Settling in

Last night was Faith Christian Center's Back-2-school bash and it was amazing!! Group1Crew performed songs from their newest album, while my friends and i were dancing and singing along in the crowd. It was awesome just being able to do me and praise God how i praise God, with everyone around me doing the same.Our youth group is just amazing. I'm glad i can say i'm a part of #TeamLifted :) 


 I really love the atmosphere of FCC. I don't want to put my former church down, but ever since i became a member of FCC, i have grown extremely closer to God. The youth have embraced me as if i had been a member my whole life and i love it! I plan on joining a lot of the same ministries i was a part of at my last church: nursery, bible study, praise and worship, and outreach. Of course, i won't be limited to just those few ministries listed. If something catches my eye, i'm sure i will check it out. ?I just love being there. I don't know everyone, but the group of people i do know are so on fire for Christ, and they encourage me to stay on fire for Christ. That's all i need. No need for more than that. 


I can see a lot of great things happening in the future as I grow more and more in my new faith familly. Please pray for our pastors, and youth leaders. May God give them the wisdom, authority, and vision to lead us into a new level in our faith. In Jesus' name, amen. 

Hard Hearts, Stiff Necks

Hebrews 3:7- 

-obedience is better than sacrifice. 

-every time you delay in God's instruction, you put yourself into a position where you murmur and complain. When you murmur and complain, you put yourself into a position where you can be subject to disbelief

-in church, you're shouting "hallelujah" and "Thank you Jesus," but when you get home--> you're not always shouting "thank you," but maybe something along the lines of  "God, when are you going to move this mountain from in front of me?!" 

*It's easy to shout & praise God when you're in the midst of a congregation. Can you do it when you're isolated? 

-  sometimes when you're continuously murmuring and complaining, you get an attitude. You forget about everything God has done for you already. 

-when you open your mouth and speak things contrary to the word of God, you're really saying, " God i don't trust or believe in your ability to move.."
-when you don't submit to the ways of the Lord, you're submitting to the ways of the devil
-don't lose focus of the provision God has already placed on your life
-your way out, meaning your breakthrough out of your situation is your testimony. When you acknowledge God for what he's done. 
- no need to murmur or complain about what God hasn't done for you because everyday he makes a way
-(reference scriptures: Phil. 3:3; Hew10:3; Is1:19; 1John1:9) 
- stand in faith no matter the instruction/ assignment, and don't get into a position of fear. *The enemy tries to get you to doubt the power of God. 
-Consistency & Faith are two words that must go hand-in-hand
-God didn't bring you this far to leave u stranded
- when you don't respond to the moving of the holy spirit, you harden your heart
- when you don't respond & you're not obedient, you may be hindering someone else whose blessing is connected to YOUR obedience to Christ. 
-Just because YOU are saved doesn't mean YOUR flesh is saved. Your flesh is not saved and will cause you to get sidetracked and forget that you are indeed a child of God and should act accordingly. Sometimes you have to remind yourself; tell yourself, "i am a child of God." --> But if you just sit on it, and never open your mouth to declare victory over any demonic influences you face through your flesh, don't be surprised if you find yourself in ungodly circumstances. You didn't claim authority over it in the beginning. 
- while you are in your situation, you have to come to the realization that it will NOT kill you! You will come out of it! The problem is that you begin to get a bit impatient because your flesh doesn't want to be there! Your flesh doesn't want to hurt like that, or lose like that. But sometimes God has to take us out in order to put us back in, in a position better than where we were before; to draw us closer to him. 
- delayed obedience leads to delayed results.

"Dying to Change" ~ Bishop George Davis ~ Romans 6:1-

- Jesus died to give us access to God -> salvation should come after change.

- God doesn't want to just change the inside, but transform the outside as well

* the change comes when you RENEW your mind (if you don't renew your mind, you may just be a born-again believer on the inside only)

- you have to be exposed to a certain expectation of how God operates.

**You can end up with a short-term HIGH of god and no long-term RELATIONSHIP/ commitment/ encounter with him if you don't renew your mind.

7 STEPS TO RENEWING YOUR MIND (sorry, we only got through 4 of them)

1) identify the root cause to your "success"  (i will check next week because i didnt catch the last word of this step, but it only makes sense given the notes that follow that it would be success)

2) **settle the fact that God is right about everything, and we are wrong if we disagree with Him.

3) meditate God's word daily to establish right thinking (psalm 119:84)

4) evaluate & change what you're hearing & seeing

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Enemy's trick = to make you so guilty to the point that quit! But keep chasing after God!! Never stop trying.

-don't worry about what the devil might throw at you to convince you otherwise. it's between you and God, not you and the devil.

-Joshua 1:8 -> your success is NOT defined by economic or political status; you must live out the word of God. 

                           -> ** a lot of Christians want to live out THEIR own way but get GOD results!

-Yes, God governs over us. However dont blame every bad thing that happens to you on God's doing!! -> Psalm115: what happens down here has more to do with what WE do, not God. HOWEVER he still helps us out...

            -> ex: you're 17, you sneak out of the house when your parents aren't home, and you go to a teen club. upon arrival, shots ring out, you're hit in the head and you stumble to the ground. At that moment you are wondering why you even came to that club in the first place. All the people around you are screaming, and crying, but you are still on the ground, dying. God didn't put you in that situation. However when you continue to live and follow that course leading to destruction, sometimes you get into crashes..

- 1 reason why many christians don't do the right thing: b/c we are trying to will ourselves to do it God's way, but you need revelation! -> 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4 - before you can obey the word, you first must receive revelation of the word.

-meditating is not just closing your eyes and clearing your mind (according to the bible). it means you can take a scripture, repeat it break it down, etc.

       -> example: psalm 23 "the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.."

              - okay... the Lord. The Lord. My provider. Wonderful. Merciful...

               - is my shepherd... shepherd. The good shepherd. That means i/we must be the sheep. He is sovereign over me&you. That means he reigns and i obey his commandments..

                - I shall not want.... I .. me... i shall not want. That means that if i listen to God's calling over my life and follow his commandments he will take care of all of my needs and i won't want for anything!!!

* you see how much more yuou get out of that verse when you meditate on it, rather than just reading it?? and you can do that with any scripture!!

-watch out for hearing anything thats not annointed. DONT listen to it.

*you can't expect to think/act out annointed thoughts if your mind is saturated with stuff that does not line up with the word of God

(references: Eph.1:17; Collosians3:18-; Eph6:; Psalm 101:3; mark4:23-24)

-we ALWAYS look at the end result: the mess up. The lust, the adultery, sin etc. Oh God, please forgive me. I'm sorry. I know i said i wouldn't go there anymore, or do that anymore, etc. BUT we need to back up and think about the MINDSET that got us there!!!

           -> ex: "any man that lusts after a married woman has already commited adultery with her.."

*everything you see & hear WILL IMPACT YOUR HEART!! whether you agree or not, eyes, ears, mouth = the gates/windows to your heart.

          -> you struggle with your flesh when you put secular things before your eyes.

(prov. 4: 20) Living out a holy christian life isnt hard, but living a DOUBLE-LIFE (Christian on the weekends and a whole different person during the week)

- 1 Corinthians7

- so often do christians accept the ungodly, unannointed, sinful things of this world. -> our morality boarder[what we are ok with and what we won't go for] should be smaller than what it is. ex: pre-marital sex, homosexuality, killing, etc. is all made to seem acceptable throught what we listen to, watch, and do. Some of the music out right now is really nothing more than pornography in lyric form.

**Anything that tries to give you a SHORT_CUT to the way God says to do something is the Devil trying to knock you off course.

-step #5: submit to an environment that challenges our "stinking thinking" (that is, your thinking that is not aligned with the word of God)

-if you are my friend i should be a greater christian when im around you.

-my close friends should challenge me to stop my negative thinking (thoughts of temptations to sin, etc), NOT beat you down about it but redirect your mind to that which is aligned with the word of God.

-we all have a tendency to setle for the "norm" (ex: no one else on my block makin straight A's so even though i KNOW i am capable of making straight A's i'm not going toeven try to earn them..)

-it's going to be hard for you to renew your mind if you are still hanging around friends that think the way you used to think.

-step# 6: commit to the longterm pain of change (it takes time)

--> philipians 1:6

everyone has some things to change. God said that he would be working on us until the very moment he calls us home. THEREFORE, we must have something in us that needs to be fixed

-have enough integrity of heart not to boast around like ou are perfectas a Christian because ou are not!

-change is a process

->1peter5:8-

-when ou're attempting to renew your mind, it's a longterm process that ou must continuall work at

--> 2 Corinthians 10:3-

-don't let our thoughts dictate our actions ((u and your thoughts are not one!)

->john8:31&32

-life and death are determined by what is sown into our lives

->john 15:1

(step # 7): remind yourself daily that you can do nothing without Christ.

Why Preach?? ~ minister Brandon (youth pastor @ Faith Christian Center)~ thursday youth service

- 1 trick of the devil is to get us to a point where we don't even realize that people around us are hurting! (because we become so focused on whats best for us and how we can get blessed, etc). You never get healing before glorifying the name of God.

**QUESTION: how is it possible for you to have friends and they AREN"T christian??! --> the most terrible thing about Hell is that the presence of God is there, and you can't get to Him. his grace, glory, love, mercy, kindness, etc. is all there!!! BUT you can't get to it, Him. You had a choice to love him...

--> **Would you want to live with that guilt for all eternity??! (the guilt of knowing that you could have shared, you had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a friend, stranger, etc, and they could have possibly given their life to Christ, but you were too afraid to open your mouth and share the good news with them..) God is soverien in both heaven and hell

*if the christians never lift up Jesus, how will the world ever see him?

-"preach" - to make known, to announce openly or proclaim

          -> this isn't a shy person, or a popular person for that matter.

                      -> *anyone who hates being corrected probably is not a Christian! (wow!) God contradicts the things of the world, and vice versa. he is a father who corrects his children out of love..

                                   -> if  your friends don't want to be held up to God's standards, judged by him, why would they want you in their faces constantly proclaiming the name of Jesus??!

-we have to be careful b/c we can go a few days w/o being in the presence of God and we may look fine on the outside, but in actuality, we are slowly dying like a branch that has been removed from the vine. 

-you can't be damaged beyond repair if you have Jesus

-Jesus can fix you, but you have to go to him! & he is the only one that can satisfy our needs!

-don't worry about your hurt! --> go out into the world and help others with their hurt & i guarantee you that god will take care of yours 

*Q: what's the reason you don't want people saved?? (b/c you must not want them saved if you're not opening your mouth to share God w/ them!)

*you'll never be pleasing to God until you realize that you need him (heaven should be the last thing on your mind)

-everyday you almost have to live in the mindset of "hey, does that person know Jesus?" 

-open your eyes!! there's life outside of highscool!! life is bigger than your household

---> [continued..] Matthew 9:34-38

point # 1: 

point# 2: have the same compassion 4 the lost that Christ had 4 them

point #3: (1 timothy2:4) know that God desires for everyone to be saved --> therfore we should want them saved too!

point #4: God ensures that everyone he sends out is equipped to preach!! --> he gave us all the same power that he had! --> that's what you need to build your faith on!

- you have to start speaking the word of God into your own life before you can speak it into someone else's life!

*Jesus ought not be a expression or phrase! we must use that name with respect

-we have the power to cast out all demons & afflictions & pain. & we must have the faith in the name of Jesus 

-point #4 continued--> luke 10:17-  --> God kicked Satan out of heaven faster than lightning and he turned into a SERPANT! Jesus's name gives us authority and power to triumph over the heads of serpants (vs 20)

-bk to the text: healing will never take place before/ unless you procliam Jesus first (because he is the one doing the healing..)

- the answer to all problems is Jesus! nothing else

-Q: why did Jesus care/ have compassion for the multitudes??

      A: b/c the people were harassed; harassed- to be distressed, to have great pain, to have anxiety and sorrow. To have acute physical & mental suffering, afflictions & trouble.

- helpless: to feel like a failure or disappointment.

Refer to Matthew25:31