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

Luke 10: 27-28

Who have you loved today? Even as great believers, we can fall into the habit of climbing the ladder in life - gaining the positions that we feel are improvements and that we think hold more esteem. People have the ideas of going somewhere big in life and they try to equate it with big names or trying to achieve something we see as “big”. None of us actually graduate through hierarchical structures that we try to attach ourselves to. God actually promotes us based on our hearts and how we treat others - based on who we have loved today.

In this scripture, Jesus answers a Pharisee (in response to the question “How do I get to Heaven?) and says “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Do this and live.” Notice that he says all four times. Even when we aren’t feeling like reaching out to or loving others, he says pull on your strength. Make the decision in your mind that you are going to love that person. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do this and you will live.
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Isaiah 9 - For unto us a child is born… This prophecy foretells the birth of Christ.

God’s redemptive plan for earth was to come to earth Himself- as a child - and become relatable. God wanted to connect to the world. “A Son will be given…” The child was the entry point. Come into the kingdom like a child. Re-learn and re-think everything. By coming as a child, God introduced Himself to us in such a way that we could identify with Him. He became real, tangible and touchable. He came and did things people needed Him to do - provide healing, comfort, compassion, encouragement and hope. He did everything He could to ensure that people understood Him.
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 Pastor Dean - Wednesday, December 19, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

God elevated Joseph in Egypt to the point that his authority was second only to Pharoah himself. At the time of the great famine, Egypt was prepared because of Joseph’s leadership and controlled all of the food stores in the region. People traveled from all around to receive Egypt’s help during the famine, including the people of Israel and Joseph’s own family. It is interesting that in the Bible, Egypt is often used to symbolize the world.

Sometimes it looks advantageous to get in with the world. Sometimes what the world has seems really nice. The problem is, once you get in with the world, you discover what the world’s motivation really is. When you are married to the world, at first it seems as if it is providing for your needs and looking after you, but eventually you will become a slave to the world. Egypt would eventually come to dominate and enslave the nation of Israel.
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 Pastor Dean 09.30.07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mark 1:9-11
Jesus came from Nazareth into Galilee was baptized by John in the Jordan River. When Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens split open and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you.”

This event marked the beginning of God’s earthly ministry and ultimately of His interaction with His creation. The three years following the baptism of Jesus were a culmination of a plan for unity and connection between man and God. The plan was set in motion when the Holy Spirit came like a dove upon Jesus. The heavens were torn open and God was reunified with man through Jesus. The baptism was the beginning. Through the ministry of Jesus over the next three years, God revealed His character, will, and desire for all mankind.

Mark 15:35-39
At Jesus’ crucifixion, some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a stick so he could drink. “Leave him alone. Let’s see whether Elijah will come and take him down!” he said. Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

This event marked the end of God’s earthly ministry. When Jesus breathed out his spirit, it entered into the temple and ripped the eighty foot curtain - separating the holy of holies from the rest of the temple - from top to bottom. The tearing of the curtain signified that the barrier and separation between man and God is broken. Just as the Heavens were split open during the baptism of Jesus, the curtain tears at his death illustrating that freedom and liberty were to be implemented. God was now for everyone. A Roman guard, a gentile, received the prophesy and spoke it out. Everything that had kept people from God had been removed.

Colossians 3:1
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.

We now have the ability to communicate face-to-face with God. We are seated right next to Him and share a new intimacy with Him. We can come close to God because Jesus made us Holy. We have been elevated and raised up into communication with Jesus who allows us to feel, see, and hear at a whole new level. We no longer have to doubt who we are or feel inferior because we have been elevated. We let Heaven fill our thoughts. Live a real life, but keep your thoughts on Heaven. God has a vision for your life. You still have to deal with life, but you no longer have to run from it. When God came to Earth and dismantled the barrier it no longer mattered who we were. God received us and transformed us. God is never content to leave you where he found you. He deals with your issues as you allow Him to. What you imagine is what you become. Let your thoughts dwell on Heaven. Stay close to Jesus. Remain seated with Him and slowly become renewed.

Jesus came to set priorities. He came to set things in order. He gave us the perfect example of how to prioritize our lives. He said, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. If you don’t understand the heart of God, you won’t understand the kingdom mindset. Jesus gave us the opportunity to join our hearts with God with his blood sacrifice. God said that he knows our hearts are joined with him by where our treasure is. Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. You can have as much stuff as you want as long as God has your heart. People for living for getting money and having things have their lives torn apart. We can’t live for that. We weren’t created to live for things. We were created to live for and in a personal relationship with God.

Every time we bring an offering to God, his heart catches fire because our hearts are aligning with his. God sent Jesus to us to bear his heart and teach us how to align our hearts with his. God sent Jesus to bear his soul so that his heart and our hearts can come together - so that we can have an intimate relationship and connection with him. That is why it is so important for us to bring our tithes and offerings to God. We are demonstrating where our hearts and priorities lie. God isn’t looking for our money, he is looking at our hearts. We have to shift our thinking about giving and make sure that we approach our finances from a kingdom mindset.

There were three main feasts in the Jewish tradition, and they were all connected to times of harvest. The feast of Passover celebrated Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The feast of Pentecost, which came fifty days after Passover, celebrated the handing down of the Law of Moses. The feast of Tabernacles, also called the feast of booths or shelters, remembered God’s provision during Israel’s forty years in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt. Every year, people would come from all over Israel to the temple in Jerusalem and would build shelters around the wall of the temple. They would then live in these shelters for the duration of the feast.

John 7 tells the story of Jesus’ visit to the Feast of Shelters. He snuck into the festival on the last day to observe the sacrifice. The festival would end with a sacrifice on the altar. Once the offering had been given, a priest would fill a giant jar with water from the pool of Siloam. Siloam is translated as “sent” or “sent one”. Water in the Bible signifies life and the Holy Spirit. Another priest would bring a jar of wine. Wine in the Bible signifies the joy of life as well as sacrifice. The priests would pour the water and wine together over the altar after the sacrifice was given. The water of life mixes with the joy of life over the sacrifice, just as blood and water ran from Jesus’ wounds on the cross.

At this point in the festival, Jesus cried out to the crowd to come to him if they were thirsty. If they believed, come to him and out of their spirits would flow living water. Jesus was actually revealing himself as the Messiah at this point. His blood sacrifice brings living water – the Holy Spirit – who leads us to the greatest life we can get. In chapter 8, Jesus says “I am the light of the world,” referencing the time of the festival, on the last night, when giant lamps were lit on the altar and all attendees lit lamps of their own in response. He says “If you follow me, you will not wander in darkness.” Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah – both life and light.

He also revealed himself as the forerunner of the Holy Spirit. By promising to bring living water, Jesus was referencing the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1 - The word “earth” means atmosphere. Go into any and every place and bring me (Holy Spirit) and inhabit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you receive POWER. Go into the World, but not in a physical sense. Go into the world with the Holy Spirit’s power. Go into the world and change the ATMOSPHERE. Take the Holy Spirit with you into your daily physical life. We are growing something in the natural just as much as the spiritual. We go from one glory to another glory as we let the Kingdom of God lead us. We need to create this environment at Church and in all of our worlds.

This week – our Holy Spirit Conference - will be so much bigger in the spirit than what we see in the natural. When we build in the natural, it makes way for God to move in the spirit. The small group (CCC Atlanta) that we started with began to grow a small atmosphere that the Holy Spirit could live and operate in. Now we have a bigger, more intense environment for the Holy Spirit to live in. We have conditioned our world to house Him. When we leave the “church”, the atmosphere follows us. As we move deeper into our understanding of the Holy Spirit, the bigger the atmosphere that surrounds us. As we add members to the church, the bigger the atmosphere as a whole. The atmosphere is where change happens. Changed physical reality is a SMALL manifestation of the larger more important change in the atmosphere. Changing and growing your Holy Spirit environment is the key to changing the hearts of people and revealing the Holy Spirit to the World.

Hey guys - check out this message from Pastor Jeff explaining the nature of Jesus as our mediator in times of trial.

Job 1 - Job was blessed beyond belief. Satan questioned Job’s integrity because he had been given everything, but Job had no reason NOT to be a great man. God told Satan that he could test Job - he just couldn’t kill him.

So Satan attacked Job in an extreme fashion, and Job had everything – his family, his wealth, his fortune - stripped from him. Not surprisingly, he was puzzled. He started wondering why all this stuff was happening. He wished to be dead all throughout the book. Job trusted God, but he still wanted to know WHY everything was happening.

Job 9:32-35 - Job asked for a mediator to come between him and God so that he could question why all of these things were happening to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to cry out to God and ask Him why everything was going wrong, he just didn’t have any reason to think that God would listen.

We don’t live our lives asking for destruction. When we face trials, we don’t ask God for more. We can all relate to Job to some extent. When we get to the times of trial, we have to know that we know about the gifts and blessings that God has given us. This has to be engrained in our heads and hearts.

1 Timothy 2:1-6 - There is only one mediator that reconcile us between God, and that is Jesus Christ. Job didn’t have that reconciliation. We can’t take for granted the blessings that we have been given. We CAN cry out and ask for help. Job couldn’t cry out because he didn’t have that mediator like we do. We have the authority as men and women, wherever we are, to go STRAIGHT to God. Jesus is sitting next to God in the throne room interceding for us and advocating us to the Father.

The encouragement here for us is not just to KNOW this, but for us also to see it and take hold of it. It’s easy to “know” these things, but not as easy to walk them out. We have to be in the House every time the doors open, no matter what our circumstances say. We don’t always have the faith to do life on our own, but that’s why we are surrounded by amazing people in the House.

If you want the amazing life that God has for, you’ve got it. The more we tell God that we want the plans and purposes that He has for our life, the more we will get. When we are doing what we were created to do, our lives are filled with joy and contentment. Step out of your comfort zone this week during our mornings of prayer and the Holy Spirit conference, and see how amazing your life can be.