The modern Christian man often finds himself wrestling. He wrestles with questions about identity, faith and God. He wrestles in his singleness, his role as a husband, his effectiveness as a father and his limitations when he is pulled between family, faith and career. The modern Christian man wrestles with his flesh at times. And then there remains the reality that faithful sons of God always carry a bullseye on their backs from the enemy of their souls. These realities, coupled with a world full of pressures, deception, and danger leave many Christian men feeling as if they are running out of air. God once spoke to an ancient prophet of His who was wrestling with some of these same issues. You may be surprised at how God responded to His servant’s complaints. Men today need to heed the immeasurably wise counsel of God to sons who are tempted to tap-out on the wrestling match. It is time for Christian men to reclaim their confidence and motivation for the fight.
Jesus: Christmas Revelation
December 19, 2021 • Jeff Lyle • Isaiah 9:7–9
We all know that the glorious event known as The Incarnation of Christ has been somewhat overshadowed in our generation by the cultural presentation of Christmas. While we should be grateful that, for one day each year on December 25th, the entire lost world at least gives a token nod to the birth of Jesus, we who actually follow Him cannot stop at merely viewing Christmas as a sentimental holiday season centered around decor, food and gifts. The birth of God’s Son was the most monumental event to ever take place up to that time. When Isaiah prophesied about the Son of God being given to humanity, his message was to shake all of history. A child was to be born, Isaiah declared, and a Son was to be given. In this message we explore the prophetic majesty of the birth of God’s Son. We unpack what it means for Him to be called Wonderful, Counselor, Everlasting Father, Mighty God and Prince of Peace. So, let’s take a moment to step away from the tinsel on the tree, the lights and the wrapping paper, the cider and the http://sleighs...and let’s retrace our steps to that moment when eternity came into time and the Savior of the world was born.
He Brings Us Through
September 19, 2021 • Jeff Lyle • 2 Corinthians 1:3–10, 2 Corinthians 4:7–10, 2 Corinthians 4:16–18
Shutting Up The Spirit Of Fear
August 29, 2021 • Jeff Lyle • Mark 4:35–41, 2 Timothy 2:3–13, Jeremiah 12:5, 2 Timothy 1:6–7, Revelation 12:7–12
For several days before this message was released, Jeff sensed an intentional assault from the enemy against God’s people at the Church at Winder and in the surrounding region. Being led of the Holy Spirit to set aside his previously prepared message for that Sunday, Jeff released this prophetic pushback against fear and intimidation, and exhorted those listening to take ownership of the condition of their own hearts and minds by refusing to feed their fears.
In your Bible, the life of faith is likened to many different things. It has been called a fight, a journey, a flight, a valley, a marriage, a crucifixion, a voyage, a race, a pursuit, a birth, and even a death. These metaphors, along with others, bring the concepts which incorporate our lives of faith down to earth. One word the Bible never uses to describe the believer’s life is convenient. The fact of the matter is that life is often difficult whether you are a Christian or not. The difference between the Christian’s difficulties and the non-Christian’s is that we have the sure-fire promise of eventual and ultimate victory. Yet, in the midst of impossibilities, challenges and wearisome routine, there are moments wherein God works in such a mighty way that we can never forget. Sometimes, nothing short of a fiery display of breakthrough power will suffice. In this message, Elijah not only needed a display of power like that from God, he unapologetically set up circumstances wherein, if God did not show up, Elijah would have lost everything including his own life. These moments are when we are all reminded that fire works. God is willing to release His fire into your impossibility.
Paul: The Intensity Of A Calling
February 21, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
There may not be a more dramatic calling in the entire New Testament than the one that came to Saul of Tarsus. Everything changed for Saul, including his name, after Jesus saved him, set him apart and sent him forth. Saul became known as Paul and he became the pioneer of apostolic missions, evangelism, discipleship and signs and wonders. When we examine the consecration and calling to the Apostle Paul, we can see some of the Kingdom dynamics that are active in each of our Kingdom callings. While our own calling may not be as dramatic as Paul’s, the God who called and commissioned him is the the same God who has a life-purpose for us. Learn from Paul’s life about the intensity of a calling from God. It is to be stunning from the moment of the call until the day when we exit that calling and enter into His presence.
Four Calls For Us All
February 14, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
While God has specific, individual designs for each and every life He creates, there are some shared callings that we all must answer from Him. The level of our answers to these callings found in Titus 2:11-15 will deeply impact the quality of Christian life we each experience. Additionally, how we respond to these four calls to us all will impact the amount of eternal reward we receive from God at the end of the age. We are living in the final chapters of this age, and there has never been a more crucial time for any of us to ensure that we are moving deeper into intentionally consecrated commitment to the King.
When Deliverance Displaces Religion
January 10, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
In one scene, found only in Luke’s Gospel, we behold a Kingdom encounter between a lady, the Lord and a legalist. Her life had been dominated by demonic power for close to two decades and religion had not helped her a bit. On this life-changing day, Jesus delivered her from both the power of demons and the powerlessness of religion. As one might expect, those loyal to their religious ways protested what Jesus did for her which led to a strong rebuke from the Lord. In this message we have opportunity to examine our own hearts to discover if we make the same mistake of prioritizing policy above people and religion over rescue.
Choosing When To Lose
January 6, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
Everyone wants to get a promise from God. Occasionally, God makes a personal promise known to His individual children. More often, He shows us a promise in His written word and calls us to believe it by faith. God made massive promises to Abraham. Nobody had ever received promises like Abraham. Yet, to build his faith, God then tested Abraham by allowing him to choose to promote and protect his own interests connected to the promise, or to allow his nephew, Lot, to have the upper hand in a huge decision that would effect both of their destinies. Abram allowed Lot to make the choice instead of asserting his own rights to make the choice to benefit himself and to protect God’s promise by means of fleshly actions. In essence, Abraham chose to temporarily lose so that He became more fully reliant upon God for his future. This message will reveal how God often calls us to do the same: letting go of something in the moment in confidence that God will secure something better for us in the future.
Believing Forward
January 24, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
Everyone has an opinion about who Jesus is. Most of those opinions are wrong, simply because they are incomplete. Sadly, even the modern Church is releasing incomplete, insufficient messages about who Jesus Christ is and what is required of us to be called one of His followers. In this message, we find a scene where Jesus probes us to help us come to terms with what we truly believe about Him. In the process, Jesus states with clarity what He has designed for all who would be called by His name as Christians. The Church must recapture the heart of what the Lord says in these verses. If we do not present Jesus as He presented Himself, then we must soberly consider that countless people have believed an incomplete, insufficient version of who He truly is. There is great reward in knowing Him. There is immense consequence for believing that He is something other than what He presented.
3 Pursuits For 2021
January 17, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
Stepping In & Stepping Up
January 10, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
None of us is called by God into half-hearted Christianity. The Word is clear that our response to such a full and free salvation in Jesus is to become a full and free surrender to Jesus. There is so much that He offers us as we increasingly grow in our belonging to Him. Paul had experienced a radical conversion to Christ, and his own response was a full and committed surrender. He longed for this same response in all of us, so God inspired him to pen a prayer for fullness to the Colossian church. From this written prayer we discover the depths and treasures of growing into a fuller life in the Spirit. His words are meant to stir our spiritual hunger and to boldly call his to step up and step in to the fullness that is offered us through a fuller surrender to Jesus. Are you hungry for more? Is there a certainty that the Christian life is greater than your past and current experience? You are feeling what God has placed within each of us. It is coming alive again. He is stirring you. This is what we need. This is what we long for. Now is the season to pursue this with all of our being.
A Season Of Redirection
January 3, 2021 • Jeff Lyle
It has been said that God is good…but He is not safe. What does this mean? the Bible portrays God as being perfect in wisdom, motivation and action. All He does is holy and good. We are to rest and trust in His flawless character. However, we should never interpret His goodness as being obligated to create for us here a life of ease, empty of risk. God calls all of His children to a journey of faith which removes the notion that we are ever in full control. Gods stretches us, bends us and breaks us. He does this in order to create within us a heart and life that is fully dependent upon Him so that all of the glory ends up with Him. Because of this, we should not ever assume that the life of faith in him is going to be easy. Abram was 75 years old when he began to learn these truths. God called an old man to uproot from all his comforts and familiarities to enter into a season of redirection. God is doing the same thing with many of you in this season. Learn from how God and Abram interact as they partner together in a covenant that would change the course of human history forever.
When Others Flee
December 27, 2020 • Jeff Lyle
When you received Jesus as Lord over your life, there was one component that He made a reality without asking for your input. Jesus made you a SOLDIER in His army. That’s right, none of us come into the Kingdom without also being drafted into the Army of God. So, the question is not IF we will fight but, rather, when and how we will fight. Spiritual warfare is a constant activity in the life of all Jesus-followers. Though the final outcome has already been decided, each of us is called to take territory for the King while also defending territory that the enemy seeks to reclaim from us. This constant warfare can be both exhausting and isolating - especially when so many Christians have gone AWOL. This message features two obscure Old Testament warriors whose examples can help us remain in the fight, crush the enemy and bring God the glory…even if we find ourselves fighting alone.
The God Of Invitation
December 6, 2020 • Jeff Lyle
We all have a tendency to drift from God. If we are not proactive in our pressing in to God for intimacy, wisdom and encounter, then our natural movement is actually away from Him. The world system can pull us away. Our flesh opposes His will. Then there is the added factor of the enemy’s work against our souls that never ceases. Yes, it is sad but true that we tend to drift. But do not fear! God himself is always pursuing us. He calls out to us. He shepherds us and keeps us from wandering too far off. This message highlights God’s constant ministry of invitation. He loves to remind us of all the goodness that He has for His children. He reminds us that He does not think nor act like a mere human, and that His grace and compassion are immeasurably grand toward us. Listen for His voice calling out to you, inviting you to no longer drift. Answer His repeated to call to come…come…come home to Him.
