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_outlineWe begin by looking at John the Baptist. Matthew 3:1-2 and 5-6 tells us. “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”
Pastor shares a personal visit to the Jordan River with pics of the area.
As our story continues we see John calling out to the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come to the Jordan River to see what he was doing. He tells them that they need to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. What John is saying is that when they truly turn to the Living God, it will change them, that their attitude, behavior and thought patterns will be radically transformed.
John goes on in verse 11 of chapter 3 to say, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John’s message was repent. His message was that the Messiah they had been waiting for was coming. He says that the Messiah will baptize them with the Holy Spirit and with fire, the fire of judgement.
People were drawn to John the Baptist because he spoke the truth in love. He wasn’t the only one that talked about repentance.
The Call to Repentance
⁃ John the Baptist - Matthew 3:2
⁃ Jesus Christ the Messiah - Matthew 4:17
⁃ Apostle Peter - Acts 2:38
⁃ Apostle Paul - Acts 17:30
⁃ Holy Bible - 2 Peter 3:9
Repent means to:
Change your mind
Change your attitude
Change your thoughts
Change your direction
Turn around - do a 180
Repentance IS important.
Who needs Repentance?
⁃ Isn’t this the punchline to a joke? - No. Jesus says in Luke 13:3 that unless we repent, we will all perish. Jesus considers repentance to be absolutely essential.
⁃ Isn’t repentance just for bad people? - this depends on how you translate the word bad. The point of comparison is not against people, it is against a holy God. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Matthew 21:31 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
⁃ This isn’t for religious people, is it? Jesus continues in Matthew 21:32 “For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” Repentance is for ALL people especially the religious. This teaching brings anger and bitterness from the religious because it exposes them for what they really are not and for what they show to others.
⁃ Isn’t this Old Testament teaching? Yes, but it is also New Testament teaching as seen earlier in this message.
⁃ Surely Christians don’t need to repent? From Jesus we read a series of seven epistles in Revelation. In Revelation chapters 2 & 3 Jesus says the word “repent” 7 times.
Martin Luther said in Thesis 1: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance”.
If you find yourself rebelling against what you are hearing today - we encourage you to hear the rest of the story.
What is True Repentance
1. I am a Sinner - when I recognize this then I understand that
2. I need a Savior - turning to the only one who can save us. We are all sinners and we need a Savior. Without Him we are lost forever and it calls us to say
3. I trust in Christ alone - because the Living God stepped into this world, living a life of perfect obedience and willing went to the cross to pay for rebellion and sin and the one who rose victorious of death. Jesus is that Savior. We are called by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to trust in the redemption found only in Jesus and then to say
4. I will live for Him - repentance changes the way we think, the way we look at God and look others and the world, it changes the way we turn to the Living God and hang onto the Lord Jesus who is our Savior and Deliverer and seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit to live a life of faith, obedience, joy and peace, power in Him.
This true repentance.
Although the call to repent may sound scary, the gift of God through repentance is the greatest joy any one can know in this world and the life of the world to come.
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