This morning, Pastor Luke preached the second message in our ‘Witness’ sermon series titled Revival on Hamilton Street.
The start and foundation of revival is two things; understanding the need, and beginning to pray. Prayer is both the fire and fuel of evangelism and revival. It is what fuels and precedes any great move of God.
1. Prayer aligns us with God’s heart
Jesus was a walking revival; when people encountered Him they experienced freedom, healing, and salvation. Jesus was and is in a perpetual state of harvest, and thus we must also be.
When we begin to pray, we get God’s heart and eyes – ones of transformation and revival. If we sow sparingly in prayer, we will reap sparingly. If we sow generously, so too will we reap.
2. Prayer must be focused on God to prevail.
Prayer is not easy, otherwise we would all do it more. We must move past distraction and doubt, and instead our prayers must be sustained by faith in God, and not in our own efforts.
There is a tension that we wrestle with constantly in prayer – the tension between our efforts, and the power of God. God is not impressed by our ability; He is impressed by our faith and our faithfulness, and it is through those things that He moves.
What would God do if we actually put our faith in God instead of our own limitations?
3. Travail before you prevail.
Travailing means perseverance, to press through, to believe in the God of the harvest. It is a type of praying that doesn’t settle. We must let the Lord stir up our hearts again for the lost.
Witness | Week 2 | Pastor Luke | Aug 22nd
August 21, 2022 • Luke Isaacson
Witness | Week 4 | Matthew Anderson | 09/04/22
September 4, 2022
This morning, Pastor Matthew finished up our ‘Witness’ sermon series. When we lay our lives down for God we give Him permission to lay His life down through us. We all need to be ready to give answers to why we live the way we live. There is no other name under heaven or earth by which we can be saved apart from Jesus. His is the only name that saves. God made the church for His mission. He has always had a mission, that all creation would know His reign and rule through His people. This mission has not changed, and we are a part of it. God’s mission it to make right all that sin made wrong; a plan that culminated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God is in the process of making all wrongs right. The world presses us to live for ourselves, but God calls us to live for Him in the service of others. God wants to give Himself away through us to a world that doesn’t know Him. God is on the move all over the world. The same God, doing the same things. The world needs Jesus, and our city needs Jesus - and thus we must proclaim Him. If we ask Him for opportunities to share, He will give them to us. We all need to practice telling our stories, and sharing with one another.
Witness | Week 3 | Alex David | 08/28/22
August 28, 2022 • Alex David
This week, Pastor Alex continued on with our Witness sermon series with a message about the how and why of Discipleship. We have a mandate to be a witness to our city, nation, and the ends of the earth. 1. Discipleship is Jesus’ model. We see in the Gospels that Jesus invited people in to follow Him. He taught them, modeled the Kingdom of God for them, sent them out to do the work, and then gave them feedback on their experiences. The life of Jesus displays a model not only of evangelism, but also discipleship. 2. Discipleship leads to real transformation. Discipleship is a journey. Isolation is the biggest enemy of spiritual growth within the church, and we need community. We need to not only be saved but transformed, which occurs within the process of discipleship. We all need to ask and answer the question: who is discipling you and who are you discipling? Without accountability and discipleship, we are not following Christ.
Witness | Week 1 | Pastor Alex | 08/14/22
August 14, 2022 • Alex David
This week, Pastor Alex introduced our new ‘Witness’ sermon series. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He said that we would be His witnesses all over the earth, and thus we must be people who share the Good News with others. Pastor Alex made two primary points: 1. A passion for Jesus means that you are compelled to be His witness. All of us came to faith through somebody being a witness to us, and therefore our passion for Jesus means that we must tell others about Him. People come to faith through hearing, and we all have a responsibility to be witnesses for Jesus in this world. 2. We live in a world that is in urgent need of a witness. A recent Barna study listed Omaha as the 34th most post-Christian city in the USA. Additionally, half the people who went to church pre-covid are not going back. Therefore, even living here in Omaha, we all have an urgent responsibility to tell other people about Jesus. We can be a witness in this world through our lives, our stories, our voice, and His power. Our lives: we are to live as a reflection of Jesus. Our lives are to reflect His power and relationship in our lives. Our stories: if we are followers of Jesus, we have a story of redemption. Our testimonies are powerful statements of the power and purpose of God. Our voice: there is power in proclamation, and we are to be unashamed of the Gospel. Jesus is for the whole world, and we have to get that, speak that, and live that out. His power: when the Holy Spirit came upon us at salvation, we received His power. Therefore, we carry the Holy Spirit, who is the witness for us. We do not have the have all the answers, we simply have to wait on the Holy Spirit and trust His power to work in the lives of other people.