Episodes
Sunday Sep 25, 2016
Sunday Sep 25, 2016
Breath of Heaven Children’s Ministries is dedicated to helping meet the needs of a growing orphan population in Lusaka, Zambia Serving orphans is part of our Biblical commission, as stated in James 1:27, “…to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”
Our desire is to provide a stable, secure, family-like environment that will enhance the children’s interaction with their neighboring community. Breath of Heaven Children’s Ministries has an immediate mission to develop sustainable Children’s Village consisting of 14 children’s homes, a school, a medical clinic, and a church.
The children’s homes themselves will function as individual family-units within the larger village community, each comprised of 1 House Mother, an Auntie, and 12 resident youngsters. (We have chosen this household model deliberately, in order to help minimize the stigma associated with more stereotypical, institutional approaches to orphan-care.) BOHCM is thoroughly committed to facilitating and fostering as normalized a family-experience for our kids as possible.
When built-out entirely, Breath of Heaven Children’s Village will provide shelter and well-rounded care for 168 underprivileged children and their widowed House Mothers. Additionally, our school, medical clinic, church, and supplemental facilities will enable us to reach out to even more orphaned children and widows in the surrounding community with the implementation of educationally- and spiritually-based day programs and accessible, affordable medical care.
For more information- www.bofheaven.org
Sunday Sep 18, 2016
A FUTURE and a HOPE w/RON OHST
Sunday Sep 18, 2016
Sunday Sep 18, 2016
A Future and a Hope
Our preferred future and how to get there
God’s Glory
·
· God’s glory is essentially God expressing Himself
· God’s glory is united with God’s goodness
Exodus 33:18-19
18 Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." 19 And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.
Psalms 8:1
8 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Isaiah 6:3
And [the serap him] were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
· Jesus is the ultimate reveler of God’s glory and goodness
John 2:11 Jesus turning water into wine for a wedding banquet
1 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
Hebrews 1:3-4
3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
John 14:9-10
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
2Corinthians 4:6
6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
· Perhaps that greatest miracle of salvation is that God causes us to reflect His glory
John 17:22-23
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
2 Corinthians 3:18
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Colossians 1:27
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Our Preferred Future
· Vision is a description of a preferred future.
Habakkuk 2:14
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
· Knowledge – Hebrew “yada”: experiential, relational, intimate knowledge
· The natural response to the knowledge of the glory of God is a life of worship
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever” – Westminster Catechism
Our Vision Statement:
For people everywhere to know and worship God in all His glory and goodness
How to get there
· Vision describes a preferred future; mission describes how to get there.
· God’s plan for fulfilling His vision of the earth filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord is quite simply and powerfully to make disciples who make disciples.
Matthew 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
· A disciple is an apprentice, one who learns to do what the master does.
· We disciples of Jesus are to become like Him in our character, in our message, and in our deeds.
· All over the world, Jesus is gathering disciples who make disciples. He calls these communities of disciples His church.
Matthew 16:18
I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Our Mission Statement:
To build growing communities of worshipers who are becoming like Christ, empowered to do His work.
[MATT – the following may not make it into the handout for space purposes (and it’s in the bulletin already) but for completeness I thought I’d tie it all together with our Shared Identity statement]
Who we are – Our Shared Identity
Real God
God is Alive! When we meet He shows up, and we experience Him through His Word, His Spirit and each other.
“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” — Matthew 18:20 NASB
Real People
Come as you are. We grow by getting real with God and others in genuine, caring relationships.
“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.“ — Acts 2:46-47
Restoring Lives
Give it away. We freely share the truth, love and power of Jesus to heal and restore broken lives.
“For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you…” — 2 Corinthians 5:19-20
Sunday Sep 11, 2016
EPIC FRIENDSHIP P-2 w/RON OHST
Sunday Sep 11, 2016
Sunday Sep 11, 2016
Epic Friendship, Part 2
How Koinonia empowers us to face loss and maintain joy
The Importance of Mourning Loss
Matthew 5:4
While we await the consummation of the Kingdom when sorrow and pain will be no more, we all will experience the pain of loss.
The path to blessing in the face of the reality of loss includes wisdom of mourning.
The Cost of Avoiding Mourning
- When we avoid mourning our losses, we short circuit emotional and spiritual growth
- We can get stuck and spend the rest of our life reacting to present situations out of the pain of our unresolved past hurts. The effect on our relationships is devastating.
- If we don’t face the pain through mourning, we often self-medicate in addictive ways that are immeasurably destructive physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually: substancea buse, sexual addiction, workaholism, religious performance, and many more
The example of David -- after the death of Saul and Jonathan, David leads the entire nation in an extended season of mourning before moving on to the long awaited establishing of his kingdom. 2 Samuel 1:17-27
More than half of the Psalms are songs of lament!
“…we are deepened by taking the time to grieve our losses before moving on.” -- Peter Scazzero
Pay attention to the pain. Acknowledge it. Experience it with Jesus instead of fearing and avoiding it.
- Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:32-43)
- Jesus mourned over Jerusalem’s rejection of her Messiah and what it would cost them (Matthew 23:37)
- Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
How mourning loss benefits us
- We become compassionate with the compassion of our Father in Heaven
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
…the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
- We are less covetous and idolatrous. We rarely say, “I have to have that…”
- We are more in touch with the reality of heaven
- We discover that our brokenness bonds us together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Mourning empowers us to be authentic and enter into real relationship.
How Koinonia Empowers Us to Face Loss and Maintain Joy
Philippians 2:25-30 NLT
25 Meanwhile,I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker,and fellow soldier.
Koinonia – New Testament Greek word, primarily meaning fellowship, sharing in common, communion. “Koinonia is being in agreement with one another, being united in purpose, and serving alongside each other. Our koinonia with each other is based on our common koinonia with Jesus Christ” (from www.gotquestions.org/koinonia.html)
True Brother – our shared experience in Christ as daughters and sons of God the Father, brings us into a relationship with each other and Jesus as brothers and sisters that is deeper and more profound than the ties of natural family.
Co-Worker – When you work together in the eternal mission of Jesus Christ, that shared purpose serves also as ballast that keeps the ship of friendship upright even in the severest of relational storms.
Fellow Soldier – In Christ, we are in a spiritual battle. The depth of relationship that is built in defending each other from the attacks of the kingdom of darkness is indeed epic.
Joy– the sense of overall and ultimate well-being, even in the midst of suffering and loss.
Jesus teaches that the love experienced in koinonia results in “complete” joy.(Complete joy is joy so full you couldn’t have any more!)
John 15:9-15 NIV
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
John’s experience of koinonia resulting in joy
1John 1:1-4
1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
- The complete circle of love:
I have fellowship with the Father
Is hare that fellowship with others
They enter into fellowship with the Father and with me
Our joy is made complete
Paul’s experience of koinonia maintaining joy in the face of loss
2Corinthians 7:3-7 NIV
…I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. 4 I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.
5 For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn-conflicts on the outside, fears within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him.He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever.
- God comforts the downcast, and He does it through our koinonia (deep fellowship made possible by our shared relationship with Jesus)
Sunday Sep 04, 2016
EPIC FRIENDSHIP P-1 w/RON OHST and JOSE GUTIERREZ
Sunday Sep 04, 2016
Sunday Sep 04, 2016
Epic Friendship
Philippians 2:25-30 NLT
25 Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. 26 I am sending him because he has been longing to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. 27 And he certainly was ill; in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him—and also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow after another.
28 So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you. 29 Welcome him with Christian love and with great joy, and give him the honor that people like him deserve. 30 For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away.
Koinonia – New Testament Greek word,primarily meaning fellowship, sharing in common, communion. “Koinonia is being in agreement with one another, being united in purpose, and serving alongside each other. Our koinonia with each other is based on our common koinonia with Jesus Christ” (from www.gotquestions.org/koinonia.html)
True Brother – our shared experience in Christ as daughters and sons of God the Father, brings us into a relationship with each other and Jesus as brothers and sisters that is deeper and more profound than the ties of natural family.
Hebrews 2:11 NLT
11 So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.
Co-Worker – When you work together in the eternal mission of Jesus Christ, that shared purpose serves also as ballast that keeps the ship offriendship upright even in the severest of relational storms.
Fellow Soldier – In Christ, we are in a spiritual battle. The depth of relationship that is built in defending each other from the attacks of the kingdom of darkness is indeed epic.
Philippians 1:27-28 NLT
27 Above all,you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing side by side, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. 28 Don't be intimidated in anyway by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself.
A relationship of true brother,co-worker and fellow solider in Christ empowered Paul to highly esteem his friendship with Epaphroditus, while simultaneously freeing Paul to release him to serve in a distant land to fulfill the God’s eternal purposes.
Real God | Real People |Restoring Lives
Real God
God is Alive! When we meet He shows up, and we experience Him through His Word, His Spirit and each other.
“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.”
— Matthew 18:20 NASB
Real People
Come as you are. We grow by getting real with God and others in genuine,caring relationships.
“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. “ — Acts 2:46-47
Restoring Lives
Give it away. We freely share the truth, love and power of Jesus to heal and restore broken lives.
“For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you…” — 2 Corinthians 5:19-20