Desert Breeze Community Church

There is a major difference between a morally restrained will and a supernaturally transformed heart. Fear and pride can restrain the will but only grace can transform the heart. The key to life change is not the acts of the will but the loves of the heart. You are what you love.

Just as God parents us as His Children, we are to in turn parent the next generation. Christianity is only one generation away from extinction; therefore there is not a more important God given responsibility. This series is more than a to-do-list. It is a big picture view of parenting that will radically change not only your perspective of how God parents us but how we are to impact the next generation. It is based on Paul David Tripp’s book: Parenting (14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family).

King David describes the precious community of God. Jesus would have probably been meditating with the disciples on this Psalm when he went on His pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Lk. 9:51) where He would die on the cross for His church during the festival.

The Kingdom of God is a party-feast unlike you’ve ever known! Jesus regularly depicts the salvation He brings as a party-feast (Luke14:15-24). Our final homecoming (new heavens and new earth) will be marked by the ultimate party-feast (Isa25). And of course, Jesus’ parable of the lost sons ends with a party-feast cliff hanger. Will the elder Son come into the party at the Father’s tender pleading?

If you only knew the Father heart of God for you…it would change everything. If you only knew what He thinks about you, how He feels about you and what He wants to do in and through your life you would run to Him. You would make your relationship with Him your life’s greatest passion, pursuit and pleasure.

Desert Breeze is a place where strangers become friends and friends become family (Home). What is home? Home is not just a structure but a shelter from the stormy blast of life. It’s a place of love, laughter and learning. It’s a place where you can truly just be yourself and feel you belong. This world is cold, draining and stressful but home is warm, rejuvenating and restful. Home is the place you recharge your batteries. It’s a place of order and beauty. It is a place to build memories and grow into our future glory selves. It is a place of healing, humility, hospitality and honor.

No action requires more maturity and character and produces more maturity and character than repentance. Repentance is the key to everything in the Christian life. It is the grid in which we should process everything that happens to us in life. Nothing will give you a greater experience of God’s love being poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit like repentance

Jesus spent much of His ministry teaching His disciples about their ultimate future new location—the kingdom to come and their eternal citizenship in it. Our hope in the hereafter has practical application in the here and now. The Lord’s promised return is the Christian’s “Blessed Hope” (Titus2:13). The point of the Bible’s teaching on the second coming of Christ is not how to find that great day, but how that great day will find us. That day is going to be so glorious that 1 John 3:1-3 says that for anyone to hope for it (not to get there, but just to want it) will transform their lives.

More will never be enough because we were made for something that earth does not offer. The inconsolable human longing is irrefutable evidence that we were made to find our deepest and most durable satisfaction in the riches of God’s glory.

Jesus was involved in a very serious verbal fight with some key religious leaders. As he tried to move on, the leaders pressed and provoked him to keep fighting so that they might catch him. Chaos erupted. In the midst of all this commotion, Jesus stops to share with His disciples some extremely important warnings and encouragements. May we take these to heart and apply them to our lives today.

Doing the minimum required by law does not make you just, nor do outward appearances that gain you attention make you loving. The pure sacrifice of Christ on the cross provided an unattainable justice for the unjust and unconditional love for the unlovable.

One of the biggest obstacles to people coming to Christianity is that they think that they already know what it is all about. Non-Christians will typically hear gospel presentations as appeals to moralism unless we show them the stunning difference. Christianity isn’t a morally restrained will (moralism) but a supernaturally transformed heart (Gospel).

Does your life portray the love, joy and peace that you proclaim anyone can experience through the Gospel? There are plenty of good reasons in our modern world to be anxious, but as a Christian you have even better reasons not to be anxious.

You are more flawed than you think & the world is more fallen than most want to admit but God's Grace is greater than we deserve or could ever dream. We celebrate the intoxicating joy of God’s Irresistible Grace most fully when we grieve our sin and the brokenness of this world most deeply.

Is your love for Jesus contagious? To the degree you live in the reality of His love for you, is to the degree your love for Him will be contagious (1John4:19; 1Pet2:9). Your contagious love for Him is the best way to put on display His amazing love for you (Matt5:16).

We believe that full devotion to Christ (Living for God’s Glory) and fullness of life (Our Satisfaction) are one in the same pursuit (John10:10b; Luke9:23-25). We were created by God, for God, to give glory to God (Rom11:36). God’s glory is best displayed in lives that are fully satisfied in Him (Phil1:20-21).

Desert Breeze exists to help upchurched people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We believe that full devotion to Christ (God’s Glory) and fullness of life (Our Satisfaction) are one in the same pursuit (John10:10b, 17:3). There is a quantity and quality of life that is found in Christ that cannot be found anywhere else!

The Kingdom of God had arrived in Jesus Christ who was proclaiming it to everyone and authenticating it through miracles. In today’s passage, He is going to intensify his training of the 12 by giving his power and authority to them and sending them out on their first kingdom mission by themselves (9:1-9). When they come back the training continues as He commands his 12 to feed the five thousand (9:10-17). This will show that the impact of the Kingdom of God continues and that we can all be a part of it.

How do you hold onto your faith when God doesn’t make sense? What do you do when life doesn’t go as you had hoped it would? What do you do when circumstances seem to contradict God’s love, wisdom, & power?

In our fallen and broken world internal and external storms are inevitable. To the degree you are able to overcome your internal storms (questions/doubts/fears) is to the degree you will be able to overcome your external storms (people/things/circumstances).