Resurrection Life Church

032617 | Born to Die | Part One | Allen Hickman

Jesus Christ, the son of God was not just a man born with no purpose or destiny.  He was a man with on a mission.  A man with a definite calling on His life.  Each day as a child, adult and finally as a rabbi He was consumed with the reason He was born.  That reason was to die.  Die?  How can you change the world if you die?  How can the revolution against Rome, that His disciple thought He would certainly lead happen if He was dead?  Well, God’s thought and ways are much higher than ours.

God had a plan that would not change the lives of the disciples but change the entire world: forever.  God began His plan back in ancient times of Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets.  In Moses’ time God had 5 different offerings the Israelites had to give each year as worship to Him.  All those offerings were nothing more than a foreshadowing of Jesus and His mission.

The burnt offering was about total and complete surrender, not ours but Jesus’  He was completely abandoned to God’s purpose for His life.  The Grain offering was a meal offering which represented Jesus obedience of sinless service to God.  The Peace offering was a fellowship offering.  It was about Jesus and the Father intimate relationship.

Pastor Allen begins this series talking about these offerings and more and how they intersect with our lives and lovers and followers of Jesus.

031917 | Refresh Your Soul | Wayne Drain

Have you ever felt stuck?  Stuck in life?  Stuck at your job, marriage, school, etc...?  We all have at some point in our life.  We don’t have to stay there.  “But how do I get unstuck?”, you might ask.  Some would say, “it’s simple just get unstuck.”  It’s not as simple as just making a choice.  There is a process of calling out to God and acting in obedience to what He says.

We live in a forward moving world and it prizes perpetual motion.  Our being stuck is not the same as moving forward.  It is a state of dryness, having no vision, can’t picture a bright future, can’t seem to hear from God, etc...  How do you get out of that state?

If you feel stuck in life and just don’t seem you are going anywhere maybe you need to stop and take a personal inventory of the gratefulness of your heart.  Those that are constantly complaining can’t be refreshed because they are clogging their heart up.  But those that are thankful have no room for complaining and thankfulness always brings refreshing.

Guest speaker and friend Wayne Drain share his personal story of how he was stuck and how God refreshed his soul and he “got unstuck” and began a whole new adventure in life.

May God refresh your soul as you listen to Wayne share godly insights about how to be thankful and it’s affect on our soul.

031217 | Your Kingdom Come Here and Now | Allen Hickman

The Kingdom of God is not just about getting to heaven but about getting Heaven to earth.  When heaven collides with our natural world the Kingdom of Heaven begins to intersect with our everyday life and we become Kingdom minded and not “worldly” minded.

There is a a distinct difference in the behavior of those of the Kingdom of God and those that are not.  We live by a different set of rules and guidelines.  We are motivated by a completely different Spirit than the rest of the world.  

If we are not living by those standards then we need to line our life up with them.  We must repent and repentance has a 3 fold response.  First there must be renouncing and reversal, then submission and obedience and finally growth and representation.

How do we get heaven to earth?  God has a specific way of doing that.  It is through the church of Jesus Christ.  Not the organized religious groups of people that push their way of living and thinking on people.  It comes when we as followers and lovers of Jesus Christ begin to walk out His Word in our everyday life.  Not because we have to but because His nature has become my

nature and I can’t help but live like Jesus.
The goal of the kingdom is much more than salvation it is all about transformation!

030517 | Momentum Moving Forward | Allen Hickman

God has never intended for His church to sit still and collect dust.  He has always wanted us to move forward.  God brings momentum into our lives and it is up to us as a church and individuals to move forward in what He brings.

 

God is expanding our boundaries but sometimes boundaries are a place of contention.  We may not like the boundaries, we want our boundaries to be larger than what they are, the list is endless.  The main question we need to ask ourselves is where are we limiting God?

 

If we are to ever move forward with the momentum God provides we are going to have to walk in the path that others have already established.  Learn from those who have gone before us.  Build relationship with those that are moving forward so you can learn from them.

 

We must learn to walk in the authority that we have been given.  We have the authority of God’s Word, His weapons and His complete victory.  When we live and walk in that authority it is a magnet to those around us not a repellent as some would think.  People want to be a part of something that has life and gives life.

 

Last, we must always move forward.  Yesterday is in the past and you can live in the past you can only reminisce and learn from it.  Move forward.  The good ole days are right here right now.  God is a God of the new and fresh not the old and dead.  New has nothing to do with age as it does fresh and being alive. 

 

We move forward towards a finish line and that finish line is not on this side of heaven.  We can’t stop because there are too many people that need to know of and experience the true life changing love of Jesus Christ.  So Church move forward!

022617 | The Secret Place | Jacob Hickman

“…your Father who is in secret…”
“…your Father who sees what is in secret…”
“…your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Jesus was trying to tell us something in Matthew 6. In a world where everything is done on a platform or out in public, God is a Father who delights in meeting with us in the secret place. There is a strength and peace derived from meeting with God in the secret place that can’t be found anywhere else. Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Paul, and all the other people we see as great, were all people who were great in the secret place.

While any of these stories would make a fitting example of the power of the secret place, John 6 gives a compelling picture of God’s desire to reveal Himself to us in the secret place. It tells the story of a woman who is impacted by an encounter with Jesus while no one else was around and the impact it had not only her but everyone around her.

021917 | Let God Change Your Attitude | Allen Hickman

It has been said for centuries that “attitude is everything.” Attitude is basically how we perceive the world in which we live. “Good Lord, it’s morning” or “Good morning, Lord.” It all depends on your attitude.

Many Christians are living in a state of defeat because they have not allowed God through His Holy Spirit to change their attitude or their way of thinking. Why? More than likely it is because we think there is nothing wrong with our attitude. If we would just stop long enough to hear God He would let us know there is a better way of living. Philippians 2 tells us to have the same “mind” or “attitude” as Jesus Christ. “He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!” Philippians 2:6-7 (MSG) Wow, now that is a complete attitude and what of thinking change.

If we are going to make a significant impact on our world we are going to have to understand and change our attitude about a few things. First, we must have the correct attitude towards the world. The world is not our enemy. We are to love the world with the love of Jesus but not its systems and sinful lust. We must yearn and hunger for God and the things of God. Not religion but hunger after God Himself. We also have to have three desires. First we must desire to win. Christ wins and if we are in Him so do we. Second, is our life must be found in Christ. Third, we must hunger to know Him. Three experience we need are, the power of His resurrection, the power to overcome Satan and the power of the supernatural by way of the Holy Spirit working in and through our life.

Listen this week as Pastor Allen share these points and more along with passionate and thought provoking true stories and personal experiences.

021217 | Faith That Wins | Allen Hickman

The Bible says that “without Faith it is impossible to please God.  For those who come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  Many Christians are not walking in the blessings of God or embracing the promises of God found in Jesus because they don’t have the faith to do so.  Why?  Because they are not living out the basics of their relationship with God.

First you must pay attention to God’s written Word on a regular basis.  A regular basis does not mean once at week at church on Sunday.  It means spending time with God and His Word on a DAILY basis.  It’s hard to have faith in someone you never spend time with.

Second is you must pay attention to YOUR words.  Speaking life to your family and community will only come as you allow the Holy Spirit of God to speak life to you.  Your words will bring life or death it’s all in what you speak.

And lastly our obedience to God and his commands are absolutely imperative.  What good it is to read God’s Word, pay  attention to your words and not do what God says?  It’s no good.  If we want faith that wins we must apply these basis principles to our life.

020517 Living Life On Mission | Part 5 | Allen Hickman

Before Jesus ascending to heaven He left the disciples with some very specific instructions as to how we, as the church, should engage and interact in this world.  Some of those instructions may have seemed monumental and impossible to fulfill however, Jesus didn’t leave us helpless or powerless.  He sent us His Holy Spirit to give us the power to BE the church not DO church.

There are a few things that we as the Church should never veer off course from.  First, we must understand that we are in a real fight.  This is not some “mamby pamby” scuffle with a classmate in grade school but people’s lives are literally hanging in the balance.  It is part of our mission to fight for them and stay true to each other.  Second, we must aim at real targets.  We must be straight shooters.  The souls of people are most important.  We must reach the lost who are without a relationship with God.  We have been anointed to set the captives free.  How? Through the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent to empower us to set them free.  We will always fight for marriages, families and children.  No matter what our current culture defines as important those will always be the paramount mission of the Church.

This fight is not a fight that we can win with weapons of this world.  We fight a spiritual war that is only done through weapons that He provides.  Prayer and worship, obedience, the words of our mouth and love are just few.  Once we learn what our mission is and live life on mission we then can know that we can change our world.

012917 | Living Life On Mission | Part 4 | Allen Hickman

In order to live a life that is truly significant you must know your identity and where that identity comes from.  If we are truly the sons and daughters of God then our identity should and does come from the worth and value our heavenly father gives us.  

First we must know who He is before we can know who we are.  His Word opens up a plethora of characteristics of His nature and who He is.  That is why studying, knowing and living His Word is so important and vital to living our life on mission.  However, to know who He is means we have to spend time with Him.  When we spend the time with Him we develop our identity, value and worth.

Second we must know who we are.  We are the sons and daughters of God that have been purchased by the invaluable blood of God’s son; Jesus. Thus, placing a value on us that boggles the mind but frees our spirit to be who God has called us to be.  As we walk in the understanding and revelation of who we are in Him our life purpose has meaning, worth and direction.  Producing in us a confidence that keeps us on track and focused.

Lastly we must be open to the Holy Spirit’s impartation of the things and principles that God values.  The only way we can do that is to humble ourselves before God and allow His Holy Spirit to do His work in the depths of our hearts and souls.  When we do theses things we will begin to live a life on mission.

012217 | The Hometown Demon | Jacob Hickman

The hometown demon has robbed more miracles than we can count. Because I know a person well or a person knows me well, it whispers things like, “that’s just the way it is… they’re never gonna change.” He uses this kind of language to accomplish his one mission, to steal hope.

He robs the hope for ourselves: "they all know what I've done"

He robs the hope for other people:  “I’ve known them forever. They'll always be that way." So why bother?

Can you live a life of victory in your own hometown? People know you. People know what you did. People know what you used to do. That's okay because Jesus has taken care of that hometown demon that tries to haunt you with your past.

This also happened to Jesus in His own hometown, and in this message Jacob Hickman our college pastor exposes the lie and helps us discover the key to living in hope for the future, even in a place where you have a less than desirable past.