First Sunday 2024

In this podcast episode, the speaker welcomes the listeners and expresses gratitude for their presence. They mention that they will be celebrating the Lord's Supper and reflect on the importance of fellowship in their faith. The speaker encourages the congregation to lay aside any burdens or sins from the previous year and start the new year with excitement and purpose. They emphasize the need to rely on God's strength and victory in the face of adversity. The speaker also announces a 28-day fast and encourages participants to pray for their country, church, and personal intentions. The episode ends with a reading from Isaiah 53, emphasizing the significance of communion. Welcome to CCI fellowships podcast. Thank you for joining us at CCI fellowship We are reaching God reaching each other and reaching our community We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord Causes you to grow in your faith and encourages you in your love for the Word of God It's good to start out the year in church. Amen. Okay, wasn't sure there We as Adriana said we have a somewhat of a different format for Today because as you see we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper As we ended the year I would just like to say that I am glad that next year Christmas and New Year's are not on a Sunday because it has been a long time since we've seen you and Next year, we won't have to not have service together at the end at Christmas and at New Year's. I Don't know about you, but I've missed you and I've missed this context of meeting together and being able to Worship the Lord together It was good to be with the church as a whole to be the one body that we are one congregation that we are But there's just something special about fellowship that fills my heart and I pray does yours as well It was on my heart if we had had service To End the year to do something and since we didn't it is also a fitting way to start the year and so as as we go through this next time as we come to the Lord's table and Celebrate in his death and resurrection I believe that we are supposed to start the year off by just laying before The throne of God anything that we need to Throw off Going into this new year We're going to have our during the the next worship time We're going to have our intercessors up here if you need prayer. We want you to come so that we can pray for you if you want to come up and just kneel at the altar and Surrender some things to God that you That weighed you down over the past year and you really don't want to take them into this new year That's what this time is for We are later going to go through the declaration before we end the service the new declaration for this year But I really believe that what God wants to do tonight is To set us free from things that we've been carrying over the past year over the past years Because there are things that we don't need to Continue to keep with us in this new year because he has other things for us to carry He has other things to bless our lives with he has other anointings and other empowerment that he wants to Do in us and use us for and we need to get these things off of us Hebrews chapter 12 says so let us lay aside The weight and the sin that so easily trips us up and run with perseverance the race that is set before us So tonight I I pray that you take advantage of the opportunity to lay aside that the weight in the sin As we've talked about those are those are can be two different things Not every weight is a sin. It's just a burden. It's just something that slows you down but Take advantage of the anointing that is here tonight to allow the Holy Spirit to remove from you those weights and those sins those those things that Are just a drag on your outlook for this year And let him put a new outlook in to your spirit into your mind into your heart That you start this year with excitement. I am Excited for this year. I really I really am. I am excited for what God is going to do today I almost actually jumped a little bit during worship. Go figure that rarely happens, but It's in there I jump inside But I'm excited for what God is going to do and I pray that you capture that I pray that you Get an excitement for this year. I pray that you don't enter the year with ambiguity with unknown worry about what is coming but that you enter the year with With purpose that you enter the year with Anticipation of what God is going to do, you know, I I sent out had Adriana send out a Voice note this afternoon if you go to Psalm chapter 60 This verse has really been on my heart These past couple days this past week And It very simply says verse 12 Psalm chapter 60 very simply says through God We will do valiantly For it is he who shall tread down our enemies. I Know we have our declaration for the year the year of the anointing of Joseph. I know that we have You know that that comes with its own focus and with its own Direction and everything, but I this verse I cannot get away from and I I I want to encourage you with it and I want us as a Congregation to adopt this that whenever we face Adversity this year that we come back to this verse through God. We will do valiantly Valiantly is a word that Inspires Valiantly is a word that is that has no Committed he in it. It has no shyness in it. It's courageous it is Valiantly is in the face of adversity We are still going to press forward and we're still going to see the victory not because of us Not because of anything that we can say look what I have accomplished But because it is God who treads down our enemies So underline it circle it study it psalm chapter 60 verse 12 Read the rest of the psalm Look at what is around it, but I want you to consume this verse. I I Instruct you as your pastor. I desire for you as the one who is charged with your spiritual health Consume this verse Meditate on it and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to understand it for you Through God we will do valiantly Valiantly For it is he who gives us the victory he who shall tread down our enemies Romans chapter 8 says in all of these things. We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ Amen Are you with me? All right praise God praise God Praise God. Let's just pray a moment Like I said this service Understands the purpose of this service it is not so much about the sermon It's about instruction, but it is about a move of the Holy Spirit. It is about Starting off correctly. It is about getting things getting your priorities straight Please join me today in this Father we submit ourselves to you. We surrender ourselves to you Lord God We pray that your anointing would flow and that by your anointing Lord God you would break every chain Every bit of bondage as your word says it is the anointing that breaks the yoke of bondage father set free Your word says that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom As your spirit resides in us It's not just where the Spirit of the Lord is in a physical place It is that your spirit is inside of us and where your spirit is there is freedom Lord God There is not bondage your word tells us there is not despair. There is not Hopelessness where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom So we thank you for freedom tonight We pray Lord God that as we go on that you would speak to each one of us And that you would do in each one of us what you desire to do that. We may start this year consecrated to you That we may start this year Lord God with our eyes fixed on you And with our hearts completely Surrendered to you in the name of Jesus. Amen Now as we did last year we started the year off with a fast from the second Sunday of January to the second Sunday of February and we're going to do that again It is 28 days I know it's not necessarily A Biblical model of what you find fast you see three day fast 21 day fast 40 day fast, but In all reality just the number we follow what the Spirit tells us to do So we are going to start this 28 day fast as I've told you previously The fast with the Holy Spirit Lead you to fast at the same time. I challenge you that your fast includes something having to do with food That is what a fast is in Scripture You may say well, I don't need a lot of food in the first place eat less and you'll find that your body craves it I guarantee you So be praying this week And Our fast is going to be on three different levels. We're going to pray for our country We're going to pray for our church and our congregation and we're going to pray for ourselves So each week I'm going to give you some prayer points to focus on during that week That doesn't mean it's the only thing for you to focus on But those are the things these will be things that Among what you pray about during the week. I want you to pray it on these specific things as well So we're praying in unity and we're praying as a congregation as well on Wednesday mornings We're going to have a zoom meeting at the very early hour of 5 a.m So that people that have to get to work early such as our teachers will be able to do that but I Encourage you To be a part of that. We'll send the link out each week. I will be Open to you that the first one to say really 5 a.m About a morning service. Is that one right there with her hand raised or a morning prayer time, but We've already had the conversation about 5 a.m. And It's a good time It's a good time to be together during the week and to have that extra moment to pray together It's it's prayer and fasting not just fasting So we need to have opportunity to pray together as well So I encourage you to join in those and more instruction, of course will come next week As we prepare our hearts to To come to the Lord's table You know that when we pray we're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying We're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying We're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying We're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying we're not just praying You know that as people lead The communion service a the most popular section of Scripture to lead it out of his first Corinthians 11 That's where Paul is giving instructions on how to conduct a service. He's putting things in order And gives us the the model of what we are how we are to conduct the service Others will read out of one of the Gospels where Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper there At his last meal with his disciples, but when I think of communion, I always come back to this Isaiah 53 and We could just read a couple verses, but I want to read through the whole chapter and As we do I want you to think about it. Don't just go through and read it Let it get in your spirit. Let it put yourself in this place And allow the Holy Spirit to make this Holy Communion More real to you than it has ever been before that it that it brings something fresh It's very easy when we do something as a custom to get Kind of routine in it and it loses the meaning and the importance Of course here in CZ I felt CCI Iglesias se we don't do Communion very often and that's part of it to keep it fresh and to keep it Significant to us but Let's enter in with the right heart Let's enter in with a heart of gratitude. Let's enter in with humility Recognizing that even if we have served God our whole lives We were born into this world as enemies of God Still in need of salvation Still in need of this sacrifice that Christ has made in verse 1 Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground He has no form or comeliness and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He's despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Doesn't sound like a very happy existence does it? and We hid as it were our faces from him He was despised and we did not esteem him Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted as if he deserved it but And the word but is a great word because it means In spite of all of the things before this word what comes after is even more important but He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities The chastisement for our peace or the end result of our peace was placed upon him He was punished and the result of that punishment was the peace that we have And by his stripes we are healed we are healed and We like streets sheep have gone astray We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all He was oppressed and he was afflicted Yet he opened not his mouth He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as sheep before its shears is silent so he opened not his mouth He accepted the judgment that was meant for us He received it with willingness and with grace He Was taken from prison verse 8 and from judgment and who will declare his generation in other words who will be his heir For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people. He was stricken and They made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death Because he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth Yet it pleased the Lord It pleased the Lord to bruise him He has put him to grief Why oh, why would it please God to do this to his only son? Because as Hebrews 12 says for the joy that was set before him he endured it all what is that joy you? You You are the joy set before Christ that Led him to the cross relationship with you It pleased the Lord To punish his own son So that he would have relationship with you How personal how more personal of a gospel Could this be? How more intimate of a message could this be how more? unique of A God do we serve that would do this for each one of us individually and collectively When you make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand It wasn't for nothing There was an heir many heirs many sons being brought to him He shall see the labor of his soul verse 11 and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servants shall justify many For he shall bear their iniquities Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and she he shall divide the spoil with the strong Those who endure to the end will be saved Because he poured out his soul unto death and He was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sins of many and made intercessors made intercession for the transgressors He made intercession for you. He made intercession for me Thank you for listening to this week's podcast If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English-speaking congregation Please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. In the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonial Trapicci Just off Boulevard Suyapa near Una If you'd like prayer or more information about our church Contact us at fellowship.CCI at gmail.com That's fellowship.CCI at gmail.com or follow us on social media We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings