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
Awake Us Now
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
Awake Us Now
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: Acts 1:3, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Galatians 1:18-19, 1 Timothy 1:13-17.
In today’s study we take a look at a Credal Statement. What is a Credal Statement?
⁃ It is a fundamental of faith
⁃ It enable people to talk about what they know and believe
⁃ It is easily memorized
⁃ It is easily understood
⁃ It is easily shared
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 “What I received I passed on to you. And it is the most important of all. Here is what it is. Christ died for our sins, just as Scripture said he would. He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as Scripture said he would be. He appeared to Peter. Then he appeared to the 12 apostles.” (The Credal Statement in bold.)
Then Paul continues with verses 6-8, “After that, he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at the same time. Most of them are still living. But some have died. He appeared to James. Then he appeared to all the apostles. Last of all, he also appeared to me. I was like someone who wasn’t born at the right time.”
Paul mentions three men in these verses: Peter, James (Jesus’ 1/2 brother) and himself. 2000 years later we have evidences of authenticity: There is convincing physical evidence of Peter’s home in Jerusalem. Pastor shares pictures. There is a bone box, The James Ossuary, which has also been discovered and has an inscription, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” The basic consensus of scholarly opinion is that this is very likely authentic.
Who were these men?
Peter: denied Jesus publicly three times
James: his brother, was an unbeliever - did not believe Jesus was who He was, and James ridiculed his brother Jesus
Paul: persecuted and killed believers and denounced Jesus
Who did they become?
⁃ Peter became an apostle of Christ and bold preacher of God’s Word. Even arrest, beatings, and threats didn’t lessen Peter’s determination to preach the risen Christ.
⁃ James, after seeing Jesus risen from the grave, became a believer and also became the leader of the early Christian church in Jerusalem.
⁃ Paul was born Saul and he persecuted believers, but after meeting Jesus on a walk to Damascus Saul became Paul the Apostle and defender of the Gospel.
What did these three have in common?
⁃ They had all failed Jesus
⁃ A denier
⁃ A radical
⁃ A persecutor
⁃ All come to faith in the Risen Lord
⁃ Their lives are changed
⁃ They give powerful testimonies to Christ’s love for all sinners
What else do they have in common?
⁃ The PARDON of Christ - Forgiveness in full.
⁃ Each of their stories is a story of redemption in Jesus and a testimony that not a single one of us is beyond the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁃ In these three men we see that God saved the worst of us so that He might save all of us. Their changed lives are a testimony to the heart of God wanting us all.
How do their stories speak to us today?
Applications of the Pardon of God
⁃ Christ’s mercy and grace is for us too - 1 Timothy 1:13-14 “I used to speak evil things against Jesus. I tried to hurt his followers. I really pushed them around. But God showed me mercy anyway. I did those things without knowing any better. I wasn’t a believer. Our Lord poured out more and more of his grace on me. Along with it came faith and love from Christ Jesus.”
⁃ Christ’s saving power is for us too - 1 Timothy 1:15 “Here is a saying that you can trust. It should be accepted completely. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the worst sinner of all.”
⁃ Nothing we have done can cause Jesus not to want to win us over to Himself
⁃ Nothing that would cause Him to say He’s done with us
⁃ God wants ALL to be saved.
⁃ Christ’s patient renewal is for us too- 1 Timothy 1:16 “But for that very reason, God showed me mercy. And I am the worst of sinners. He showed me mercy so that Christ Jesus could show that he is very patient. I was an example for those who would come to believe in him. Then they would receive eternal life.”
Incredible Love - Incredible Grace - Incredible Pardon
And Jesus’ mercy and grace, saving power, patient renewal and incredible love are for us, too!
Paul, Peter and James were living examples of God’s incredible grace - we too are living examples of His incredible grace.
Pardon - God offers pardon, forgiveness to all who will repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and we become the children of God…. FOREVER!!
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