Bay City Wesleyan Church

Why can't I catch happiness? Why am I always chasing after it and never grabbing hold of it?

Telling the story of how Jesus changed your life opens the door for God's power to change the lives of others.

Everyday God is working to draw men and women to Himself. However, we play a vital role in his plan. We will see God do "even greater things" as we make the most of opportunities he brings to us.

We humans enjoy our "Comfort Zones." We have our circle of friends and family - people like us. We go to the same stores almost all the time. However, God uses unexpected relationships to do greater things in our lives when we are open to them.

We tend to think people who do and see great things from Jesus are lucky. It's as if we believe they won some kind of heavenly lottery but God uses people who personally prepare their spirits and get ready for more of him.

Why do wise people earn all they can and save all they can? So they can give all they have.

We know that saving is important. We all know we should do it. So why don't we save more? Each individual and couple must decide to live on less than they make and to save the rest. We need to decide to do what we know is right.

Principle # 1: Earn all you can and spend less than you earn.

As long as we submit to God's will, we have authority and power in prayer because of the convenant.

No matter what God asks us to do we can trust him to see us through it all.

We are heirs to a great covenant between God and Abraham. It is a covenant relationship we should enter and enjoy with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. God presents us with a power for living in his new covenant that far outshines anything the old covenant of rule keeping had to offer.

The problem is that we are comfortable in our "Lo Debars." Moving up to the King's table frightens us. We fear the unknown; and we don't know what will happen if we claim more of God's covenant promises. So many of us willingly choose to live in spiritual, emotional, and physical poverty, but we are heirs to a great covenant between God and Abraham.

God established a covenant with Abraham that still blesses us today. The key question however is will you trust him enough to allow him to shape your life?

We do not understand covenants because they are not part of our culture. However, God chose to bind himself to humanity in a covenant. We should seek to understand and to experience the power of the covenant.

We often think of God as absent from our lives and our world. We know he sits on the throne of heaven but where is God when you need him? Isaiah declares the Lord is in the high and holy place as well as with the broken hearted. There is no middle ground. We can find God in the high place that emphasizes his holiness and in the low places that emphasize our brokenness.

In our highly individualistic culture, we resist the idea of confessing the sins of some other person or persons. We struggle with the idea the idea of corporate sin. However, the Bible makes it clear that nations, communities, even congregations can worship idols. The only way to deal with these corporate sins is "identificational confession."

Many people make the mistake of assuming the gospel is a command rather than a free invitation. Jesus came with an invitation not a list of religious rules and rituals. Accepting his invitation is like traveling to a new city with a friend who knows the way.

We often seek restoration for our weary souls in the very things that tear us down -- alcohol, relationships, food, drugs, entertainment, sleep. These things are not evil in themselves; however, when we expect them to do what only God can do they let us down painfully. We need the Lord to restore our souls.

There are many distracting and competing ideas urging you to build your life on them. But God can only renew, refresh and transform your life if you will invest time in understanding and obeying the principles of his Word -- the Bible.

We often wonder what one person can do. In a world ruled by greed, hunger for power and dishonesty, what difference can one person make? BUT God says one person's intercession can change the course of history.