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...
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Kings & Prophets: From Solomon to Jeremiah - Week 3
Awake Us Now
Solomon: Builder ⁃ Temple construction - 1 Kings 6 (took 7 years to build) ⁃ Temple dedication - 1 Kings 8 ⁃ God appears to Solomon - 1 Kings 9 ⁃ Solomon’s palace - 1 Kings 7 (took 13 years to build) Pastor shares archeological discoveries around Solomon in recent years including a massive stone wall and gate and more. Solomon: Reputation ⁃ Fleet at Ezion Geber - 1 Kings (for the first time Israel had its own navy - 1 Kings 9:26-28 - we read that...
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Big Questions - Birth Pains?
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Wars, violence, persecution - Jesus warned these things would mark the time before His return. These things, He said, were like birth pains - increasing trial and suffering that herald a joyful ending. "When these things begin to take place," He said, "... lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28)
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Big Questions - Who?... How?... What?...
Awake Us Now
Scripture repeatedly warns us against the dangers of simply going with what we want to hear - we usually end up listening not to God, but to deceivers who have no proper authority.
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David and the Heart of God - Week 13: Psalms
Awake Us Now
Scripture: David’s Psalms. This is the final teaching in the “David…and the Heart of God” series. We will explore David’s Psalms today. In 2 Samuel 23:1 we read that David is described as the sweet psalmist of Israel. David’s psalms have influence and spoke to the hearts of people for millennia. C.S. Lewis said, “The most valuable thing the psalms do for me is to express that small delight in God which made David dance.” And Billy Graham said, “I used to read five psalms every day - that teaches me how to get along with God. Then I read a chapter of...
info_outlineThe Gospel of John Week 5
Scripture: John 3:1-14, Ezekiel 36:25-27, Numbers 21:5-9, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 2 Kings 18:4, Mark 1:14.
Today’s class explores the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin Council. Pharisees were a group Jesus often had harsh criticism for. They are all about religion and following rules, and about what they do instead of what God has done and having a relationship with Him.
Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus is a teacher come from God because of the miracles there have been and Jesus responds, “No one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again from above.” Born again is something God does individually in each person. Nicodemus replies with how does one do that? And Jesus goes on to say we must be born of water and the Spirit. Ezekiel 36:25-27 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Jesus is saying what the prophets have said all along - it is now coming true - A New Covenant - the time of the New Covenant has come and Jesus is saying He’s bringing it! God Himself washes us clean and pours out His Spirit on us and gives us a new heart. He changes us from religion to a relationship with God that endures forever.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee - he was into religion - but not relationship with God. Jesus is calling Nicodemus to take his eyes off himself and put his eyes on God and take his eyes off his own accomplishments and put his eye on the Messiah who is going to deliver, redeem, restore and renew. Jesus is breaking Nicodemus’ paradigm. It’s not what we do, it’s what God does!
Jesus goes on to say, “so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” Jesus is saying He will be lifted up and all who look to Him will be saves. He’s saying we need a Savior and that Savior is Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus goes on to speak these marvelous words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
The Light shows us for what we are - hypocrites- looking good on the outside but inside we are dead. But now the Son has come and He’s come not to condemn us but to save us! To redeem us! When we live by the Truth - we come into the Light.
Jesus is calling Nicodemus to set aside what he has always believed and instead yield himself totally to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is breaking into Nicodemus’ life and He wants to break into our lives too! To give us a new heart and to pour out His Spirit into us.
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⁃ The Gospel of John study is part five of five of our Two Year Study of the Gospels.
⁃ The Gospel of John may be one of the most powerful books ever written. Many people have come to faith after reading only this book of the Bible. Scholarly and archeological discoveries in recent decades give us new insight on details in the Gospel of John. We can now understand it as the most Jewish rather than the most “Gentile/Greek” of the Gospels, and when we do that we see many things that we missed before.
Our 2 year study of the gospels is great for large group, small group or home group study and can be started at any time!