Recent Sunday Messages
The Latest From Transforming Truth
Fixing Your Focus
November 26, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • John 21:15–22
It might sound somewhat simplistic to some, but it really is true that each Christian's life can be summed up with the headline of, "I am a Jesus-follower." As we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ by faith, Heaven's expectation is that we live all our days following Him in trusting obedience. As we all commit to keep our eyes on Jesus, many potential distractions come along that can result in us getting off track. One of the most common and lethal distractions to those who are to follow Jesus is our tendency to fixate upon what is happening with other people. The life of a Jesus-follower requires intense focus on the Lord as He leads us. When we become distracted by how He is leading others, or the degree to which we believe they are faithfully following Him, we become sidetracked as we take our eyes off of Him. No clearer example of this danger is found in Scripture than that of the Apostle Peter. From this pivotal moment in his life, we see how easy it is to get distracted from following Jesus, and how intense Jesus is in His command for us to keep our eyes on Him.
Dangerous Elevations
November 19, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Mark 9:30–35
We should not glamorize or romanticize the early Church - they had major issues just like we do today. If we go back 2,000 years in Church history, you will find there a problem that is still around today. One of these problems is our tendency to divide and fragment the unity of the Body of Christ based on what particular leader (or what type of leader) we think is the best suited to lead us. Jesus first followers had a major problem with envy for positions, leader-worshipping, and faulty awareness of inferior motivations for Kingdom ministry. What is the cure for these types of ills? Remaining centered on the person of Christ, and remaining tenaciously committed to the big-picture of the Kingdom no matter what others might be doing around you. In the end, the words of Jesus and the Apostle Paul empower us today to miss the landmines that the early Church repeatedly stepped on.
We Need A Move
November 12, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Isaiah 64:1–9
If we are walking in the Spirit, then we are always hungry for more from God. We long for more of His presence to manifest. We see the great need for His power to change our own lives and the world around us. We pant after a greater experience of His ways becoming our ways. Yet, we also sense the struggles. We hit the bumps in the discipleship-road. Our flesh (and the flesh of others) hasn’t laid down and fully died. We live in the tension of knowing what God can and will do, versus the sometimes overwhelming reality that we are only experiencing a fraction of what we know is available to us from Him. In the end, we discover like the Prophet Isaiah long ago that we stand in need of a move from Heaven. This message reveals how we can position ourselves to receive and steward a move of God.
Lost Revelation
November 8, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • 2 Kings 22:8–20
It is almost unthinkable that generations of God’s covenant people could live in complete disregard for His written Word. Yet, as we survey the landscape of most of America, we see this exact issue. It is Israel (not America!) that is God’s chosen nation and covenant people…and they once went through a very long season wherein nobody care about the Word of God. The nation had lost the Bible. This message from the powerful life of young King Josiah about revelation, repentance, and reformation serves as both a warning and motivation for the American Church which is also in great need of rediscovering the desperate need for the revelation of the written Word.
The Kings Review
November 1, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • 1 Corinthians 3:9–15
One of the clearest appointments mentioned in scripture is the final day of reckoning and reward which all Christians have with King Jesus. Individually, one by one, every child of God will stand before the gracious, merciful and kind King who will then evaluate the eternal worth of the lives which we lived on the earth. Jesus promises full reward for all who lived for him. We should note, however, that while salvation is equal and free, rewards are not. Salvation is freely given through faith in Christ, but heavenly, eternal rewards are all earned. How we are living for Christ during this present life actually either merits or forfeits our eternal rewards. This is incredible motivation for all Jesus-followers to live proactively for eternal things with pure, spiritual motivations. This message places before us that moment when we stand before the One who loves us most, and we then find out how much our earthly lives mattered for His glory.
A Strange Place For Praise
October 29, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Lamentations 3:21–26
Perhaps the truest test of the depth of our faith is discovered in how, where, and when we praise God. When is He worthy enough for our full confidence? How do we feel about releasing praise when life has bottomed out? Will God see us pressing in to Him in our times and places of impossibility? The Prophet Jeremiah was living in a context of massive destruction and ruin. His words in those circumstances reveal the deep emotional struggle He was having with God, and why God had allowed catastrophe to find His people. Yet, in the midst of the ruin and devastation, Jeremiah gives some of the most important and motivating words for our faith in all of the Old Testament. His words must become our own when life is not lending itself to easy praise.
How God Brings Us Victory
October 15, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Exodus 14:10–18
One of the greatest needs in this present hour is for believers to be prepared in HOW to win the victories which God appoints for us. For discerning believers, there is no denying the massive warfare that the Church is experiencing. One of the most alarming evidences that we may not be winning the war is that many Christians do not even sense that there is a war at all. For those who do discern the battle and are believing God for the victory, we must become more skilled in understanding the processes by which God defeats what opposes His children individually and collectively. The famous showdown between Israel and Egypt contains some of the most valuable pieces of strategy for how we cooperate with God to decidedly defeat our foes.
The Gain In Your Groans
August 6, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • 2 Corinthians 12:1–10
The good news is that you are not alone in your desire to have a problem-free life. We all desire this. The bad news is that you will never experience this until your life on earth concludes. There is no getting around it: being a follower of Jesus does not immunize us in any way from problems and pain in life. For those who live by faith in the goodness of God, there is an offer to us from Heaven to enter into a deeper understanding of why God allows problems in our lives. The testimony of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 helps us to learn from his extreme privileges as a follower of Jesus, and his example of suffering for Christ as we consider our own apportioned troubles that God permits to find us. There is always a greater gift of grace that far surpasses the weight of our groans. To learn this lesson early in your faith-journey is extremely helpful. For those who learn it later in life, there is the ability to look back and make sense of why God permitted the problems and the pain.
Divine Expectations
July 30, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • John 17:18–26
Did you know that God has desires that go unfulfilled? While God rules the cosmos in sovereign authority and total dominion, He does not force all of His desires to come to fruition. God desires for all to be saved, but they are not. God desires all Christians to live Spirit-filled lives, but they do not. God desires all churches to glorify Him and advance the Kingdom, but they do not. So then, where can we learn ore about what God desires for individual Christians and for the churches they form? In John 17, Jesus Christ offers a prayer to the Father that reveals four essential components of what it means to be a people who live in a commitment to fulfill the desires of God. Any Christian can do these things. So can every local church. We are being offered an opportunity to rise to the divine expectation contained in Jesus prayer to the Father.
Fixing The Fatal Flaw
July 16, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Revelation 2:1–7
Do you know about the time when Jesus sent a word to a church that informed them that He appreciated all that they were doing for Him, but that He was about to completely shut them down? This really happened. King Jesus really did send that message to a church and it is recorded in the Bible for everyone to read and learn from. These Christians were loyal in service, doctrinally sound, willing to oppose evil, refusing to quit on the mission…but Jesus stacked all that against the one thing they were missing, and then sent word to them that He couldn’t let them continue the way they were living. He exposed the fatal flaw in their midst and instructed them what to do about it. This message to the ancient church at Ephesus holds so much important revelation for Christians today. What was the fatal flaw that the Ephesian Church needed to fix? It wasn’t their zeal and commitment to a mission. The thing which threatened their future as a church had to do with their lack of prioritizing love.
Covenant Without Clarity
July 2, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Genesis 15:1–18
Get used to it: God does not allow you to see everything He is doing. He leaves us with questions. He does not mind it being uncomfortable when He intentionally withholds information that we crave. He draws out our trust as He declines to give us clarity about the How, When, and Why of our lives. One of the main reasons God operates this way is because He has called us to live by faith (sometimes blind faith!) rather than us living by detailed guarantees and explanations. Abraham is an amazing person in the Bible who was called God’s friend. How could such a statement be made of Abraham? Because he continued to obey God upon the roller coaster of faith-walking with Him in order to obtain the promises from God over his life. Abraham learned to rest in covenant, even when there was no clarity. We will need to do the same as we answer the summons to walk with God by faith as His friend.
What Is A Man
June 18, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • 1 Corinthians 16:13–14
Once upon a time, the American Church did not sense any need to ask what a man is. God-given biological identities and cultural roles were universally accepted and reasonably embraced by all. Slowly, but surely, insanity set in, and now people are no longer certain what constitutes a male and/or a female. While asserting the biological science is an unnecessary task for sane people, there does remain an actual need to certify again what it means to be a man, and to affirm biblical masculinity as something which flows from the heart of God into His sons. This message is completely non-responsive to the demands of a culture to continue to blur the lines between men and women. Without apology, we certify upon the Word of the Lord that God places an unchangeable distinction between male and female, and that with each of the two genders there are roles, characteristics, and traits that are unique to men and women. This message is to men, about men, and for men. May we all enthusiastically embrace what is taught.
Temple & Oikos
June 11, 2023 • Jeff Lyle • Acts 2:42–47
Have you ever heard of oikos? Some of you will know that it is presently a successful brand of yogurt that you can by at your supermarket. Yet, many do not know that this word limos is a Greek word found all throughout our New Testament. It is actually a very important word that has significant emphasis for the modern Church – especially as we inch closer toward the end of the age. This emessage explains why we all need a renewed commitment to both temple and oikos. From the Kingdom combination of these two expressions of Christianity, the growth of the Church began. While the appearance of the Church can change between generations and culture, the two foundations of Temple & Oikos were always intended by God to remain wherever they are able. In the end, Temple will be forced into nonexistence, but Oikos will powerfully endure until the return of Jesus. We must know, therefore, what this word means.