Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (2) - Mixed, Not Melted
Awake Us Now
God calls His people not to blend in to society, but to stand out, to reflect the mercy and goodness of God, so that He may be exalted through all the nations!
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 9
Awake Us Now
Prayer is an amazing gift from God! We have His plea to talk with Him. Genuine prayer; not showy prayer, but rather simply experiencing the presence of our Living God, the Father. Other topics covered are Jesus’ teaching on fasting and possessions. Based on Matthew 6:5-24.
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 8
Awake Us Now
Pastor points out the Old Testament’s words, “Thus says the LORD,” and compares them to the words of Jesus in the New Testament that say, “But I tell you.” What does this tell us about who Jesus is? Pastor explores the “But I tell yous” as found in Matthew chapter 5 and we learn what Jesus calls us to. That call is to a changed heart, which can only happen when we come to faith in Jesus. God’s call is personal! He wants to change each one of us by the shed blood of Jesus, the Son of God.
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 7
Awake Us Now
In Week 7, we hear more of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus calls us salt and light. What does He mean when He uses these words to describe how we are to be? As historians have looked at world history, more and more of them are coming to the realization Christianity changed everything. Jesus has had a greater impact on the human condition than anyone in all of history. What Jesus produces in people, changes them!
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Dig Deeper - Week 11: Two Pictures of the Messiah
Awake Us Now
We will look at the two pictures of the Messiah found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). 2 Pictures of Messiah Reigning King Humble Substitute This double picture is what led some of the great Hebrew rabbis to suggest there might be two Messiahs that would come at different times and in different manners. And that then became the dominant tradition: Messiah will raise the dead Messiah will be victorious Messiah will reign in Jerusalem Messiah will bring peace If we look at the New Testament the early followers of Jesus believed this same thing about the Messiah....
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 6
Awake Us Now
We finish Matthew 4 on following Jesus, and begin the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 that opens with the Beatitudes.
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 5
Awake Us Now
Week 5 of our Matthew study digs into chapter 4 on the Temptation of Jesus, His three temptations and the reality of an unseen spiritual world.
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Questions - Week 23: How Are Minds Opened Today?
Awake Us Now
This message focuses on the question: “How are minds opened today?”, which is part of our ongoing series: “What’s the answer?” Pastor explores how people’s lives are changed and what changes their attitudes about God, about Jesus, the resurrection, and about the power of God’s Word. Pastor takes us through Luke 24:36-47, an encounter with Jesus that His disciples have with Him after His resurrection. Jesus tells them: “This is what I told you while I was still with you; Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets...
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Daniel: When Kingdoms Collide (1) - Daniel's God
Awake Us Now
The Book of Daniel is the story of the collision of two kingdoms, a spiritual war that is still being fought in the heavens and on the earth. In the end, the Kingdom of God wins!
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The Gospel According to Matthew - Week 4
Awake Us Now
Week 4 of our Matthew study is all about John the Baptist and his message of repentance, a message that can be difficult for the religious to accept.
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!