Rescued by Truth: Week 38
Awake Us Now
Pastor and Jan have returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia, seeing sites that Westerners have not seen for thousands for years. In these last days, God’s Word is speaking loudly through recent discoveries in the areas of history, science, archeology and geography. Today, we explore one of the most powerful stories in the Bible: the Exodus. Geographical details are significant - they remind us that God's deliverance has taken place in history. The God who split the sea in Exodus 14 can also raise the dead, destroy evil, and create a new heaven and earth. Through His power, there is true hope...
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Two Year Gospel Study Week 90
Awake Us Now
The Gospel of John Week 12 Scripture: John 7:53 - 8:58. Pastor begins today’s class with the story found in John 7:53-8:11, which is a controversial piece of the Bible because not all manuscripts have these verses. Pastor shares that whether originally there or whether they were added later, there’s much to learn from these verses about who Jesus is. As this text opens we see that the Jewish religious leaders continue to struggle with unbelief in who Jesus is and work to discredit Him using religious traps. Their desire is to come up with reasons to show Jesus needs to be punished - put to...
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Fingerprints of God #5 - The Resurrection of Jesus
Awake Us Now
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:14, 1 Corinthians 1:22-23. The Fingerprints study today will show us the Lord Jesus risen from the grave, gloriously exalted at the Father’s right hand and returning soon! Today, we explore the fundamental teaching of the Christian faith and the heart of the Bible: The Resurrection of Jesus. We will take a look at God’s fingerprints that testify to the risen Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:14 “And if Christ has not been raised, what we preach doesn’t mean anything. Your faith doesn’t mean anything either.” 5 Fingerprints: ⁃ ...
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Fingerprints of God #4 - The Power of Forgiveness
Awake Us Now
Scripture: Matthew 5:44, Romans 5:8 and Acts chapters 6 & 7. Today we will look at an incredibly powerful aspect of God’s character: He is a forgiving God. This is what the scriptures have declared and it is what God Himself says. He leaves His fingerprints on a cross to demonstrate to us just how incredible His forgiveness is and the depth of His remarkable love. Pastor shares a heart-wrenching story of unimaginable forgiveness, setting the stage for the lessons we learn from God’s love and forgiveness. The story shows the divine, all powerful love of God and His love alone is...
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Fingerprints of God #3 - The Reliability of Scripture
Awake Us Now
Scripture: Psalm 119:105, Mark 7:6-23, Ezekiel 26, Luke 24. "Can I really trust what the Bible says?" An increasing body of evidence says "Yes," but are we willing to let God's Word impact our lives? We continue to look at ordinary things that are often overlooked but when we have eyes to see - we suddenly recognize the incredible power and presence of God among us. Today, we talk about the Bible and its reliability. ⁃ Can I trust the Bible? Is it trustworthy? True? ⁃ Does this really matter for me today? Does it apply to my life?...
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Kings & Prophets: From Solomon to Jeremiah - Week 2
Awake Us Now
Scripture: 1 Kings 3:1, 1 Kings 3:4ff, 1 Kings 3:16ff, 1 Kings 6, 1 Kings 8, 2 Chronicles 5-7, 2 Chronicles 3:1, Genesis 22, 1 Kings 9, 2 Chronicles 7:14, 1 Kings 9:4-5 This study helps us dig deeper into Solomon: Wise Leader ⁃ Pharaoh’s Daughter - 1 Kings 3:1 - Solomon secures a peace treaty with Egypt and a strategic marriage to one of the Pharaoh’s daughter’s. ⁃ Sacrifices at Gibeon - 1 Kings 3:4ff - shortly after taking the throne we see Him following his father David’s advice. We see Solomon going to Gibeon to offer...
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Fingerprints of God #2 - The Children of Israel
Awake Us Now
Scripture: Isaiah 65:9, Isaiah 46:9-10, Deuteronomy 28:58-67, Deuteronomy 29:22-23, Jeremiah 31:35-37, Isaiah 11:11-12, Luke 21:24, Ezekiel 36:33-35, Luke 13:35, Romans 9:5, Romans 11:12-15. We continue to look at God’s fingerprints that are readily observable but often overlooked, things that testify to God’s goodness, faithfulness, power and promises. The Living God is true, genuine, near and He keeps His word! 2,700 years ago God declared through His prophet Isaiah that he knows how everything turns out in the end. He knows the end from the beginning and he will accomplish...
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Fingerprints of God #1 - The Miracle of Life
Awake Us Now
Scriptures: Acts 17:24-27, John 1:4, John 6:4, 1 Timothy 4:8, Ecclesiastes 3:11. This is a series that takes a look at things that are readily obvious, but whose significance is frequently missed. We’ll look at Fingerprints of God that are truly all over the world today and all over our lives and yet so often in the busyness of the moment we miss those amazing reminders of God’s goodness, of His presence, of his faithfulness and of His great gift of Jesus Christ for each of us. God IS speaking in amazing ways in our generation and in our time! Pastor talks about the miracle of life and the...
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David and the Heart of God - Week 11: Father Wounds/Father's Wounds
Awake Us Now
Scripture: 2 Samuel 13-19. Father Wounds - are wounds brought into our lives through family members. Deep wounds with lasting consequences. Father’s wounds - are wounds to parents by their children. It is grieving because their children turned their backs on the things they were taught from the time they were little. Both are deep and painful wounds. How to deal with the pain and how to go beyond it. Our study covers: Amnon rapes Tamar (2 Sam 13) Absalom hates Amnon (2 Sam 13) Absalom murders Amnon (2 Sam 13) Absalom flees to thalami (2 Sam 13) Absalom conspires against David (2...
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Rescued by Truth: Week 37
Awake Us Now
The discovery of the ancient ruined city of Sodom proves that the Biblical account of this city is no fairy tale, and shows us a picture of the final judgment. In Biblical times, people did not understand what was coming nor heed the warnings, but these stories are real and they have a lot to teach us! Jesus pointed to the destruction of Sodom and the devastation of the Great Flood to warn His people of the coming final judgment and to call them to repentance and eternal life in Him. We, too, need to know not only WHAT the future holds, but WHO holds the future. Matthew 24:37-39.
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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