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Pastor Justin teaches that the last game-changing act Jesus did was empowering others to fulfill God’s mission. Jesus came down to earth with a mission and that was to bring salvation to the world. Once He accomplished His mission His work was done and ours had just begun. He sent the Holy Spirit to give us all power to lead others into truth. By doing this Jesus changed our lives from being disciples to apostles. God did not just change our lives by saving us but has empowered us to be game-changers ourselves.

Pastor Justin Brandt

Pastor Justin teaches that there is a spiritual battle going on and we as Christians are in it whether we want to be or not. So, we have to equip ourselves to be able to not only fight but to win the battle. God is faithful, and He has given us the tools and methods to win the war, but we must choose to fight with the power of God and not our own strength. We need both the strength of God and the protection of God in this war. We must wrap ourselves in truth or we will be defeated. We have to allow the Spirit of truth to come break through the lies and bring freedom into our lives.

Pastor Justin explains that James links our struggles in life to a lack of a relationship with God. This is because people go through life on their own and do not involve God with their daily lives, goals, and dreams and try to make them happen on their own. We struggle with the desires that we have within us. To stop the fight, Christians must first submit and draw near to God and resist the devil. God is our source and will always give us what we need not necessarily what we want or desire.

Pastor David shares as Christians, we must be mindful of the power of our words. In order to give life, our words need to match our faith. The things that come out of our mouths should consistently be glorifying to God. Where our hearts are set will be seen in the words and the tone in which we speak. If we allow the Holy Spirit to control what we say we show our faith is active and alive in us.

Pastor Justin teaches that James gives Christians two kinds of warnings to be mindful of. One is to be set apart from the culture of the world. The other is to guard our hearts so that we stand out and are different from the world. To be able to do this James warns about not being prejudiced and not speaking evil. Christians are to love others without judgment, conditions, or qualifications and to not speak negatively about others. In this way, we can show equal love and respect to everyone.

Pastor David explains that it is through our loving actions that we prove our faith to be alive and real in us. Works are worthless without faith, and faith is dead without works. If we are showing our faith in our actions it shows that our faith is indeed real. We are to come to services and to read the Bible expecting to receive God’s word as doers, not just hearers. It doesn’t matter how knowledgeable you are in the word if you aren’t doing anything with that knowledge to help others. Our walk of faith is useless if it does not translate into the way we live and the way we treat others through our actions.

Pastor Justin shares from the Book of James that the faith of a Christian is going to be tested and tested often. The first thing James proclaims is that we as Christians, God’s chosen people, the elect, are going to have trials. And in the trials, we are to have joy. We need to understand that the joy is not in what we are going through but what comes out of the trials. Trails come for the purpose of testing our faith. Trials reveal what faith we have. We get to find out if our faith is really in God.

Pastor David teaches that God loves to take the ones who are considered the least and weakest and display His power through them to show His glory. It is through God's grace alone that we become what He has envisioned for us to be all along. We can’t receive God’s strength until we acknowledge our own limitations and weaknesses. God loves us no matter what our condition is and He loves to express His goodness in His grace towards us in our weakened condition. We must constantly and totally depend on God’s grace and strength at every moment in our lives.

Pastor Justin shared that disabilities can make us feel worthless. It could be a physical or mental disability that is hard to overcome or get past but they don’t make anyone worthless. Our value and worth are not defined by our disabilities. We are all worthy of the calling placed on us by God exactly how we were created. God shows us that it is not about how much we have or don’t have but our life is defined by what we do with what He has given us.

Pastor David teaches that how others view us can make us feel worthless at times. Fortunately for us, the Lord does not judge us as the world does, but by His own standards and how He sees us. He cares more about our hearts and our character than anything else. Those that have been looked over by others are beloved of God. God often uses those that have been rejected to do great things through Him. If you’ve felt worthless because of how others have viewed you or overlooked you, God has selected you for His plan and purpose. That does not make us worthless, it makes us worth it all.

Pastor Justin shares that we are very hard on ourselves and a lot of times we disqualify ourselves because we don’t believe we are worthy. This happened in the life of Isaiah. He thought he was unworthy of the calling God put on his life as a prophet because of his sin. He judged himself harshly and had pity for his sinful condition. We have all fallen short and have sinned but that does not disqualify us from the calling of God on our lives. God’s redemptive work in us through repentance of our sins restores us to what He knows we can become so that we can be used for great things.