Higher Aim With Dr. Curt Dodd

For many people, the word “rapture” doesn't make much sense. They are really confused about what it is. In fact, for many, the Book of Revelation is extremely confusing. Some people have tried to read it and have so much difficulty wading through the prophecy and the unfolding that they sometimes quit right in the middle of it. They quit before they reached the good part. So today, we are going to continue our study of Revelation and take a look at what Scripture has to say about the rapture so that we can be informed, rather than confused, by the truth we read regarding the events that are to come.

Do you wrestle with theological issues on what you believe about God? Do you wonder what you believe about the Word of God and what it actually teaches? Do you wrestle with that? Or do you allow that to just go over your head, or in one ear and out the other? It is important for us to understand what we believe. Today is a good time for me to remind you of the basics. Thereby, you will be anchored correctly so that you can be squarely lined up in the right direction. God wants you to understand theologically and doctrinally what is important.

Today’s key passage in Revelation describes the church of Laodicea, the church full of believers, who were “caught like a deer in the headlights.” They were caught in the act. Jesus exposes what has been happening in their midst and in their own personal lives, publicly. And as a result, they froze. Maybe that is where you find yourself today. I pray that you will not just stand in the road, but you will move to do whatever God is telling you to do. Let’s look at how we can learn to do just that from reading about the church at Laodicea.

We are getting ready to take our next step by looking at the sixth church in the Book of Revelation. These seven churches are very important. They represent different kinds of Christians, different kinds of churches, and different kinds of church ages. The one we will look at today is the church at Philadelphia. The church at Philadelphia was a church that had an open door. This is an exciting church to examine. This is an exciting age to look at, the missionary age, and there’s a lot we can learn from this specific church within this age.

As we continue our study of the book of Revelation, we are going to take a look at the Church of Sardis, the church who fell asleep at the wheel when it came to their faith. They desperately needed a spiritual wakeup call. So if you are in a similar position today, if you’re on the right path but you’ve somehow fallen asleep at the wheel and need to wakeup, this message is for you.

The big question we need to ask ourselves today is this: Why do we continue to believe lies even after they have been proven wrong? Have you ever wondered that? Why do people continue to embrace things that are false even after they have been taught and informed on the truth? We’re going to take a closer look at these questions in this message as we study the church at Thyatira and see how they struggled to hold onto the truth as well.

Many old-time Christians say, “That's the problem in our culture today, we have compromised. We have compromised our music and our dress. We even read different translations of the Bible; we compromise there.” Those are not wrong compromises. However, there are compromises that are destructive. We need to realize that God has a plan for us. He does not want us to be men and women who compromise concerning the essential truths of God's Word, that we know are true. In the early church season, there was a church that was known to be a compromising church. It was the church at Pergamum. It is one of the seven churches that Jesus wrote letters to concerning their compromise. In this message, we are going to take a closer look at this church and see what we can learn from them so we don’t compromise on what really matters.

Have you ever been persecuted? Have you ever really suffered for your faith? Have you ever been passed over for a promotion because of your personal religious values? A few of us know what it really means to be persecuted. We may have experienced the dislike of individuals or the shunning of friendships because of decisions that we have made for Christ, but few of us know what it really means to be persecuted. So in this message, we are going to see what it looks like to remain faithful in the midst of persecution.

In today’s message, we will continue our conversation about the church at Ephesus and what we can learn from John’s writing to them. The book of Revelation is a book of encouragement and hope when we’re struggling and facing tough times, so there is much to be gleaned from this book, particularly when it comes to the church at Ephesus, so let’s dig in.

I really believe the message of Revelation is hope in the midst of unbelievable trials. It offered encouragement for believers who were being persecuted, who had no idea what tomorrow held. And it gave guidance and direction on how to reclaim your lost love. In the message, we’ll take a closer look at the letter to the Church at Ephesus and see what we can learn from their journey on how come back to our first love.

If you are a father, or you hope to be a father someday, God wants you to bless your children. More important than providing for them financially and physically, He wants you as a father to learn how to bless your children. So with that in mind, I want you to think about how you can be honoring and blessing your kids. If you want to bless your children, I encourage you to do each of the things we will talk about in this message.

Billy Graham once said, “The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.” This is such an important reminder for all of us as we celebrate our mothers this time of year. And in light of the fact that we learn so much from our mothers, I figured it would be wise for us to look at the story of Mary, the mother of our Savior, because there is so much we can learn and glean from her story. So in this week’s message, I want us to take a look at some of the specific takeaways from Mary’s life.

As we celebrate Easter Sunday, we need to understand that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a wake-up call for believers. It was a declaration about the most impactful event in all of history. I pray that you will see what God wants you to see and understand how powerful the resurrection is. It's not just an event; it is the event for all time and eternity! So with that in mind, I want to share several key things that we need to embrace and embody when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus.

In our world today, because of this coronavirus pandemic outbreak, we have lost something very special, culturally, personally, and spiritually. We have lost fellowship and personal intimacy with others. In its place, there is social distancing. Because of that, we have lost being able to connect with other people. Fellowship is a very powerful thing. Sometimes, we don't appreciate it until we have totally lost it. So in this message, I want us to look at how important fellowship is so that we can understand to appreciate and pursue it, even in the midst of our current circumstances.

In this message, I want to address one of the biggest fears we face as human beings: the fear of failure. Surprisingly enough, there are pros and cons to failure. Sometimes, failure is a great teacher. But other times, failure creates unbelievable pain. Life is not pain free, at all. We know that. However, through the power of the Word of God, we can make sense of our pain; and yes, even make sense of our failure. So as we look at God’s Word today, we’re going to examine the lives of many prominent, biblical figures and look at how the dealt with failure. As we do, I would encourage you to take note of what stands out to you about their story and think about what you can learn about failure from each of their lives.

As we continue our discussion on prayer, I want us to focus specifically on what it looks like to pray for our fellow believers, whether that be other believers in our community right now, or the next generation of believers that will come behind us. These people need our prayers, and I want us to make it our goal to pray for them daily so that the Lord would use them mightily for His glory to further His Kingdom.

If there was ever a time you needed to be praying, it is now. Praying to God and spending time communicating with Him should be a regular part of your daily routine. However, many people are intimidated by prayer. They don’t know where to start and what to say. They don’t want to “bother God” with their requests and issues. Thankfully, we have someone to look to when learning how to pray. Jesus gave us a great example of how we should approach prayer when He prayed The Lord’s Prayer, found in the Gospel of Matthew. So with this prayer as our model, let’s look at four things you can include in your daily prayer time.

Drinking the cup that God often provides for us is difficult. Even though God's plan is for you to do His will, maybe what He has offered you to drink right now is too difficult in this season of your life. But you must decide whether you will make the difficult decision to do what God has called you to do or choose to navigate out of it. God has given each of us a cup from which to drink, so in this message, I want to help you and encourage you as you accept the cup you’ve been given and move forward in obedience to God’s will for your life.

Over the years, I have heard people use different excuses to justify why they are giving in a certain way, rather than doing what Scripture describes. This is a very personal and private thing. We give privately and yet collectively as the body of Christ. It is a personal decision and experience. We don't send bills to people; and we don't send notices that say you haven't been giving your tithe or offering. We don't send out letters like that. I know some congregations do that. I just want to teach you what the Bible says about your belongings, because this is part of the basics of living as a believer.

As we continue our conversation on learning to love, we’re going to take a look at a few other ways we can love others the way Jesus did during His time on earth. It’s not enough to just show up for people, like we talked about last week. In addition to that, we have to exercise several other characteristics of Christlike love if we want to love well. We’ll break down each of those characteristics in this message.