Big Questions - All Authority... in Heaven and on Earth
Awake Us Now
God has chosen you and me not simply to be religious, but to be disciples. We are to follow Jesus faithfully, grow in the knowledge and love of Him, and share with others the powerful things He has done so that they become disciples too!
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Questions - Week 13: Is Marriage Outdated?
Awake Us Now
In this message we will look at what the Scriptures have to say about marriage, analyze concerns and questions raised in our day, overview the cultural changes that have led to many questioning the value and benefit of marriage, and do so from a Christian worldview. We will also take a look at some secular contemporary research and what it indicates. Common Reactions: 1. The culture has changed: - Married Couples comprised: 1950 — 78% of all US households 2020 — 47%...
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Kings & Prophets: From Solomon to Jeremiah - Week 4
Awake Us Now
Our study opens with a look at Civil War between Rehoboam and Judah vs. Jeroboam and Israel (931-910 BC). 1 Kings 12:1 We read that Rehoboam went to Shechem, “for all Israel had gone there to make him king.” Shechem was an historic site for the nation from about 500 years early when Levitical priests recited the blessings and the curses from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Shechem is the city near these two mountains. In verses 3 and 4 we read that Jeroboam challenges Rehoboam. Reheboam goes to 2 advisory boards. One was the elders that had served under his father, Solomon. They...
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Big Questions - Lord and God! Jesus' Amazing Claims
Awake Us Now
Lord and God? A great moral teacher? A very good man? What claims did Jesus actually make about His identity?
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Big Questions - Stop Doubting and... Believe!
Awake Us Now
Faith is essential ... but in what do place our faith? The scriptures make it clear that we are to place our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of all the nations, and the Hope of all the earth!
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Big Questions - Receive... the Holy Spirit!
Awake Us Now
When Jesus says to His disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit," it is not a "one-and-done" activity. He desires us all to live continually in the Spirit!
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Dig Deeper - Week 1: In the Beginning
Awake Us Now
Genesis 1:1 - “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Let’s look at the words “God” and “created.” in this verse in Hebrew the word used for God is a plural noun and created is a singular verb. What day did God create the world? It says God created everything in 6 days and He rested on the 7th day, the Sabbath, and that is Saturday. Which means the first day of creation was on Sunday. What was the day of the week that God began a new creation? That was on the day Jesus arose from the grave. The Bible tells us this was on the first day of the week, on a...
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Big Questions - All Nations: How Close Are We?
Awake Us Now
From Genesis to Revelation, God's plan remains the same - to reach all nations and bring people back to Him. How close are we to seeing that happen? Why is belief in Jesus growing at such an astounding pace in much of the world, but not in Europe and North America?
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Big Questions - Israel Reborn: How Significant is it?
Awake Us Now
The nation of Israel was reborn suddenly in 1948, and the Jewish people have returned to the Promised Land in great numbers after 1900 years of exile. What does show about God's faithfulness and promises? What does it mean to believers in the Messiah?
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Questions - Week 12: Does God Exist?
Awake Us Now
Does God exist? The Bible has described this as a reality for thousands of years. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” ⁃ There was a beginning ⁃ There is a God ⁃ God created everything This is looked at as a religious belief, but it is increasingly a scientific fact as the scientific world sees that the creation had a beginning. ⁃ Natural knowledge of God ⁃ Nature - Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of...
info_outlineToday’s teaching is on enemy territory and the reality of spiritual warfare. In a fallen world the battle is not between people - it is between the Living God and the powers of darkness, It is between the Body of Christ and those under the spell of the devil.
Ephesus was the center of worship of Artemis and also a hotbed of the occult, magic, eastern religions, drugs, alcohol and many of the same things we encounter in our world today. Ephesus is where Paul carried out some of his most important mission work and it is where God shows us some important lifetime truths through how He worked in Ephesus nearly 2000 years ago.
Where we left off last week was with Paul spending two years teaching daily in the Hall of Tyrannus. Verse 10 of Acts chapter 19 tells us that all Jews and Greeks in the area heard the word of the Lord. Paul and others were training up believers to share their faith and so the Gospel message was shared all over Asia.
During Paul’s time in Ephesus he experienced more push back than ever before. God was doing extraordinary miracles through Paul and many were healed physically but Paul was also casting out demons and healing people from spiritual illness.
DIVINE POWER
We need to be connected to the Living God. Our faith is not to be a little bit of head knowledge, a song and a prayer. Our faith is to be life changing, it is to be the heart of who we are.
Because God was doing amazing miracles through Paul, news traveled that Paul was not only healing physically but also doing spiritual battle and that He was healing in the name of Jesus.
Ephesus was a town filled with evil but the DIVINE POWER of God was so obviously being displayed in the miraculous healings done in Jesus’ name, that it caused the name of Jesus to be held in high honor and it caused a reaction of believers to openly confess what they had done as part of the evil in Ephesus.
TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY
A massive move of God caused people to take Him very seriously.
Our faith molds and transforms us because we are delivered from bondage to sin and death. God offers deliverance from the power of the demonic and the things that can so easily destroy our lives.
CLEANING HOUSE
People who had practiced sorcery burned their scrolls publicly and the word of the Lord continued to spread and grow in power.
as believers changed and non-believers become believers people grew and matured in their faith and suddenly began to realize they needed to do a house cleaning in their lives.
God’s Holy Spirit is gracious and reveals things to us as we grow and mature in faith. We are not fully mature the moment we believe - It is a life-long process.
God’s desire is that we clean house in our lives, in our homes, in anything that gets in the way of our love and worship of God, anything that controls us in ways that are dangerous and spiritually defiling.
With all the awakening to the reality of the Gospel Power of Jesus and the importance of a God-pleasing life of faith, those who didn’t have that faith were began to try to stop all that was happening in Jesus’ name.
WORLD VIEWS COLLIDE
A worker who made silver shrines to Artemus was very concerned about his economic future in light of the amazing growth of Christianity. And so he spoke out publicly, drawing a crowd and the two sides began to collide.
World views are colliding in our world today. The world view of our culture is:
All that matters is me
All that matters is what I want
All that matters is that you don’t stand in my way and say anything to upset me.
The world view of the Bible is:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
God sent His one and only Son
The Living God took on flesh and brought life and forgiveness through His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the grave.
In Jesus there is life, forgiveness and power. The power to live a new life.
And so their two world views clashed then and they are still clashing today.
We are called not to fight with human weapons, but to recognize the reality of spiritual war and to use the weapons of the Holy Spirit:
Prayer
Trust in God
God’s Word
The power of our testimonies
Today’s scripture reading ends with the whole city in an uproar - both sides shouting and many joining in the near riot.
CROWD FOLLOWERS
It can be easy to just go along with the crowd
Yet God warns us not to follow the crowd. Exodus 23:2 says, “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”
Wise words for us today!
Scripture: Acts 19:11-41, Ephesians 6:12 and Exodus 23:2
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