Covenant Life Church

Mountains can be beautiful and breath-taking places, but because the air at the summit is too thin, too cold or too windy, they are places we cannot stay for long. We often use mountain-related language when we refer to our experiences with God; mountains are times when we feel close to Him and have an abundance of faith, and valleys are difficult or distant seasons. Although they are merely metaphors for us, powerful moments with God throughout the Bible did tend to happen on mountains. Moses seeing the glory of God on Mount Sinai, which has been a through-line across many recent messages, is one of these “cosmic mountain” encounters. A cosmic mountain is a special place where the veil between Heaven and earth wears thin, where a human is able to commune with the Lord and join in His redemptive work. This week, we’re kicking off a new two-part series, taking a quick tour of some cosmic mountains in the Bible and seeing what God might be trying to show us.

As we have seen, the world has a pattern of expectations, behaviors, customs and motives. It’s a script to follow, and for the most part, it’s self-centered, self-indulgent and self-managed. However, as followers of Jesus, we are called to be different by renewing our minds with the Word and the Spirit of God. We do this by surrendering our fates and souls to Jesus and following His patterns and direction for our lives. This week, we’re wrapping up our “Flip the Script” series with a special message in honor of Father’s Day. The Bible is full of mighty men of God who failed miserably as fathers. God’s call to be different isn’t just for what we do in public; His script for us means that those who know us best will love and respect us most. What we do in our homes is just as important as what we do within our jobs, churches and communities.

This week, we’re continuing our series called “Flip the Script.” We have established that the world has a script, a set of expectations that people are supposed to follow. However, the Word of God tells us in Romans 12 that we’re not supposed to conform to those customs and behaviors; if we’re going to be followers of Jesus, we have to live according to His will for our lives and flip the script in every area. Just like other things, the world has a script they want us to follow about money, but the way believers approach money should look different. Our basic understanding of money should come from the Bible. If every good and perfect gift comes from God, there is no such thing as YOUR money. We’re merely stewards of what the Lord has blessed us with, distributing it according to His priorities and principles.

When most of us read Mark 16 or Matthew 28, we think of missionaries and those who go to foreign countries to serve for a week or two. We think that’s how you fulfill the call to go and preach or make disciples, but every day, we get a chance to get up and drive into a “village” full of people who don’t know or don’t care about Jesus. It’s called your job. Most of us think of our jobs as a hindrance to doing the work of the ministry, but what if we flip the script on that mindset? What if we walked into our workplace every day and saw it not as what’s keeping us from going but the destination God is sending us? When Jesus told us to go, what if He meant work or school instead of church or overseas?

This week, we’re starting a new series called “Flip the Script.” Jesus never explicitly said that we’re supposed to be IN the world but not OF it, but the concept is laid out in John 17:14-16. For pretty much every part of your life, there is a plan or pattern this world wants you to follow: social norms, ethics, values and standards of behavior. These patterns dictate what we do, where we go and how we talk. There is a gravitational pull toward conforming to the world’s script, but Paul says in Romans 12:2 that we should not conform to it. Don’t give into it; don’t just lazily and obediently do what the world wants you to do. If there is a pattern laid out by the world, the people of God need to break it. This series is all about exposing the areas where we may be following the script and challenging us to turn it upside down.

In Jeremiah 29:11-14, God is speaking to the exiles in Babylon. His message to the Jewish people who had been deported from Jerusalem was one of hope and a future; He wanted them to know that He had plans for them despite their hardship. While graduating isn’t the same as being deported, it is a huge accomplishment reflecting hard work and dedication, and it is a move the rest of the students’ lives. For Graduation Recognition Sunday, Matt Carlisle — a member of our high school ministry team — encourages young people to build their lives on the firm foundation of God’s Word. By pointing out five common things we’re all likely to face, he illustrates that the things from our childhood can follow us through adulthood, but he also reminds us that Jesus can help us change and overcome the challenges of life.

Motherhood is a double-edged sword. We do not deny that children are a gift from God, but it is equally true that being a mother is a sword that will pierce your soul — as it says in Luke 2:35. Although that verse is about Mary seeing Jesus suffer on the cross, what mother hasn’t felt the slice of that sword as they have watched their own children suffer through the trials of life. Motherhood is messy. It’s difficult and leaves you with emotional baggage that you are too often too busy, too religious, too polite, too numb or too wounded to deal with, but Jesus is a Healer. If we truly believe our church is in a season of healing, it would make no sense to spend Mother’s Day glossing over things that cause pain. This week, we’re trying to help moms find healing.

Last week was a pivotal moment for the people of Covenant Life. We learned together that there’s power in the presence of God, and we don’t have to wait until the future to access it or worry that we missed it in the past. We can access it right now in our present. Many people prayed to God at the end of service, seeking His help in forgiving those who hurt them and trying to live out His will for their lives, but that type of life change doesn’t happen overnight. When the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land, they faced many battles and setbacks, but before they could move forward, they needed to stop and heal. The men required a physical circumcision to be set apart for God, but the hearts of everyone in the group needed a spiritual circumcision — a separation from their past selves. The same is required of us; the Lord must be allowed to mend us, so we have the strength to ascend the mountain and seek His glory.

The tent of meeting, which we read about in Exodus 33, was a tent that Moses set up outside the camp of the Israelites. He would go into the tent and meet with God about the decisions he needed to make and directions he needed to take in leading Israel toward the will of God. It was a place where Moses could be in the manifested presence of God. As a matter of fact, some translations called it the Tent of the Lord’s Presence. When we think of talking to or hearing from God, we often think it may happen at some point in the future or that we missed opportunity sometime in the past. However, the Bible refers to our bodies as temporary tents and says they are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to worry that we’ve missed our chance or wait until the future; we can enter into God’s presence any place and time — right here in the present tense.

When Jesus Christ walked out of the tomb on Easter morning, He walked out in a resurrected physical body. When He was on the earth, He was in a physical body. He was — and IS — a real person. He’s not a mythical figure or a philosophical construct; there is a real Jesus this morning who not only lived, died and rose again but also Who is alive and well this morning and will live forever! From almost every church on Easter, an invitation will go out to follow Jesus, but not everyone who claims to be a Christian is one. However, not every pulpit is preaching the real Jesus revealed in His Word. The goal of following Jesus isn’t fame or fortune. It is forgiveness of sin, relationship with Him and a commitment to His Kingdom. It’s the ability to say with confidence, “That’s my King.”

There is much to be learned in the four gospels by reading about the crucifixion of Jesus, but what often gets lost in the sensory overload of the events described is the perspective that only time and distance can offer. If you just read the accounts, you’ll get the impression that it was a power play, a political assassination or a religious feud. However, the Bible tells us that Jesus was sent for this. The crucifixion didn’t happen by accident. It was the plan all along because He loves the world that much. It wasn’t an assassination; Jesus willingly laid down His life. In fact, when Jesus talks about the cross in John 3, He refers to an event from Moses’s life that happened 1,800 years before He was even born. This week, we’re going outside the crucifixion accounts to find new depth and insight.

This week, we’re recognizing what is known around the Christian world as Palm Sunday, which is recorded in all four gospels. It was immediately recognized by all who were present as an announcement of Jesus as the Messiah. Their King had arrived, a moment they had been anticipating for centuries, but although the triumphal entry happened exactly as they had expected, there were a lot of things their hearts were not prepared for. Thanks to the benefit of hindsight, we understand what Jesus was doing and why it had to be the way it was. When King Jesus arrived, He started to put things in order and reset people’s priorities, which is the same thing that happens when we encounter Jesus today. Using the events of Palm Sunday, Pastor John shares four things we can do to align our misplaced priorities with the Kingdom and get our hearts ready for the King.

In December 2023, Pastor Robby unexpectedly lost his only child, Kylie. Despite being raised in church and having a great relationship with God, nothing could prepare him for the tragedy, and in the aftermath of her passing, he has faced countless questions and a lot of searching. Even now, he still can’t fully process the grief and cope with the new world in which he and his wife are living. This week, Robby opens up about his experience and the many “God moments” that have led him back to the pulpit. Amid all the things he still doesn’t know or understand, he has discovered that there is one thing he has needed more than anything: hope. Together, we will discover that hope has a name, and it’s Jesus. In fact, the name of Jesus contains everything we could ever want or need.

This week, we are finishing a short series called “Glimpses of Glory.” Sometimes, the glory of God gives you an understanding of the name and nature of God. Other times, you will receive cleansing from sin or calling to ministry. Now, we’re talking about times that the glory of God manifests itself in a tangible way, where Heaven touches earth in a way that is undeniable and unforgettable. If we are truly going to pursue the glory of God the way He is calling us to, we have to open our spiritual minds up to the possibility that God may express Himself in ways we’ve never seen and didn’t expect. In this message, we’re exploring times in the Word and in our own lives when God expresses Himself this way, offering glimpses of His glory that are spiritual in nature but physical in expression.

Throughout our current series, which is called “Glimpses of Glory,” we are talking about how God longs to show us His glory but can only share glimpses of it because of His overwhelming power and majesty. However, even a glimpse or a moment in His glory can change your life!When we talk about glory, we are talking about a manifestation of God in a way that is transformative; it isn’t understood so much as it is experienced. Last week, we looked at what happened when Moses asked to see God’s glory in Exodus 33. God revealed His name and His nature. This week, we’re using Isaiah 6:1-8 to explore the concept of cleansing and calling. There is no question that what Isaiah experienced in this passage of Scripture was a manifestation of God’s glory. It may have been a different experience than that Moses had, but it was no less powerful.

This week, we’re starting a new series called “Glimpses of Glory,” which is focused on the glory of God. The roots of this series are found in a previous series we completed last called “Covenant Living.” We encourage you to watch or listen to these messages if you have not done so. Exodus 33:11-23 served as the basis for that series, and we’re revisiting it for this series, too. There are many different passages in the Bible where God revealed His glory to people and many expressions of that glory, but churches don’t talk about it much because it’s difficult to understand and cannot be controlled. With this series, Pastor John is attempting to restore a biblical understanding and appreciation of God’s glory, starting with a message called “The Name and Nature of God.”

In Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus tells us how to pray that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. In a sense, He’s trying to bring heaven to earth. In Ephesians 2, we read that Satan is the ruler of the kingdom of the air. He deceives people into doing the opposite of God’s will. He creates chaos and confusion. His whole purpose is to pollute the atmosphere here on earth with the same things that await him in Hell. This week, we’re talking about how easy it is to get polluted air in your lungs — even spiritually. Satan is really good at this. He can lead us to focus on negative things and breathe in the air of Hell until we are in a full-blown panic. On the other hand, we see that Jesus never allowed what was going on around Him to get into Him. We must learn to do the same; we have to change the source of what we breathe.

We’re continuing our relationship series called Crosswinds. Headwinds give you lift, and tailwinds give you speed. It’s the wind that comes across that will take you out. The Kingdom of God is built on relationships, and if we plan to have a growing intimacy in our vertical relationship with God, we have to pay attention to the horizontal relationships we have with others. It’s important that we address the crosswinds damaging our relationships. In this series, we have been talking about three big crosswinds. If you eliminate these things, about 85% of your relationship problems will be solved. We talked about excessive alcohol and sexual impurity, and this is our third week talking about immaturity. In the Bible, Jesus is calling us to be child-like to make it in the Kingdom of God, but Paul warns us to grow up and not be childish. We have been learning that the difference is humility.

We are continuing our series called Crosswinds, which is all about the things in your horizontal relationships that hinder your vertical relationship with the Lord. How you treat people matters, and if we’re going to pursue the glory of God, we have to pay attention to our relationships with others because God is definitely paying attention. So what are the crosswinds that will take out your relationships? We’ve talked about excessive alcohol consumption and sexual immorality. Last week, we began talking about immaturity, and we’re continuing that discussion this week by focusing on how we should change the way we speak, think and reason to be more mature believers.

We are continuing our series called Crosswinds, which is all about the things in your horizontal relationships that hinder your vertical relationship with the Lord. How you treat people matters, and if we’re going to pursue the glory of God, we have to pay attention to our relationships with others because God is definitely paying attention. So what are the crosswinds that will take out your relationships? We’ve talked about excessive alcohol consumption and sexual immorality. Last week, we began talking about immaturity, and we’re continuing that discussion this week by focusing on how we should change the way we speak, think and reason to be more mature believers.

This week, we’re beginning the last message in the Crosswinds Series, which has been all about the things that destroy our relationships and disrupt our spiritual progress in pursuing God’s glory. In other words, we’re exploring the horizontal things that become the lid for the vertical things in our lives. Wind isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. Headwinds provide lift, and tailwinds provide speed. Crosswinds, on the other hand, aren’t helpful for anyone. Our two opening scriptures (1 Corinthians 13:11 and Matthew 18:1-4) both reference childhood, but one seems to encourage it while the other seems to reject it. Jesus says that we have to be like children to be successful in the Kingdom of God, but Paul says we should put away childish things. For this message, we’re going to talk about the crosswind of immaturity, which takes a tole on our relationships. The key is to learn to be child-like but not childish.

We’re in the middle of a three-part series on relationships called Crosswinds. If you picture a cross, there are two pieces of wood: a vertical piece and a horizontal piece. Throughout this series, we’re talking about horizontal things — how we conduct ourselves and interact with people around us — that can hinder our vertical pursuit of God’s glory. While headwinds give us lift and tailwinds give us speed, crosswinds are never helpful. Last week, we talked about the first common crosswind in our relationships: the excessive use of alcohol. We learned that it never helps and provided resources to help those dealing with this issue. This week, we’re going to talk about our next crosswind: sexual impurity. It’s mentioned often in the Bible, but many churches don’t discuss it. Together, we’ll explore how sexual impurity is killing our marriages and other relationships.

This week, we’re starting a new series called Crosswinds. Numerous verses in the Bible illustrate the connection between our relationship with God and how we treat the people around us. In our vertical pursuit of God’s glory, there are things that happen in our horizontal relationships that will throw us off course and prevent us from rising into the upper atmosphere where God’s calling us. The purpose of this series is to remind us of important things we need to take care of horizontally, so we can ascend vertically without hinderance. Together, we’ll explore three issues that Pastor John has observed repeatedly over the years that, if addressed in accordance with the Word, could eliminate most of our marriage problems. The first crosswind we’re going to talk about is alcohol.

For as long as he’s been the leader of Covenant Life, Pastor John has delivered an annual State of the Church message because it’s important for accountability, integrity, and unity. In this year’s message, we’re looking back at 2024 and talking about the financial figures, attendance numbers, spiritual growth metrics, and even the intangible things that God did among us over the past 12 months. It won’t just be a tidal wave of numbers and figures nor will it be entirely focused on the past. We will turn our attention to the year that’s in front of us and talk about what Pastor John believes God is inviting us into. It’s not a business meeting, and it’s actually perfect for anyone watching or attending for the first time because it will help you understand a lot about the heartbeat of the church.

We’ve been walking through a series called Three Funerals From Revival. If revival is a life lived in pursuit of the glory of God, then there are some things that cannot coexist with that desire. Some things must die in order for us to see God’s glory. Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen that pride and religion must die. This week, we’re going to find out why Jezebel must die. There are only around 40 or 50 verses in the whole Bible about Jezebel, but the depth of her depravity and cold-hearted evil certainly left its mark on the world. Jezebel was the daughter of the king of the Sidonians, and Ahab, who was the king of Israel, married her. He gladly imported her idolatry to Israel, and through Jezebel’s influence, it became a state-sponsored religion.

Last week, we started a new series called “Three Funerals from Revival,” which explores the idea that some things have to die in our lives before we can truly live a life in pursuit of God’s glory. Last week’s message was about how everything in the Kingdom of God happens through humility. Arrogance and self-centered living will never lead you to the glory of God. Together, we learned that pride must die. This week, we’re going to talk about the second thing that must die in our lives: religion. Religion is any way of getting right with God other than the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you are trying to have a right relationship with God that doesn’t go through a wooden cross and the empty tomb, you will never achieve your goal; Jesus said that no one gets to the Father except through Him.

The Lord has been teaching us to draw near to Him, to climb higher up the mountain and get in the jet stream of spiritual effectiveness. There are many accounts in the Bible that describe the glory of God and its effect on people, but before we can start talking about God’s glory, we have to remember the “replacement doctrine.” As we’ve learned, it’s not enough to stop doing the wrong thing, you have to start doing the right thing. Some things can’t occupy the same space. Some things have to die before other things can live. God is jealous of His glory and doesn’t share it with anyone, so there are things that must die before the glory of God really manifests in your life. This week, we’re beginning a new series called Three Funerals from Revival, looking at three things that have to die to enable us to walk in the glory of God, and the first thing that must die is pride.

As we close out the year, a lot of people are preparing resolutions for the new year, coming up with things they’d like to do more or less often over the next 12 months. The sad reality, however, is that most people give up on their resolutions by the end of January. Could it be that these changes — many of which are positive or admirable — don’t stick because we’ve failed to include God in the decision-making process? This week, Jordan Weathers uses Psalm 139 to remind us about God’s intimate knowledge of us and His involvement in every area of our lives. With this in mind, we will discuss three prayers for the new year that revolve around who we are, where we go and what we do. By earnestly asking God these three questions, we can ensure that our hopes, dreams, plans and pursuits are closely aligned with His will and Word.

So much about the Christmas account is miraculous and supernatural that it gets hard to keep track of every thing. We are all familiar with the miracle of the virgin birth, the divine communication with Joseph through dreams, the angelic appearance to the shepherds and the miracle of the Christmas star. However, there is one miracle that we might have overlooked. Although it is not typically the book of the Bible in which you expect to find information pertaining to Christmas, Colossians 2:9 speaks about a miraculous truth. We’ve heard the term “incarnation” in relationship to Christmas. God became human in order to be with us in our human condition. It is a uniquely Christian concept and one of the things that sets Jesus apart from all others.

The first prophecy about the coming of Jesus was in Genesis 3 when God tells the serpent that Eve’s Offspring will bruise the head of the serpent’s offspring. That was thousands of years before the birth of Christ. There were many more prophecies over hundreds of years, and for the previous 400 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Jewish people had heard absolutely nothing from heaven. They waited on the Messiah for what seemed like forever, and Galatians 4:4 says that, when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son. This is like waiting for a bag of microwavable popcorn to pop. It only takes two minutes, but for most of that time, it seems like nothing is happening. For a while, the bag is just as flat as it began, but after a while, though, the first “pop” happens. The things happening inside the bag reach a point where the kernels are ready to pop, and once the first one pops, the rest follow. It’s similar with what God is doing in our church and in our lives. Be faithful and patient. Trust the process and know that He’ll bring it to fruition when the time is right!

This week, we’re ending our four-part series called Covenant Living. The series has been based on three requests Moses makes while talking to God in Exodus: revelation, habitation and manifestation. These three components form the foundation of what it looks like to live in covenant with Him. As we’ve learned, a covenant is a holy agreement between God and His people. Those of us who have surrendered our lives to Jesus are in covenant with Him, one sealed with the Holy Spirit and bought with the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. As we’ve walked through this series together, one thing has emerged that may be holding us back from heeding the call of God and making the same requests as Moses: fear. We may be sincere about following Jesus and wish to pursue God with all our hearts, but there is fear associated with that pursuit. It may be a fear of losing control, looking foolish or being asked to give up everything. It’s part of our sin nature to run from God, but as we end this series, we’re going to explore how we can move from afraid of God to a friend of God.

In Exodus 33, we see Moses having a conversation with God after the children of Israel enter into a covenant — or holy agreement — with Him. Two weeks ago, we focused on the first part of this conversation and the first request that Moses made, which demonstrated a desire for a life-changing revelation. This is a key element to covenant living; we have to understand the ways of God, which were shown to us by Jesus’s life on earth. After Moses asks God for revelation, he says, “Let me live in Your presence.” Moses’s second request was for habitation, which is when we begin to develop the character and nature of Jesus in our own lives. When we saturate ourselves with the Spirit of God, He begins to show Himself through us. This week, we’re continuing this conversation by looking at three things the enemy uses to hinder our attempts at pursuing habitation.

Last week, we started a series called the Covenant Living Series. We talked about how Jesus fulfilled the old covenant and established a new covenant, in which He was the sacrifice and His blood paid the price. As we learned, a covenant is a holy agreement between God and His people, and in Exodus 33, we read about what happened following the covenant that God entered into with the people of Israel. For the first part of our series, we talked about revelation. Covenant living begins with a revelation of who Jesus really is, seeing the ways of God and accepting the invitation to enter into a relationship and covenant with Him. This week, we're going to talk about the next aspect of covenant living: habitation. Together, we will explore what it is, what it means and what might be preventing it from happening in our lives.

Our church was established in 1943 as the Bremen Church of God. Pastor Rone Norton had been preaching in an old brush arbor, and they finally got the money to build a building right around the corner. Around 1968, they built what we call the Coley Building and relocated their church. When the pastor left about 30 years later, John Butler and the pastor he was serving at the time decided to come to Bremen to see if they could get the church going again. In 1999 or 2000, we became Covenant Life Church of God, changing the name of the church to communicate to the community that something was different, but in all these years, we’ve never really talked about what a “covenant life” is. We have used the term a lot within the modern church, but we might not really know what it means. This week, we’re starting a brand-new series called “Covenant Living” to see what it looks like to live a life in covenant with God.

Pilots prefer to take off in a headwind because it allows them to climb better. As a matter of fact, naval aircraft carriers turn into the wind when they are getting ready to launch their planes. Headwinds don’t scare an experienced pilot, but once they get off the ground, they need to move from a headwind to a tailwind. They have to move from one air mass — or one river of air — to another. The prophetic word that God gave to our church in the spring suggests a season of acceleration, and just like planes, this requires us to rise. Planes can travel faster in some air than in others, and sometimes, you have to go higher in order to go faster. Using the response of the people of Israel in Exodus 19-20, we’re exploring what it looks like to rise and reach the top of the mountain to which God is calling us.

John 15:1-8, which has been used as the primary scripture or a supporting passage multiple times this year, is all about being IN Jesus. These verses talk about the importance of abiding, dwelling, lingering and getting into lock-step with Jesus. It’s all about losing yourself in His character, nature, calling and empowerment. It’s more than being around Him, knowing about Him or being acquainted with Him. The connection is stronger, deeper and more important than that. It’s being connected to Him as the Source of everything — just like a branch is attached to a vine. This week, we’re exploring the topic of what it really means to be IN Jesus.

Healthy things grow, and growing things change. However, change requires intention, and too often, we respond to these changes with fear. When we’re afraid, we put up walls and push back from other people, but growing deeper with God requires us to put ourselves in difficult and uncomfortable situations. This week, Pastor John delivers an honest call to authenticity and embracing change in our relationship with the Lord. We should not avoid our calling or shrink away from Jesus when life gets difficult. Instead, we need to push through the discomfort because there’s so much more to live for and experience on the other side.

If there is one thing that hangs heavy in the minds of believers, it’s the will of God. We want God’s will to shine out like a lighthouse, so we will know when there’s danger. We want to hear the course corrections clearly and precisely. People are often terrified they’re going to miss the will of God, and sometimes, they’re terrified to find it. There is a way for us to find the will of God shining through the darkness and hear His voice directing our paths. As we learned last week, though, it’s hard to find the right answer if you’re asking the wrong question. This week, we’re going to talk about the will of God and explore the idea that we may be searching for the wrong thing.

People tend to think of vision as something exclusive to churches, businesses or organizations, but you can apply the same principles to your ministry, family or personal life. How do you find a God-pleasing direction for your life? Start by asking right questions. Pastor John consistently prays about God’s vision for Covenant Life and what we should do as a church. In response to these prayers, he recently felt the Holy Spirit show him that Godly vision doesn’t start with a “what.” Instead, it starts with a “who.”

In Mark 2, we see Jesus going back to His ministry headquarters in a place called Capernaum. The people of the town found out He was there, and soon, there was standing room only at the house He was in. Jesus was teaching the people when four men walked up, carrying a paralyzed friend of theirs on a mat. They wanted to take him to Jesus, but there was a crowd of people around Him. As a result, they climbed up on the roof, dislodged some tiles and lowered their buddy down in front of Jesus. Most sermons that are preached on this passage heap praise on the man who had the courage to be healed or the faith of the his four friends to get him to Jesus no matter what. These are worthwhile points, but today, we are examining the account from a different angle by asking an important question: how did the man get out after he was healed? The Bible says he walked out through a crowd of stunned onlookers, but is it possible that these people gathered were standing in the way of seeing a miracle?

For about a year and a half, God has been steadily sending our church messages that challenge us to get healed. We’ve talked about what it means to get healthy, forgive ourselves and those in our past, get strong in the Lord and tap into Him and the Holy Spirit as our power source. This week, we’re talking about the purpose for all that healing, strength and power by talking about the “main thing.” In Matthew 28:18, Jesus meets with His followers after His resurrection and makes a stunning statement; He says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him. This is the same Jesus who remained silent in the face of His accusers, but here He is, standing on a mountainside in Galilee and saying something that had to blow their minds: every created thing in the universe is under His command.

Last week, we started talking about the connection between prayer and peace. The foundational truth of this message was that you can pray or worry, but you can’t do both. We discovered that prayer isn’t about persuasion; it’s about permission. It’s not about convincing God to move on your behalf; it’s about surrendering control of it to Him. Additionally, we found out that God wants us to pray about our own struggles with worry and anxiety just as much as He wants us to pray for other people and situations. This week, we’re going to continue exploring prayer and peace, but first, we need to revisit some of the other things we discussed in Part 1. We learned that prayer is power, the path to peace and progress, but these things are universally true. In 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal prayed earnestly and sincerely, but nothing happened. There was no power in their prayer. As we dive into Part 2, the central truth for us is that prayer’s power is in direct proportion to the power of the One to Whom we are praying.

Throughout the Bible, God talks a lot about peace, and it makes sense. He identifies Himself as a God of peace, and Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. The Bible also talks about worry and anxiety a lot because they are the enemies of peace. God loves us, and He wants us to walk in peace. During our last series, we talked about the replacement doctrine, which means that we have to replace our negative activities with positive ones, and this is exactly what we see in Philippians 4:6. This week, we’re starting a new series that explores the connection between prayer and peace.

Over the past six weeks, we’ve been in the “Prescription for the Promise” Series, exploring the three, two-word imperatives that the Lord gave us in a prophetic word a few months ago: Get Healthy, Get Strong and Get Ready. There were great promises contained in that prophecy, but it was clear that they were contingent upon us carrying out the commands — or prescriptions — God provided. We spent a couple of weeks talking about how to get healthy, the last four weeks learning how to get strong, and we’re ending the series with what it means to get ready. Let’s assume that we are all healthy or getting healthy, and we are learning to walk and live in the love of Christ, which is the source of spiritual strength. We could look in the Bible and follow scriptural principles for these first two commands, but the command to get ready leads to many questions. Get ready for what? How can you study when you don’t know what’s on the test? How can you be ready when you don’t know what’s coming? This week, we’re going to look at three things we can do to get ready for any time or place God may lead us.

We’ve been in a series called “Prescription for the Promise,” in which we’ve been talking about getting healthy and getting strong. This week, we’re continuing to focus on what it means to Get Strong. The central idea is to get strong in the Lord’s power, and we’ve explored many aspects of spiritual strength — all of them important, valid and backed up by multiple scriptures. In Ephesians 3:19, Paul writes about experiencing the love of Christ, so we can be “made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Throughout this potion of our series, we have learned that growing in God’s power is what gives us strength, and the Bible tells us that kind of strength only happens when we experience the love of Christ.

Covenant Life received a prophetic word a few months ago, in which the Lord told us to do three thingsL Get Healthy, Get Strong and Get Ready. We have been referring to these as prescriptions that we need to fill in order to see the promises that God said were coming, and we’ve been looking at each one throughout our current series, “Prescription for the Promise.” We have to actually do what He tells us to do if we expect to receive what He said He wanted for us. This week, we’re continuing to explore what it means to Get Strong. We already learned that spiritual strength has to be endued, which means that we have to surrender and allow God to wrap us in His strength. We also learned that spiritual strength has to be renewed; humans are weak and prone to leaking, so we have to be refilled. To “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power,” we must learn how to stop poking holes in the supernatural buckets of our lives.

This week, we are continuing our series called “Prescription for the Promise.” The Lord spoke a word to Covenant Life a few months ago that included some wonderful promises He has in store for us, but it also includes three things that we need to do. The fulfillment of the promises is contingent upon our willingness to do the three prescriptions He gave us: Get Healthy, Get Strong and Get Ready. This week is the second part of our focus on “Get Strong.” As we started to discuss last week, strength and courage are often seen together in the Bible. To encourage means to put courage in, but you have to take something out before you can put in something new. Perhaps, the reason some of us have not gotten stronger in the Lord is because we’re trying to add strength, but we haven’t removed the fear first.

This week, we’re continuing our series called “Prescription for the Promise,” exploring the prophetic word about our church that the Lord gave to Pastor John a few months ago. Within this prophecy, there are three kinds of statements. There are descriptions that tell us what’s happening and predictions about things to come in the future, but there are also three commands we must do to see the promise be fulfilled. We’ve already talked about the first prescription: get healthy. Now, as we shift our focus to the second prescription, we’re going to see what the Bible says about getting strong. Ephesians 6 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power, and in John 15, Jesus says that we’re unable to do anything without Him. Together, we’ll discover ways to improve our union with God, which is crucial for spiritual strength.

Last week, we began a brand new series called “Prescription for the Promise,” which seeks to unpack three commands within the prophecy that God spoke to and about Covenant Life a few months ago. He said that we need to get healthy, get strong and get ready. By doing these things, we will be prepared for the promises that He also spoke to us: victory, growth, freedom and repentance. With Get Healthy: Part 1, we talked about the first two steps in the process. First, we need to ask God for an honest evaluation about the areas in which we’re not healthy. Then, we have to be humble enough to accept the evidence and admit that we may have work to do. This week, we’re continuing the conversation about how we can be physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy.

A few weeks ago, Pastor John released a prophetic word for Covenant Life. Part of that message is descriptive; it describes the breaking and shaking of strongholds many people in our church are experiencing right now. Some of it is predictive; it predicts that the result of the sharking and breaking will be resolution, freedom, repentance, victory, revival and growth. Another part of the word is prescriptive. It is prescribing a course of action that we should take. This comes in the form of three commands that will hasten the fulfillment of the promises: get healthy get strong, get ready. This week, we’re talking about the first imperative and exploring its biblical foundation. No matter who you are what God has planned for you, you need to be healthy, strong and ready to walk into it.

Over the past three weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about sounds and how we often hear the rumblings of God doing things in our lives before we see those changes come to pass. As powerful as sounds are, though, I don’t think we realize that what we see has a significant impact on our lives. In fact, it’s more about how we see than it is about what what see. So much of life is about perspective, and the impulses deep inside of us tend to color how we interact with and see the world. If the way we respond to the things that happen to us is determined by the thoughts and tendencies we have, it’s worth some analysis. This week, we’re learning how we can properly guard our hearts and ensure that our default reactions to the inconveniences of life are more in line with the Word of God.