The 5 Minute Discipleship Podcast

The Big Idea:  I’m convinced that most of us listening today would say we have been blessed by God. In fact, many would say that we have been greatly blessed and blessed beyond what they deserve. God has been so good to us. So what do we do with our blessings? Main Points: 1. Jesus teaches us that the blessing is found in the giving. The blessing is found in the serving. The blessing is found in m...

The Big Idea:  Everyone of us will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. No one is immune from grief and loss, but there is one thing that makes all the difference. He is with us! God is with us. We don’t walk this road alone. We don’t mourn alone. God’s presence can fill our soul and give strength when we need it the most. Main Points: 1. God created us with emotions. We have the abilit...

The Big Idea:  There is no truth more fundamental in all of God’s Word than this truth. God is for us. God is not against us. God is not neutral towards us. Because of Jesus Christ, once and for all the question is settled. God is for us. Main Points: 1. Paul’s question is, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In other words, who can really fight against us, who can defeat us, if God is on o...

The Big Idea:  If you read the Bible from cover to cover, you will come away with the knowledge that God is great. There is no limit to His power. There is no end to His creativity. He is a miracle-working God. Main Points: 1. As much as we would like to, we cannot fully understand the greatness of God. We are finite, but He is infinite.  2. Over the centuries, Bible scholars have done their best...

The Big Idea:  We should desire to be like Jesus in our values, beliefs, character, and behavior. The only way we can be imitators of God is that we would follow him. We must come to know Him. We must learn from Him, and it’s only then that we would know what to imitate. Main Points: 1. In some ways, we cannot be like God. You and I will never be all-knowing or all-powerful. We will never be omnip...

The Big Idea:  Where do we find absolute truth? We find truth in the Bible.  What God says is true, and it is true absolutely.  There is no wavering in God’s truth.  Truth does not change according to polling data or by decisions handed down by Congress or the Supreme Court.  Why?  It is God’s truth.  Truth is what God says. Main Points: 1. We don’t usually think of a belt as a piece of armor, but...

The Big Idea:  When we come to Jesus and make Him our Savior and Lord, he begins to work in our lives and strips away old ways of living that conflict with scripture and dishonor the Lord. Through the Word of God, He teaches us a new way of living. As we break with the old sinful patterns and habits, we form new ones that please God, but also give joy. Main Points: 1. It’s through the power of the...

The Big Idea:  We live in a very loud culture. The sound of our day is filled with the voices of media, news, politics, music, movies, sports, social media, friends, teachers, spouses, and much more. We hear it all, but have we heard the voice of God? God doesn’t have a speaking problem. We have a listening problem. He is speaking and it’s critical to hear what He is saying. Main Points: 1. I beli...

The Big Idea:  It’s so important to remember the Lord’s faithfulness. In our times of anxiety, fear, and discouragement, the remembrance of what God has done brings peace to our souls. Main Points: 1. When it comes to what the Lord has done for us, we cannot forget. Repeatedly throughout scripture, we are called to remember what the Lord has done. 2. Decides to remember God. A strategy for fightin...

The Big Idea:  Through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us we can be watchful, alert, and on guard against Satan’s attacks. We can recognize spiritual warfare when it comes. We don’t have to be caught unaware. We can resist, and with God’s strength, stand against our enemy’s attacks. Main Points: 1. I have been noticing that quite often the scripture calls for us as believers to be a...

The Big Idea:  God has ordained that His Word would last forever. No man can destroy the Word of God. It remains throughout every season and every generation.  Main Points: 1. Scripture has never been more available than it is today. As of September 2020, the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,551 languages. Now, through th...

The Big Idea:  Your spiritual gifts determine how God wants to use your life.  Are you willing to allow God to use your life, for His glory, to build the kingdom of God?  Are you willing to say “yes” to God? Main Points: 1. The Bible has a lot to say about spiritual gifts.  There are at least 20 of them listed in the Bible.  We don’t have time to define them all today, but you can read about them...

The Big Idea:  With the knowledge that biblical prophecy will be fulfilled and that Jesus is coming soon, let’s prepare our hearts and lives for his coming. Keep pursuing Jesus, Don’t let up. Don’t give up. Keep growing in your faith.  This is not a time for apathy or complacency.  Do the things that you know will strengthen your faith.  Main Points: 1. The word “holy” means “set apart, distinct,...

The Big Idea:  Every believer needs a secret place. Where is your quiet place? Where can you regularly get alone with God in prayer? I believe the impact of our public testimony and ministry is a direct result of the time spent with God in secret. Main Points: 1. If all we see is the public ministry of Jesus, we miss something very important. It’s not talked about much, but Jesus had a private, pe...

The Big Idea:  I’m convinced you have potential you cannot see. God has placed within you the potential to make a difference, to be a blessing, to do great things for His Kingdom. Quite often, we cannot see our potential. We downplay our gifts and talents. We think others are more capable and more qualified. We hesitate to step out in faith and let God use our gifts. In doing so, both ourselves an...

The Big Idea:  Out of all the prayers we pray, there is one prayer that is more difficult than all the others. It is the prayer of surrender. The prayer of submission to God is harder than all other prayers. It requires great trust in God. It demands a letting go of our control. It’s releasing the situation in God’s hands and trusting Him to meet the need as He sees best. Main Points: 1. The reaso...

The Big Idea:  We must have a desire for the Scripture. It’s through the pages of the Bible we come to know the author. My prayer is that we would develop a hunger for the Word of God, because we have a hunger to know God personally. Main Points: 1. If it’s true that the majority of Christians are not reading and learning from the Word of God on a regular basis, there must be a deficiency in our d...

The Big Idea:  If you are like me and you are waiting expectantly for the return of Jesus, you might think, “It doesn’t seem like He is coming quickly. It seems like he is waiting a long time.” But remember, God doesn’t see time the way we do. For example, the Scripture says to God a thousand years is like a day. Main Points: 1. If by faith you can believe in the virgin birth, the crucifixion, and...

The Big Idea:  What a powerful promise! The blood of Jesus cleanses us from ALL sin. It’s not a partial cleaning, no, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Isn’t this amazing. We can be fully forgiven, and completely cleansed of our sin, because of Jesus’ death and his blood shed for us. The blood of Jesus Christ paid the penalty for all our sins – past, present, and future. Main Points: 1....

The Big Idea:  Here’s the good news. Jesus is our righteousness. By placing our faith in Jesus, and believing he is the perfect, sinless son of God who died and rose again as payment for our sins, we receive His righteousness. Main Points: 1. No matter how many good things we do, no matter how consistent our moral behavior, we all come up short of God’s righteous standard. It’s important to see th...

The Big Idea:  We don’t have to stay bound and captive to sin. We don’t have to be held hostage by sin, failure, addictions, and unhealthy habits. Jesus has come to personally rescue us from the prison of sin. On the cross, once and for all, Jesus broke the power of sin in our lives. We now can go free. Main Points: 1. Christianity is a rescue religion. It declares that God has taken the initiativ...

The Big Idea:  Where is our confidence? It is not in ourselves, and it is not in our prayers. Our confidence is in God. This is where we place our faith. Our faith is not in ourselves, in our prayers, or even in our faith. Our faith and confidence is in God.  Main Points: 1. I want to encourage you today to pray with boldness. Not a brash boldness that orders God around. After all, we must remembe...

The Big Idea:  Have you ever felt like you were on an emotional treadmill?  Our lives are going faster and faster and we don’t know how to slow them down.  I meet people who say to me, “Pastor Loren, I am running on fumes.  I’m on empty.  I can’t go much further.”  Life has a way of draining us.  If you don’t stay closely connected to Jesus, our source of life, you will eventually find yourself em...

The Big Idea:  I’ve discovered the key to being free from fear is to intentionally keep our focus on the Lord. Fear comes from looking in the wrong places. Fear comes from looking at our ability and our track record rather than looking at God’s ability. It comes from looking at the size of the problem rather than the size of our God. It comes from imagining what might happen instead of holding on...

The Big Idea:  If there is good treasure in the heart, it will show; if evil, that also will show in time. The answer is to love God with all of our hearts. As we surrender our lives to him, we let go of a divided heart where we love God in part, but love sin as well. We want our hearts to be fully devoted to God. Main Points: 1. We sometimes fail to see that a behavioral issue is a spiritual issu...