A rich young ruler, and a pillow to rest your feet on. ( Revival Sunday August 28,2011)

God has been so incredibly good to us and our ministry. We are so grateful for the people who helped us make revival a great success!

Tonight we learned, that we must love the Lord and that through that we have VICTORY.

Matthew 22:37 says that "You must love the Lord Your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind."

The story of the rich young ruler tells us just that.  We learned that we can't earn our way into heaven, and that God requires 100% total obedience from us! Jesus told the rich young ruler (who our kids somehow named Richard?) that he must sell ALL of his possessions and follow Him.  That was asking a little too much of him apparently, because he just walked away!
God wants ALL of our lives. He wants us to be obedient to His word, and to His plan for our lives so that we can follow Him and do HIS works. All we have to do is love Him and we will want to do those things.

Matthew 19

¹⁶ Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good^[e] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
¹⁷ So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?^[f] No one is good but One, that is, God.^[g] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
¹⁸ He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ¹⁹ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’^[h] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”^[i]
20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.^[j] What do I still lack?”
²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
²² But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Then, Pastor Derek taught us that by following Jesus we can have victory! 

We learned that Satan was de-armed when Jesus was born as a baby, and defeated when He died on the cross. We also learned that Satan is a big fat liar (and then Pastor Derek ripped his tongue out!)  The best part of all, is that through Jesus' resurrection, we have the power and authority to crush Satan's head (or knock it off in our case).   And you know what? All that is left is a soft pillow to rest our feet on!

Make sure you check out the following post and see the video of Pastor Derek teaching us about how God won the victory! 

Pastor Derek talks about Satan's Transformation (Revival, Video)

Jesus did some AMAZING things while He was alive, but there was some Transformations going on that we just could not see - Satan was Transformed by Jesus too!

Lazarus! Jesus? Lazarus! Jesus? (Revival, Saturday August 27,2011)

We have had such a great time this weekend at Revival with our kids!

1. Loss is often Painful.
In our lesson tonight, we learned about the death of Lazarus. Mary and Martha were grieving the loss of their precious brother. Loss is painful. Often times we mourn the loss of things in our lives, like money, friends, time, etc. There aren't many occasions that we can say that loss is NOT painful.

2. Our time may be the WRONG time.


Jesus waited until the timing would bring the Father glory before going to Lazarus. Often times we get discouraged or upset when God doesn't answer our prayers the minute we ask, or when we think we need them. But our timing isn't always the right timing.

 ¹ Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³ Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
⁴ When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. ⁷ Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
⁸ The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”
⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”
¹² Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” ¹³ However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.
¹⁴ Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
¹⁶ Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

3. God's time is ALWAYS the right time.
Jesus understood, that for God to receive the glory, going to Lazarus right away was not the answer.  We even see that Jesus was overcome with sadness over Lazarus' death and he wept. But God's timing is ALWAYS right.  Sometimes in our lives we want God to answer our prayers right then and there, but God knows what is perfect and good for us! Let us have faith and trust in His perfect time!

¹⁷ So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles^[a] away. ¹⁹ And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

²⁰ Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. ²¹ Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
²⁴ Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
²⁷ She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”  
²⁸ And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” ²⁹ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was^[b] in the place where Martha met Him. ³¹ Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”^[c]
32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
³³ Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. ³⁴ And He said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”
³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
³⁷ And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”  
³⁸ Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.^[d] And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” ⁴⁴ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Memory Verse :
Ecclesiastes 3:1  "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven."

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Return to Him with your WHOLE heart. (Revival, Friday August 26,2011)

Psalm 136:1  "O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever."

1. Sometimes we need to seek out our healing.

Tonight we learned about ten lepers.
Luke 17:11-19 
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

These 10 men had to seek Jesus out to receive their healing, and sometimes so do we!

2. Obedience isn't an option.

After they asked Jesus to heal them, he gave them a direct command to GO and show themselves to the priests.  

Sometimes we have to do what is asked of us, even though we may not want to, to receive what God has planned for us. 

And as they went, they were made clean. (v.14)

3. Return to Him with your whole heart! (thankfulness is a choice)

After all of this, only ONE man returned to Jesus and thanked Him for what He'd done for him.  Will you be that one?   Will you return to Jesus with your whole heart and worship Him for His mighty works? 

"Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."  (v.14-19)

Memory Verse :

Jeremiah 24:7  And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

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