Listen to our Liberty Podcast “Rejection”
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Big Jesus wins award for the ‘Best Community Entry’ in the parade.
We had a unique perspective on Jesus, His fame and renown. If the crowds were silenced even the stones would have cried out to Him.
This must be what it was like for Jesus to enter Jerusalem, re-enacted for the benefit of his LGBT people…What does this say for us and for Him?
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Dwight L. Moody (summary): The greatest truth is not that we love God, but that God loves us.
Oswald Chambers (paraphrased): God’s love is not sentimental; it is fierce enough to transform the soul.
Campbell Morgan (summary): The love of God is the secret strength of every believer.
Andrew Murray (paraphrased): To know God’s love is to enter the very heart of the Christian life.
“There is a Jewish saying which says that if anyone tells you he loves God but he doesn’t love his neighbour, then you know he’s lying,”
Extracts from Jim’s Preach ‘Sent One’
John 6:26-29
Jesus said “The reason you are looking for Me is because you ate the bread and fish and had your fill, not because you understood my miracles.
Don’t work for food that goes bad; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.”
So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?”
Jesus answered, “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.”
Jesus said, ‘What God wants us to do is to believe in the one he sent.” How? Through revelation given by God Himself. Eph 2:8 tells us that faith is a gift and faith gives us spiritual understanding and Heb 11v3 says faith is supernatural and this understanding from God is supernatural therefore it is quite different from human understanding that relies on our intelligence.
In Job 26:7 we read: “The Lord spread out the skies over empty space; he suspends the earth upon nothing.” How did the writer of Job know that thousands of years ago? Faith, wisdom, understanding; all these gave the writer of Job an insight into God’s creation before they had the science. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus was in the temple courts debating with biblical scholars at the age of 12; Luke writes that “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding”
And at the end of Luke, Jesus tells the disciples all about what the prophets that wrote about him and it says, “Then he opened their minds, that they might understand” Lk 24:45 The Spirit of Jesus can cause us to spiritually and supernaturally understand.
One of my favourite verses is 1Pe 1:8 ‘Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with a joy that words cannot express”. Those of us who know Jesus know the truth of these words. And there are those of us still on that journey of getting to know Him who realise that they are being drawn to him by something powerful.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him.” We do love someone who we can’t see in the natural. But in the supernatural we perceive him, hear him, sense him, know and love him.
The 1Pe 1:8 verse continues, “even though you do not see him now, you believe in him” He gives us that ability to believe him and to trust him. He has given us a perception, that goes well beyond reasoning, to recognise him, a love that penetrates the invisible and a trust that binds us intuitively to Him.
Sometimes we also receive extra spiritual insight, maybe a word of knowledge or an extra dose of faith to trust in particularly difficult circumstances or perhaps an unusual joy and peace deep down despite external disaster and adversity. These happen at certain times in certain ways according to God’s will.
But once inspired to love Jesus that doesn’t stop. Even if we turn away for a season in our life, that love remains, it may be dormant but it does not go away.
After feeding the 5 thousand, Jesus told the crowd that their eyes were only on the natural, the food they could eat, and not on the spiritual. We can all too often fall into the same ways ourselves.
I came to a conclusion a long time ago that I needed Jesus. At some point I realised that in Jesus was my faith, wisdom, understanding, insight, everything I needed to have a closer walk with God.
Where you find that faith, spiritual wisdom, understanding is where can you find Jesus. And the place you find those things are in us, the people who know and love him.
Because He lives in you and I collectively. Together we make up his physical body in this world.
Collectively we share all the gifts through which Jesus will reveal His presence. Through us he can speak to people, touch people and to work in people’s lives.
It is his faith, his wisdom, his understanding, his insight, that can be revealed in us; according to the plan and purpose that God has for us as individuals and collectively. It is through you and I that Jesus will reveal Himself and His plan and purpose for Liberty and our community.
Jesus said, “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.” He meant himself.
I have never invited anyone to Liberty; because I wanted only those whom God sent. Jesus said, “believe in the one he sent.” It is you and I that God sent here for this time, and God knows how to lead us together as a body of people who know Him, all we have to do is just trust Him and love Him even though we cannot see Him.
Heb 11:1 “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” I have a certainty of what I cannot yet see. And the way it will be fulfilled is by Jesus working through us, in His ways, not ours. Working to reveal Himself more in our lives to His glory.
Full Notes in Preaching
To Contact Us:
Email:nina (at) libertychurchblackpool.org.uk
Tel/Txt: 07 9555 97771
Postal Address:
Liberty Church Blackpool,
9 Wilvere Court
Thornton Cleveleys FY5 1PG