Desert Breeze Community Church

s you grow in your intimacy with God, the more you will sense deep in your heart the delight of the only eyes in the Universe that matter, transforming every part of your life (Rom8:16; 1John3:1). What if I’m not hearing His voice like that? The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart (Pro4:23). This parable will help us to do a diagnostic check on our heart.

In our text we meet two people, one a very religious moral man and the other a very irreligious immoral woman. Both are drawn to Jesus, both are in the presence of Jesus, both are listening to Jesus’ teaching. But one leaves distant, indifferent and unchanged. The other leaves feeling close to God, lavished by His love and transformed by His grace. In a general since, everyone who comes to db this weekend will have one of those two experiences. What makes the difference? Intimacy with God!

A faith that has not been challenged by doubts is a naive faith that will be defenseless against suffering & smart skeptics. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if they carelessly go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about “why” they believe “what” they believe. Neglect the “why” and you’ll drift from the “what”.

Easter at Desert Breeze-2017 Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection not only give us a model but also a means to get through days of pain and perplexity and RISE into days of JOY!

We are saved through faith (Eph2:8). It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by the word of God (Heb11:3). Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb11:6). Those who are of faith are blessed (Gal3:9). The righteous will live by faith (Rom1:17). We walk by faith and not by sight (2Cor5:7). Faith apart from works is dead (James2:26). Trials test the genuineness of our faith (1Pet1:7) Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ (Rom10:17).

Relationships are only has healthy as the individuals that make up those relationships. Therefore, individual wholeness is the key to healthy relationships and individual wholeness is all about integrity.

The life change and the influence in culture that God most longs for, best happens through Christians in True Community. These are people who are not just checking the church box on weekends and getting lost in the crowd but are getting into small groups, meeting in homes and enjoying meals together and talking about real life issues as they listen, love, laugh and learn how to live a contagious Christian life. Church is a place where strangers become friends and friends become family.

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart (soul) is restless until it finds its rest in you.”—Augustine (Confessions) There is a kind of soul rest that all the sleep and vacations in the world can’t give you. If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life.

Jesus has just done something extraordinary in the presence of the religious leaders of Judaism (5:17). He had done what God alone can do (5:21). He had forgiven sins (5:20). In today’s passage, Jesus is going to effectually call a person named Levi to follow Him. Everyone would have agreed that Levi was in the group of the worst of the worst when it came to being a sinner. Basically, Jesus moves from proclaiming he can forgive sins to immediately freeing the heart of the person known as the worst sinner. He is going to give him a new and fresh life by the power of His word, while the old religious leaders are going to take up an old issue.

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”-C.S. Lewis, “Screwtape Letters”

To most people in our society, Christianity is religion and moralism. If you can’t show the difference between religion and Christianity people will confuse morality with a changed heart. The gospel is neither religion nor irreligion, but something else entirely – a third way of relating to God through grace. Jesus’ teaching consistently offended the Bible-believing, religious people of His day while attracting the irreligious.

You have an adversary and you are no match for him but he is no match for your Savior! Your Savior Jesus is both your model and means to overcoming temptation.

When you go to a counselor, financial advisor, or doctor; it is very important to check their credentials. When so much is at stake, it is necessary to find out if they are qualified and can be trusted. If trusting a counselor, advisor, or doctor is important… how much more important are the credentials of the Savior, King, and giver of eternal life? Biblical Faith is based on fact. In chapters 1-4, Luke presents three powerful lines of factual evidence (the baptism, genealogy, and temptation of Christ) to assure us that Jesus Christ is the only qualified King and Savior of the human race. In this passage, we look at the second of three evidences.

Satan who is known as “the Deceiver (Rev12:9)” loves to keep true believers unsure of their salvation making them ineffective and those on their way to hell deluded into thinking they are on their way to heaven.

Everyone is building their identity (meaning/purpose) on something. Building our lives on anything other than God not only hurts us if we don’t get the desires of our heart but even if we do because it’ll never be enough.

A distracted life will eventually prove to be detrimental spiritually, emotionally and relationally. The key to an effective life is focus (Eph4:15-17). How do you do that? By asking the right questions! If you can answer these five questions you’ll know what to cut out of your life and what to add and your stress level will go down and your satisfaction will go up and you’ll live a more significant life.

Hearing and listening, are not the same thing. You can hear someone without actually listening to them. While hearing but not listening is bad for marriage, it is absolutely destructive in our relationship with God. Listening to God is a critical part to our personal relationship with God!

Stress is one of the prevailing characteristics in our modern culture! It is one thing to know when you’re stressed out and it is altogether another to know how to deal with it in a healthy way. Christmas tells us that peace is not the absence of problems but the presence of Christ.

God is always for us because in Christ our sins can never be held against us and this is what ultimately transforms us (Rom8:1, 31-32). It’s not a changed life that brings His blessings but it’s His blessings that bring a changed life. Therefore, how critical is it to our spiritual wellbeing that we revel regularly in God’s blessings?

God had promised His people the greatest gift that could be given to mankind. He had promised a seed/offspring who would be their forever King and Savior. At great cost he would give them himself. The time had finally come for his arrival. Luke most likely interviews Mary herself for this true and world changing story.