What Is God Like?
The Finisher
Jeff Lyle
One of the easiest things for us to forget is that everything we have ever seen, heard or touched will cease to be in its current form. Christ is making all things new – even those things which have embedded themselves in our minds as being permanent. The work of redemption is not limited to the individual soul of a human. God is redeeming everything that He ever created and bringing it into the state it will remain in for all eternity. Jesus Christ provided the foundation for redemption in His sacrifice on Calvary. The fullness of that redemption will occur sometime after His return to earth when He finishes all that the Father began. This message goes to great lengths to help the listener see why the Second Coming of Jesus is near. There are no dates set, no spans of time marked off – but there is plenty of indication in the world today that the time of Christ’s return is at hand. The glorious news is that all believers will share in this victory. The sobering news is that many have been deceived into thinking that all is well between them and God. May the Holy Spirit grant discernment to all of us as we listen to Jesus’ prophecy about His own return.
The God of Unity
June 7, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Father, Son & Spirit have a Trinitarian agenda for the children of God: to bring us into a relational oneness with each other. We have been made one with God through the offering of Jesus and that spiritual reality is also to become a functional reality among all believers. This message reveals how important it is for the Body of Christ to achieve the desire of God in this area. We are commanded to make unity a priority. If this will ever become the paradigm for each Christian, he or she will need to proactively lay self aside and begin to prioritize others. This message is especially helpful for local assemblies who are carrying out Christ's mission. We must endeavor together to maintain what the enemy seeks to destroy. Only those Christians who are committed to fostering and maintaining unity will be used for the glory of Christ. May the listener of this message consider how he or she is going to be an active part of this high calling from God.
Counterintuitive God
May 31, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
The strategies of God… are very odd. There is not a place in Scripture to where we might run for shelter if we are seeking to believe that God’s ways always make sense. Truthfully, the general tone of the Bible leads us to believe that God will usually act in ways that are counterintuitive to human thought and reason. He does things quite differently than we do. Repeatedly, we find in the Bible that, because God does not desire for humans to trust in anything less than Himself, He sets up circumstances to demand that we have no other means of aid than Him alone. He chooses unqualified people to do impossible tasks against insurmountable odds. This is just the way God operates. You should expect this to be true not only in your bible, but also in your present moment.
Divine Interaction
May 24, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Theology and doctrine matter - big time! Yet theology and doctrine are a means to an end, rather than being the end themselves. God's desire is not simply that we would be properly informed but powerfully I dwelt. He is not satisfied until His children live in His divine presence and power. In this message we explore the dynamics of the Day of Pentecost and examine our own lives to see if we are living with a fondness for the God of history or living with a thirst for the God of the present. The space between these two reveals the dynamic of our Christian journey.
The Sustaining God
May 17, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
When I first started preaching I talked about obedience in every third sentence which proceeded from my mouth. As a former rebel I was convinced that the most important thing for the believer was to obey. While I would never back off my assertion that obedience is a key component of the Christian life, I do not speak of it as often now as I did back then. Why not, you ask? Because obedience apart from trust and love has little to no value in the Kingdom. We can teach dogs, doves and dolphins to obey… but we cannot teach them to love, and Christ has called us to love God with everything that we are and have. This message infuses the call to obey with the power to love. Transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of this is loving obedience unto Christ. Listen and be stretched, empowered and encouraged.
Glorious Know-It-All
May 3, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
The bible declares that God knows everything about everything. It also declares that he knows this on an absolute and comprehensive level. He also sees everything. And understands everything. And utilizes everything that happens in an intertwining process that will culminate in the perfect execution of His eternal plan. Yes, He is quite capable at running the universe and more. So what do we do with the truth of God’s omniscience? This message takes this glorious truth about God and reveals how it impacts your life every single day. Omniscience is not a truth to remain obscured in the clouds. Omniscience is to be brought down to ground level and walked in with shoe leather. This message helps us to begin to make sense of that which is beyond our understanding. In the end, it is all about who God is more so than what God is doing.
The God of Overflow
April 26, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Theology is essential but theology is not enough on its own. God created man for the purpose of interactive experience with Himself. He is a benevolent being who delights in pouring out His goodness into the lives of His chosen ones. For some reason, many in the Church are reluctant not only to believe this but also to live and pursue this truth. Is it spiritual to not pursue God's blessing? Are people who live with meager attitudes somehow more mature than those who desire all that God may have for them? This message dares the listener to first recognize that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him and then to pursue Him as their foremost priority. Those who do so are in position to experience the bounty of the Father through the merit of the Son in the fullness of the Spirit. Theology teaches us that God is good. Personal pursuit of Him teaches us that God is good to us.
Rich in Mercy
April 19, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
People are prone to run to extremes in their understanding of what God is like. Some make Him out to be nothing more than an indulgent grandfather sitting on Heaven’s porch, chuckling at the mischief of His little ones. Others make God out to be a scowling, dictatorial menace in the Heavens who cannot wait for the next opportunity to mete out punishment. But what do the Scriptures say about God? What is He really like? In this message we are presented with the lavish mercy of God which defies human understanding. He is holy, majestic and all-powerful…yet He stoops in grace and compassion and pursues us when we fail Him. Stop carrying around the heavy shame and guilt of your past and allow King Jesus carry your burden. He is rich in mercy and intends for you to travel light. He is able and willing to carry the heaviest parts of your life.
The Faithful God
April 12, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Sometimes we need to slow down and think about our troubles. We cannot deny that they exist. We cannot pretend that life is agonizing at certain points. We cannot deny that we are prone to fear. Why would a good God allow moments like these to be included in our life-stories? The reason is that He is committed to us coming to the place where we trust in His faithfulness and abandon our reliance upon lesser things. This message leads us gently through the valley and brings us out on the other side looking face to face with our faithful God as we learn what it means to have Him holding our hand in His.
The Invincible God
April 5, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
In the ageless war between Satan and God there are no accounts more convincing than the defeat of Satan on the morning of Jesus’ resurrection. The enemy seemed to have won for three days as the son of God lay dead in the tomb. His disciples were shattered and confused. The earthly enemies of Jesus were diabolically satisfied that they had finally silenced that troubling rabbi from Nazareth. Satan and his demons had unleashed their greatest weapon against Jesus and it seemed to all that death would have the full and final say. Then that epic moment occurred when God proved Himself invincible as Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Because of this great victory over Satan’s strongest weapon, the followers of Jesus may rest in confidence that He has overcome every lesser weapon and that we can live in ongoing victory.
The Forgiving God
March 29, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Wonderful, merciful Savior… that is, perhaps, the most difficult characteristic for any of us to swallow. In humanity’s most horrific act we see conspiring hearts, a bloodthirsty mob, taunting sarcasm and vilifying accusation all coming against the sinless Son of God on Golgotha. And what is His response? Jesus prays repeatedly to the Father that forgiveness would be granted to His tormentors. This message intentionally focuses on the commitment to forgiveness that permeates the infinite heart of God. Shame, guilt, accusation and fear have no place in our lives after we have been brought into Christ’s redemption. Our acceptance and completion in Jesus must remain in the forefront of our minds as we welcome His grace to abound above our sin. In recognizing the comprehensive pardon of God upon any and all who believe, we are free to live as we should: in joy and abandon to the Lord who loves us. May those who hear the words of this message enter into an experience of rest deep in their souls.
Love: God's Crown Jewel
March 22, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Did you know it is possible to know something without actually believing it? The Apostle John clued us in on this reality when he wrote, "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us..." (1 John 4:16). He wanted us to see the possibility of a gap between what we know and what we actually believe. What bridges this potential gap? The appropriation of the thing which is known to the point where it becomes a thing which is lived. This message calls the listener to appropriate the truth that they are beloved by God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Until a person is convinced that God truly loves them and that He truly acts toward them in this great love, they will remain fearful and suspicious of Him. God created us for the purpose of intimacy with Him and this is only experienced by the believer when he or she has inner assurance of God’s personal love for them. This message asks only one thing of the listeners: dare to believe in God’s intentional and personal love for them.
Holy- Wholly Holy
March 15, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Long before King David danced before the ark of God he had trembled at His holiness. Before Joshua subdued Canaan in power he knelt before his Captain in battle. It is true that Peter preached with unprecedented anointing at Pentecost but not before he trembled in a boat and said to Jesus, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man.” And then there is Moses: Israel’s deliverer from their bondage in Egypt was confronted with God’s holiness at the burning bush before he was entrusted with God’s mission to set the people free. We are living in a day when very little is being declared about the holiness of God. Flippant, fickle, casual and chaotic worship seems to be en vogue. Recognizing that there is plenty of biblical allowance for passionate, enthusiastic and demonstrative worship of Christ, we must also recognize that the people in Scripture who engaged in such worship had already been convinced of God’s holiness. This message focuses on the foremost attribute of God: His holiness. May the listener tremble at the magnitude of what God says about His own holiness and may we all slow down and consider our ways before this One who the bible declares is a consuming fire.
An Invitation Into Relationship
March 8, 2015 • Jeff Lyle
Most people do not mind religion – a little dab will do ya. Yet God never intended to offer people a religious life. Truthfully, God constantly works at tearing away religion from humans so that we might receive something completely different. The desire of God’s infinite heart is that we may know Him in intimacy. He is not an idea. He is not a power. He is not an assistant who helps us accomplish great things. God is creator, provider and sustainer but, most crucially, He is our companion. In spite of His altogether differentness from mankind, God offers us oneness with Himself and this is only experienced via a lifetime of encounter with Him. No longer can we ride on the coattails of what others have believed and experienced of Him, He invites us into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. If we are to learn what God is like, we must begin by answering His call into intimacy. This is what we need most of all.