VCast

When persecution comes, we do not give up and we do not give in. We gather together and stand firm in christ. No matter what suffering we may face, we will face it together and pray for the Holy Spirit to give us boldness. When they came together to pray, they didn't pray for the suffering or persecution to end, rather that God would give them the strength and the boldness to continue preaching the Gospel in spite of it! True revival needs a back bone and a bunch of bold believers who will not go along with the culture, but will actively live in opposition to the ways of this world. We will not compromise with a culture that belittles and disrespects our God and our faith. We will stand firm in truth and will continue to preach the good news to everyone who needs to hear it! When we pray this way, the Holy Spirit will come down in our midst and renew out hearts and minds with a fresh outpouring of His presence.

We are better together! Every great and beautiful thing that happens, only happens when we come together. However, as christians, we must always be aware that we aren't the only ones gathering together. The greatest movements and revivals in human history have always met opposition. Today we are seeing waves of persecution sweeping across the globe. Now more than ever we are beginning to see the birth pains of the persecution coming upon the church. We have enemies who are coming together as a kingdom of darkness, and are coming against the light of the world. We must prepare ourselves for the coming persecution. One day we may end up being in chains for our beliefs! But if we persecution comes, we will get through it together.

When the people of God are actively praying and fellowshipping together, the miraculous begins to happen! In this chapter a miracle happens for a lame man. He was miraculously healed by the power of God at the hands of His disciples! God wants to do the miraculous in us, around us, and through us! God used the disciples to do the miraculous! Even after this great miracle an even greater miracle begins to happen! One man's miracle became a walking testimony to the people of his community! People began to run together to catch a glimpse of the grace and mercy of God. God wants to use your miracle to win the hearts of the lost!

With 3000 brand new christians, the disciples knew that there was more to be done. They didn't just preach at people, they brought them into fellowship and community. Revival isn't just about preaching the gospel, it's also about displaying it. Fellowship together is the only thing that keeps revival from being just a memorable moment to being a true God honoring life style. When we bring people into our homes and daily created opportunities for people to grow, we will begin to see revival spread throughout our city. Let's look at what true fellowship looked like.

Revival has begun! The Holy Spirit filled that upper room and everyone was filled with his presence. We see people speaking in other tongues and the power of God manifesting himself in his people. They weren't the only ones who were affected! We see that a true move of the Holy Spirit draws unbelievers together! People from every tribe and nation gathered together and were amazed by the promise of the Holy Spirit! This miraculous promise wasn't meant to be stuck in the 4 walls of the upper room. It burst forth into the community and spread like a wild fire. The community benefitted from the move of the Holy Spirit as it gave the disciples utterance to preach the Gospel in each person's own language!

Before we can accomplish God's mission for the church, we must receive power from the Holy Spirit. When we gather together, God will pour out his spirit! The baptism of the Holy Spirit contrasted the tower of Babel! At the tower of Babel the people were scattered and the languages were confused and mixed. On the day of Pentecost we see people from every nation gather together and each language was being spoken and united God's people. This moment was a moment of unity and togetherness. One of God's greatest goals is to unite his people by the power of the spirit. We are one body with many members, but one Holy Spirit who lives in each of us and connects us to each other, so let us continue to seek the unity of the Spirit!

One of the greatest movements of all time sparked from the day of Pentecost. That upper room experience is what many christians long for, and often times rarely experience. Sometimes it can be discouraging when we want to see a move of God and don't. However, it is important to remember that the church is the hands and feet of Jesus, we are a move of God! Acts 2 only happened because of Acts 1. The bible says that they had devoted themselves to prayer together. This is how we see revival. Dead faith doesn't produce revival. Only when the people of God come together and become active and devoted to a life of prayer do we see a move of the Spirit!

As christians we are called to be a people of community, but many christians choose to do life alone. It can be tough trying to figure out God's will on our own. In the book of Acts, there was a moment before Jesus ascended and gave directions to his disciples. After his resurrection Jesus had appeared to over 500 eye-witnesses. He appeared to many people individually, but the Bible says that when the disciples had come together, it was in that moment that Jesus commissioned and gave instructions to his disciples. Guidance and Counsel happens best in community. In this sermon we will explain why Jesus' mission for the church can only be accomplished together!

Every Christian is a soldier in a war. When we don't know or forget that our life is a war we can no longer make sense of our struggles. When this happens we wrongly interpret everything negative in our loves as judgment from God. In reality, our situations are not a result of judgment from God but rather at many times is an attack from the enemy. God had poured out his judgment on Jesus rather than us for those of us that are in Christ, and in doing so has already claimed victory over the enemy.

Every Christian ultimately works for Jesus. Jesus' estimation of your life and works is all that will matter in the end. We should then work hard and honestly for Jesus, not just when others are looking, but all the time because Jesus is always looking. We can rest assured that if we work in this way for the Lord, he will reward us in this life and the life to come, so we are not wasting or lives but rather investing them for a reward.

When most people think about love they may think about marriage. So it is fitting that in Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul spoke of Jesus like a groom that loved his bride the church so much he died for her. Paul used this love as a comparison for Christian marriage which ultimately exists to share and show Christs love.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. When Jesus died on the Cross for us, it meant more than just simply washing away our sins. We get adopted in the family of God and become apart of God's new chosen people, the Church. Our relationship with God becomes different and our relationship with each other because closer and better than ever.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. In Christ, we have been forgiven of our sin but we vary rarely ever look at it through the perspective that we must forgive others just as we have been. We can sometimes follow a cycle of bitterness where we believe people do not deserve our forgiveness, even though we don't deserve His forgiveness. We must learn what forgiveness is, what it isn't, and how to use it for the freedom of bitterness for others and for ourselves.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. Once we accept Christ into our lives we have become a new creation. We have been made externally and internally new and one day we will be eternally new. Everyday we walk in this newness putting off the old desires of our flesh and walk on the new path that Jesus has revealed to us.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. All of us that are in Christ have been given specific and different gifting in order to advance God's message. Our gifts need cultivating and maturity through discipleship, and all of our gifting are meant to help the church so we should all be involved in the church in some way.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. Praying is one of the most humbling acts we could do. In prayer we bring out our deepest desires, emotions and fears to God making it incredibly personal. God knows exactly all of the things that you may be feeling and going through. So prayer is not what you do to let God in on all the details, rather prayer is the acknowledgement that regardless of the fact that you may be going through tough times that you need him.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. The church in Ephesus was in a season of discouragement . They were facing many afflictions whether these afflictions be testimonial, demonic, empathetic and even vicarious. However Paul, who was most likely in a lonely cold and dark prison (which would have most likely been a literal hole in the ground), writing to his church “not to lose heart”. How can we be like Paul and not have our afflictions make us lose affection?

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. Today there are many physical walls that separate people all over the world, and within the spiritual realm it's no different. Many people today have what is known as “identity idolatry”. People will idolize their nation, culture, race, class and even generation leading to things like nationalism, racism, classism, sexism and even ageism. It can even trickle down into the church of God. However one day, the local church as we know it will become the kingdom of God and those who inhabit this kingdom will be extremely diverse. Because we will all be with God forever despite our differences we must have reconciliation in this life.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. When born into this world, we are born into a fallen nature and are in need of a Savior. Through the crucifixion of Christ, we are sparred and rescued from the death we should have had and saved by Jesus to glorify God through the good works he has prepared for us.

It is common in ministry today for many people to feel as if they are under-appreciated. When nobody sees us, God does. We are God's workmanship and whenever people appreciate you, they are inadvertently praising the creator for His creation. We should change our perspective since attention and praise from people only last for so long, but God appreciates us and that will be worth more than anyone else's praise. His praise is enough.

There is a false assumption many of us believe in our relationship with God that we must somehow earn His blessing or manipulate Him to give it to us, but that could not be any farther from the truth. God IS our blessing and the source of all our blessing; He blesses us to the praise of the glory of His grace. Blessing is not situation based but it is rooted in having a loving and upright relationship with the Father.

It is extremely easy in our spiritual walk with Christ to feel condemnation over our sin and for sin to become our identity. God calls us to look at our identity through a different approach. While we feel conviction for our sin, we are made saints in Christ. We are not fully sanctified, but we are getting closer each day to becoming the perfect image bearers and saints of Christ.

Through our fallen sin nature, we identify as being “in Adam”. Through the redemptive work of the Cross, we are now “in Christ”. No longer do we have to search for identity in Adam or in what we do but rather, all we must do is understand the identity of Christ and learn to bear Christ's image as a light on a hill for all the world to see.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. When God creates woman, He gives her a unique identity and purpose in life. God designs a specific role for woman to fulfill and, by living out that role, to increase human flourishing.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. When God creates man, He gives him a unique identity and purpose in life. God designs a specific role for man to fulfill and, by living out that role, to increase human flourishing.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together. God is the Creator of all things. His design for the universe is perfect and timeless. In Genesis 1, God creates everything—the heavens and earth, plants, animals, man and woman—in six days and rests on the seventh day. In Genesis 2, the narrative describes how God creates man and woman and why He creates them. They are created to be His image bearers and to be in relationship with Him. This is their identity.

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! This month we are talking about mental health and the war in our minds. Today we will be speaking about the "rejoice principle". When we see things through God's perspective, it creates opportunities to rejoice in the Lord. When we intentionally choose to rejoice and present our anxieties to the Lord we will receive peace from God. This peace surpasses all understanding and guards us from the worries of this life. Today we say "I Declare War" on my mind!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! This month we are talking about mental health and the war in our minds. Today we will be speaking about the "reframe principle". With our minds rewired for healthy thinking, we must remember to see things from God's perspective. Our perspectives can often become reality, but when we see things through Godly lenses we can make it through even the hardest situations in life. Today we say "I Declare War" on my mind!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! This month we are talking about mental health and the war in our minds. Today we will be speaking about the "rewire principle". Having replaced the lies with truth, we now need to rewire the way our brain thinks. If we want to see change in our actions we need a change in thinking. Jesus taught that all sin starts in the mind before it manifests in our actions. It's time to say "I Declare War" on my mind!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! This month we are talking about mental health and the war in our minds. Today we will be speaking about the "replace principle". For years the enemy has lied to us and it's time to replace the lies of the devil with the truth of God. Today we say "I Declare War" on my mind!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah has an experience in the throne room of God. This experience yielded some interesting results. One of those results was that God began to call out asking who he should send to which Isaiah responded, send me I will go. What does this all mean for us today? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah has an experience in the throne room of God. This experience yielded some interesting results. One of those results was that Isaiah fell to the ground in prayer to God as this experience humbled him. What does this all mean for us today? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah has an experience in the throne room of God. This experience yielded some interesting results. One of those results was that Isaiah began confessing his sins which led to his forgiveness as his sins were atoned for. What does this all mean for us today? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah has an experience in the throne room of God. This experience yielded some interesting results. One of those results was that Isaiah saw who God was, which led him to a startling revelation of who he was. What does this all mean for us today? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Jesus Identifies himself 8 times in the book of John using the words “I Am”. On one occasion Jesus identifies himself as “a vine”. What does he mean by vine? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Jesus Identifies himself 8 times in the book of John using the words “I Am”. On one occasion Jesus identifies himself as “a shepherd”. What does he mean by shepherd? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Jesus Identifies himself 8 times in the book of John using the words “I Am”. On one occasion Jesus identifies himself as “light”. What does he mean by light? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Jesus Identifies himself 8 times in the book of John using the words “I Am”. On one occasion Jesus identifies himself as “bread”. What does he mean by bread? Let's dive into the word and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Missions is at the center of the Bible! Empowered by the Spirit we now have the passion and the desire to win the lost! The only questions is how do we do it? Let's dive into the word of God and find out?

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Missions is at the center of the Bible! Jesus being the greatest missionary wants his followers to desire the work of missions. How do we stir up that passion and desire for the lost? Let's dive into the word of God and find out?

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Missions is at the center of the Bible! God sent His son Jesus to be the greatest missionary to ever live! What did missions look like for Jesus? Let's dive into the word of God and find out?

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Missions is at the center of the Bible! God desires community with his creation but his creation rebelled! How did God handle this rebellion? Let's dive into the word of God and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! God defines himself in his Word as love. However many people find it hard to see God's love in the Old Testament. If God is love, why would he send a flood to destroy people? How do we answer these tough questions? Let's dive in to the word of God and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! In modern society, unless you agree with what society teaches, you are labeled as intolerant. But in order to tolerate something there must be disagreement. After all who tolerates things they agree with or appreciate. What does the Bible say about love and Tolerance. Let's dive in to the word of God and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, and might, and to Love your neighbor as you love yourself. But what does that love look like in a believer's life? Let's dive in to the word of God and find out!

Welcome to Vcast where church and culture come together! We can say that the greatest display of God's love was sending Jesus to die for our sins! So how did Jesus teach and display love? Let's dive in to the word of God and find out!