God is always working to strengthen our trust-muscle. As in the physical realm, heavy weights are used to stretch and break down muscle each time we workout. When those broken down muscles repair themselves per God’s design, they are tighter, bigger and stronger. The fact of the matter is that physical muscles do not grow bigger without weight, resistance, and breaking down. This is also true in the spiritual realm. God intentionally uses heavily weighted circumstances to strengthen our trust. Resistance makes our trust-muscle larger. He breaks us down from where we were in order to build us up to where He has appointed us. The stretching and heaviness are the methods that God employs to build our ongoing trust in Him. Right now, there are plenty of heavy forces working to break us down. God wants to use those forces to build us up. This message reminds us that God is not working on us from a distance, but that He is actually as close to us in the Spirit as any personal trainer would be to us in the gym. He calls us to deeper levels of trust and empowers us to respond to Him by promising to always be by our side.
Will You Trust Me?
Isaiah 41:10-13
December 26, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Isaiah 41:10–13
Battle Gear
April 30, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • Ephesians 6:10–18
Most people think about what they wear at the beginning of the day. We dress for school, work, the gym, or maybe a ballgame or job interview. When special occasions arise, we are more intentional about what we put on. A fancy dinner, a costume party, or a dance require us to be a little more thoughtful about our attire. The United States armed forces all have strict requirements for how military dress is displayed. Did you know that God’s word teaches us all how to dress for the occasion when it comes to spiritual war? God expects us to put on the proper battle gear so we can fight well and win. This familiar passage from Ephesians 6 calls us all to check our armor and discern if we have put on what it takes to win the battle against the intensifying forces of darkness coming against us. Armoring up in the Spirit is not a suggestion for a certain set of elite saints. It is a requirement for all Christians to withstand the assaults of the enemy and to put them in the place of defeat.
What Pressing On Looks Like
April 2, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • 2 Corinthians 4:7
When you commit your life as a follower of Jesus Christ, you are saying yes to a life of paradox. You will win, but only after battling. You will live in the Spirit, but only as you die to the flesh. You will experience God’s glory through your own groans. The Christian is called to a life of resurrection triumph, but the Christian only experiences that by first submitting to a crucifixion death. Jesus declared amazing victory, reward, and glory for those who endure unto the end. What then is it precisely that w must endure to receive the full reward? This episode of Truth Shots reminds you that though the life of the Christian is not easy, it is absolutely breathtaking when lived out by pressing on in the pose row the Spirit.
What True Love Looks Like
March 26, 2024 • Jeff Lyle • 1 Corinthians 13:4–8
The world you live in is so incredibly confused and complicated that it cannot even produce an agreed-upon definition of what Love is. In fact, most of which is promoted as love today has little to do with what God defines love as being. When we look into Scripture, we are both confronted and blessed by how God describes love. When we adopt His definition as our own, we are liberated on the inside to love others in a way that freely gives and does not selfishly demand anything in return. This episode of Truth Shots unpacks three short passages of Scripture to help all of us understand better what true love looks like.