Wednesday, October 31, 2018

I can be Single, Complete and Content | David Fernandes

I can be Single, Complete and Content 

This message was preached by David Fernandes at Word of Grace Church on October 21th, 2018. To listen/download the audio please click hereTo listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.


We all have certain belief systems and struggle with them. Life can turn bitter with worldly influence in many aspects of our lives. Marriage is no exception. People talk negatively about marriage unless they meet with God.

I did not believe in Marriage because I did not know God at that time. When I was around 32 years, I discovered there is no peace in my life. I had a great career and just when I was about to rise up in my career, I discovered that I had no peace.

 I met someone at a service and asked that person to pray for me. To my surprise, the man started praying for my common sense. In addition, I prayed to God asking him to give me peace. All of a sudden, I started crying and knew it was God. Then I asked the person how I could find peace. He said that I would not find peace unless I deal with my sin. I tried different things like meditation etc. However, nothing gave me peace.

On 8th Aug 1992, I attended a meeting. All of a sudden, I started clapping, raising my hands and found myself surrendering to God. I cried desperately for peace. The speaker asked questions to the congregation – Do you believe in God? Do you believe he died for your sins? Are you willing to accept Jesus? I said yes to all the questions in my heart, went home and slept. I woke up the next morning as a changed man!

That morning, I went for a walk, experienced God in nature. My life got changed completely. I went to work and told everyone about what happened. My worldly view changed into Godly view. I became a messenger of God to preach the Gospel.

Gen 2:18 – The Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

This is a simple verse, yet, changed the world.

Gen 2:22-25 – Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

The world challenges on this. We don’t get trained in marriage for a year, for 6 months, for 3 months and not even for one month. Yet a huge chunk of our lives in marriage.

1 Cor 7:8-9 – Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Sadly, many Christians misunderstand singlehood and make it as a qualification for service. Singlehood is a grace given to a few.

GOD’S VIEW OF MARRIAGE:
1.   We are blessed to be a blessing
a.    Vision
b.   Purpose
Gen 1:27-28 – God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it…”
There is nothing like a marriage that has vision and purpose in it.

Does your marriage have a vision?
Once a pastor asked the bride and groom, why they wanted to get married? The answer from both of them was that both of them gave each other space !!! There is a place to give space but that cannot be the vision of marriage. The purpose of marriage is becoming one and breaking the space between each other.

Therefore, if vision is important then the choice is very important. Both need to be of the same vision and belief system.
The bible says, “Do not be unequally yoked”.

I have never seen it worked. Both the spouses should have a common faith, common goal and common vision. This is referred to as “Yoked to each other and to God”

What do you go for when choosing your partner? Money? Looks? These things are not wrong in themselves but cannot be the only thing.

1.  Vision for marriage
How do you want to serve God? This is not about becoming leaders in the church. It is about having Christ in the center and living according to the Word of God. Where is your marriage going? You can ‘t live a married life with a bachelor mindset.

Lynn and I met a couple. The husband is supposedly a Christian and the wife is a strong believer. All of a sudden, he started coming home late every day. But one day, the wife saw some pictures and found out that her husband had been attending salsa classes. When she confronted him about this, he agreed to it and said that salsa is more important to him than the marriage. That stood as a strong reason for her to divorce her husband.

Today the courts can’t cope with the number of divorces filed.
If you’re married, fight for your marriage. If you are yet to be married, wait for it and stay in control.

2.   God-given attraction and partnership
Gen 2:18 – The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Attraction to the opposite is God’s purpose. The timing is the issue. Gen2:22 She was taken out of man …” This is the start of the story I want to talk about. This is being challenged today and we need to fight to keep it.

Singles – an attraction for the opposite sex is God’s design. But there is a time for it. Good parenting helps children to pace the attraction.
The purpose of dating should be marriage and it should start at the right time. This may sound old-fashioned. A fling dishonors both parties.
Dating period should be kept pure. Some people have doubts if they could smooch each other during the dating period. Will it help you keep your relationship pure? The answer is …?

Become one
This is a process of loving.
a.    Emotional understanding and oneness
1 Pet 3:7 – Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

This is the answer to why get married – to become one in God
If you have different goals, how do you become one? If your prayers are not being answered, ask yourself how you are treating your wife!
So what is the goal of your marriage? It should be so that we can become ONE in God.

We need defined goals in our marriage and parenting.
How?
Emotional understanding.

Lynn and I are of two different personalities. We should all know the temperaments and love languages (Word of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, physical touch)

In the early days of our marriage, Lynn used to do many things for me where as I was longing for physical touch. Both of us were in a confusion about what each other likes to do or receive. But later we worked at it and got to know each other love languages and the oneness developed. It is a journey toward oneness.


b.   One mind
Seeking to understand one another. Good and effective communication, conflict management, forgive one another. You learn to resolve conflict and learn to become one mind. Without forgiveness, a marriage cannot last.

c.    Physiological union

Heb 13:4 – Marriage should be honored by al, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

Sex is not just physical but physiological. It has to be of body mind and spirit. Men are like microwaves and women like an oven. You have to work at it learn to love each other. It must be a willing union even in marriage or it is rape.

Women need a lot of affection before going for lovemaking.
Things that stop you from having a good healthy sex life are – Pornography- it is an illusion and a sin that destroys your mind. Get help, talk to someone. Adultery, Masturbation and Prostitution

3.   Union for life

Mark 10:9 – Therefore, what God has joined, let no one separate.

When you look at the Bible, you see there is nothing new. There has always been a desire to break a marriage.

Matt 19:8 – Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
If you are divorced rest in the grace of God. God wants to bless you now.
Matt 5:32 – But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Are you divorced? I do not know your circumstances.  If you are remarried sort out the past. Else, things can turn upside down in the current marriage and lead to troubles.

Why does God hate divorce?

Mal 2:15 – Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So, be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

The tragedy is the law is tampering with God’s order. What will happen to society? It will take a whole generation to see the consequences of our decisions.
The world is tampering God’s word, God’s order. However, we, as Christians, must exemplify God’s word.

I can be single complete and content or married fruitful and happy. The choice is ours.




 Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Are your indicators working? | Colin DCruz

This message was preached by Colin DCruz at Word of Grace Church on October 21th, 2018. To listen/download the audio please click hereTo listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.


Are your indicating lights working?



How many have traveled in a plane? Have you seen a light bulb?
In 1972, a plane crashed because of a light bulb.  On December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar serving the flight crashed into the Florida Everglades, causing 101 fatalities. The pilots and the flight engineer, two of 10 flight attendants, and 96 of 163 passengers died; 75 passengers and crew survived. The crash occurred while the entire cockpit crew was preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light. They failed to notice that the autopilot had inadvertently been disconnected and, as a result, the aircraft gradually lost altitude and crashed.

What does this have to do with us?
We sing about how we have been saved, our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. We are going to heaven but God has a plan for us here. What are the light bulbs that we need and that would keep us from crashing? 

I will talk about two.

God has used many people greatly and some of them at some point slipped and fell. They all had one thing in common – they missed their quiet time. Why do I need to this?
Jesus is our model. He is the one that is very close to the Father. If there is anyone who did not need to pray, it was Jesus. However, he prayed a lot.

Mark 1:35 – Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed

Jesus went to a solitary place to pray

Luke 22:39 – Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him

From the word “as usual”, it is understood that prayer was a part of Jesus’s daily routine and habit


The light bulb we need and take care of is Prayer and Reading the Word

What prayer does is that it brings us in communion with Jesus.

There are two parts to it.
When you meet a friend over coffee, you have a conversation. It’s a two-way communication.

How does it work?
If you want to hear God’s voice, you need His Word – The verses in the Bible speak to us.

A caution – Do not read the Word randomly by just flipping the pages and finding a verse. Read systematically and regularly.

Martin Luther would pray more on the days he was very busy.

Some tips:
i.                 Set a time – Fix a specific time so that it becomes a habit
ii.               Set a place – Find a special place where you meet with the Living God
iii.             Make sure you have the Bible and a journal. Write down each day what God says to you.
iv.             Have a reading plan – Read through Old Testament, New Testament, a particular book
This is something every Christian ought to be doing.
Prayer is powerful.
Last month we had 11 people looking for jobs. Today almost all of them got jobs. Things begin to happen as we pray.


Is meeting together as a church every Sunday important?

Acts 2:42-46 - … devoted themselves to fellowship, to the breaking of bread… Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

The early church did this – met in the temple courts and broke bread in homes.

Is Sunday a custom and a habit for you, in a good way, or is it something that I do when I don’t have anything else to do?

Luke 4:16 – He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.

Meeting together as a church every Sunday is not a law but a good practice.

Acts 17:2 – As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures.

It was a custom with Paul too.

Sunday is Lord’s Day! Let us meet together!

Psalm 122:1 – I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord”


Why do we need to gather?
When we come together, there is great anointing and power.

1Cor 5:4 – So when you are assembled and I am with you in Spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present…..

Do not miss out from this grace. Watching on TV is different

Heb 10:24-25 - … not giving up meeting together

Some have made it a habit not to be regular.

What do we do when we meet together?

1 Cor 14:26 - ….. When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up

When we meet together, we encourage each other.
Everyone has a part to play. We can do many things when we come together.

In a Play, there are 3 groups of people:
Actors, Audience, and Prompters

We are the actors, God is the audience, the band is the prompter.

So, ask yourself – Am I in the Word every day? Do I journalize? Do I pray?
Make sure you are a part of Sunday meeting every week.


 Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

What Kind Of Worship Does God Want?| Colin DCruz

WHAT KIND OF WORSHIP DOES GOD WANT?

This message was preached by Colin DCruz at Word of Grace Church on October 14th, 2018. To listen/download the audio please click hereTo listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.

When we are looking for a job we look at advertisements, look at the jobs advertised, and see what fits my profile. We want to prepare for the job. Some companies are ranked at the world’s best employers.  Would you not like to work for them?

What does that have to do with our word this morning? God is also looking for people. He has a wanted poster like those old Western movies – “Wanted”. The matrimonial column has a “wanted” list.

What kind of wanted poster would God put up? Does he need anything?
Is there anything that God needs?
What do you give a person who has everything?
What kind of wanted posts would God put up?

The answer is in John chapter 4:23

John 4:23 – Yet, a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks

God is seeking worshipers who will worship him in Spirit and in truth. What does this mean? It means he is looking for a certain kind of man or woman. People who will worship in Spirit and in Truth.

2 Chr 16:9 – For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
God is seeking people whose hearts are fully committed to him from the 5-6 billion people on this earth.

How do we become like this?

What kind of worship does the Father deserve?
All of us are different in personalities, likes, and dislikes. But when it comes to worship, we need to find out what God desires but not what we like or dislike.
At our jobs, we are required to do what the job requires of us.

What does the Bible say about worship?
When Jesus was asked, what the greatest commandment was, he said,
Mark 12:30 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength
What does heaven look like?
Rev 4:6-8 - ……. Day and night they never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come”

How do you think we will worship God when we go to heaven?
When John encountered Jesus and saw him in glory, he fell at the feet of Jesus as though dead.
Rev 1:17 – When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Jesus our Lord is worthy of worship and heaven is full of worship.

Mat 15:8-9 – “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules”
1.    We are called to worship him with our hearts. He wants our devotion, love, and emotion and be engaged.

2.    He wants our mind to be engaged. Our minds can be distracted. We need to engage our mind

3.    Clapping, singing, dancing, bowing, kneeling requires for us to do something in action and this needs energy

2 Sam 6:4-5 – Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums, and cymbals.

The ark of the Lord was being brought with great might and rejoicing. We are looking at this account in scripture so we know what true worship looks like. I doubt they stood with their hands folded. There was a great celebration.
In the middle of this, Uzzah touched the ark because the oxen stumbled. God struck him down and he died.

What does this tell us?
We cannot worship God on our terms. We need to follow God’s instructions.
God said do not touch the ark. We cannot say do not like to dance, lift my hands or clap. What does God require?

Throughout the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, there are detailed instructions on how to build the temple, how God needs to worship. This is the Old Testament. However, the principle is we need to worship God how he requires it and not on our terms.

2 Sam 6:11 – The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.

David was afraid to take the ark with him. So he took it to Obed-Edom and let it stay in their house for three months. God blessed the entire household of Obed-Edom. The ark represents the presence of God and where God’s presence is, his blessings will be.

Today, God’s presence is not restricted to geography or an object. His presence is in our hearts.
So, David brought the ark to Jerusalem.

Make time to worship God daily and spend time with God.
David brought the ark of God to Jerusalem. He made a sacrifice every six steps. Imagine that! It cost him.

2 Sam 6:14-15 – Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
While bringing the ark of God, David danced with all his might. It was not casual. There was great rejoicing.
Often we wonder what people would think of us if we dance while worshipping the Lord.

2 Sam 6:16 – As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Michal, daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

There are people who might think of us the same way, but it does not matter.
David came into the city and sacrificed bulls etc.
When David returned home to bless his household, Michal said that how the king of Israel like any other vulgar fellow could go around half-naked in the presence of slave girls

To this David’s reply was -  2 Sam 6:21-22 – “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

So, let us not judge anyone

1 Cor 6:20 – You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.
Rom 12:1-2 – Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.

In the Old Testament, it was dead sacrifices, but in the New Testament, it is living sacrifices – holy and pleasing to God.
Heaven is full of worship. God is looking for worshippers in Spirit and in truth. The Psalms are full of different expressions of worship.
The Father is looking for worshippers who will worship in Spirit and in truth.


  Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.