Christmas Eve Message
Awake Us Now
Merry Christmas!
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Kings & Prophets: From Solomon to Jeremiah - Week 15
Awake Us Now
This is the final week in our study of 400 years of Kings and Prophets from Solomon to Jeremiah. King Josiah • Young King seeks God • Spiritual cleansing of Jerusalem • Book of the Law discovered • Reform beyond Judah • Passover observance - King Josiah gives an order to all people to observe God's Passover. This had not been celebrated according to what was written, not even in the days of the judges, nor in the days of any of the kings of...
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The Christmas Story 2
Awake Us Now
Merry Christmas!
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The Christmas Story
Awake Us Now
Merry Christmas!
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Questions - Week 11: What About the Virgin Birth?
Awake Us Now
The message starts with Matthew 1:18 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” Pastor explores today’s question: “What about the Virgin Birth?” by tackling these 5 questions: ⁃ Is the “Virgin Birth” really that important? ⁃ Why do only Matthew and Luke mention it? ⁃ Couldn’t this have been a later development? ⁃ ...
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Rescued by Truth: Week 51
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Are we recognizing the “signs of the times,” which include things from past, present and future? Pastor Dodge explores three specific and important signs that are apparent, visible and happening today! They remind us that as believers, we need to recognize the “signs of the times” and to be awake (i.e. ready for Christ’s return)!
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Two Year Gospel Study Week 103
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The Gospel of John Week 25 Scripture: John 19:25-20:19 Today’s study will take us from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven! We start at verse 25 of John chapter 19 and it starts with who is at the foot of the cross: His mother, His aunt, His cousin (John the author of this gospel) and another aunt who was the wife of His step-father’s brother - all family. The disciples have all run except John and this group of women. Family. Verse 28 we read, ”Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I...
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Christmas: The Great Good News!
Awake Us Now
Scripture: Luke 2: 1-20 The Christmas Story is familiar to most of us - a story we’ve heard over and over, year after year. When something becomes so familiar we can easily be deceived into treating it too casually without the awe and gratitude this story should cause in our hearts. Familiarity can cause us to forget this is a REAL story, with REAL people and our REAL Savior. So let’s look at this very familiar story in Luke 2:1-20 with new eyes and new ears and new hearts. May we experience and receive THE GREAT GOOD NEWS as the best gift ever given. As Pastor reads the...
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Advent - Week 3: The Great Revelation
Awake Us Now
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25, Micah 6:8 Being in the Scripture is a great place to be because God DOES speak in His Word, both 2,000 years ago and today! Today’s text from the Bible is a powerful Word, a life-changing Word… Matthew tells the Christmas story from the vantage point of Joseph, who after finding out about Mary being pregnant decided to divorce her quietly, but… Joseph receives a visit by an angel in a dream and the angel tells him that he is not to divorce Mary, that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and that he is to name the child Jesus because He will save His...
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Advent - Week 1: The Great Awakening
Awake Us Now
First Sunday in Advent - The Great Awakening Scripture: Luke 1:5-25 and Malachi 4:5-6a The season of Advent is a time we prepare to celebrate that Jesus came, but it is also a time we eagerly anticipate that He will return! When asked about the Great Awakening, people most often mention the The Great Awakening of the 1700s, an awakening that fundamentally changed what would become the United States of America, and imparted America’s destiny and the make up of our country. But THE Great Awakening Pastor refers to today is the one that far out strips the awakening in the 1700s. This is...
info_outlineScripture: Matthew 1:18-25, Micah 6:8
Being in the Scripture is a great place to be because God DOES speak in His Word, both 2,000 years ago and today!
Today’s text from the Bible is a powerful Word, a life-changing Word…
Matthew tells the Christmas story from the vantage point of Joseph, who after finding out about Mary being pregnant decided to divorce her quietly, but…
Joseph receives a visit by an angel in a dream and the angel tells him that he is not to divorce Mary, that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and that he is to name the child Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. Following the dream, Joseph stays engaged to Mary, doesn’t consummate the marriage until after Jesus’ birth, and he names the baby, Jesus.
A virgin birth is implausible if there is no god. But there IS a god! He is the God who reveals Himself in the Scripture and through His Holy Spirit and like in today’s reading, through angelic beings.
What prophets predicted, is fulfilled in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Immanuel: God with us.
Fully human: suffers as our substitute for our sin
Fully God: eternal redemption by His blood
Apart from Christ our lives hold no hope. No matter how good we are it’s not good enough. We cannot save ourselves for we have all sinned and we need the Perfect One to save us. Apart from Jesus - nice guys finish last. With Jesus there is life, forgiveness, peace, strength, joy, hope and the assurance we will live forever with Him.
Today’s Bible story still speaks powerfully to us today. God revealed the identity of Jesus to Joseph - and for us God is still speaking and revealing His identity to each of us through Joseph’s story.
In Joseph we see an example of what a godly person ought to be:
⁃ Our faith is based on the truth that God has revealed to us in His Word
⁃ Our faith is more than head knowledge
⁃ Our faith informs our behavior
Joseph’s example:
⁃ Faithful to God’s Word and wanted to live for God. He knew God is to be trusted, honored and obeyed.
⁃ Merciful in a culture that looked at Mary’s pregnancy as a disgrace, that recommended a public divorce, Joseph did not want to humiliate Mary.
⁃ Obedient to what God revealed in his dream and also obedient to the Word in the Bible of “the virgin will conceive and bare a son” and so he took her as his wife.
⁃ Courageous individual who put family first and God over all. An individual who did what God told him to do despite pushback and persecution. He understood that it is more important to follow God than to worry about public opinion.
Joseph wasn’t saved because he was a good man.
He was a good man because He was saved.
So we too are encouraged to live lives as a response to the incredible gift of the grace and goodness of God in Christ.
Micah 6:8 says:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
May we exhibit that kind of a life-style in response to the revelation of who our Lord Jesus Christ is.
Lord Jesus help us live courageous lives for You!
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