I will spend quality time with God every day in prayer and the Word.

I will walk in purity of heart and integrity of life, in thought, in speech, and in deed.

I will not be ashamed of Jesus but will confess him boldly as Lord and Savior.

I will commit myself to the Great Commission, looking for opportunities to win the lost, restore the backslidden, and make disciples.

I will seek to be a peacemaker and ambassador of reconciliation, forgiving those who have offended me and seeking the forgiveness of those whom I have offended.

I will walk in love towards those who despise and reject me, overcoming evil with good and hostility with kindness.

I will pursue fellowship with brothers and sisters of like mind and will not separate myself from the Body.

I will be involved with a ministry of mercy, through serving or through giving, helping to relieve human suffering in a tangible way.

I will stand for righteousness and justice in my city, speaking the truth in love regardless of cost or consequence.

I will seek the fullness of the Spirit, availing myself of everything God has made available for His people today.

(From Dr. Michael Brown)

The teaching ministry of Calvary Chapel Auburn is expository in nature. This means that the teachings are text driven and, therefore, built solely from the foundation of the Scriptures.

Our objective, with the help of the gifting and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is to explain God’s Word, apply God’s Word, and give invitation to Christ, the Messiah, the one person to whom the whole Bible speaks! 

Therefore: We believe in verse-by verse-teaching, verse and verse teaching, and at times even spending the whole time on a single important phrase.

This means… that we will study a book of the Bible “verse by verse” or we will study a passage of Scripture in an expository manner, while we remain steadfastly committed to study and proclaim the Gospel — the good news — the “testimony of Jesus”, which is the sole purpose of all of the prophecy of the Bible!

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (Ephesians 5:18)

The Big Idea: There is a clear contrast between being intoxicated and being Spirit filled. While being intoxicated by alcohol is often accompanied with feelings of comfort, joy and courage, it is because inhibitions are removed and a person becomes blinded from the consequences of their actions. The fact is that intoxication, “numbs, dumbs and desensitizes” a person from reality.  On the other hand to be “filled with the Spirit”, is to experience true comfort, joy and courage – not because one has been numbed to reality – but because the Spirit reveals the greatest realities in life, in Christ.  The Spirit shines the truth of Christ into the human heart on a daily basis.  When a person is Spirit filled, there can be genuine comfort, joy and courage, and the heart then rises up in worship, song, thankfulness, contentment and in love towards others.

GRIEVING THE SPIRIT (Ephesians 4:25-32)

The Big Idea: Grieving the Spirit, is grieving THE Holy Spirit, which means that a Christian is stepping out of harmony with the One who is perfect love, who has your highest good in mind, and is your protection. The Holy Spirit works to protect you from the morphing destructive realities of sin by exalting the person and work of Christ in your life!  Grievingthe Holy Spirit is the sin of COMMISSION! It is an UNGODLY ACT! While quenching the Holy Spirit is the sin of OMISSION.  It is knowing what is right but NOT DOING IT!

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT (I Cor. 12:7)

The Big Idea: As a Christian, the Holy Spirit in His infinite wisdom, endows you with grace, skills and resources for the purpose of edifying fellow Christians and the church as a whole. In short, the Holy Spirit has given you something to give to fellow Christians in the context of a local church community. If you aren’t a conduit of the gifts that He has given you, it not only stagnates your own growth (because there is not an outlet for your faith) but it also undermines the church from being strengthened as God intended — which can effect a whole generation!

There is not a greater and more wonderful reality than Jesus! Yet we all sense that the person and work of Jesus is not going to win a popularity contest in this culture. We understand, that our culture is driven by the values of relativism, consumerism, materialism, hedonism and sensualism. Who would want to be popular in such a culture anyway?  As Christians, at times we all feel a bit like strangers in a strange land, and it is essential that we are careful not to allow our conviction, joy and boldness in Christ to subtly be undermined.

It’s been said that the internet is a friend to information but an enemy of thought. Today there is more information being processed than ever before, but in general there is a whole lot less thinking actually taking place. We are a culture driven by image and sound-bytes.

And when it comes to reason, it is much more reasonable to believe in God than not to believe in God. In fact, not believing in God is to discount reason itself – the very thing that those who say there is no God use to arrive to their conclusion. The irony is that they claim to have the ability to reason, but  should their reasoning be trusted if, according to them, it is the product of mindless nature?

The Gospel is the power of God to salvation! (Romans 1:16-17) It is man’s greatest need and if it is received it is man’s greatest blessing whether popular or not because it’s true. So, preach Christ!  Live for Christ! And with the help of the Holy Spirit embody Christ and be the hands and feet of Jesus to help people physically, emotionally and spiritually. Why? Because He is true! Why? Because everything is moving toward Him …everything is moving toward the King!

Years ago my Pastor Chuck Smith wrote the below Scripture in my Bible. Today, a verse that was penned by the Apostle John – is read with a renewed meaning and depth, not only as Stephanie and I think of our own children – but our church family as well!

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4)

In 1959 Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave a series of messages on revival. One of these expositions was on Mark 9, where Jesus comes off the mountain of transfiguration and discovers his disciples trying unsuccessfully to exorcise a demon from a boy. After he rids the youth of the demonic presence, the disciples ask him, “Why could we not cast it out?” Jesus answers, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (Mark 9:28-29). Jesus was teaching his disciples that their ordinary methods did not work for “this kind.” Lloyd-Jones went on to apply this to the church:

“Here, in this boy, I see the modern world, and the disciples I see the Church of God…I see a very great difference between today and two hundred years ago, or indeed even one hundred years ago. The difficulty in those earlier times was that men and women were in a state of apathy. They were more or less asleep…There was no general denial of Christian truth. It was just that people did not trouble to practise it…All you had to do then was to awaken them to rouse them…

But the question is whether that is still the position…What is ‘this kind’?…The kind of problem facing us is altogether deeper ad more desperate…The very belief in God has virtually gone…The average man today believes that all this belief about God and religion and salvation…is an incubus on human nature all through the centuries…

It is no longer merely a question of immorality. This has become an amoral or a non-moral society. The very category of morality is not recognized…

The power that the disciples had was a good power, and it was able to do good work in casting out the feeble devils, but it was no value in the case of that boy (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1987, pp. 9, 13-15).

Put simply, Jesus is saying, the demon is in too deep for your ordinary way of doing ministry.

(Excerpt From Timothy Keller The Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ)

“Is the Holy Spirit some force – some kind of impersonal power or influence?”

Simply put — the Holy Spirit is God! He is the third person in the Trinity (Triune nature of God). He has a mind, emotion and will (Acts 5:3-4; Psalm 139:7-8; Ephesians 4:30; Romans 8:26-27; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; John 14:16, 26, 15:26).

The question becomes …

“What is the mind of the Holy Spirit?” “What is His will?” “What is the Holy Spirit ‘really good at’ (so to speak)?”

When the Holy Spirit has His way in our lives there is:

Intimacy with the Father. 

• “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”(Gal. 4:6)

Christians are strengthened and the church is strengthened. 

• “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all…” (1 Cor. 12:7)

The Lord works through His church to draw people to Christ!  

• “… He will convict the world of sin…because they do not believe in Me…”  (John 16:7-10)
• “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
• (The Bible does not say that the whole world should go to church, but rather the church should go to the whole world.)

The person and work of Jesus becomes front and center. 

• “But I will send you the Advocate–the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.” John 15:26
• The Holy Spirit will inspire hearing from Jesus, being informed and renewed by Jesus, a heart inclined to Jesus; sins confessed to Jesus; and one’s worship to Jesus!

There is order and edification in church gatherings. 

• “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Cor. 14:40)

The Holy Spirit is really good at these realities!

Perhaps we can better understand why Jesus said, “…I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7)

You can see then that Christianity is not merely a psychological phenomena.It is not something that merely brings “new ideas” and a “unique experience” to to our lives.But rather, Christianity brings the living God into our lives!

Leonard Ravenhill once wrote, “Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and prayed more, and given more.”

Yes, the moment we step into eternity, we will see the unveiled glory of God, the fullness of the beauty of Jesus, the immensity of the grace that was poured out on us, the massive debt that was paid on our behalf, the endless splendor of the world to come and the horrors of judgment that we have escaped. Yes, at that very moment, just “five minutes inside eternity,” we will wish that we had been more devoted to the Lord.

Who among us will not wish that we had told more people about the Savior?

That we had been less ashamed of Him?

That we had loved others more?

That we had really explored the possibilities of faith?

That we had walked in greater intimacy, greater obedience and greater devotion?

That we had taken full advantage of the opportunities set before us?

Who among us will not think, “If only I had realized how everything I did on earth for the Lord would be so multiplied in heaven, I would have redeemed the time so much better for the Master’s work!”

“If only I had a better perspective on eternity, I would have made my life count all the more for the Lord!”

“If only I had truly grasped the infinite resources of my heavenly Father, I would have trusted Him more, stepped out in faith more and taken advantage more of the promises and power of prayer!”

As D.L. Moody once said, “Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer.”

Yes, “Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and prayed more, and given more.”

But we will not wish that we had spent more time watching TV, playing video games and surfing the Internet.

We will not wish that we had given our hearts more to sports, fashion and entertainment.

Or saved our lives rather than lost them for the gospel.

Or stored up earthly treasures rather than invested them in God’s work.

Or kept the message of the cross to ourselves even more.

Or read the Word of God less so we had more time to read novels or follow the stock market or master a hobby or exchange meaningless texts.

Or indulged the flesh more.

Or talked less about Jesus.

Or given more time to bodily exercise to the neglect of our fellowship with the Lord.

Or put even greater emphasis on outward appearance while neglecting our inner man.

Or spent less quality time with family and friends so we could devote our time to selfish pursuits.

Or cared more about what people thought than what God thought.

If only we could have the perspective of eternity written on our hearts even now! As Catherine Booth once said, “There is nothing like the light of eternity to show what is real and what is not.”

Of course, we will not make any spiritual progress by beating ourselves up or putting ourselves under a set of man-made rules or trying to pressure ourselves into lasting change. Fleshly efforts will only produce fleshly results, and guilt trips do not produce liberty.

But there is nothing stopping us from meditating deeply on the truths of God’s Word, from asking Him to “stamp eternity on our eyes” (as Jonathan Edwards prayed for himself), from seeking the Lord with holy desperation, asking Him to help us live lives worthy of His name.

There is nothing stopping us from walking in the light that we do have, from dealing ruthlessly with sin, from making a determination to stop making excuses and blaming others, from refusing to waste our time when we could be spending it fruitfully with our Father or with others—all by the help and grace of God.

There is nothing stopping us from asking the Lord to break our hearts with the things that break His heart and imploring Him to shatter our indifference and expose our shallowness.

There is nothing stopping us from praying that He would send His refining fire to burn away the dross in our lives, to prune us of all impurities and to ignite within us a fresh love for Jesus.

In fact, rather than focusing on the regrets you will have five minutes into eternity, why not stop now—even for five minutes—and cry out to God to help you live your life in a way that makes sense in the light of eternity.

And then do it again the next day and the next and the next.

Five minutes inside of eternity, you will be eternally grateful that you did.

Michael Brown

Discipline is: consistently expending energy and time on a specific objective. And the truth is, we’ll never make progress without discipline.

The great artist Leonardo Da Vinci was certainly gifted with extraordinary artistic talent, but it was discipline that took his art to the highest level. It was reported that at one time he had sketched a thousand hands in order to find just the right one!

Winston Churchill is known for being one of the great communicators of our time. A natural? Perhaps. But a naturally disciplined hard-working man! One person said of him, “Winston has spent the best years of his life writing impromptu speeches.”

Discipline is all the more important when it comes to spiritual issues …

In fact, in principle, God has a “gym” in which He wants us to expend our energy. I Tim 4:7 says, “exercise yourself toward godliness” or, “train yourself to be godly”. The word “train” is the word, “Gummos” from which we derive the word gymnasium. If there is no discipline, there will be no discipleship. No sweat, no sainthood.

As we begin 2014, I want to invite the men of our church into, “God’s Gym” to train in our relationships, soul, character, and ministry. “The Journey”, pt. 3 starts Wednesday, January 22nd at 6:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

At this time of year my thoughts go back to Jerusalem, not so much Bethlehem. When December rolls around I find myself particularly thinking about John 10:22. It says it was winter and Jesus was in Jerusalem atop the Temple Mt. commemorating the “Feast of Dedication” (Hanukkah) and He is there because He is “the Light of the world”.

Feast of Dedication? Hanukkah? Festival of Lights?

I’ll explain.

It was the year 175 B.C. and the defilement continued for ten years. A Syrian leader named “Antiochus Ephines” conquered Jerusalem murdering hundreds of thousand of Jews. Antiochus was a man shoulder to shoulder with the “Hitler’s” of history. Yet Antiochus was particularly delusionary — for he made himself to be God, calling himself “Theos-Ephiphenes!” In this way he is a type of “Anti-Christ” who is on the horizon. 2 Thess. chapter two indentifies this man who will stand in the Temple in Jerusalem and claim to be God. Antiochus not only defiled the Temple by claiming to be God but he butchered a pig and smeared its blood all around the altar and temple, even forcing the high priests to drink the blood. Meanwhile, a Jewish family by the name of Macabee’s spearheaded a revolt against Antiochus. One of Macabee’s son named Judas, played a particular role in the other-throw.

Once Antiochus was removed, the focus became the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem!

It was 164 B.C. the 25 of Kislev(some believe Dec. 25) but there was not enough oil to burn the seven branched Menorah in the Temple for an entire rededication week but to everyone’s surprise, the oil lasted eight days!

In type the miracle speaks of the new creation that is brought into existence by the Light of the World, the Messiah Jesus.

In addition, in the Jewish observance of this festival there is a ninth candle that rests in an exalted place above the other eight candles. This candle is used to ignite each of the eight other candles that produce enough light to cover all eight days. The exalted candle is called the “Shamash” candle. Shamash means “Servant”.

Jesus is THE SERVANT!  Isaiah 49:6 speaks to this …

“Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant. To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation(the word in the Hebrew is Jeshua or Jesus) to the ends of the earth.’” Isaiah 49:6

Jesus is the one who ignites the world with divine life by His saving grace! Jesus came to make all things new.

In a time when life feels so crammed with obligation and the stress that more often accompanies this season with its emphasis upon materialism, I like to ask myself, “Is the SERVANT(Jeshua/ Jesus ) in the exalted place in my life?”

May it be so. And may it be so in your life as well. May your life be lit up with glory of God in Christ. He is more than enough!

p.s. special “Jesus In Hanukkah” service Wed.Dec.4th.6:30 pm. Musical guest: Sarah Denham