The Living One - Week 1: Did He Really Live?
Awake Us Now
This teaching compares non-Christian writings of Tacitus, Josephus, Suetonius and Pliny from the first and second centuries to the New Testament writings. The evidence is clear and calls us to recognize we are sinners in need of a Savior, The Living One!
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Big Questions - Power... When the Holy Spirit Comes
Awake Us Now
Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers, is all about the power of God -- the power to live a new life, the power to give glory to the Living God, the power of faith that transforms us and that beckons to others to come to God as well!
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Big Questions - My Witnesses... To the Ends of the Earth
Awake Us Now
It is easy to get distracted by other things — some of them perhaps important things — but Jesus makes it clear to His followers that our primary task is make disciples. To that end, we are to be His witnesses, "even to the ends of the earth."
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Dig Deeper - Week 2: The "Submission" Passage
Awake Us Now
Today’s class is a study of Ephesians 5:21-33. A group of verses that are controversial, often attacked and many times misunderstood. Ephesians 5:21-22 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, [submit] yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.” In the original Greek text the second [submit] word is not there. There is not a verb in this sentence and so in traditional Greek practice, you take the verb from the previous sentence and insert it into the next sentence. Please note that this is really important - because what this is saying is,...
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Big Questions - Obey... Everything I Have Commanded
Awake Us Now
Obedience is not optional - it is command from Jesus Himself. But we are not saved because we obey; rather, we obey the Lord because He has saved us!
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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Questions - Week 13: Is Marriage Outdated?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!
info_outlineThe Gospel of John Week 16
Scripture: John 11:54-12:26.
Pastor begins today’s class with stats and information regarding people falling away from faith. He shares that stats of the younger generation falling from faith show the reason to be that they don’t see any evidence for having faith, stating that in college they found out evolution is a reality and the there is no God.
However, we are living in a time when there is more and more evidence is accumulating in remarkable ways that testifies not only to the reliability of the scripture, but also to the reality of God! There are incredible evidences being discovered that point to the very truthfulness of the Bible.
Pastor shares information and pictures of several recent discoveries. So many remarkable items are being discovered that provide confirmation that these people in the Bible are real people.
What we will see in the coming chapters of John is Jesus will fulfill everything the scriptures spoke of and He fulfills the feasts of the Jewish people.
As we pick up with our story, Jesus raising Lazarus was the event that finally causes the opponents to Him (the religious leaders) to put out a warrant for His arrest, so Jesus leaves and heads to Ephraim. The town of Ephraim is a place of safety for Jesus. While in Ephraim the time of the Passover was approaching, so Jesus and the disciples head to Jerusalem with a stop in Bethany.
Lazarus, Martha and Mary host a special dinner to honor Jesus and Mary anoints Jesus’ head and feet with perfumed, expensive oil.
The day of this anointing was 6 days before the Passover. The day following this meal at Lazarus’ home, Jesus will enter Jerusalem on the day we call Palm Sunday. He will fill the air with the beautiful aroma from this perfumed oil Mary anointed Him with. This anointing is no accident. In the Psalms and other Old Testament scriptures we read about kings arriving in towns anointed and fragrant and now Jesus arrives in Jerusalem as people greet him with shouts of Hosanna and palm branches, He’s anointed and fragrant - heralded as a king, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
Tradition tells us that when a king rode into a city on a donkey - he was coming in peace. If he rode in on a course - he was coming to conquer.
Pastor takes time to share how special donkeys are and why. He also shares that at the time of Jesus, during a very short and unique window of time, Passover was celebrated in a specific way and the lambs were prepared in an especially unique way. It is during the very unique window of time in human history, that Jesus comes into Jerusalem as the Lamb of God. These unique practices at this specific time, are not coincidences - instead they show the fingerprints of God in every detail from the donkey to the Passover to the lambs - It’s all incredibly orchestrated.
As our story continues we see Greeks and Gentiles at the Temple asking to see Jesus followed by Jesus predicting His death. Jesus says that it is the hour for Him to be glorified.
How fascinating that Jesus sees the cross ahead as glorification. It’s not a miscarriage of justice - His dying brings glory to the Father and His resurrection brings life to the world! Life forever for each one of us who will believe in Him!
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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!