towards breakthrough. When we move in faith on this journey, we open up the door for God to move in our situation and we take our situation to the place that God is. God moves on our natural situation, but we have to stand on the supernatural promises of God and bring them into play.

Proverbs 29:18 - Where there is no vision (revelation or dream) the people perish. But he that keeps the law, happy is he.
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 Pastor Jill - March 26, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John 20 - The story of Mary Magdelene discovering Jesus had resurrected.

There are several things about this event that are so powerful, that you have to look closely and read between the lines to find them.

The first is this: Mary Magdelene was a formerly troubled woman. Her mind had been “possessed by evil”. Once Jesus delivered her, she followed Jesus and became something of a “first responder” for his ministry. She was very close to Jesus’ mother. She was present at every significant event Jesus was involved with after their meeting - especially at the resurrection. She came to the tomb on the Sunday morning after his death with the intention to perfume and annoint Jesus’ body, only to find that it was gone. She first sees the angels and asks where her Lord is. Then she looks behind her, sees Jesus and knows him when he calls her name.
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 Pastor Dean - March 23, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

II Timothy 1:5 - Timothy was one of Paul’s most beloved disciples. This passage is about as emotional as we see him get. He is writing to one of his sons in the faith. “I know that you sincerely trust the Lord, for you have the faith of your mother and your grandmother.”

Towards the end of his life, Paul starts talking more not just about faith but of the spirit of faith. When you start talking about the spirit of something, you are talking about something someone has on them and something you can catch from them and pass on to others. There is your faith, and then there is the spirit of someone else’s faith. When Paul was raising up leaders, he talked a lot about catching his spirit and his faith.
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 Pastor Dean - March 5, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A lot of times when we pray for God to move it isn’t instantaneous. Most of the time God isn’t in a hurry to bring about his purpose. He is always moving, but is moving us on a journey to strengthen our faith. We stand on the Bible concerning the promises God has made to us. When we believe, our faith latches on to the promises of God. And the way in which we live our lives should be that “just because God didn’t answer my prayer immediately doesn’t mean I am going to get discouraged in my faith.” God is working beyond what I know. I know God is doing things in my life that are beyond my knowledge because just as much as he wants to heal me and answer my prayer, he is just as concerned with the journey and the work he is doing in me. Sometimes he is preparing me for things that I don’t understand yet. It’s not until I walk the journey of faith and pursue God that I find out what God is doing in me. Sometimes even more important than my healing or deliverance or moment of breakthrough is my journey getting to that breakthrough.
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 Pastor Dean - February 20, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Philippians 2:1-11

Servanthood is a foundational truth for us as Christians. Serving is your all access pass to everything of God. Having the heart of a servant and living like a servant is the most rewarding thing we can do as Christians. This principle, like so many other kingdom principles, goes against the view of the world. In the world servers are often looked down upon and treated poorly. We as Christians should go out of our way to treat people who are serving us as well as we possibly can. However, sometimes Christians in church have a sense that they are better than others. Sometimes they can look down on those that are serving and have an expectation that they are there for us and to do for us.
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 Pastor Dean - February 17, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We walk by faith, not by sight. Part of the promise of God is that we walk in divine health and are continually made whole.

We know that the Bible teaches about the gift of healing as one of the nine spiritual gifts. As people of the spirit, we know we can move in any of these gifts whenever we need it. It’s no good if everyone thinks the preacher - or one person - is the healer. God is the healer, not the man, and as spirit filled believers we have the power to use the healing gift. Certain believers have gotten a deep revelation about healing, and we want to live from our revelation. These people may seem to have a strong healing ministry or gift. But just because you may not have that revelation doesn’t mean that you can’t live in an environment of faith and divine healing. It doesn’t mean you can’t have the power of healing in your life and the lives of those around you.
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 Pastor Dean - February 13, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

II Kings deals a lot with the life of Elijah and of the lives and history of Israel from which we can learn. A lot of these examples deal with the temple, tithes and money. A lot of times we can over-spiritualize money. I can’t tell you that when you give your tithes and offerings all will be well. We know what God says about money - we bring Him our first and our best. God requires us to trust Him in this realm, believe that He is bigger than our circumstance and believe He will bless you and cause you to overcome despite what you see. We don’t ignore natural circumstances, but there are very clear Biblical principles of how we are to react and act when we are faced with uncertainty - especially with money. This passage deals a lot with this principle.
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 Pastor Dean - February 10, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download