Breakthrough

I felt the Lord impress this word on me. "My people are holding on to difficulties, they're holding onto problems, fears, and doubt. But more importantly they are holding onto their emotional wounds in them of discouragement, frustrations, failure, disappointment, circumstances. I can not heal them and deliver them as long as they are holding on to them and won't release them to me. I want to free them and I want to deliver them and I want to make them whole, but they are holding on to them so tight, that they just keep thinking in terms of what their pain is rather than where their deliverance is."

I don't want to hold on to my problems, I don't want to make excuses. I don't want to hold on to my pain. Our pain is an excuse to stay where we are. God wants us to face our pain. When you stand on Jesus, God will free you from your emotional bondage and the emotional power of the devil. Whatever door you opened up God gave you the power to close it. You don't have to let the devil in. You can kick him out.

God has given us the opportunity to step into a new place. God's got a new miracle for you. I'm not looking to the past. I'm excited about what God is getting ready to do for me. I believe I'm going to see the miracles that God has for me. David said I would have died and given up if I didn't believe in His goodness. David believed in the goodness of God. Do you believe in His goodness?

This changed my attitude and I had to readjust my faith. Am I in a place where God wants me to be in to receive a miracle?

Unbelief is doing the same thing, living the same way without expecting God to do anything different. Unbelief lives in the past. Unbelief talks about the future in a negative way. Unbelief looks at your circumstances and doesn't think God can do anything different. Your failures have marked you, wounded you, and now you have no expectancy of anything because your fears hold on to you and hold on to the past and your afraid to step into the future of what God has for you.

God doesn't want us to except failure, He wants us to adjust our faith to biblical faith of who God is, not what we are experiencing today. God wants us to have a spiritual faith. God doesn't want you to adjust your faith to the level of your experience. You do that and you sell God short. God wants you to adjust your faith to the level of His experience.

MY BREAKTHROUGH!

BREAKTHROUGH YOUR DISBELIEF

BREAKTHROUGH YOUR LIMITATIONS

BREAKTHROUGH THE DEVIL'S INTIMIDATION

GET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF IMPOSSIBLE

READJUST YOUR FAITH TO THE LEVEL OF HIS EXPERIENCE!

- Pastor Russell Duley

The Gift of Overcoming Part 2

Today I'm talking about God's intervention in your life. God ruling and reigning in your life bringing transformation, bringing power, bringing authority, and bringing deliverance into your life.


Did you know you were born to rule? You weren't born to be defeated, you were born in God's image and likeness to reign in life through Jesus Christ.


Romans 5:17


God wants the church to take authority on earth. God wants us to rule in such a way that we bring glory and honor to His name.


We take the kingdom of God with us. We are kingdom people. We are made to do God's work. God wants you to be in His image and likeness, and take dominion, and rule and reign with Him. To do that we have to display Him in front of people by being all that God wants you to be in your walk with Him. You are a child of God. Every where you go you represent Jesus. If you have that mindset God will bring people around you just to minister to. In order to do that you've got to know who you are and have your mind renewed.


Romans 12:1


How do you renew your mind? By getting into the word. Your thought process begins to line up with God's word and you realize the word of God is your dwelling place. Abide in the word and let the word abide in you. You will begin to speak words of life and victory.


2 Corinthians 10:3


I may be flesh and blood but I don't rely on my physical strength or my natural ability. There are people that think the only way to get victory is to fight and argue, rather than seeking God for peace and healing. They react to the things that are going on in there life. They react to the test, to problems, to fears. They get upset, they pout, they get angry. They do what they do in the natural, but the bible says as believers we are not to behave that way. We aren't suppose to react in the natural. We are to overcome evil with good. We are to believe greater is He that is in me then he that is in the world. Yes, the devil is going to try and discourage you, but don't give him any credit.


When Job was going through his trials he began to worship God. He said the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. You will never defeat the devil in your life unless you allow that mind that was also in Christ Jesus to dwell in you. You've got to be renewed in your mind. You've got to be renewed in your thinking.


When the devil comes to distract you, begin to praise and worship God. That's how you will get the victory. You get victory by bringing in the presence of God in your circumstances. You get victory by bringing the kingdom into your praise and worship. No matter how much you are hurting or what is going on in your life, you've got to worship God.

The Gift of Overcoming

Luke 4:1-13


Jesus has overcome the world through His supernatural strength and power. The gift of overcoming comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It comes through His fullness entering your life. The key to supernatural living with God is through the Holy Spirit. When you are filled with the Spirit of God, God wants to do great things for you. To be filled with the Spirit you must repent of your old ways and be born again, you must be renewed in your mind.


Romans 12:1


Your mind is renewed through the word of God. When we begin to read the word it begins to tell us who we are. When you fill your mind with the word of God it will give you supernatural authority to stand in the face of temptation. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy but Christ came so you could have life more abundantly.


Who are you? What is your identity in Christ? The bible calls you saints. Born again. I'm a new creature, old things are passed away. I'm a child of God. My name is written in the Book of Life. I have eternal life. I'm not a loser I'm a winner, God redeemed me from the curse.


We still act like we are an old creature when God has made us a new creature. When you face temptation you have to face it as a new believer not an old sinner. Satan is always going to create things in your mind that will cause you to be confused. You have to understand who you are in Christ.


John 3:21


Everyone that is full in the Spirit has an open Heaven. When you were baptized in the Holy Spirit, God sent the Spirit to you and now you have an open heaven. The Holy Spirit opens up a place for you in God's kingdom. You are not a victim of your circumstances when you have an open Heaven to go to. We are all caught up in our problems. We are trying to face our problems by ourselves, but we have a helper. We have a strengthener. We have a stand by. Even in life's darkest hours I have one there that will comfort me, love me, help me, and pray through me to the Father, because I don't know how to pray for myself. So I begin to pray in my spiritual language. I recognize His Lordship over my life. I begin to trust that the Holy Spirit was helping me face the trial I was in. I couldn't see it, I couldn't feel it, but I had to believe it.


I would begin to feel healing, peace, and strength in my life. When I was overwhelmed I would pray in the Spirit and the Holy Spirit would comfort me. There is a spiritual battle going on in our lives and the one that will give us victory is the Holy Spirit. We have to depend on Him. We have to have our mind renewed to know who we are as a child of God. I have to know my rights and my authority in the name of Jesus. I have to learn to stand in faith.

Damascus Experience Part Two

You may not necessarily be backslidden but you, like many of us, go to the wrong source. We listen to the wrong people and try to fix ourselves. You try and fix yourself by running away from God rather than to God. It's your own effort to feel good about yourself. Some people shop. Some people use a credit card. Some people buy a new car. Some people trade the old husband in for a new husband. We think we can fix the problem by changing the people we are surround in our lives. The problem is not someone else, the problem is your heart. I can recall problems in my life that I tried to fix and then one day God said to me, "how long are you going to run from me."


We get caught up in what's going on around us. It's very easy to make idols of the things in our life. I don't think it has to do with sin but it can be, I think it has to do with not being emotionally connected to God, and being hurt in such a way your discouraged and you try to find relief from the pain other than God. We all try that until we realize it doesn't work. God loves you just where you are. The pain that you have is the pain that effects everyone of us, rejection, low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, looking for someone to validate you. If your prideful and you feel as though you can't come to God because you don't want to admit, don't want to confess, or you've been there too many times and you say God I can't do it one more time, I can't keep coming to you. Well maybe that's the lesson God wants to teach you. You've got to keep coming to Him. In the Bible there is a widow who kept going to the king asking for her property all of the sudden he said to his servant I'm not afraid of this woman, and I don't really care or respect her, but she's wearing me down. Give her whatever she wants. If that evil king is willing to do that for the widow to get the problem solved, how much more is God willing to do for us when He really loves us.


Acts 9:1-25


As a believer you are changed when you are born again and receive a new nature. God changes your heart and gives you a new heart. A Damascus Road is experiencing God in a way that changes your destiny. It transforms your life. Saul killed and persecuted Christians. He tried to convince men and women to denounce Jesus. What's interesting to me the Middle East is doing the same thing today. Christians are dying in the Middle East for their faith. Do you have enough evidence in your life to convict you as a believer in Jesus Christ?


Paul was on the road to Damascus to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. On the other hand Christians were praying for his salvation. They were praying for Jesus to intercede and change this man's life. Now on this road to Damascus, Paul has this experience that totally changes his life. Have you had an experience with God that has totally changed your life? From an old road to a new road. From an old relationship to a new relationship. From a person that use to be a sinner and is now serving God. Have you had that experience? If you haven't then you need to get to the point were you need the Savior to change you and begin to give you His presence, His life, and His power to work in your life.


Here's the interesting thing that I want you to know, Acts 9:4 "why are you persecuting me?" Jesus was not being persecuted but His church was. We are the property of God, and when we hurt one another we are actually persecuting Jesus. We are the bride of Christ, it's a symbol of a union, of being one, of being in a committed relationship. It's being born in His Spirit and washed in His blood and having your name written in the Lambs book of Life. As believers you and I can experience this relationship with God in such a way that He values us as part of Himself.


Aren't you glad He doesn't abandon us? Aren't you glad that no matter what you are going through in life, you may feel alone, you may feel desperate, you may feel hurt, you may feel heartache, but you know that God is going to fight for you. There's times you can't fight the battles, it takes the Lord to fight the battle for you.


What needs to change for a Damascus road experience? 1. Jesus has to become Lord of your life. He wants to be more than your Savior. Lord of your life means He's your owner and master. He controls your life. He leads your life. He tells you what to do. You submit to Him. You surrender to Him. You yield to Him. You give up all rights in managing your life the way you want to. Your not free to pick and choose what you want to do. It's not about pleasing you anymore, it's about pleasing Jesus and glorifying Him. If we could get to that point where we are glorifying God, God could do so much in the church. But as long as we are concerned about getting the glory then giving the glory we will never experience the transformation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm called to serve His will. I'm called to get involved in His church, to be committed to His church. I'm called to serve where I am.


2. It's no longer what you want it's what God wants.


3. You learn to pray for God's will to be done in your life.


Acts 9:6 Now Paul realizes that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then he had to get to a place were he was broken, so God could use him. How do you get to a point were God uses you? You have to be totally surrendered. You no longer trust yourself. You no longer rely upon yourself. You don't rely upon your knowledge. You rely totally on God and you wait on Him and seek Him with all your heart. If you don't you will always struggle to surrender to God.


If we aren't broken then we can't be used. Have you ever noticed when your broken God comes in? But when you are indifferent, prideful, self-centered, and wanting your own desires God is far from you. You need a transformation of your life.


Hebrews 10:16


God's going to pour in you a change and transformation from that sin nature that we are born with. God's got to give you a heart transplant. You won't be able to do what you use to do. You are wired for God. Little things being to convict you. No matter what I've got to seek God to forgive me because something inside of me won't leave me alone until I submit to God. In order to get a new heart you've got to be able to give up your old one. You can't hold on to your heart, you can't hold on to your own ways, you can't hold on to your old sin. If you want God to give you a new heart you've got to give Him your old one and say here is my heart take it from me. Jesus is your life and now He is your heart. He causes your heart to beat. Your heart has His heart and what you feel you feel from Him. Having a Damascus road is having a heart transplant. Being changed from the inside out. It changes your belief system. When you belief system changes your behavior changes.


Paul says Lord and he becomes blind, he is now broken. All of the sudden Ananias goes and prays for Paul and the scales of blindness come off of his eyes. For the first time in his life he can see God in a different way. The scales of unbelief, the scales of darkness, the scales that limit God are off. He is baptized in the Holy Spirit. He makes you alive. He changes you. He gives you a new hunger, a new desire in you. He breaks the addictions and the bondage, the habits, the lust, whatever it is that has you bound, He frees you from it. Your totally new. You once hated the Bible now you can't stop reading it. You hated going to church, now you can't stop going to church. You don't adapt to the world because that's not who you are anymore.


Your view of God becomes larger. Your faith in God becomes your passion. Your prayer life is developed as you trust and surrender to God. You begin to expect His priorities for your life.


4. You give your life to God as a sacrifice.
5. You witness to others and you share your faith with them.
6. Your Expectancy changes when you experience God.


Philippians 1:20-21


What is expectancy? It's the ability to believe God and expect Him to do the miraculous. It's the ability to believe God in spite of your circumstances. When you have a Damascus road experience it changes you from the inside out. You are no longer the same person. God becomes real to you. You have a stronger faith. Miracles begin to happen. That's how Paul was able to raise a young man from the dead, cast out demons, and shake off the bite from a venomous snake. Your faith rises up. The miracle power of God is something you hold on too. The glory of God is something you receive.


You started off in elementary school, then junior high, then high school, and then college. Each level demanded more of you. When you surrender to God he begins to help you grow. He begins to tap into the potential that He has put in you and begins to flow supernaturally in your life and develop that potential, and that gifting. You can't do it on your own. You have to have the supernatural power of God. God desires to give you more. Jesus is the Healer. He gives you life, He gives you love, He gives you hope, He gives you joy, and He gives you peace. He blesses your life but you have to expect more. You have to expect the blessing and stand on His promises.


Henry Matthews said, "There is exhaustible fullness of grace and mercy in which God through the prayers of His saints can never make God's grace run dry. For whatever you ask, whatever you think, God is still able to do more abundantly, more exceedingly, more than you ever understand. For He said open your mouth wide for I will fill it. No matter how big it is God is bigger." Don't limit God in what He can do.


-Pastor Russell Duley

The Damascus Experience

I was thinking about this Damascus road and the life of Paul. Everyone needs a Damascus road. What is a Damascus road? It's where Paul encountered God in a supernatural way that totally changed his life.


We live our lives set in our own boundaries, limitations, and whatever problems we have going on and we never experience what God has for us. In the book of Acts we read about the story of Saul. He persecuted the church for their faith in Jesus Christ, many of them thrown in prison. He was a Jew and rebelling against God's sovereignty. Everyone that rebels against God's sovereignty or authority will have a Damascus experience one day, whether in this world or out of this world. Meaning God's revelation, God's power, God's personhood will be revealed to them in a specific level.


Growing up as a child I really didn't encounter God in such a way that really changed me. I was raised in church but it really didn't change me because I didn't see a change in the people within the church. They were sweet enough but in many ways they were cruel by being critical, gossiping, there was favoritism. They wanted me to change so much and I refused to except that change. They meant well, but you can't change teenagers. They have to experience God for themselves. If we as the church don't have the experience how can we give them the experience. If they can't see the difference in us how are they going to believe it's real. Our children don't understand the need for change. They want to participate in the world, because they are under pressure to conform into the world. God doesn't except the world's standard because the world's standard is falling in sin. The political system, entertainment, everything else is in an ungodly fashion. Everything falls into the god of this world who is the arch angel that fell. He influences everything in this world in a negative way. Jesus said do not love this world, neither things in the world because if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. We understand that we are in the world but we are not of the world. As a young boy I didn't understand that because I didn't have a Damascus experience with God. Unless that happens to you, you will never change.


Job knew about God but one day God spoke to Job and said who are these people that are dark in your counsel? Where were you when I made the stars and put the heavens into place? Where were you when I created the foundation of the earth? He goes on to all the moons and constellations, the seasons, time and dates, animals, and man that he placed on earth. If you are so great and powerful Job then tell me where all these things came from? Then Job says to Him, Lord I heard you with my own ears, but now I see you, I repent and put my hand over my mouth, for I spoke things that were to wonderful for me. That is a Damascus experience.


Acts 9:1-22


These people had religion but they did not know God. You can have religion with out relationship. God's not interested in religious people, He's interested in those He has a relationship with. Paul believed he was right for persecuting these people that believed Jesus was the Messiah, yet there are 350 scriptures in the Old Testaments that speak of Jesus being the Messiah. That He would come from a virgin, that He would come from the lineage of David, He would die on a cross, he would be raised from the dead, and it goes on and on. All these prophecies came to past just like God said it would. Part of the plan from the enemy is to put to sleep the reality of how real God is. The devil intoxicates them with the things of this world, when we should be looking to the One who should be worshipped.


That Damascus road revealed to Saul that Jesus is Lord. He heard about Jesus but he never had an experience with Jesus.


When I had my Damascus experience I was having a party and my friend was over at my house and we were drinking. It came time for him to leave and he got into his car with his six month old baby and took off. He hit a pillar and killed them both instantly. When that happened I grieved and blamed myself. A couple years later my son got hit by a car at three years old broke his arm, broke his back, and had a concussion. My mother-in-law had a heart attack. All these horrible things began to happen all around me. I didn't understand it was a Damascus road experience. Everyone will have a Damascus road experience were they have to acknowledge God.


Someone that I worked with had their entire church praying for me. One night when I was home I heard the voice of God speak to me. He said I'm here, I have followed you and you have ran from me all your life. This is the last time you run. Either you except me now and repent and turn your life to me or I will leave you alone and never come back to you. I said wait a minute, I said never? He said never. You see we have a limited time on this earth to get right with God. It's time to stop playing church and start being the church.


Somewhere down the road its going to catch up with you and your going to need God. Your not immune to pain or suffering, your not immune to the enemy. The enemy is out there to rob, kill, and destroy your life, and if God wasn't on my life I would have been dead four or five times. I was so stupid.


Once I heard what God had said to me and this was my last opportunity I ran into my room got down on my knees and repented and gave my life to Jesus. Now did I change, not then. I cried for days, my wife though I was nuts, but I began to pray. What did I miss all those years growing up in church that I never changed? I realized even though I believed in God and had faith in God I never had a Damascus experience with God. I didn't experience the power of God in my life. I didn't experience God's presence in my spirit.


After seeking God for six months I still was struggling but I continued to seek Him. One day when I sought Him I felt something evil lift off me and God filled me with the Holy Spirit it changed my life.


Saul which means great became Paul which means little. He experienced something that he had never experienced through religion. He had a personal experience with God. He could clearly hear God's voice.


They wanted to kill Paul. The devil is always going to make problems for you. He is a problem maker, God is the problem solver. When you begin to obey God and start testifying of Jesus and your Damascus experience God will remove you from captivity and start using you in a supernatural way. He will start blessing your life.


The Damascus experience changes you from the inside out. The Holy Spirit comes into your life and transforms you. It's like Isaiah when he was praying and saw a vision of the Lord and the Lord said "Whom shall I send, who will go for me," and Isaiah said "send me." The power of the Holy Spirit has to touch our lips and come into our lives and cleanse us. That's a Damascus experience.


They have a Damascus metal that is the strongest and sharpest metal. It will not dull with hours of use. It overcame all other metals. Once you have become a child of God through a Damascus experience the Holy Ghost sharpens you for service, He forms you by the Holy Spirit, and He gives you the power of God to work in your life.


Paul went about killing people but after his Damascus experience with God he became a vessel of God that changed people. Paul increased in strength and proved that Jesus Christ is Lord. Miracles began to happen in Paul's life that never happened before.


Acts 13:6-12


You don't mess with people that have had a Damascus experience with God. You don't mess with people that are walking in a supernatural power of God. Maybe if you had more God and less of you, you would be walking in the victory provided for you. You would be changed and transformed.


Acts 14:3


God wants to do supernatural things in your life so you can receive His love and mercy so that you will change your life into the image of Jesus and mold you into being an instrument that He can use for His glory.


Acts 14:19


They thought they had killed Paul but you can't kill the Damascus experience. You can't kill what God ordains because greater is He that is in you then He that is in the world. Once you have the power of God you will be transformed. Instead of you giving up and dying, the resurrection power will come in and lift you up. When you get the Damascus experience you get the life of God living in you.


Acts 16:16-40


I'm tired of the devil. I don't want to listen to anything that he says. It's time to shut him up.


Acts 19:11


Miracles were happening that have never happened before. When you have a Damascus experience things will happen that have never happened before. It will change your life forever.


Acts 20:9-12


The resurrection power that was working through Paul came out of him and brought the man back to life. When you get a Damascus experience even the dead come alive when you walk around them.


A Damascus road experience is seeking God until there is a change in your life. No matter what the devil tries to trick you with God neutralizes the poison of sin through the Holy Ghost.

Who I Am In Christ

I Am Accepted

• John 1:12 I am God's child.
• John 15:15 I am Christ's friend.
• Romans 5:1 I have been justified
• 1 Corinthians 6:17 I am united with the Lord, and I am one spirit with Him
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 I have been bought with a price. I belong to God.
• 1 Corinthians 12:27 I am a member of Christ's Body.
• Ephesians 1:1 I am a saint.
• Ephesians 1:5 I have been adopted as God's child.
• Ephesians 2:18 I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit.
• Colossians 2:10 I am complete in Christ. 

I Am Secure

• Romans 8:1-2 I am free forever from condemnation.
• Romans 8:28 I am assured that all things work together for good.
• Romans 8:31-34 I am free from any condemning charges against me.
• Romans 8:35-39 I cannot be separated from the love of God.
• 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God.
• Colossians 3:3 I am hidden with Christ in God.
• Philippians 1:6 I am confident that the good work that God has begun in me will be perfected.
• Philippians 3:20 I am a citizen of heaven.
• 2 Timothy 1:7 I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.
• Hebrews 4:16 I can find grace and mercy to help in time of need.
• 1 John 5:18 I am born of God and the evil one can not touch me. 

I Am Significant

• Matthew 5:13-14 I am the salt and light of the earth.
• John 15:1,5 I am a branch of the True Vine, a channel of His life.
• John 15:16 I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit.
• Acts 1:8 I am a personal witness of Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 I am God's temple.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 I am a minister of reconciliation for God.
• 2 Corinthians 6:1 I am God's co-worker (1 Corinthians 3:9)
• Ephesians 2:6 I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm.
• Ephesians 2:10 I am God's workmanship.
• Ephesians 3:12 I may approach God with freedom and confidence.
• Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

By: Neil T. Anderson

Jesus Removed the Curse

Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law. What did Jesus Christ redeem us from? We see that Jesus took our sins and transgressions.


Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone that is hung on a pole." - Galatians 3:13


The curse of the law was Christ demand for perfection, God's demand is still perfection. God never changes is mind. God is a perfect, just God and he demands absolute and total perfection, nothing less. God's standard of perfection is complete righteousness. Complete righteousness means right standing with God. So when you look at this you have to understand God's righteousness means perfection. Now anything less then perfection is sin in the sight of God and God has to judge sin and he judges it by the standard that he sets. So when you look at total righteousness the 10 commandments reveal God's righteous standard. So anytime we sin, we come against God or disagree with God, or rebel against God, He looks at that as sin. Sin is rebellion and rejecting God's authority for your life. Sin is a declaration of independence, it's a declaration that I'm not serving you, and I'm not submitting to you. God is at war with sin. He will never agree with it, He will never sub come to it, His kingdom will be a kingdom of truth and righteousness which will prevail throughout eternity. Anything that is sinful will be cast into the lake of fire. It is God's will that none be lost. The bible says He that knew no sin became sin that I might be in the righteousness of God. Jesus is our answer for sin. He was our atonement, our sacrifice, the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. Whoever comes to Christ, accepts Christ, submits to Christ, and confesses their sins and turns their life over will be forgiven. We are under grace not under law.


The curse is a broken relationship with God, it's disobedience, it's being cast out of God's presence. God demands a standard that is perfect but all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. How do we appease and get along with God when He is so righteous and holy? None of us can it's impossible. That's why God sent Jesus and He came to completely obey the law, He was sinless and paid the price to redeem man at the cross. At the cross is where God demanded complete judgment for all of man's sin. Christ blood paid the price for the broken commandments and the broken law and the wages of sin. Now you understand Christ being God Himself his blood was holy, precious, undefiled. The bible says that we are going to be judged by the blood of Christ because we refuse to accept that blood as a sacrifice of sin and because we will be judged by thinking it's unholy, not worthy, and trampling on the grace of God and the blood of Jesus as something profane. I'm bringing you to a point when we say I've been redeemed by the curse of the law, I've been redeemed by judgment. I've been redeemed from sin. I've been redeemed from the curses. I've broken every commandment. I used the Lord's name in vain, I didn't worship God I worshipped myself. I've sinned, you sinned, we've all sinned, as a result of that we will be judged unless we repent. One day I came to Jesus, recognized that He was my Lord, recognized that He died on the cross for me, I accepted His atonement and His blood for my forgiveness. I repented, confessed my sins, and turned my life over to Jesus as my both Lord and Savior. It's not enough to make Jesus Savior of your life, He must be Lord of your life. The bible rules your life, God rules your life, the word rules your life, you don't rule yourself.


A lot of people get into trouble with God because they serve God but then they get independent, they walk away from God and they start doing their own thing. The reality is that we have to do God's thing. I've been redeemed to serve Him, to submit and surrender. He is the Lord of my life. He is the master of my life. Can you say Jesus is the master over your life?




God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21


As a result of accepting Christ sacrifice for my sins on the cross God then puts onto me His righteousness. He doesn't look at the broken commandments and the broken law that I did but He looks at what Christ has done. What has Christ done? He redeemed me from the broken law and I thank God that I have been redeemed. I thank God that I am no longer under the judgment of God but I am blessed as a result of God's goodness and His love and His favor. As I look at this we've been redeemed from the curse of the law because Christ has been a curse for us.






I want to show you something in the bible that will make you aware of what a great price Jesus paid for you and I at the cross and I don't want you to ever take it for granted and forget about it. Sometimes we as believers just take what God has done for us we don't realize it or understand it in the context that we need to and as a result of that we need to go back sometimes and take a look at it.


Before I came to Christ I wanted to live to please myself. I wanted to be independent from God and I wanted to please myself therefore I was my own. You know we have a lot of things that go on in our life that replace God in our life. In fact some of us have hidden idols even today, right now that you may not be dealing with, that you may not be repenting of, that you may not be confessing. So what we do then is live in compromise with these idols. Idol of independence. Idol of self-righteousness. Idol of disobedience. Idol of rebellion. Idol of worldliness. Idol of compromise. Idol of men pleasing rather than God pleasing. The list goes on and on in our life and we wonder why we can't get a prayer answered from God. Something is wrong with our relationship with God. Something is coming between God and ourselves, and we need to find out what that is. There is no fence standing with God your either for Him or against Him.




Read Luke 16:19-31




So here is a man who had his own desire to be his own thing. Lazareth died, he was taken by angels into heaven. When you die your spirit leaves your body and you go to heaven or  you descend to hell. There's no in between. There's no soul sleep. Trust me you go to your eternal destiny. Whoever you serve is where you go. If you serve Satan you descend into the lower part of the earth, fumes of torment, fear, horrible pain and suffering, and you are isolated from all others in your own darkness of hell.




Now the rich man had a sense of consciousness, you have feelings. He felt in torment, he had a memory of what he did and how he lived and what he didn't do. His memories became his torment so he could see, he could hear, he could feel, he could be touched, he knew exactly what was going on. So when he looked up he saw a gulf between them. Jesus redeemed you from that torment. Jesus redeemed you from hell. You don't ever have to experience that separation from God, that loneliness, that place of torment, that place without dream, without hope, you will never experience peace, you will never experience happiness. There will be no gold, there will be no vision, there will be no tomorrow. Nothing will ever change. There will be no good news, all you will ever have is torment and hopelessness, grief, sorrow, pain, anxiety, fear, wailing, rejection, and what you could have done and what you should have done, but I was stubborn and I was rebellious and I didn't want to break those habits that were in my life and I didn't want to break allegiance with the devil, and I didn't want to break those idols, and I didn't want to break personal sin, and I didn't want to change my life and do the right thing. I didn't want to give God all He wanted, I wanted to hold on to my own life and my own thing and my own way, and I served God with conditions and I limited how much God could use me. I wouldn't pay tithes, I wouldn't give God first place. I worshipped money, I worshipped my own life, I worshipped my own pleasure. I made excuses for my disobedience and I found myself separated from God.


Do you realize how many people are in hell now that were in church? Do you realize how many people in prison today that came out of church? There are all kinds of people that are in hell who made excuses for their life and their disobedience, and their rebellion. As a result of that we miss out on God because God wants to be number one. He wants to be above all and before all. He doesn't want to come in second place. We say we love you Lord, yes we love the Lord in our own way, but that doesn't mean we really love God. We love God when it's convenient, but when things go wrong God's trying to get our attention to change, we won't change anything and we still make excuses and often we get to the point when God will no longer listen to us and our sins and our rebellion separate us from God. We don't recognize that we are being lost each and everyday, that we have less passion and less commitment, and less love. We feel ourselves getting cold and indifferent in the house of God.


We are in trouble and we don't even know it. We've got to get to the point where we realize things are wrong with us. We've got to get to the point where we realize that Jesus redeemed me from the curse. We've got to recognize that He took hell for me so that I wouldn't have to go to hell.


He delivered you out of the spirit of darkness and brought you into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 12:29) The devil is defeated, don't you try to defeat him, he's already defeated. You need to recognize he's already defeated. He'll try and show up, he'll try to scare you, but when you look at him realize that he doesn't have any power over you. God has delivered you, He's the strongman. He's the one that is victorious over him. Jesus lived a perfect life that you couldn't live. Jesus walked in complete victory over the devil. Jesus overcame the devil in body, soul, and spirit. He became your substitute at the cross. He conquered him as the author of sin, because he conquered sin, you can conquer sin. He conquered sickness, you can conquer sickness. He conquered the devil in death through the resurrection. He conquered the ruler of darkness, you can conquer the ruler of darkness through the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave you authority. He gave you power. He gave you dominion. He gave you His name. He gave you His word. He gave you His promise and He sent you the Holy Spirit. 


 - Pastor Russell Duley

OBEYING GOD'S COMMAND

Obeying God's Commands:
Deut. 11:18-32 Jn. 14:15-24, 1 Jn. 4:20-5:3

The people of Israel claimed they loved God, however, there wasn't obedience to His Word. Presuming upon God's mercy and grace they continued in their sinful practices. Not loving God, and failing to love others, making excuse for not obeying His commands. God's blessings do not come without obedience.

Here's what Isaiah told God's people!
Isaiah 1:18-19
18 - "Come. Sit down. Let's argue this out." This is GOD's Message: "If your sins are blood-red, they'll be snow-white. If they're red like crimson, they'll be like wool.

19 - If you'll willingly obey, you'll feast like kings.

Mark 7:6, Jesus said,
He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

1. Loving God is loving what He loves!!
The sinner, the saint, the church, fellowship with God's people, and acts of sacrifice that leads to good deeds to others.

2. Pray for passion that leads our hearts into transformation for the Son of God that makes us long to obey and love others.

Acts 4:31-32
    31  While they were praying, the place where they were meeting trembled and shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God's Word with fearless confidence.
    32  The whole congregation of believers was united as one--one heart, one mind! They didn't even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, "That's mine; you can't have it." They shared everything.  

    33  The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them.

God bless you this week and always,

Pastor