Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (8) - Politics as Blood Sport
Awake Us Now
For some people, politics becomes their god. But Daniel, promoted to the highest office in the land, continued to serve the Living God and trusted in Him for deliverance from jealous enemies.
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Dig Deeper - Acts Chapter 19: Did You Receive the Holy Spirit?
Awake Us Now
Let’s did deeper into the first few verses of Acts chapter 19. Acts 19:1-3 Paul arrives in Ephesus, finding some disciples and asks them if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed. They respond that they had not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit and that they did receive John’s baptism. So these are followers of John the Baptist but did not have the full picture. (That the coming the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus who was crucified for our sin, raised on the 3rd day, seated at the Father’s right hand, and returning. And that Jesus brings...
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (7) - Babylon's Last Supper
Awake Us Now
Belshazzar celebrated his reign in pride and mockery of God... and lost everything. But to those who approach God in humility, repentance, and belief, God offers everything worth having: forgiveness and eternal life!
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (6) - Testimony
Awake Us Now
King Nebuchadnezzar gave powerful testimony to the One God, but only after God first leveled his pride and then restored him to the kingship. Like Nebuchadnezzar, we in the 21st Century are often blind to our own sins of pride, lack of mercy, and moral failure. What will it take to make us see them as God sees them?
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GOT ACTS! (Chapter 19) - Who is Worshipped
Awake Us Now
Pastor opens with Who and what was worshiped then: Athens - Athena - Knowledge Corinth - Aphrodite - Sex Ephesus - Artemis - Money Rome - Emperor - Power As we look at this list, all of the what’s still apply to us today. Pastor’s question now becomes personal: “Who or What do you worship? What is at the heart of your life?” Acts 19:1-8 - Then - Paul goes to Ephesus and for 3 months speaks in the synagogue boldly arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God - God’s rule in the lives of true believers. Today we too need to hear about the kingdom of...
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Armor of God #1 - Be Strong!
Awake Us Now
It is by God's power, it is by being strong in Him, it is in using the armor of God that you and I can not only stand against the devil's schemes, but also witness to others whom God is leading out from the power of the devil. Pastor Dodge also shares a personal testimony of spiritual warfare that shows the power of God to defeat the enemy, because God IS stronger! Ephesians -11
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (5) - In the Fire
Awake Us Now
Salvation in Jesus Christ is free - but there is a cost to discipleship. Jesus said, "If anyone desires to follow me, let that person take up his or her cross and follow me daily." Daniel and his companions remind us the the cost can be huge, but the reward is far greater!
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (4) - Tough King Meets LIVING GOD
Awake Us Now
In today's message, we see that it was God who gave Daniel the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream -- a dream sent to show that God alone knows the future and that though empires crumble, God's Kingdom will be established forever over the entire earth!
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (3) - God Reveals
Awake Us Now
Jesus never promised His followers an easy journey. What He does promise is a great destination, and He assures us of the presence of His Holy Spirit to uphold, to guide, and to reveal, so that His people may be equipped to lead the nations back to Him!
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Dig Deeper - Acts Chapter 18: Coworker Apollos
Awake Us Now
After 18 months in Corinth Paul, Aquila and Priscilla sail from Corinth to Ephesus and Paul goes on to Antioch. Luke picks up the story in Ephesus. Acts 18:24-26. We are introduced to Apollos, who had been instructed about the Lord and taught accurately about Jesus. Priscilla and Aquila heard him speaking boldly in the synagogue and graciously invited him to their home and taught him even more. Acts 18:27-28 Apollos then wanted to go to Achaia and they encouraged him and wrote to disciples in that town to welcome him. When Apollos arrived in he was a great help and...
info_outlineThe Gospel of John Week 11
Scripture: John 7:22-59.
Pastor opens by sharing details of the Feast of Tabernacles and the scriptures of the Living Water that were read during this 8 day festival. Festival readings included: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Zechariah 14:8 and Jeremiah 17:13b.
As our story opens, it is the Feast of Tabernacles and these scriptures would have been read. Pastor goes on to share that there has been much learned over the last 100 years and especially in the last 15 or so that helps to bring this text and the story alive. As we look at what we know about the time of Jesus and what we are discovering, they are changing our understanding of the Bible, bringing a new sense of significance and even urgency as what we are discovering is a testimony that says, “This is real!”
Some recent archeological work has found what is believed to be the City of David - but not at all where it was thought to be, and the discovery of the Hezekiah Tunnel, and more recently the Pool of Siloam show us a different location than originally thought for the Pool and also that it was a very large pool, not a small one. Also that it was filled with fresh water by the Han Spring flowing through the Hezekiah Tunnel into the Pool. The Pool of Siloam was the only fresh - or living water in the city of Jerusalem.
Pastor shares the events of Tabernacles and the pouring out of water into the Temple by the priests carrying it from the Pool of Siloam for the first 7 days of the festival. On the 7th Day they carried and poured water 7 times in the Temple.
So as our story continues, it’s either Day 7 (7 times the priests poured water in the Temple) or it’s Day 8 (the day of rejoicing, and celebration) when we read verse 37-38, “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
He is essentially telling them that what you’ve been doing for the last week with the pouring of water, point to Me and it’s what the prophets said would happen when Messiah comes, that living water would pour out of the Temple. And then it goes on in verse 39, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.and that the Living Water is the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is saying that He is the fulfillment of what the prophets have declared and that everyone who believes on Him will receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus is calling us to a new day - the fulfillment of what the prophets have said - Messiah- is here! And He, the Messiah, gives the Holy Spirit. Jesus is claiming to be God.
At this some called Him prophet, others called Him Messiah and others were in disbelief and angry. The crowd became divided with many wanting to seize Jesus. The temple guard go and report back to the chief priests.
The chief priests were Sadducees and they united with the Pharisees, a group that they did not get along with but they did unite together over their desire to do away with Jesus. The very ones who should have embraced Jesus as the Messiah, instead say, “Let’s kill Him.”
Pastor concludes by saying in 6 months from this event of Tabernacles, the Passover will be celebrated and we will see Jesus dead, and raised during another important festival and how this festival too, finds its fulfillment in Jesus.
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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!