Mother’s Day invite 2013

Invite your mom’s to come out with you for church on Mother’s Day.  We’re going to make it very special for her that day, plus a give away that will really bless the winner!  See you there on May 12th!

BFF series week 4 – by: Pastor Tracy (notes/video)

Holy Spirit: My Best Friend             Part 4: Living with the Holy Spirit

Sunday April 21, 2013

(John 14:16 NKJ) “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— “

(John16: 7 NKJ) “It is to your advantage that I go away… “

Living in His Strength

(Matthew 11:28-30 NLT)  “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

• To live overcoming ________________.

(Romans 8:12-13 NLT) Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.  For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

• To live doing the __________________.

(Colossians 1:28-29 NIV)  “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuouslycontendwith all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Living hearing His voice

• ____________ will.

• ____________ will.

(John 10:4-5 NLT) “… and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Living with His friendship

• He is always _____________.

(John 14:18 NIV) “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

• He can get _______________.

(Ephesians 4: 30-32 NIV) “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealedfor the day of redemption.Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another,forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

• He hungers for our _____________.

• ____________________ Him.

(Proverbs 3:6 NKJ) “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

• ____________ His presence.

(Acts 4:31 NIV) “ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.And they were all filled with the Holy Spiritand spoke the word of Godboldly.”

What is the Holy Spirit saying to me?

January Prayer and Fasting info

God’s got your bag.

Yesterday my friend called me and said she was going to the Dollar Store. She asked me if I wanted to meet her there. Well, I just got back from Walmart Grocery at the same place, and I was not anxious to go back in the traffic…but I said OK.
We shopped and then we walked to our cars. She had hers in one part of the lot and I was in another. We were going to meet at Publix to pick up some things she needed. I was going to follow her but decided to go the other way to go out by the light. As I was going down the aisle toward the road that goes by the Dollar Store and towards the road that has the stop light to go across to Publix. I noticed a small purse out in the middle of the road.
I thought, Oh my, I am going to hurry to get that as someone lost it and others that were driving by and walking by may pick it up and not try to get it back to the owner.
I put my foot on the gas to speed up and then came by the purse and slammed on my brakes as others were going by and I thought were going to get it. I opened my door and scooped it up and turned into a parking space to see if I could see who the owner was.
Well, guess who the owner was? My daughter. I called her and told her and she did not even realize she had dropped it. In fact, she was on the way to the bank to deposit her paycheck that was in it. I told her how the Lord had worked all this out so that I could get it.
In her purse she had her drivers license, her bank card, her paycheck from the night before and other important things. She was, to say the least, taken back. I told her this was the Lord telling her he is taking care of us and protecting us. To stop worrying about money and having enough for living. He is constantly meeting our needs. This was to show us to trust Him. He is watching over us.
Many people could have picked up her purse. It was in plain sight in the middle of the road. I believe that God had me drive that way so I would get it.
This is an example for all of us to see how God is constantly watching over us and involved in all areas of our life.
Praise God, Thank you Jesus for your love and compassion.

Alternate Ending “Choices Matter” By: Pastor Tracy (notes & video)

Alternate Ending series: Choices Matter

Promo video below (full message video at the bottom of this post):

Sunday June 24, 2012            Pastor Tracy Boyd

Intro: Everybody explores the would of could of should of’s! We wish in many cases there were some alternate endings to situations in our life. But what if we could really have alternate endings.

We can look at the life of Samson; great start, bad ending

• Chosen from birth to be a nazarite (refrain from eating anything unclean, fermented drink or cutting his hair) who would deliver and judge Israel
• Israel would choose to not follow God, fall into oppression from enemies, cry out to God for deliverance, and God would answer!

This week  out title is: Choices Matter

Bottom line most of the time our choices have gotten us where we are today

• God has given us a free will to choose
  • Adam and Eve freely chose to eat of the tkge
  • Cain

Genesis 4:6-7 (NKJ)

⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’

• Deut. 30:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

• God’s plan was for the Israelites to go to the promise land; they choose to wander 40 years.

Numbers 14:22-23 (NV)

²² not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times – ²³ not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

• There are laws that govern life and laws that govern death; they are unseen yet exits. We determine by our choices what is released in our life.

Choice (which laws we cooperate with) is determined by observations, associations and teaching

• Example: a young girl raised in oats where there

• The oats of our world are slanted toward: Lust of the eye the lust of the flesh pride of Life- Do what I feel like doing

1 john 2:16

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world

World: this is not physical creation, but the sphere of evil operating in our world under the dominion of satan

• The enemy operates with the above 3 because they all have destructive endings
  • Eve: Genesis 3:6 she saw that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
  • The Above three led to Samson’s horrible ending
    • Lust of the flesh: He slept with Harlots, ate honey that was in the carcass of a dead lion he had killed with his bare hands
    • Lust of the eye & the pride of Life

Judges14: 2-3

So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.”

³ Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”

And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.”

( this phrase in Hebrew is similar to the phrase “everybody did what was right in their own eyes”)

• Samson did what He felt lie doing what was right in his eyes even though his parents tried to talk with him

• The enemy uses veils in our soul to convince us we won’t be happy unless…. Lot’s wife was convinced she would be missing out by leaving Sodom.
• Let’s be real…I’ve had those thoughts especially as a teenager because I wasn’t presented the gospel correctly.

Choices can be changed

Proverbs 4:20-23

My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words ²¹ Do not let them out of your sight keep them within your heart; ²² for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. ²³ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

• Samson’s Generation got away from the ways given by God:

Judges 2: 7, 10, (NJK)

So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

¹⁰ When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Judges 17:6(NKJ)

⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

• This is the generation that we are living in today! Previous generations fought to take the Bible and prayer out of our culture. With out it we are not equipped to fight the pull of sin that leads to destruction.

• Violent crimes chart: following the court’s decision to remove the Bible, violent crimes soared 470%. US became  the world’s leader in total crimes committed.
• Divorce chart: Divorce skyrocket- us found itself number 1 in divorce
• Unmarried couples living together chart: increased 1000%
• Sat chart: Sat scores plummeted after being stable for decades
• Birth rates of unwed mothers chart:  soared 460% America has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any nation in the industrialized world
• Sexually transmitted disease chart: Soared

• As we keep the Word around and in us we begin to reshape our oats

My story: I would have ended up just as my dysfunctional family if my Oats did not change.

Psalm 119:11 (NKJ)

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You

Romans 6:14(NKJ)

 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The Word and the revelation of our right standing with God is a supernatural empowerment to curb the temptation of sin.

My example of God asking me not to date in college: He was reshaping my history! I had patterns of going from one relationship to the next trying to reduce the sense of rejection and acceptance.

The Word will shape your choices and give you an alternate ending

• Example: trying out for cheerleading, got hurt, built a case with the Word, prayed, made the team with out trying out!

• The enemy likes to repeat history- alcoholic, divorce, infidelity, pride. You can have an alternate ending!

• Samson was suppose to be a great judge, instead he was a loner who did great exploits. It did not have to end the way that it did! We can learn form his life and realize we can have alternate endings. God will readjust our GPS!

Conclusion: Speak what you want your ending to be!

By His stripes…

My 6 yr old niece had a brain bleed at birth followed by a 12-day hospitalization, observations, and no complications for years.  She has recently experienced what our doctors and family are calling episodes where she becomes “non-responsive temporarily”, then snaps out of it and is fine.

It really matters what teaching you’re under…because in the past I would have simply cried in fear, but now we’re learning to speak the Word in the authority we’ve been given.  So, this time when I got the call I proclaimed victory in healing over my niece.

When I spoke with my mother, my niece’s grandmother, I told her I needed her to agree with me and speak the Word over her.  To simply keep saying “By Jesus stripes my niece is healed”.  She agreed to do it and then asked where she could find that verse in the Bible (I Peter 2:24).

I was so blown away, that my own mom was not aware of one of the most important verse in the Bible.  She was raised in a church and is still a regular member to this day, but yet when you’re not being taught how to use the authority given to you through God’s Word, you are defenseless.

I know God’s hand is moving in my whole family, as he’s turned even this trial into a chance to get closer to us.  By His stripes, my niece is healed!

Hearing from God for yourself (vlog testimony)

Hearing from God for yourself vlog testimony:

What God thinks about you…

I went about finding what God has to say about us and so far have this list:

Loved
More than a conqueror
Have life and that more abundantly
Victorious
Brought into a broad place
Rescued
Kind
Blameless
Astute
Pure
Saved from affliction
Healed
Rewarded
Delighted in
Never alone
Lamp oil full and lit
We can run upon troops
We can leap walls before us
He is our shield and our rear guard
He girds us with strength
He is our rock
He makes our ways blameless
He makes our feet like hinds feet, sure and swift
He trains our hands for battle
He makes our arms strong to bend a bow
His shield of salvation protects us and keeps us
His right hand upholds us
He makes us great through His gentleness
He enlarges our steps
He gives us rest
Our feet will not slip because of Him
We will overtake our opponents and we do not turn back as they are consumed
We shatter our opponents and they don’t get back up – they fall under our feet
He girds us with strength for battle
He makes our opponents turn their back to us and we destroy those who hate us, they can find no help
We are delivered from contentious people
We are placed as heads of nations
People we don’t know serve us
As soon as they hear our order, they obey
Foreigners submit to us and fade away. They come trembling out of their fortresses
Our prayers and praise are arrows that attack our opponents
He executes our vengeance for us
He subdues people under us
We are delivered from our opponents
He lifts us over those who rise against us
He rescues us from the violent man
He delivers us GREATLY
He shows us and gives us lovingkindness
He grants our heart’s desires
He fulfills all our council
He fulfills all our petitions
He saves us because He anoints us
He answers us from His Holy Heaven
We stand upright because of Him!

He is so worthy to be praised! He drops our ill-fitting yolks and gives us His abundance of grace, a perfect fit that is ever so light!
One by one and by the 10’s of dozens, we will see our opponents fall away because His right hand saves us! We are complete and we are whole because of Him. He gives us wisdom. Our life is new and we fly with eagles wings! He hears our cries and He bottles our tears. He lifts us up and calls us His! THIS is what it means to be a King’s kid!! And just a partial list at that! We already have all these things. Our job is just to take hold of them, to receive them, in Jesus name.

Smart phone prayer

I asked God for a job and then went out and found a job opening, I applied for the position believing it was from God, I thanked God and received this job, later i was interviewed and because God gave me favor with the employer I had received the position. God continues to bless this company and I have prospered. I receive a pay check and give back to God 10%, then I budget the rest responsible. I live within my means.

I recognize God is taking care of my fiances and therefore I don’t have to settle for what I can afford, let me give you a example. If I were to go out and buy a cell phone I would probably review my budget first, then I would find a carrier I could afford and then buy one of their phones, probably not the best one but rather the best value that fits my budget. This is a wise plan.

Now instead, If I recognize that God is my provider, I can again look at what I can afford, but knowing God can afford anything I can ask Him for what I really need…
I was sharing a pre-paid cell phone with my wife, it had a excellent plan but terrible service, no signal anywhere. I wanted a smart phone, but it didn’t fit into my budget. However, God poured out His favor over me, and I was blessed with a Motorola Droid X, I’m on the Verizon network unlimited plan I even have unlimited data, which I have been grandfathered into since it isn’t offered anymore. All free, the phone and plan are paid for, God has given His son what he needed, but I know what your thinking, “big deal, and anyway I’m an Apple guy” Well wait, there’s more. My wife was given an iPhone 4, and she is also on the Verizon network, unlimited everything all free paid for every month… So are you getting this? Just a little of the “Abundant Life” that we’re taught about at Life Christian Church!

Rent waived

We have been receiving financial blessings lately, a $2,500 blessing 2 weeks ago and this week again I didn’t expect anything crazy, to be honest these blessings are new for me…but check this out…

We have some issues with the apartment we are renting and last Sunday the landlord calls and waived this months rent! Wow, it wasn’t till evening when i was laying down that I realized what had happened. FAVOR!! I told the guy, wow that’s too much, but when I realized it was a blessing from God, I received it and thanked God and now I’m testifying of His Glory!

Blessed, Highly Favored, and Empowered to Prosper!