Steve Gallagher preaches on the importance of the Old Testament in the life of a believer.
This episode: God brings discipline into His children's lives to check lawlessness and bring us into closer alignment with His sweet will.
Steve Gallagher talks about how living under God's authority brings freedom.
This episode: There are two character qualities in every true believer—submission to God and faithfulness in the midst of life's trials.
This episode: The Bible is clear that true faith produces a righteous life. Tragically, many today imply it doesn't matter how you live.
There is a great controversy raging within Christianity in our day. The question is: what relationship does faith have with righteousness? Of course, our concern is not with the technicalities of the debate. Our concern is whether people are being deceived into thinking that saving faith has nothing to do with the way they live their life. This is Ep. 06 of our series, "Resisting the Rise of Lawlessness."
In this sermon from our archives, Nate Danser explains how God restores a life that has been ruined by sin.
Adam and Eve couldn’t have realized what devastation they would cause by listening to Satan’s deception. And in the same way for us, whenever we choose to commit sin, we have no idea what the consequences might be.
But God has made a way out of this destructive path. It just requires one thing: our entire being.
In this sermon from our archives, Nate Danser breaks down the biblical pattern of restoration into four points, and exhorts us to take heart as God works in our lives.
Steve Gallagher discusses the New Testament perspective of the law, and what it means for believers today.
Some voices today call Jesus a revolutionary — someone who rejected the established order and overthrew the Jewish religious system.
But what if this view misses the point of His ministry entirely? What if His teachings actually required more of His followers than what was demanded by the established order?
Jesus said, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus revealed that under the new covenant, the law’s demands were even stricter — but He also brought a message of repentance that made it possible to fulfill that law from the heart. The Apostle Paul would later build on this revelation in his writings, offering a deeper understanding of how the law and grace work together in the Christian life.
This episode:
• What the New Testament really teaches about the law
• A clearer perspective of Paul’s teaching on the law
• The pathway to truly fulfilling the law’s demands
• The law’s purpose in our lives today
This episode: Jesus' advent as Savior and King never released us from the duty to obey God. He came to give us loyal and obedient hearts.
Nearly every aspect of a first century Jew's existence was shaped by Torah. And yet, Jesus spoke to the Jews of His day like they were habitual law breakers. Why? Because they did not comprehend that the law was meant to make them desperate for a profound inward transformation. Today in America—we need the same realization. The inauguration of Jesus as King does not do away with the demand for obedience to God's laws. We too must cry out in desperation to be delivered from self and to be made into a loyal citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
Steve Gallagher digs into the spiritual truths embedded within the 176 verses of Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 can seem like an intimidating collection of 176 verses that all feel like they echo the same theme again and again. But what if, within this expansive masterpiece of ancient poetry was a linchpin for learning to follow God’s will?
This episode:
• Explore the richness of this powerful psalm
• Uncover one of our great spiritual needs
• Learn a prayer strategy for real heart-change
For those looking to overcome sin in their lives, God’s final words to Israel in the wilderness offer encouragement to you today.
In the 30th message of our "Unveiling Yahweh" series, we will be looking at God's final words to Israel before they entered the Promised Land.
God knew the difficulties Israel would face in the Promised Land:
The odds were not in their favor.
But what Israel had was guaranteed victory if they truly lived in and obeyed God's words to them.
In today's message, Steve Gallagher takes us through these words from Deuteronomy 6 and 7, and applies them to us today.
This episode: Lawlessness leads to destruction, but those who keep God's law from the heart will experience tremendous blessings.
Our fallen hearts tell us that we should be in charge of our own lives and that we should do whatever seems right to us. But this lawless lifestyle actually leads to destruction. In the 4th episode in our series, "Resisting the Rise of Lawlessness," we'll talk about the blessings that flow into the lives of those who become passionately committed to keeping God's law from the heart.
Save the date for our next “Pure Life LIVE” on August 2. Kathy, Rose and Anne will be back to answer more questions from wives.
Our next episode of Pure Life LIVE is Saturday August 2 at 10am EST. Join us as we tackle more of the questions you submitted about navigating the devastation sexual sin causes in a marriage.
if you haven't had a chance to watch the first part of this Q&A, click here.
Timeless Truths: Satan doesn't care if professing Christians live moral lives, as long as they never truly give their allegiance to God.
Timeless Truths: Satan doesn't really care if people live moral lives, as long as they never truly give their allegiance to God. This is why we must allow God to lead us into repentance from the rebellion that is in all of us.
Host: Steve, we want to finish up a discussion that we began last week on your book, Intoxicated with Babylon about your chapter titled, “The Spirit of Antichrist.” Last week we spent most of our time talking not so much about who the Antichrist is going to be, but rather the power that is going to be behind him. The spirit that is going to be so prevalent and growing in the last days. A spirit that you defined as a spirit of lawlessness.
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We finished our discussion last week talking about how the spirit of lawlessness is manifesting itself in the Church and you have a quote in this chapter from Oswald Chambers that I want to read. He wrote, “The Bible looks on sin not as a disease, but as red-handed rebellion against the domination of the creator. The essence of sin is ‘I won't allow anybody to boss me, saving myself,’ and it may manifest itself in a morally good man as well as in a morally bad man. Sin has not to do with the morality or immorality, it has to do with my claim to my right to myself, a deliberate and emphatic independence of God, though I veneer it over with Christian phraseology.” And the reason I bring that up is because we can actually be in the spirit that we're talking about and yet have all the outward trappings of a Christian.
Steve: Oswald Chambers really put his finger right on the core of sin when he wrote this little thing here, because what he's bringing out is the fact that sin has much more to do with our relationship to God's authority than it does with morality. And you know, a superficial church will constantly parade the big sins. The things people consider as the bad sins. Homosexuality, abortion, fornication and child molestation. We love to focus on those things because since we can say, “I don't do those things,” it's so much easier to point the finger at other people in order to feel good about ourselves spiritually. But there is a greater reality of how God looks at sin that Romans 2 brings out. It reveals that we may not be doing those terrible sins others are doing, but our hearts are still just as rebellious as those other people are. And that's the part that people often do not want to face.
Host: Well, we see that in Jesus's interaction with many people. He was very compassionate and very willing to forgive the person caught in adultery, but He was very strong with those who were locked in the bondage of self-righteousness and unwilling to admit what was wrong in their heart.
Steve: Yeah. He was much stronger with those who thought of themselves as “the morally good people” than He was with the publicans and sinners.
Host: Steve, you said that there will be a sign that this evil and this spirit that we're talking about has reached its peak. What was that sign?
Steve: Well, I said the final stage of lawlessness is a stubborn refusal to repent. I expect to see that in the world but what is frightening to me is how pervasive that mentality is within the Church. We have either rationalized our behavior away because we have been emotionally deprived in some manner, or we have just completely skirted taking responsibility for what's really going on in our hearts. One way or another, people have found a way to get out of acknowledging responsibility for their sin and you hardly ever hear preachers passionately calling on people to repent anymore. That's the thing that frightens me and that is what's paving the way for the great apostasy that's headed our way.
Host: Well, you said many of those who claim to be His followers don't know what real repentance is, which may be why they're not talking about it. And you say they don't know what it is because they've never really done it.
Steve: And many of them have never done it because they've never been led to do it because their pastors have never really lived in repentance themselves.
Host: Well, certainly, Steve, as you wrote, as the enemy’s activity increases in the days ahead, we need to be very sure as Christians that our conversion is a true conversion. And of course, we could talk for hours about that but just maybe as we close today, help folks to understand what is the evidence of a true conversion.
Steve: Well, in the chapter, I used an example from the Old. It was something that one of the Israelite kings said to another king who was coming in to invade. He just wanted to surrender to this king, and he said, “Just as you say, my lord the King. I and all I have are yours.” (1 Kings 20:4b, NIV) That represents true repentance and that represents a true conversion. Complete surrender to a conquering king. That's conversion.
Too often, people look at conversion as just an alteration of their lifestyle to fit Christianity into it, but true conversion means that their kingdom has been overthrown by a new king. Something is completely different and their attitude is that they have gone from being the king of their own life to Jesus Christ being the king in a very real and practical way in their daily lives. That's what a true conversion looks like.
Host: And He is a wonderful king. And it is a wonderful freedom and joy to know Him and to give up our lives for Him.
Is God your greatest desire—or just a way to get what you really want?
In the 29th message of our "Unveiling Yahweh" series, we will be looking at God's desire to be found.
What if God offered you everything you ever wanted—victory, security, even ministry fruitfulness—but said He wouldn't go with you? Would you take the deal?
Moses had that chance, but he boldly refused, declaring, "If you don't go with us, we won't go."
But this isn't just a story about Moses. It's a question for all of us: Do we truly want God, or just the things He gives us?
In this gripping message, Dustin Renz unpacks one of the most profound revelations of God in all of Scripture.
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What does Israel's rebellion in the wilderness reveal about our own hearts? What warning does it carry for believers today?
How would your life be if God appeared to you in a powerful vision? Certainly, the rest of your days would be spent in perfect obedience to His authority.
We often imagine that what we need most is a powerful experience with God to change us. But often these encounters fade away as a person returns to a lawless lifestyle. In our 40 years ministering to Christian sex addicts, we’ve met many men who continued living in blatant sin —even after having powerful encounters with God.
This same sad response can be seen in Israel’s history as well.
In this episode:
· Why did Israel rebel against their Redeemer?
· What can we learn from their tragic history?
· How God uses spiritual revelation in our lives
This episode: God's law tests us to the core, exposing our pride and selfishness. Will we submit to Him—or follow lawlessness and self-will?
The holy law of God tests the human heart to its core. It cuts against pride, selfishness, lust and injustice. It requires (and rewards) genuine, self-sacrificial love. It asks every seeker after God a penetrating question: Will we truly submit to God and His ways, or will we embrace the spirit of lawlessness and self-will?
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