I believe the 180 movie is a catalyst to bring change in North America.  Every Christian, Leader, or Pastor should watch the 180 movie at www.180movie.com

Stand for truth

When it comes to a move of God many of us have seen different “move’s of God” in their life.  Some have seen, heard, read, encountered, or just seen it on a sign while driving by .  While, revivals with people like Charles Finney, Charles Spurgeon, Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake,  and places we have all heard about are awesome, there remains one Move of God that trumped and was the root of every move of God we see today.

This MOVE of God came 2000 years ago.  “Oh, I know where he’s going with this now, click” – ha, wait…2000 years ago God Himself was MOVED with compassion by the sin, sickness, disease, depression, discouragement, oppression, etc of our lives, me and you. He then through His Son, MOVED (because He was MOVED remember) from heaven, out of comfort, worship, and adoration, to the earth as a man.  Here HE would be at first treated common, walk around sinners, so-called religious folk and everyone else inbetween….urrrrccccchhhhh…ok, ok, just wait a second..

Many times we hear this account of God’s love for us (John 3:16) and just keep moving on, but wait…just stop your brain, whoaa, (I know, who writes like this )  The God of Heaven was MOVED by YOU.., ok, I know this is redundant, but wait, the GOD OF HEAVEN, the MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH WAS MOVED with compassion, love, mercy, tenderheartedness, etc at the thought of you and me paying for our sins in ANY WAY!!!!! What? Where is that in the Bible?  – Jn 3:16 “For God so LOVED the World that HE gave HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON that WHOEVER shall believe in HIM will NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE everlasting life. Ok, still not sounding great….let’s break it down…

While were still sinners, against God, and enemies of God (Romans 5:8,10) of God (meaning, no value of our own goodness, holiness, or good works to God – Isaiah 64:6), He sent His Son to be punished with everything our sin demanded us to be punished for….For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)…Ok, take a breather….For our sin and even the sin of Israel there is an eternal death (Revelation 20:15, Mark 9:43-47), and there is curses here on the earth…Deuteronomy 28 lists a few blessings and a whole lot of cursings for everyone of our sins….What does that specifically mean? 

Well, God knew and knows you and I deserved punishment (physical, and eternal) for our sins. He is a just judge and righteous so someone had to pay for your sin, you or……someone who was without sin.  You would have to pay eternally or someone without sin could be a sacrifice for your sin.  -(what? Ok, back in the day the Israelites would use animals without blemishes as a scapegoat or atonement for sin.  The sin of the offerer would lay his hands on the animal and in doing so, the sin of the person would be imputed to the animal and the innocence of the animal would then be transferred to the sinner. The animal would then have to die (Heb 9:22). These offerings would be done regularly as the sacrifice of an animal would only cover and not ERASE FOREVER the sin of the offender. They were constantly coming and offering animal sacrifices as a subsitution for their punishment.) So Jesus came on the earth through the virgin Mary and lived a sinless life before God and His law so that when HE would die, He would forever eradicate (Hebrews 12:14) sin, the punishment for sin, and the need to sacrifice for every sin.  His ONE sacrifice (as He was without sin and perfect) would be accepted for all man as a “man” who hadn’t sinned became a substitute and took our place in all things He suffered on the cross (we still need to suffer persecution from man).  He also tasted death and hell for us and then preached the Good News of His sacrifice to those before who had passed on (1 Peter 3:18-20) so EVERYONE could recieve if they believed.

OK, let’s think a little, why did God send His Son again? To judge, condemn, point out our sin? No, but that we through Him would be saved (John 3:17). God already knows we were sinners and SO DO WE at our core. He didn’t want us to be punished for any of our sin so Christ took all of God’s wrath, everything God had against us, and nailed it to HIMSELF on the cross of Calvary. 

 WHY? LOVE. HE could stand spending eternity without you and me (and those who would choose Him – Ezekiel 33:11, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, ) God wants none of us to pay for our sins and in the end be eternally separated.  He made hell for the devil and his demons (Matthew 25:41.) Do people go there who reject the sacrifice of Christ? YES, if you reject the payment that God provided for your sin, you will pay. 

Sometimes we don’t understand or get coldened to the fact that our sins are forever paid for forever. WOW!!! Our sins are paid for forever by the willing sacrifice of God’s Son for us.  This is the most amazing MOVE OF GOD in History.  Where Jesus who is God’s Son God, came out of heaven’s worship to exchange everything He had (minus Godship) for our humanity and punishment.  YOU were the reason God’s movement of movements happened. I mean, YOU AND I were the only reason the biggest move of God in all of History happened. He didn’t come to build a religion, a law, or following, but a salvation for YOU AND ME, to SAVE US!  WOW, if this doesn’t blow your mind think on this last point (I know, it’s longer than you thought ).

Just think of this, His love movement for you hasn’t stopped…Romans 8:32 says that if He didn’t withhold His very own Son, how MUCH MORE with HIM FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS.  WOW, this should take all doubt of God’s willingness to do anything in our lives or in others  out of our minds.  When HE sent Jesus, He opened heaven for you and me forever unti lthe coming of JESUS. ALL the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ (2  Cor. 1:20) and we are NOW blessed with EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in heavenly places in Christ.  WOW, the movement that began for you and me 2000 years ago is still moving for each and every person on this earth.

LET IT MOVE TO YOU and then THROUGH YOU to someone else.

Blessings

2. Your second purpose? Live holy before God and man

Psalm 97:10 “You who love the LORD, hate evil!” Our life isn’t to see how much we can get away with, but out of a heart of thanksgiving for salvation, we are to lay down our life as a sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

Live a pure life for man – Proverbs 25:26 “A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.”

3. To give that love away.

Matthew 10:8 “…freely you have received, freely give.” God now has you, but there is a multitude of people who are lost without His love and without us sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:14, 15) they will not know of His love. How do we do this?

A.  In LIFEstyle – every Christian should be full with love, faith, hope, and purity.  Just living this life you encounter people who are looking for the truth in your actions.  As Christians, we obey God because of our love response of His great sacrifice.  That means, our character, talk (in front of people and behind their back) is Christ honoring in every situation with every person we meet.  Everyone is looking for strength, love, purity; even those who are your friends and family are looking for light to follow and when we do, people are met with an undeniable representation of Jesus Christ’s love.  Live for Christ today!

B. Every day – 1 John 4:10 says , “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”.  Meaning this, we share the love of God because we received it.  Because of the love we recieve, we should be sharing, giving, serving, and reaching people with the love we HAVE received, the love of Christ Jesus.   Every day we have people we know and see in our jobs, families, friends, market places, etc who are without the love of God, those people are needing what is in us.  To not share, give way, or reach people with this love would be selfish

C. Get involved – if you are here enough, you will find out there are MANY outreaches we have going to serve and love our Community with the love of Jesus Christ.

D. Do something…many times we plan, think, wait till we are perfect, hope, etc., to reach out to people but never do, are too busy, don’t have a “good enough” plan of attack, but that’s a lie from the devil.  God knows we are not perfect and our reaching out is not waiting on our perfection, as God has never (except His Son) had anyone perfect to use who had a perfect plan.  You have a destiny and purpose, and it is PEOPLE. Do something today, get involved, the world is waiting!

Prosperity – it is God’s Will – yes but the WHY is the missing link.

God wants to prosper us so that we can bless others. That’s what the LORD told Abraham: “And I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). The LORD blessed Abraham so he could be a blessing. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

The LORD gives us His grace, which produces financial prosperity, so we can then abound unto every good work. If we desire to give more but aren’t able to because of financial lack, then we aren’t really prosperous. True prosperity isn’t measured in what we keep but in how much we are able to give.

The Apostle Paul said Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

The reason we are to work is not to meet our needs but to enable us to bless others! I know that is a radical concept, but that’s exactly what these verses are saying. Of course, God wants us to pay our bills and take care of our needs. Paul is speaking about priorities here.

I know some of you are saying, “If I was to do that, who would take care of me? My needs wouldn’t get met.” That would be true if there wasn’t a God who said that when you give, it will be given back to you more abundantly than you gave (Luke 6:38). What a farmer wants is a harvest, but his seed is the miracle that will bring the harvest when planted. That’s the miracle that begins to happen when you release what God has placed in your hands. You have some awesome promises from God that apply when you put Him and His Kingdom first – the LORD will supernaturally take care of you.

Matthew 6:33 says “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The “things” that this verse is speaking of is what you eat, drink and wear (Matthew 6:25-32). The LORD is saying that when we put His things first in our finances, He will see that our needs are met. And remember this: God is El Shaddai, not El Cheapo. The LORD will take care of us better than we take care of ourselves. The misusage of prosperity will be avoided when we understand that God prospers us so we can use that blessing to bless orphans, widows, missions, ministries locally, and people who are in need.

So give, believe, receive and then give again! God is on our side!

Wow, what can I say, a year old now. It’s been a journey at the Victory Church.  Starting in January of 2011 till present, God has been moving, touching people, correcting people, and Gracing us with the ability to continue.  I am so thankful to God for His Grace to cover our weakness in this launch. 

We started planning this Church Plant with 4 families in October of 2009 and by January of 2010, we had over 30 people on our team (including children ).  The first day, there were 109 people packed into the small amount of space we had.  Since then we have made a good foundation with some radical folk on our team. 

Thanks to our amazing team!!! without their help I would be… well, let’s not go there.  We have a great team and are ready to see souls come to Christ!!!

Let God arise and His enemies be scattered and His people be blessed, we are ready for the harvest!

Greg