Coastal Church Podcast

<p>In the midst of setbacks in life, we know that God has a plan! Rather than shrink back, we press ahead and sense God has great things in store for those who put their trust in Him.<br> <br>And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28</p>

<p>Thankfulness is more powerful than we might think. It is the key to wholeness in our relationships and contentment in life. More importantly, it is the key to receiving the wholeness God has promised for every area of our lives.</p>

<p>In our culture today meekness may be perceived as weakness. However, meekness is not weakness, but supreme self-control empowered by the Spirit to live an overcoming life on earth.</p>

<p>God has designed tears and mourning to release that pain we experience and to be part of a healing process. When pain is bottled up and kept inside, it can poison our spirits. For those in the kingdom God has promised that those who mourn will enjoy His comfort.</p>

<p>Everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ is a citizen of God’s kingdom. And in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us the beatitudes, the characteristics He expects every Christian to manifest. The beatitudes are more than pithy sayings, they are radical truths that are as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago.</p>

<p>The end of time is revealed in the book of The Revelation Of Jesus Christ. The whole Bible story leads up to a climax in this book. Here the author, the apostle John, gives us a glimpse into what heaven will be like. What began in the first pages of the Bible is accomplished in the last pages of the Bible.</p>

<p>As we approach the end of the book of Acts, we find Paul on his final missionary journey, spreading the Gospel of Jesus to the known world. He is a prisoner on a boat headed to Rome. He’d been arrested in Jerusalem for causing a disturbance and, while under arrest had shared the Gospel with King Agrippa, almost compelling him to become a Christ follower. Now he was on his way to stand before Caesar and accomplish his mission of bringing the Gospel to gentiles and rulers (Acts 9:15).</p>

<p>This week we will continue in the book of Acts. As the church begins to reach beyond the Jewish world, the question is, who is going to take the message of Jesus and what He has done to the world? Peter is featured in the first 12 chapters of Acts and then Paul takes the spotlight in his mission to take the message to primarily the people outside the Jewish community. His life is a thrilling adventure of someone fully devoted to preaching the Gospel to a culture much like ours today.</p>

<p>The book The Acts Of The Apostles reveals the new beginnings of the church. The early church believed and preached the resurrection of Jesus and the power of His name. The prophet Isaiah had spoken of a Child to be born whose name would be called “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” and now the church would live and die for that name.</p>

<p>In the upper story God is watching over the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of mankind. From the book of Genesis onwards the scarlet thread of redemption was woven into the bible. It may be obvious for us to look back and see the plan, but for people living at the time, despair was all they experienced until they saw the resurrected Lord Jesus.</p>

<p>In the upper story we see God’s plan of redemption through the death of Jesus on the cross. As Jesus is about to die, He utters these words, “It is finished.” At that very moment, the temple curtain was torn, an earthquake split rocks and tombs were opened. It was finished. What could compel the Son of God to endure such torture? Finishing. Finishing the work that the Father sent Him to do.</p>

<p>Jesus knew that His trial and death was quickly approaching. He now for the first time introduces the term “church” and purposes to prepare His followers for the next dispensation. This is the first use of the word church in the New Testament (or the Bible for that matter), using the ancient Greek word ekklesia. Significantly, this was well before the beginnings of what we normally think of as the church on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.</p>

<p>Kingdom of God appears 70 times in the New Testament<br><br>“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 14:17</p>

<p>John the Apostle used two characters in this week’s chapter of The Story to “sandwich” the best-known verse in the whole Bible - John 3:16.</p>

<p>Heaven had been very quiet for 400 years. Now, after hundreds of years and many glimpses of the Messiah, we finally arrive at the birth of Jesus.<br>Even as God has existed for eternity past so has Jesus. In fact, Jesus was the Genesis Word. How did God create the universe? With words. “Let there be.” And there was. In John’s account of the Gospel, he tells us that the voice saying “Let there be” was the voice of Jesus speaking.</p>

<p>While many great theological and spiritual lessons can be drawn from the book of Nehemiah, this message focuses on the very practical leadership lessons that can be gleaned from studying the methods and outcomes of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is surely one of the Bible’s greatest leaders.</p>

<p>Proverbs 16:33 tells us that we may throw the dice, but God determines how they fall. God’s name is not mentioned in the Book of Esther, but behind the scenes God guides all that seems to happen by “coincidence.”</p>

<p>The classic parable of the Prodigal Son provides us with a glimpse into what a father’s love for a child should look like.</p>

<p>We too, must put first things first if we expect to see the blessings of God in our lives. Jesus clearly tells us in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”</p>

<p>Andy Hawthorne, OBE is a British evangelist, author and founder of The Message Trust, a Christian mission organization based in Manchester, UK.</p>

<p>It is possible to succeed and be in the world, but not of the world.<br><br>It is easy to be overwhelmed today when the world presses in on all sides. Yet we have the words of Jesus in John 17:15, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”</p>

<p>God had tried everything to encourage the people to return to Him. After they had repeatedly broken the covenant, God could not continue to bless His people. God had to bring correction, but He would also give them a fresh hope for the future.</p>

<p>Our main character this week is King Hezekiah. He was the 13th of 20 kings of Judah, The Southern Kingdom. Hezekiah was one of few southern kings who attempted to follow God and return the people to loving and obeying Him. The Northern Kingdom fared much worse than Judah. They had no godly kings and, as a result, God allowed Assyria to conquer them and send the people into exile. This occurred in 722 B.C., during the period that Hezekiah reigned in Judah. During this time Isaiah and Micah were assigned by God to be prophets to the people in Judah. Both of these prophets saw beyond the present turmoil to the Messiah who would ultimately redeem mankind.</p>

<p>Guest Speaker Isak Pretorius from For Afrika shares a special Mother's Day Message.</p>