Changing is the most difficult thing in the world. Changing my attitude and my behavior. Changing how I see and perceive things. Changing the filter through which I see things and that defines my world view and how I live my life. Changing these things is one of the hardest things you will ever do.

The filter or prism that we look through defines how we see life and can change how we see God. If you were raised to believe that God is angry with you, that is how you will view God and it will affect your actions. If you were raised in an abusive home, that will affect how you see - and possibly treat your own family. The Bible gives us an amazing way to change how we see things. It doesn’t really matter how we see things because many times our prism is not reality. It’s our perception. We see certain things and they become our reality. But when I change the way I see things, I can discover God’s reality - discover the truth and discover how God sees. To start out this new year, we are going to shift the prism we look through and stop living in an environment that never allows us to tap in to what God has for us.
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 Pastor Dean - January 6, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There are three questions that God is consistently asking us. Each question acts as a gateway to the next, and the answers to these questions bring us to breakthrough and blessing in our lives. Christian life is a process. Following Christ is a journey. God uses these questions to get us through challenges, help us grow and move us from place to place. As such, we need to be happy when we face challenges and see it as an opportunity to grow in God.

God does not respond to our needs. He responds to the faith we have inside us that God will help us overcome our needs. Even in a place of blessing there will be pitfalls and obstacles (i.e. consider the serpent in the Garden of Eden). There will be things that can cause us to backslide when we aren’t managing our lives and seeing into the future - seeing through God’s eyes and with vision.
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 Sunday, November 18, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Luke 8:22-25 - Where is your faith?

The disciples were not new fisherman. They had been in storms before and had been in the boat with Jesus before. But this time they knew they were in REAL danger. Sometimes we are in REAL danger- our marriage is failing, we are on the brink of loosing our house, etc. In these situations, we come to God because we are afraid. But we have to keep our faith. I would never want God to come to me in a situation and ask me “Where is your faith?”
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 Pastor Dean - October 14, 2007: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

No matter what we’re going after, its always helpful to do it with other people. When we first become Christians, we don’t know a lot about Christ or His word. As we begin to grow, we want to find out more.

As we get stronger, people attach themselves to our strength and we take them on the journey. As the kingdom of God is revealed to the earth through the church, we are on a journey of growth. James says for us to appreciate the trials we go through because that is part of our growth. Not many of us will have our faith tested by living or dying like the New Testament saints did. That’s not to downplay our testing, but we just need to keep it in perspective.

Sometimes things go on around our life that we have no control over, and our only answer is to trust God. When we can’t work it out in our brain or see the answer, all we have left is our trust in God. Trusting in God starts with small steps of faith. Sometimes even just coming to God’s house requires trust. There is always something that is just beyond our reach that God will ask of us. That is right where God wants us, because all we can do is trust Him. Doing anything else will take us AWAY from where we want to go. There’s only one move we can make and that’s to go forward.

Jesus required something of the people that He healed (spit in the mud, the woman that touched His garment). When we read about miracles, the person that is getting healed is always involved in the miracle. Jesus could have instantly turned the water pots into wine. He could have just laid hands on whoever He wanted and they would have been healed. But he wanted them to take part of their own miracles. Faith without action is like a rocket without fuel. We move, God moves.

Luke 17:11 - If you were a leper, you were an outcast. In the Bible, leprosy can often represent sin. When there is sin in our life, we can’t connect to God because He is pure and holy and can’t fellowship with sin.

Jesus told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priest. In the Torah, if lepers were healed, the first thing that they had to do was to show themselves to the priest so that they could do a ritual. Jesus was speaking to them as if they were already healed - the only way that they could go to see the priest was if they were healed. So, the lepers WENT to the temple…and as they WENT, they were HEALED! They moved and God moved. That is the way that God works.

When we hear about a promise, we have to move towards God. We have to believe by moving, and God moves with us. We can’t find what God has for us unless we move. Do what you can do, so that God can do what you CAN’T do. It will take boldness and a huge trust factor, but we just have to start moving.

When we are standing still, God has no power in our lives. When we move, we unleash the power of heaven, and the supernatural power of God. Faith isn’t complicated: it just requires action on our part. No matter where we want to go, we have to just start moving. We move, God moves - bottom line. We are going to live our lives by making moves. Will we make bad choices? Yes. But don’t let your pride get in the way of turning around and moving again.

In the area of Reach, we are all making sacrifices. We will keep moving towards the new building through our commitments. This is a faith move and something that will build our family.

Mountains in our lives are there to be climbed. They are obstacles meant to be conquered. Once we climb the mountain, we can reach higher and see farther. If we don’t climb the mountain, we never gain the knowledge and understanding in it, and we never see the answers God wants us to see. Mountains aren’t there for us to just look at or go around. They aren’t there to scare us. God is waiting for us at the top of the mountain to give us revelation and prepare us for the next step in our journey.

Mountains are very specific things. They are things that we need to overcome in our lives, and they help us build our trust in God and walk in faith. That is why it is so important that we face them and not go around them. If we never climb the mountain and never conquer it, we will never have the power of God released into that area of our lives, and it will continue to hold us back. You can go around it, but you will never grow in God or learn to see farther than what is in front of you. God will always provide for us, whether we face our mountains or run from them, but we will never receive the revelations he has for us and we will never live the big life and the big destiny he has for us when we are living in fear.

God isn’t just on top of the mountain - God is also in the mountains. God is is the journey. The Bible says to count it all joy when you face trial. Sometimes God sends the trial and, oftentimes, God sends trial to those on which he has favor. It is an honor to have a mountain to overcome because is preparing you for something he wants you to do and preparing a revelation for you. He is also preparing a meeting between you and him on the mountain. God is always in the mountain and on the mountain. You just have to find him and his answer. Every time you climb another mountain, you become stronger.

Exodus 24 - God is ALWAYS doing something. Even when He is resting, He is doing something. Even in the summer when we are resting, we are still building relationships and stirring our vision. We are focused on lifting and raising the level of the leadership in this church.

If we want leadership in any area of our lives, we have to climb the mountain. As a leader, we want the ability to influence people in our jobs, our families etc. There will be times when we are in the forefront and WE have to make a decision - its just us and God and sometimes God won’t even say anything! He is waiting for us to decide - He directs our STEPS, not our standing.

“The leaders went up the mountain” (Ex. 24:9) - leaders are able to exert themselves. Leaders do things that are difficult. There are “mountains” in the kingdom that you have to be able to climb as a leader. For any Christian, the first mountain to climb is prayer. Then, we have to climb the mountain of God’s word…otherwise, we are being spoon-fed. We have to get to the point where we are feeding our spirits. Children can feed themselves by the time they are one year old - we must learn to do things for ourselves and not always rely on our pastors or leaders to feed us. We have to climb the mountain of attitude - pick any kingdom principle you want to conquer and that is a mountain.

God lives on the mountain. When we climb the mountain, we find God. When we are down here, we are living our daily lives - God doesn’t care about what color shirt we wear. He wants us to exert some energy and get to the top of the mountain where He is. God isn’t just ON the mountain - He is doing supernatural things.

Its always good to go up the mountain with other people (they shared a meal together - Ex. 24:11). We are people of the table - we eat and fellowship together. After we go through things together, we have a new sense of bonding - it changes your life. This church is about building a community of people that are doing life and discovering life together. This building that we are building is like a mountain that we are climbing together. God is building us through this project. The transfer that goes on in the lives of the people doing something together is powerful.

Exodus 24:13 - Moses and Joshua went further up the mountain - God had something more for them up higher. This isn’t a life where we sit back and think we’ve arrived. God is ALWAYS going to be calling us higher. Moses & Joshua had a meal in the presence of God and still went higher. God will visit us and give us instruction for our lives. Moses went even further up the mountain and a cloud covered him for 6 days. He stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights - no food, no water. There are lots of supernatural things going on in the natural - Moses was sustained on the mountain.

While Moses is with God, the followers down at the bottom were getting restless. They created a golden calf and began to worship it. They wanted something they could SEE - idol worship is about not having enough faith to believe in God that we can’t see. 3000 people died that day, and coincidentally, 3000 people were saved on the day of Pentecost. Don’t be a person that doesn’t have faith to start climbing the mountain. If we don’t climb the mountain, we look to carnal things.

The people crossed the Red Sea, which is symbolic of our salvation experience. Even in the wilderness, God still fed them manna and provided for them. There was still more water to cross - the Jordan River. We don’t actually possess anything until we go through the Jordan and get to the Promised land. God didn’t stop the Jordan until they STEPPED in. Leaders are constantly stepping out and trusting a God that they can’t see…except when we climb the mountain, and see God - our faith and trust comes from our mountain experience. Climbing the mountain will change us.