Higher Aim with Dr. Curt Dodd Dr. Curt Dodd

As believers, we need to be mindful of where we are going. It is like we are headed down a road where there is a huge sign across the road that says, “Bridge out.” If you keep driving, you are headed for disaster. Many people are looking at the signs that are occurring today, and they are heading into disaster. This is very important for you to understand. The Bible says that in the last days, terrible times will come. Great Tribulations will come. The New Testament explains the characteristics about those End Times. The Bible says there will be terrible, despicable, perilous
times. But at the same time, God promises to pour out His Holy Spirit during those last days. That’s not a contradiction. It’s a both-and situation. Our world is falling apart, and yet we’re seeing God do amazing things for His Kingdom. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the signs of the End Times as described in Scripture.

The cross was a watershed moment for the Apostle Paul and for us. It is important that we understand the cross and the power of the cross. It is more powerful than a piece of jewelry or a symbol that others see. In the early church, the symbol was not the cross. The cross was a Roman instrument of death. As we look back 2,000 years, the cross represents the power of God. What kind of power are we talking about? That’s what we’re going to discuss in today’s message.

Many of us have the mentality that says, “God, I want to do this. I want to go there.” We find ourselves upside down when we want God to bless our plans rather than be part of His plan for our lives. Oswald Chambers once said, “It is not right for the servant to tell the master what he will do and what he will not do.” As children of God and followers of Jesus, the most important thing for us to know is the will of God for our lives. But how do you find God's will? What does it look like? In today’s key passage, Jesus gives us a glimpse of God's will. So as we look at this passage, we will discuss some key principles for God’s will.

In this week’s message, we are continuing our conversation around forgiveness, discussing the steps we can take to forgive those who have hurt us and seeing what we can learn from the life and teaching of Jesus about Christlike forgiveness.

The story in today’s key passage of Scripture is a tough one. Forgiveness is always a tough subject in this broken world of ours. But as Jesus addresses this issue, He was being tougher on the person who withheld forgiveness than the person who committed the offense. Why would Jesus do that? That’s what we’re going to look at in today’s message. As we do, we need to ask and answer three specific questions. We’ll answer the first one today and then we’ll dive into the other two next week.

If you look at the entire book of 1 John, you’ll see very clearly the characteristics of someone who is a child of God. When you have given your life to Christ and surrendered your life to Him, I believe there are seven characteristics that will be true of you. In today’s message, we’re going to discuss these seven characteristics in depth.